Tag Archive for 'sexuality'

A Perfect Fake

Published
by
James McNally
on April 28, 2005
in Documentaries, Film Festivals and Hot Docs
. Closed

A Perfect Fake (Canada, 2004, Director: Marc De Guerre, 57 minutes): Ovid’s myth of Pygmalion forms the basis for this exploration of how technology is helping us design more and more convincing representations of human beings. Whether it’s CG movies, games, pornography, or latex “love dolls”, people (mostly men) are looking for other people (mostly women) that they can completely control. This is especially widespread in Japanese culture, where digital “characters” have become like pets or companions for many people, and not just children. One commentator states that since modern life is so unpredictable and communication so difficult, people are looking for companions who don’t change, who give them comfort. De Guerre enlists a number of academics to muse on the relationship between our desires and the implications of having a non-human representation to help us fulfill them.

We meet a few Japanese men who have taken things to an extreme, with one man showing off his collection of over forty love dolls in an apartment he rents especially for them. A few people found some of this stuff disturbing and a number of them walked out, but I think these extreme cases are only heralding the way our society may be headed. As dolls and computer software become more sophisticated, how many people will leave behind any attempt at human interaction whatsoever? It’s a bit creepy to consider, and the film conveyed that feeling very effectively.

8/10(8/10)

The Education of Shelby Knox

Published
by
James McNally
on April 23, 2005
in Documentaries, Film Festivals and Hot Docs
. Closed
The Education of Shelby Knox

The Education of Shelby Knox (USA, 2005, Directors: Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt, 76 minutes): This film follows the life of 15-year-old Shelby Knox, a teen living in conservative Lubbock, Texas. Though from a conservative Christian Republican family, Shelby is a feisty and compassionate campaigner for sex education in the public school system, feeling that their “abstinence-only” policy is ignoring the obvious, including higher than average rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The film follows her over a period of three years, as she begins to question the easy answers offered by her church, her school, and her community. She works with a city-funded group, the Lubbock Youth Commission, but when local politicians force the group to tone down its activism, she quits and begins working with a group of gay teens to help them start a Gay Straight Alliance group at school. Despite the fact that Shelby herself has pledged to remain a virgin until marriage, she recognizes that not everyone in her community wants (or in the case of the gay students, is able) to make the same choice. This film is a balanced and compassionate look at one young woman’s political and spiritual awakening. In light of the currently raging culture wars, it’s a must-see for people on all sides of these issues.

10/10(10/10)

UPDATE: The film is available on DVD from the excellent Ironweed Film Club. The film is on the May 2006 DVD.