Giving voice to a population too rarely acknowledged, researcher and performer E. Patrick Johnson’s 2008 novel “Sweet Tea” collected more than 60 life stories from black gay men who were born, raised and continue to live in the South.
Based on two years of ethnographic research, the book offered a window into the ways black gay men negotiate their identities, build community, maintain friendship networks and find partners – often in spaces that appear to be anti-gay.
A hit at countless film festivals around the country, the profoundly moving new documentary Making Sweet Tea follows Johnson as he travels to North Carolina, Georgia, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. in an effort to come to terms with his past and reconnect with some of the men he interviewed for the book. Johnson also transformed the book into several staged plays over the course of a decade.
Making Sweet Tea combines performance footage with interviews of the men, showing how they have changed since – and been changed by – their depictions in his book and plays. The film covers the subtle complexities of Johnson’s relationships with these men, with his family and with his hometown in North Carolina. It also restages Johnson’s performances of the men’s narratives in their homes, in their churches and at their jobs, sometimes with them directing him or even participating in the scene.
Blurring the line between art and life, Making Sweet Tea offers a glimpse into the lives of people not often given a platform to speak and demonstrates how research, artistry and real life converge.
Watch the trailer for Making Sweet Tea below. The film is now available on Dekkoo.
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