Queer – Page 7 – Nicolas Demers

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: The Green

The Green is a harsh look at small-town homophobia, and how easily acceptance can turn to rejection. Though I found the resolution clumsy and unsatisfying, most of the film was excellently done, gripping and all-too-realistic with well-developed characters.

When Michael, an openly gay teacher at a New England private school, is falsely accused of inappropriate relations with Jason, one of his students, his life quickly goes to hell. He loses his job, is ostracised by the community he thought had accepted him, Daniel his partner of fifteen years (whose business is also in jeopardy) starts to mistrust him a little and eventually moves out, and even their closest friends are hesitant about associating with him in public.

In this film, most of the characters are very human and flawed. Michael is actually innocent of the charges against him, and does honestly care about Jason, who’s dealing with a bad home life (and, it’s later implied, physical/sexual abuse from his stepfather); he desperately wants to stay pure and above the legal fray, only concerned with getting the truth out, refusing to settle with Jason’s family because it would be an implicit admission of guilt… but he’s been keeping a major secret: many years ago when they were just starting to date, Michael cheated on Daniel in a public washroom, with a complete stranger, and was arrested as a result. Michael just wanted to put the sordid episode behind him, but now it’s blowing up in his face in the worst possible way.

In fact, I’d say there’s only unambiguous bad guy here: Jason’s stepfather, who only pressed these charges hoping for a big settlement cheque, and is also a recovering alcoholic who fell off the wagon.

Which leads me to the climax, where The Green morphs into a totally different movie. As a major thunderstorm hits the town Jason, who’d run away from home, goes to visit Michael for unexplained reasons but Michael only yells at him. Understandable, because if Jason had said anything at all denying the charges, nothing would have come of it. Jason freaks and runs back to his house with Michael hot on his trail, grabs a kitchen knife and goes to kill his stepfather. Michael intervenes but in the struggle accidentally throws the man into the knife (still held by Jason), inflicting what looks like a mortal wound.

And the storm blows over, literally and symbolically. The molestation charges against Michael are dropped, no new charges of murder or manslaughter are laid, Jason will stay in school and keep his scholarship, Michael apparently both gets his job back and loses his writer’s block (the very first scene shows him working on a novel and being stuck). Hell, I’m surprised there wasn’t a rainbow shining over the last shot of him walking to school! True, Michael and Daniel do not immediately get back together, but the conclusion gives us hope that this will happen eventually.

Overall, I very much enjoyed The Green. It was engaging and disturbingly realistic, with some quite beautiful New England scenery, and even the jarring conclusion didn’t detract from the appeal. Though it’s not my favourite so far (that honour still goes to Nate & Margaret) I definitely recommend it.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Nate & Margaret

This story of the friendship between a 19-year-old film student and his 52-year-old neighbour is a definite winner. It’s one part comedy, one part drama, all parts sweet and heartwarming, and my favourite movie of the festival so far.

A big part of its strength is the casting. Tyler Ross, last seen in The Wise Kids, is perfect as the sweet, kind-hearted Nate (and incidentally, seems to have filled out a bit, not that I looked or anything); Natalie West, who I knew way back when from Roseanne, brings the lonely, insecure and cynical Margaret to life like no other.

At first I wasn’t quite sure how to take the characters. Their very first scene, of shopping for weird assorted knickknacks in a thrift store, seemed to peg them both as eccentric loners. But as it turns out, Nate does have a life of his own; it’s Margaret who’s alone, with apparently no other friends but Nate, a dead-end job in a coffee shop, and dreams of doing standup comedy.

It also looked like a sequel of sorts to The Wise Kids, except with a different name for Tyler Ross’s character. And the action takes place in Chicago instead of New York. But, according to the film’s lovely director, Nathan Adloff, who chatted with some of us later on, that part was completely unintentional: Nate was in fact mostly created from his own life experience.

The plot isn’t anything earth-shattering, and I knew almost right away how things would play out: as soon as James turned into a fake, shallow bitch and did not hit it off with Margaret, I knew he and Nate would not stay together, and that he would create a rift between the two friends, leaving them both alone and unhappy, but the rift would be healed eventually, the friendship becoming stronger as a result. But did I care? Nope. I didn’t come for the complex plot or surprising twists; I came for Tyler Ross’s goofy smile, for the repeated warm fuzzies and for the uplifting lesson that things do get better if you trust your friends and your own better nature.

