Friday September 1, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 35 |
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Monday, Oct 13, 2008
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The Real Spin |
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| Sex and movies is the subject of two new Gay documentaries | ||
| by Ron Anders
- SGN A&E Writer
Once upon a time, documentary films were grainy, black and white affairs, relegated to public television or grade school filmstrip presentations. They have come a long way since those dark ages, now burrowing into our psyches, as well as our multiplexes. Who would have thought that a Michael Moore opus would create long lines at suburban box offices - and that an environmental tract starring Al Gore would be the surprise summer hit? Two excellent documentary DVD releases of Gay/Lesbian interest are arriving at your local video store. The first film's title is a dead giveaway: Fabulous!, subtitled The Story of Queer Cinema. Taking up where The Celluloid Closet left off in 1995, directors Lisa Ades and Lesli Klainberg celebrate independent Queer cinema, which embraced Gay/Lesbian stories when mainstream movie factories were still cowering in the closet. Mirroring independent cinema's ambivalent relationship with Hollywood, Fabulous! (not as star-studded as Closet) champions the maverick directors, writers, producers and actors who toil outside the walls of the major studios. This contrast is evident in the tone of the films: Closet's access to Tinseltown's most glamorous images and stars (Dietrich and Garbo) vs. the gritty, hit-the-ground-running approach of Fabulous! (Hedwig and Divine). Both films have essentially the same structure: talking heads interspersed with film clips of Queer films. What makes them invaluable is their illustration of how filmdom's coming-out process parallels the individual's journey to selfhood. Filmmakers (John Cameron Mitchell, Gus Van Sant, Christine Vachon, John Waters, among others) discuss their thirst for screen images that paralleled their own struggles, and how these images (coded or explicit) encouraged their embrace of a Queer identity. At their core, these films are primers on the coming out process, and can provide powerful support for Gay men and Lesbians who are struggling to come out of the closet. Filled with humor and an irresistible, wry sexiness, they are far from mere history lessons. Kudos to the Independent Film Channel for producing the aptly titled Fabulous! With a similarly self-explanatory title, Gay Sex in the 70s is a portrait of post-Stonewall New York City from 1969 to 1981, when the pervasive intoxication of sexual liberation created a sense of community that produced a joyous balance of lust and radical politics. Through interviews with men who lived during the era, juxtaposed with playfully raunchy archival footage, we get a picture of a time that is forever gone, held in memory with a nostalgic sexual afterglow. Gay Sex in the 70s is a celebration, not a cautionary tale. Pioneering activists, including Larry Kramer and Arnie Kantrowitz, articulate how a socially condemned minority found itself jolted above the radar, suddenly visible in a way that encouraged an anything-goes sexual wonderland, where carnal opportunity was found anywhere, anytime. The ecstatic ease of making open contact with friends and lovers, after living in a subterranean culture for so long, is palpable - and makes the film an important record of an era which seems today like a long-lost Camelot. Most moving is the discussion of the feeling of brotherhood in the Gay community - out of which came the heroic reaction to the scourge of AIDS, producing a movement that took its life into its own hands, took care of its own, and demanded that the government take action. Other documentary films well worth a look at include Trembling Before G-d. This sometimes painfully intimate look into the lives of Gay orthodox Jews travels from Brooklyn to Jerusalem, making many stops along the way. It tracks the journeys of men and women whose devotion to their religion is paramount, but who also choose to honor their Gay/Lesbian identity. They are faced with rejection from their families, religious leaders and communities. One man's struggle to re-connect with his father, from whom he has been estranged for many years, is both piercing and maddening. We also hear compassionate voices, including Steve Greenberg, the first openly Gay orthodox rabbi. For those of us engaged in the Gay community, it remains shocking to see interviews with people who feel unable to show us their faces, staying shrouded in the shadows or completely off-camera. The two-disc set includes a short film, tracking audience reaction to the film as it premiered around the world, producing some of the same strong emotions - pro and con - that the documentary itself examined. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Rob Epstein's Oscar-winning 1989 film, uses the Names Project's AIDS quilt as a springboard to profile six lives lost to AIDS. This is a searing, heartbreaking document of an earlier time in the crisis when hope was scarce, as were knowledge and medical alternatives. Included in the disc's special features is an impassioned speech in Washington, D.C. by activist Vito Russo (author of The Celluloid Closet, upon which the film was based), who succumbed to AIDS in 1990. My personal favorite, Word Is Out, is a groundbreaking 1978 film that was the first to detail the everyday lives and struggles of Gay men and Lesbians. Though somewhat quaint by today's standards, it still rings true, outlining the tyranny of the closet and the search for validation. Its captivating charm and humor still resonate today. Word Is Out (available on VHS only) set a high standard for future documentary films - one that has been met and surpassed by the films celebrated here. |
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International Readers |
REPORTS & MUSINGS FROM THE VETERAN GAY AND AIDS HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE
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