homosexuality

Wild Combination (2007, Director: Matt Wolf): Until about a year ago, I’d never heard of Arthur Russell. A classically-trained cellist who died at the age of 40 in 1992, Russell was in danger of falling into obscurity. But then something wonderful happened. Those closest to him began to re-release some of the music he created and suddenly a man who seemed out of his time while alive began to influence a new generation of musicians. The 2004 compilation Calling Out of Context is a good place to begin. It was around the time of that CD release that director Matt Wolf became familiar with Russell, and decided to make the film.

Russell was born and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa, but ran away to San Francisco while still in his teens, where he joined a Buddhist commune. It was in San Francisco that he made the acquaintance of Allen Ginsberg, and the two remained friends and collaborators for years to come. Russell soon followed Ginsberg to New York, where he soon become part of the artistic landscape at The Kitchen. Part of the avant-garde scene that included Philip Glass, Russell wrote and performed here regularly, often singing along with his cello-playing. It was during this period that Russell began to acknowledge his homosexuality, eventually meeting and falling in love with Tom Lee, who was (and remains) a tireless supporter of his work. His involvement in the gay scene introduced him to underground discotheques, and soon he was writing dance music under aliases such as Dinosaur L, Indian Ocean and Loose Joints. Though he achieved some modest commercial success with these records, he never really made a breakthrough, perhaps because his talent was too big to be confined to one type of music. The film features a generous selection of his work, and it ranges from avante-garde to dance to pop to folk rock, all of it accompanied by Russell’s utterly unique singing voice. He used his voice as another instrument but it gave all of his music a slightly odd quality, making it commercially unappealing at the time. It didn’t help that he was a perfectionist, rarely feeling that a record was “finished” and making it extremely difficult for him to take direction from others. Later in his life, he began to exhibit symptoms of paranoia, feeling that other musicians were stealing his ideas.

Matt Wolf has made an immersive film that rightfully foregrounds the music, often accompanying it with evocative scenes of the vast Iowa landscape that seems to have informed Russell’s work. Another musical theme was the expansiveness of water, and perhaps it was this desire for open space that led Russell to spend so much time on the Staten Island Ferry, scenes which Wolf has recreated by filming with vintage video cameras. I had a mixed reaction upon learning that so much of the “archival” footage in the film was recreated. As Wolf explains, there just wasn’t that much real archival footage to work with, but I think I would have preferred that the film itself carried some disclaimer that the footage wasn’t authentic instead of having to hear it from him in the Q&A. But don’t let that stop you from seeing the film. For those with some familiarity with Arthur Russell, it will fill in the picture behind the music, but more importantly, it will help you to introduce the work of this undisputed genius to your friends.

Here is the Q&A with director Matt Wolf from after the screening:

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Duration: 13:43

Official site of the film
 Teaser

(8/10)

Tagged as: homosexuality, music

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Water Lilies (Naissance des Pieuvres) (2007, Director: Céline Sciamma): I originally wrote about this film way back in August 2007, anticipating its screening at TIFF. For some reason, I wasn’t able to see it then, so when I saw it in the Cinéfranco lineup, I vowed not to miss it again. And I’m so glad that I didn’t. Céline Sciamma’s directorial debut is a deeply affecting and beautiful film about adolescence: body image, hormones, self-esteem, friendship, loyalty, crushes, sexual confusion, conformity. Though it’s never “about” any of these, it says a lot about them. But it’s not a film of grand gestures. Instead, it’s a very small, very personal film that resonates well beyond its seemingly narrow scope.