Some more thoughts:

The scene in the diner where James and Nate broke up, and Nate publicly accused James of owning underage porn, was shocking, much more than all the abuse standup comedy jokes, and it snapped me out of the story for a second. If true, it was unnecessary to the story because James was already evil enough. But if Nate made it up (more likely), that was fucking cold, and felt almost out of character even in his emotional state. But then, maybe, no worse than what he said to Margaret later. The horrible thing is, those words might have been at least a little bit honest. I imagine there was a part of him that pitied this strange old lady, was embarrassed by her, and tired of having to explain their relationship over and over.

Another point that bothered me: Given Margaret’s history of abuse and unhappy relationships, and Nate’s own bad relationship, it looks like the movie’s other message could be that Love Hurts? But I don’t think that’s the intent. There’s really nothing to suggest Nate won’t find a worthwhile boyfriend down the line—and Margaret too, why not? Early on her new manager seemed to be gently coming on to her, though that particular plotline was dropped. The movie’s focus is simply on the friendship between the two protagonists, who find joy not in boyfriends but in following their dreams, supporting each other along the way.

And that’s a happily ever after I can totally live with.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Romeos

This isn’t going to be a long review, since I only managed to catch about half of the movie. I was sitting way too close to the screen and—as I should have expected—I started feeling sick and had to leave. Damn. That’s not how I planned to kick off the festival.

So, Romeos. As I remember Amber Dawn, in her introductory speech, described it as more of a farce. And sure, it’s got some farcical elements—who can forget Lukas at the party going to pee, placing his rubber dick on the bath, then running out in a panic on finding out the bath is occupied? or Fabio stepping out of the car stark naked, only covering his crotch with his shoes?—but overall, the story and character exploration are dead serious. We observe, and empathise with, the little details that go into being a pre-op transman: celebrating your 25^th shot of testosterone, watching your body hair grow, hiding your breasts under layers of baggy clothes, having to pack your jeans, communicating online with other FTMs. And the bigger problems, like having to live in a girls’ dorm because your official paperwork still says you’re female, being afraid of how your lust object will react if he finds out you’re FTM—sadly, I didn’t stay long enough to see that one resolved.

In addition to getting right up close and personal with Lukas, the direction occasionally takes a step back and lets us look through Ine’s eyes—Lukas’ best friend, who’s known him since high school, is understandably both a bit weirded out and fascinated by her female friend turning into this strange other person, one with muscles and pit hair and thicker eyebrows and chin fuzz. She’s definitely supportive but overall a bit clueless about what he’s really going through.

One thing that stunned me (which maybe shouldn’t have, but there you go) is that Lukas is actually played by a transsexual. At first I wasn’t sure, because the actor totally passed, except for the suggestion of breasts, but I couldn’t tell for sure since he always wore clothes to hide his chest. And then, one scene of him shirtless, and I was all, Holy shit, he’s got boobs. An FTM character played by an actual FTM actor? Who’d have thought? But this is the only casting choice that makes sense. Having a cis man play Lukas would have been a cheat.

Pride and Curiosity

Vancouver celebrated Pride this weekend. And that means a lot of things, some familiar and some not.

First, the Davie Street Dance Party. To kick off Pride weekend, the Vancouver Pride Society takes over four or five blocks of Davie Street, puts in a couple of stages with DJs and performers, food and drinks booths, and then fences the whole thing up and charges an ungodly amount of money to get in. Seriously, a lot of people were less than pleased at what they considered a shameless money grab. $20 to basically enjoy what you’d get at any club, except you get a smaller selection of drinks and it closes at 1AM? Yeah…

Still, I went. Got there early when there was still some light out, paid my $20, and wandered around until I ran into friends. Then I ran into some more friends. Hugs, hugs, catching up, wishing each other “happy Pride”—really, the only reason I was out tonight. Then the crowds grew fiercer and the music got louder, and it got a bit less fun. I danced for a bit, but the party was just too exhausting for an introvert like me, and I called it a night around 11:30.

