Attitude 101, empowered by Bentley: Layla director Amrou blasts streamers ‘capitulating’ to ‘incels that run Silicon Valley’
Al-Kadhi spoke of their experiences with British TV channels and streamers, revealing: "They're not saying 'No queers or brown people', they just hover around it"
By Gary Grimes
Muslim drag queen and screenwriter Amrou Al-Kadhi has spoken out about the importance of the creative industry commissioning content from minority groups now more than ever.
Speaking at the Attitude 101 empowered by Bentley, Al-Kadhi, who is also known by their drag name Glamrou, admitted: “I’ve never felt as scared as I do now working up in the world, there’s such a confluence of insane bullshit that’s happening and it’s hard to keep track.”
The performer is perhaps best known for directing the 2024 film Layla which told the story of a non-binary British-Palestinian drag queen living in London. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews and currently holds an impressive 88% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Al-Kadhi went on to explain that they believe it is crucial that television networks and channels use their platform to showcase queer stories, though they were pessimistic about the current state of affairs.
“Unfortunately right now the creative industries are really capitulating to neoconservative political movements by bending over backwards to please them,” they lamented. “A lot of the incels that run Silicon Valley are now infilitrating the way that we watch content and we commission content.”
“Over the past year my engagement with the British terrestrials but also just every streamer… they’re just saying ‘Nothing too specific’, they’re not saying ‘No queers or brown people’, they just hover around it saying, ‘We need to stuff to speak to as many people as possible’,” the artist and Attitude columnist went on.
‘If you’re gonna give us a gay show, please at least make it a crime show so we can give straight people that’, that’s kind of the moment we’re in. I think as the world is slipping backwards, the creative industry has a really important role in combatting that,” they said.
“The fear has really gripped hold of the creative industry to capitulate. Not only is there a moral imperative to do this, actually the shows that come from the heart and are really specific and tell things from an honest place do better anyway. No one predicted Baby Reindeer would be such a success and its raw honesty just transcended everything else.”