The Men Who Speak Gayle

Whether or not the meeting was engineered, the little we hear of Nathan Kennedy's chats with Louis van Brakel - in van Brakel's home and on the stage of the attractive deco-style arts centre the Showroom in the town of Prince Albert in the Western Cape - will be enjoyed by students of gay history. We don't learn enough about either man. Why has young Kennedy learned Gayle, the Polari-like cant used by gay men during South Africa's apartheid era? Van Brakel actually spoke it at the time. All we find out about him is that he was unhappy in the Army but found his true calling working for airlines. He cuts a very glamorous figure indeed and seems to be delighting the very mixed audience at the Showroom. Why the film is just under 11 minutes long is hard to understand. This will be an introduction to Gayle for most viewers, but you will learn more about its history from Wikipedia. It appears much less complex than the British Polari and seems to consist mostly of substituting women's names for words, i.e. Olga = old, Gerty = girl. But surely an academic could have explained more? Co-produced by the BFI and currently available to watch for free on BFI Player.