Which was longer than I’ve ever lasted, when I think about it. Once or twice I skipped the whole thing entirely: 2008, especially, because I’d been laid off that day and I just wasn’t feeling sociable. But generally, I just don’t last very long at all; I don’t like the club scene, and the street party is basically like one big open-air club with an outrageous cover price. If I’m not with people I know, or don’t immediately run into them, I’m more likely to ditch the whole thing. So hey, I guess I’m getting more outgoing!

Saturday was the Dyke March. I’d never gone, and I didn’t really have any plans until a friend in the Rainbow Marching Band invited me to tag along. I ended up helping to carry the banner, but I didn’t mind. The Dyke March is a great event, full of energy, very small and informal compared to Sunday’s parade, with much more of a sense of community. Individuals can walk along, groups carry hand-made banners, participants are invited to sign or initial the main banner (they make a new one each year and keep the old ones). No gigantic truck floats for WestJet or Royal Bank or Celebrities. No politicians that I could see, either. It reminded me of Ottawa’s Pride marches when I came out in the early-mid-90’s, back before it got all corporate.

Sunday was the Pride Parade. Corporate or not, you didn’t think I’d miss it, did you? As I’ve done for the last several years (since I moved downtown, in fact) I volunteered walk with the VGVA float; we’d be handing out freezies (insanely popular), suckers (not so much), a few of us would pass balls around, a few more would spray water at the crowd or just wave. Good times. And I got kudos on my control of the ball—because the last thing you do is have it shank off into the crowd.

Dinner, nap, shower, and I was off to the Vancouver Men’s Chorus Big Gay Sing. I’ve been going for the last 3 years (since it started, in fact) and it’s always tons of fun. We get to sing along to classics (the Sound of Music medley is always a favourite) and new material (Lady GaGa, Call Me Maybe) with cute little skits and clever costumes and production numbers.

Then after the show, I hurried home to follow Curiosity’s landing live (well, live minus the light-speed delay). I’d already seen the Seven Minutes of Terror video and knew that as crazy-awesome as this crazy-awesome plan was, it could still fall apart so easily. But that didn’t happen; atmospheric entry happened without a hitch that I could see, everything went perfectly smoothly. And when they received word Curiosity had touched down, the control room just went crazy. Don’t ever think scientists can’t get emotional! This was the culmination of years of work, one of the first steps on the road to the stars.

Then they started receiving images, and the room went fucking nuts again.

It’s times like this I feel Humanity can do something to rise above its present condition, to be more than it is now. People could say that we should hold off exploring the cosmos until we’ve solved our problems here on Earth—but, first, all the deep-space telescopes and Mars landers and particle accelerators only cost a fraction of what we spend on wars or filthy rich CEOs’ tax breaks. Second, endeavours like this give us (or some of us) some much-needed perspective. Astronauts on the moon saw the Earth rise above the Lunar horizon, a pretty swirl of blue and white, no national borders in site. In 1990 Voyager 1 snapped a picture of Earth from 6 billion km, a barely visible blue pixel in the vastness of space.

So yes, Curiosity is important, pun intended. This weekend I celebrated my pride in myself and my beautiful queer community, and I am just as proud of America’s achievements. Here’s to a bright future!

What I learned at Straight Camp

Ted Cox is an ex-Mormon missionary who found reason and now spends much of his time writing and talking about evangelical subcultures. In particular, he has gone undercover (posing as a gay man) to “ex-gay” retreats and workshops. His talk last night, sponsored by UBC Freethinkers, PrideUBC and the Secular Student Alliance, gave us a peek into the weird world of ex-gay ministries. Plus, it was his very first talk in Canada. Woo!

We started out with a brief history. The ex-gay Xian movement as we know it today has its roots in the “Jesus Freak” culture of the 60’s and 70’s, where basically a lot of hippies found religion. Apparently it’s in this culture that the notion of a personal saviour was invented, a Christ that loves you and wants to save you but that you have to personally accept before the magic can work. Interesting, that. I would have thought it was a lot older, dating back to the turn-of-the-century fundamentalists.

