The Oasis Project – Queen by Night

"I live the moment, enjoy it, live this other side of me, feel the whole transformation. I feel the excitement, the adrenaline, everything that is inside me. Then it’s over. I return home…"

Reynaldo. Rey. Reyna Patricia. ”Reynita”. Eyes like a mirror and the rough hands of a sailor. Whenever he feels sad, he closes his eyes and remembers the times when he worked as a cook on an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. There he was the only diva in a sea of workers. For 60 days he could sell his favours to whoever he wanted and at a price he set. He was the one deciding the schedules, tastes and whims. He was the one driving destiny.

Queen By Night is a short film born from a longer documentary Oasis. Meeri Koutaniemi and Alejandro Cardenas reflect the life of Reynaldo who every day faces four battles: against poverty, social exclusion because of his sexual preference, disease and for dignify his indigenous roots.

Meeri Koutaniemi (1987) is a Finnish freelance photographer. She has worked as a photographer and journalist in over 20 countries and has made several documentary films.
In 2011 she won the Portrait of the Year award in Finland and received the Honor Mention in the Foreign Reportage category. In 2012 she won the Press Photographer of the Year award and received the Tim Hetherington Memorial Award in the United States.

Alejandro Cárdenas (1975) is a Mexican journalist who has contributed to various magazines and newspapers in Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Finland. He has directed the documentary Oasis. Cárdenas is currently working on a new documentary project in Mozambique.

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