It’s summer in an unnamed French suburb. Skinny undeveloped tomboy Marie (Pauline Acquart) goes to the local pool to see her chubby friend Anne (Louise Blachère) perform in a synchronized swimming event. While there, she is mesmerized by the captain of the team, gorgeous blonde Floriane (Adele Haenel). She develops a major crush that becomes an obsession, and abandons Anne to pursue Floriane. Insinuating herself into Floriane’s life by doing favours, she is soon able to watch the team practice and even travel to performances with them. Though it’s obvious that Marie has romantic feelings for Floriane, she is unable to say anything for fear of rejection. Instead, she lets Floriane use her to sneak out of the house to meet boys, causing Marie no end of anguish. Meanwhile, Anne has fallen hard for one of the boys on the water polo team, even though he’s desperately trying to bed Floriane himself. Floriane is just enough of a cypher to cause heartache everywhere she goes, using her flirtatiousness as a defence mechanism to hide her own sexual confusion and fear. Though this leaves Marie confused and heartbroken, she displays a core of toughness that will carry her through. Her friendship with Anne is also deeper than it first appears, and the two outsiders by the end seem much stronger than the supposed “normal” pretty girl.

The setting among a team of synchronized swimmers is a stroke of genius. Back in the fall, I read a few reviews of the film, and I can’t remember where I read it, but I’m stealing the idea nonetheless. A critic stated that synchronized swimming was the perfect metaphor for adolescence. Smiling and beautiful on the surface, but under the water, legs churning like mad to stay afloat. I also liked the idea that, like gymnasts or ballet dancers, there is one particular body type that is required, and anyone else is rejected. The hair and makeup also make the swimmers indistinguishable, since they are all expected to function as part of a greater entity, almost mechanical in its precision. It’s obvious that Marie and Anne don’t fit into this world, but they are magnetically drawn to it anyway. The absence of any adults or any specifics that would place the story into a particular time help to reinforce the insularity of this time in their lives, and therefore its intensity.

As I said in my preview, the film reminded me a lot of Lukas Moodysson’s Show Me Love (1998), and there is even a physical resemblance between the two female pairings. Just as in that film, the director handles the delicacy of first love with great sensitivity, and focuses on how the tiniest of actions or gestures can have great significance. Sciamma coaxes incredibly brave performances from her three young actors, and the cinematography reinforces how beauty is intensified by vulnerability. Though it’s a hoary old cliché, since this is a first film, there is most definitely a lot of Céline Sciamma’s own experience on the screen. I’m desperately hoping she has a lot more to say.

Trailer
Official Site
Interview with director Céline Sciamma

(9/10)

Tagged as: adolescence, cinefranco, coming-of-age, homosexuality

For The Bible Tells Me So (Director: Daniel Karslake): This documentary came to my attention through Joel Heller’s excellent site Docs That Inspire, before it played at Sundance this past January. The film explores the intersection of homosexuality and religion, particularly among conservative Christians, and as such, it tackles a subject near and dear to me. I spent many years immersed in the evangelical subculture and went through the very painful coming-out experience of a close friend. This is exactly the sort of film I wish we’d had in the early 90s. Through the experiences of five Christian families, each with a gay or lesbian child, we watch as real people struggle to integrate their love for their families with their own beliefs and experiences. But this isn’t the typical confrontational sort of film many of us have seen before. Instead, we meet clergy who have wrestled honestly with what the Bible says, and who are able to reconcile their faith with acceptance of gay and lesbian people. It’s gut-wrenching stuff, and not everyone will be convinced by the theology, but at least it gets people discussing the meaning of the disputed biblical passages, rather than just quoting them.

I particularly liked that not all the families are the same. Some still struggle to accept what they perceive to be their child’s “sinful” lifestyle, while others have gone on to political activism (in some cases, even to the point of being arrested!). Karslake has made a very wise choice by adopting the name of a particularly obstinate opponent of gay rights, Focus on the Family, as his theme. By focussing on the real families and experiences of gay people, he removes much of the apprehension and fear of straight people, especially religious straight people. I loved the way he introduced each family by having the parents explain how they themselves met and fell in love. It showed us that attraction and romance are at the root of all of our families, and that the relationships of gay people are really not much different than anyone else’s.

If I have any misgivings about the film, they are relatively minor. One is the use of a short animated segment to try to explain some of the recent scientific research around homosexuality. I thought the tone was a little too self-consciously light-hearted and I thought the segment was largely unnecessary. The other quibble was that earlier in the film, Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson is (rightfully) called out for comparing advocates of gay marriage to Hitler, but then later, actual footage of Hitler is used to describe the persecution of gay people. I don’t think you can have it both ways.