Add reactionary anti-feminist & anti-gay politics, a dash of outdated pseudo-scientific stereotypes (sexual deviancy is caused by overbearing mother / absent father / past sexual abuse) and there you have the anti-gay movement. From Love in Action (founded in 1973) to Exodus (founded in 1976, still going strong) to various Catholic, Mormon and Jewish groups that got in on the act, and you’ve got a weird, weird mix of subcultures that must be pure hell for any budding queer folks.

Predictably, no two groups can agree on the desired outcome. Catholic groups (who don’t believe in being born again) aim for lifelong celibacy. Evangelical groups might also limit themselves to celibacy, or they may claim to turn people straight, with opposite-sex marriage being the ultimate goal. They do seem to agree that, whatever Lady Gaga says, gays are not born this way; same-sex attraction is just a symptom of deeper emotional wounds (see: absent father, etc…), just like, e.g.: alcoholism. You need to address these wounds before you can conquer your same-sex attraction.

Mind you, that’s just for the groups that try to talk the scientific talk. All bets are off with the really loopy churches that will try to exorcise the demon of homosexuality from you. Cox showed us an incredibly disturbing clip of a group doing just that.

Even for the groups that pretend to scientific literacy, workshops and retreats are led by people with no formal training or certification. Books are written by quacks like Richard Cohen who were kicked out of their professional organisations for various reasons (in Cohen’s case, multiple ethics violations). The scientific consensus is that “ex-gay” therapies don’t work, can cause additional emotional damage, but these groups continue plugging merrily along, peddling their dogma.

You don’t even have to listen to scientists (who of course are all godless socialists, so what do they know?). Let’s ask John Paulk, or Ted Haggard, or George Rekers (he of the luggage-carrying rentboys.com escort). Pretty much all the success stories go gay again, publicly or on the sly.

Cox took us through a few Bible verses about homosexuality and women (Lev 18:19–22, the bit with Lot’s daughters in Sodom & Gomorrha) and concluded that, really, it’s not that God hates fags. It’s that God hates women. The problem homophobes have with gays is that they’re transgressing gender roles. Men are for fucking, women are for getting fucked, and when you mix that up, there’s no end to the anarchy that can result.

And just for fun, he took a few of us through “Healing Touch Therapy”, a “technique” he learned in one of the straight camps. It involved one guy (in this case, me) surrounded by 3 other guys and held in a warm but nonsexual way. The counselor (in this case, Cox) babbles a lot of nonsense about the walls inside myself, and how they kept me alive all this time, and he honours those walls, but now it’s time for the walls to come down. And then leads the audience in an inspirational singalong.

So yeah, it’s all in good fun, but I can see how it’d be a huge mind-fuck for vulnerable people. Guys steeped in a culture that frowned on any kind of male-male contact except chest bumps or brief manly hugs, who suddenly got permission to touch like that, even in a non-sexual way, would probably experience massive emotional releases. And indeed they do, but more often than not it just leads them away from the ex-gay scene. Apparently groups like that are a part of the coming-out process for many Evangelical Xians. And I am very, very glad I never had to go through that.

PS: The Healing Touch therapy didn’t work. Oh well, you get what you pay for.

The first gay-positive movie ever

I’d read a bit about the very early homosexual rights movements in Europe, about Magnus Hirschfeld and some of the organisations that operated in the 1910’s and 1920’s. But I didn’t know anything about what they published, or how they made their case to the general population. Well, now I know a little bit more, thanks to Anders als die Andem (Different from the Others), a German silent film released in 1919. Banned a year afterwards, most copies were destroyed when the Nazis took over. Only fragments of this fascinating piece of gay history exist.

What’s striking about this film is how modern its message and presentation are. The characters (including Hirschfeld, appearing as himself) argue for gay rights and dignity in a way that wouldn’t be too out of place in the 50’s or 60’s. Sure, Hirschfeld’s “third sex” scientific theories seem a bit silly now, but emotionally it wasn’t a bad narrative, and the bottom line—that we are all part of one big sexual continuum—is as true now as 100 years ago. It really makes you think: if Fascism hadn’t reared its ugly head then and set civil rights back a generation, how much further along would we be now?