Nevertheless, this is a fair, generous, and incredibly moving portrait of real people trying to reconcile their deepest-held beliefs with their very identities of themselves or of those closest to them. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I was moved to tears several times. Despite that, I think it’s a film that would move others who are perhaps not quite so close to the issues. My wife and I have a running joke. We’ve got the great idea that if only fundamentalist Christians and gay people could actually meet each other instead of hurling insults across the divide, much understanding and even reconcilation could be achieved. I’ve offered to hold a series of dinner events called “Fags and Fundies” to which we could invite quite a few of our friends. I think I’ve found the perfect film to get the discussion started.

NOTE: The film is showing in various venues in the US in the coming months, but so far, there are no Toronto screening dates. Check the film’s site for any changes, and look for a DVD release in the coming months.

UPDATE (January 9, 2008): The film’s Toronto premiere will be tonight at the Bloor Cinema as part of the Doc Soup programme. Director Daniel Karslake will be in attendance. Screenings at 6:30pm and 9:15pm.

Official web site of the film

Docs That Inspire’s Joel Heller interviews director Daniel Karslake

Soulforce, an organization of gay and lesbian Christians and their straight allies fighting religious bigotry

PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)

(9/10)

Tagged as: christianity, Documentaries, homosexuality, religion, Theatrical Release

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Small Town Gay Bar (Director: Malcolm Ingram, USA, 2006): This film was part of the June 2007 release from Ironweed Film Club, and features two short films as well that I haven’t yet watched. I missed this when it played originally at this year’s Inside Out festival, so was glad to see it on DVD so soon.

While my own experience with gay bars has been pretty limited, I understand that they serve a vital social function within the community, serving as sanctuaries from a world that is very often hostile to gay people. The situation is even more dire in the rural South, where prejudice has been tolerated and even encouraged for a long time. This small film keeps its focus tightly on a very specific area, northeastern Mississippi, and on the patrons of a bar called Rumors, located in tiny Shannon, population 1,726. In rural communities where everyone knows everyone else, it’s not unusual for gay people to stay “in the closet” and so the bar becomes the only place where they can actually be themselves. However, since Mississippi is in the middle of the “Bible Belt,” the bars are often targetted by conservative church groups and forced out of business. Part of the film covers the history of gay bars in this part of the state, and Crossroads, once located in larger Meridian (pop. 39,000), seemed to be just the sort of place that conservatives would want to close. As one former patron put it, the sense of desperation was so strong that it became a sort of circus, a place where “anything went” and so local law enforcement found a way to close it. Happily, this same former patron bought the property and reopened it as a much more congenial place, recognizing that people were being forced to drive several hours to Memphis for lack of a local place to go. I found myself reminded very much of British pub culture while watching the film, where the bar is not only a place to drink and meet romantic partners, but a hub of information and a surrogate family. Ingram’s film does a great job of capturing a sense of place and of the very unique people who populate it.

Perhaps the only weakness I found in the film was in its choice of counter-voices. Reverend Fred Phelps (of GodHatesFags.com fame) was born in Meridian, so I can see why the filmmaker wanted to feature him, but giving this nutbag so much screen time was unnecessary. Ingram also interviewed Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association, another extreme organization with their headquarters in nearby Tupelo. While this generated lots of sparks, I was rather hoping to hear more from local regular people and even local pastors instead of people whom the majority of Americans would view as raving lunatics. As well, it would have been interesting to hear why the patrons of Rumors and the other bars haven’t just given up and moved to larger cities where they could live more openly.

As a side note, I was intrigued when I heard so many Toronto bands on the soundtrack (Metric, The Hidden Cameras, Broken Social Scene) and guessed, rightfully, that director Malcolm Ingram was indeed from Toronto. I’d love to hear what drew him so far from home to tell this story.

Official site for the film

(7/10)

Tagged as: Documentaries, DVD, DVD Clubs, homosexuality, Inside Out, Ironweed

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