The story revolves Paul Körner, a famous violinist who starts a relationship with Kurt, a student of his. It’s totally consensual and shown in a very positive light, but unfortunately Paul is also being blackmailed; if he doesn’t cough up money on a regular basis, his secret will come out—and in those days, that could mean jail time.

Finally Paul can’t take any more, and takes his blackmailer to court—hey, extortion is a crime too. Though the blackmailer is sentenced to jail, so is Paul. And after his very brief sentence is over, he finds his career is in shambles, his lover is gone, and his family won’t speak to him. Unable to take it anymore, Paul commits suicide.

And here again we see how Anders als die Andem is way ahead of its time, because unlike so many Hollywood films, it places the blame right where it belongs: senseless laws like Paragraph 175, a squeamish and bigoted society, heartless extortionists taking advantage of the system. And, it ends with a passionate call to action:

If you want to honor the memory of your friend, then you mustn’t take your own life, but instead keep on living to change the prejudices whose victim—one of countless many—this dead man has become.

This is the life task I assign to you. Just as Zola struggled on behalf of one man who innocently languished in prison, what matters now is to restore honor and justice to the many thousands before us, with us, and after us.

Through knowledge to justice!

—Magnus Hirschfeld to Kurt, Paul’s lover

Watch it here

(via Slap Upside the Head)

The VGVA.com redesign

For several months, I’ve been hard at work redesigning the Vancouver Gay Volleyball Association website. Longtime readers will remember previous posts wherein I expressed my insecurities, then my excitement at tackling its redesign in 2008. Now in 2011 comes another redesign, even more extensive.

Now in 2011 comes another redesign, even more extensive. I moved the site to WordPress instead of homebrewed PHP scripts, jiggered the layout and structure, and made extensive under-the-hood changes to allow non-techy people to update content, announcements, and time-sensitive information (tournaments, registration) without mucking about with HTML and SQL.

In the next couple of posts I’ll go into more detail about the changes I’ve made, and what I’ve learned along the way.

Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2011: Final Thoughts

I wasn’t sure if I could do do the same festival marathon thing as last year; then, I was unemployed, so it was easy to see a couple movies, then blog about them the next day. But I have a day job now, and by the weekend I was getting seriously burned out. To the point that I hesitated to go to the closing gala film, after a whole afternoon playing volleyball in the hot sun. But I went, and I’m so glad I did. Next year I need to either pace myself better or take some time off.

I wasn’t sure if I could do the same festival marathon thing as last year; then, I was unemployed, so it was easy to see a couple movies, then blog about them the next day. But I have a day job now, and by the weekend I was getting seriously burned out. To the point that I hesitated to go to the closing gala film, after a whole afternoon playing volleyball in the hot sun. But I went, and I’m so glad I did. Next year I need to either pace myself better or take some time off.

By the time I got around to buying a pass they were already sold out, so I was forced to buy tickets. The solution is obvious: donate more over the next year. No, I’m not just looking for the convenience of a Super Pass, I’ll be supporting a great cause, too!

Now, let’s recap this festival:

Number of shows I saw: 15 (one more than last year! Woo!)

Number of days I did not see a show: 2 (Sunday the 14^th and Wednesday the 17^th)

Favourite Feature Film: The Wise Kids, hands down. Honourable mentions go to Grown Up Movie Star and Different From Whom? / Diverso da Chi?

Least Favourite Feature Film: You know what? I didn’t see any real duds this year. Even the movies I felt didn’t quite work (Going Down in LA-LA Land, Strapped) were very enjoyable.

Favourite Short Film: A three-way tie between A Dragged-Out Affair and Go-Go Reject (both part of Beautiful Rejects) and Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner.

Movies I would have liked to see but didn’t: Judas Kiss (though I have had one person describe it as “laughably bad”), Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight, and The String / Le fil.

Here’s to next year!

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Different From Whom?

Different From Whom? / Diverso da Chi? is a wonderful Italian gay comedy, expertly mixing laughs with drama. With well-developed characters, beautiful scenery and an uplifting message, it is a fine conclusion to this year’s film festival.

Meet hunky Piero, openly gay city councilor in an unnamed northern Italian city. He runs for his party’s nomination for mayoral candidate and comes in a respectable second. But wait, the wildly popular winner falls dead from a heart attack during his acceptance speech! Guess who’s running for mayor now! Piero must deal with cynical staffers, homophobic attacks from his right-wing opponent, and a more conservative running mate. She, Piero and his equally hunky partner do eventually bond over shopping and food, but Piero starts an affair with her (to his massive confusion, since he had never been attracted to women before). The lies pile up as the two try to keep things hidden both from the public and Piero’s partner. Of course all the lies explode in the most dramatic and humorous ways possible but it all works out in the end. Piero and Remo break up but get back together, and the three of them raise Piero’s and Adele’s baby together.

There wasn’t anything terribly groundbreaking about this movie—the resolution, especially, dates at least from 1993’s The Wedding Banquet—but I believe it’s the execution that matters, and this movie had impeccable acting, writing and direction. Amidst the laughs, we were treated to dozens of political points both subtle and blatant, about prejudice, labels, idealism vs. cynicism, finding common ground, and the real meaning of family.

PS: What does “Centrist” mean in Italian politics, anyway? Adele “the Centrist Fury” opposed divorce and every second word out of her mouth was “family”. I’d hate to see what a real right-wing politician would promote!

PPS: the actress who plays Adele is a dead ringer for Claudia Christian, who played Cmdr. Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5. Until the closing credits I wasn’t even sure it wasn’t her. Hey, how do I know she doesn’t speak fluent Italian?

Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: The Coast Is Queer

I had to cancel going to a barbecue for this, but fortunately The Coast Is Queer did not disappoint!

bend in the river (or falling in time)

Starring Nelson Wong, who appears in a number of these shorts. An obnoxious but cute ESL teacher gets to know his hot student, all the while trying to correct his grammar and pronunciation. The film ends just as they’re about to make out.

Viral

When her girlfriend puts up cute videos of her chubby cat on YouTube, an aspiring actress has to deal with jealousy and the cat stealing all her parts. Wouldn’t you hate it if your cat became more famous than you?

Cure(d)

A funny little short about a teen who comes out to his parents, and accepts the pill they give him to make him not gay. Turns out the pills were a placebo, and he ends up making out with his cute math tutor.

The Gesture

An elderly mother visits the lesbian daughter she once cut off. But her daughter’s out, so she spends the film awkwardly talking to her partner. Mother and daughter only meet at the very end, and we’re left wondering if this simple gesture will be the start of a true reconciliation.

Random Acts of Queerness

A brief look back at the Pride in Art / Queer Arts Festival. I was especially moved by the story of the teenagers who learned not to laugh at the gay-bashing exhibit.

Laid To Rest

A simple, moving spoken / poetry piece by a transsexual former prostitute, about her life and the lives of her sisters in the trade.

B.A.B.S.

Turns out putting together an all-butch Barbra Streisand tribute band is hard. Who knew? Also: it was kind of odd and beautiful to listen to a butch dyke sing Streisand songs. With an amazing voice, I might add.

I’ve Got You Under My Spell

A fun little karaoke number of a sexy love spell. Catchy, but not really that special otherwise.

Coffee Club

This is my second time seeing this film, the first being at the premiere of The Beast of Bottomless Lake a few weeks ago. Sorry to say, it still doesn’t work for me. I totally get what David C Jones was going for—a satirical look at self-righteous gays who fly their victim flag high—but, no. Joking about gay-bashing is not okay.

Seminal

I’d heard the old wives’ tale that having an orgasm when you get impregnated helps you conceive. (I think it’s that the muscular contractions push the sperm further into the uterus so they don’t have so far to swim). So have you ever wanted to see that in action? Well, personally I didn’t, but I got to see everything last night. Seriously. Everything. It was sweet, really, but way TMI.

Lord Cockworthy

And so we end the evening with another piece by Clark Nicolai (the same guy responsible for Galactic Docking). In this silent-film piece, Lord Cedric Cockworthy is out with his chums enjoying the countryside, when he gets assaulted by a satyr. Silly and naughty, and extra points for an original format.