Japan Japan

Japan Japan opens with the protagonist Imri stating "cinema is dead," and at times during this movie I found myself agreeing with him. Imri is a gay ex-Israeli soldier who is concurrently trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life as well as yearning to visit Japan. At times the film's intentionally irreverent editing and choppy dialogue was thoughtful and touching while at other times it was simply annoying. Some of the montages, like the gripping footage of Israeli streets while Japanese pop music played in the background, were incredibly impressive. Similarly, the scenes between the serious Imri and his seemingly crazy/goofy roommate who holds parties by herself with imaginary guests were incredibly endearing and hilarious, shedding light on how Imri should just let go and stop taking life so seriously. However, it was blatantly obvious when some scenes were scripted and others were improvised. Switching from drama to comedy to musical, Japan Japan left a lot to be desired.

I believe the film could have scratched much more below the surface to explore Imri's desire for Japan, or his struggles with his current crisis of being in transition towards adulthood. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of films that are slow-paced or irreverent, however when it is obviously forced, the film becomes taxing to watch. The director, Lior Shamriz, has great talent and a lot to offer and I look forward to giving his future films a second chance.

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Be Like Others

What would you do in order to be with the one you love? To be able to walk down the street without facing constant discrimination? That was the question that many of the young gay Iranian men faced in the documentary Be Like Others. While homosexuality is deemed as a sin in Iran, feeling as though your gender and biological sex do not match is viewed as a mistake made by God. Therefore, Ayatollah Khomeini offered a "path" towards correcting this mistake 20 years ago by not only permitting sexual reassignment surgery but allowing it to be financially covered by the government. As an Iranian-American and sexuality researcher I became incredibly fascinated when I first heard about this, I knew homosexuality was very much unacceptable but was completely unaware of this ruling. This is especially poignant during a time where there is a war between western states and the Middle East, where war against Iran and its ideologies seems depressingly imminent.

The film follows a group of young pre-op Male-to-Female transgender women who are going through the preliminary stages and bureaucracy of obtaining the right to have this surgery. We meet Vida, a 26 year-old queen of all "diagnosed transsexuals." At times I became teary-eyed watching Vida console and support the young women and convince the parents to accept their child, and other times I wanted to strangle Vida for her blatant homophobia stating that gay men are committing sins and are completely unacceptable. However Vida brought up an interesting point when asked why she transitioned, she stated that when she dressed as a man she was harassed and abused for being effeminate, but now that she is a woman she has the right to
defend herself from discrimination. Anoosh, who later goes by Anihita, is a young 20 year old pre-op MTF who has a very attractive, young hair stylist boyfriend with whom she wants to marry. We also meet Ali Asghar who traveled to Tehran from a small village in order to have the surgery and become accepted and find love. In an exceptionally heart breaking scene while Ali is moments away from the surgery he is asked if he would go through the procedure if he did not live in Iran, he simply replied, "no." Seeking acceptance from his family and peers, Ali, now Neskar is disowned by his family and friends. In another fascinating portrayal in the documentary there was the backwards acceptance of these individuals from the very doctors who advocate for their right to undergo this procedure. One doctor stated, "These people are abnormal, something is wrong, but thats the way they are and we have to accept them and give them the surgery." Another doctor told a parent, "This is torture for you, no parent should have to go through this, but there is still time to rescue him."

While the movie was incredibly moving and sad at times there were also very amusing moments. For example when the doctor was being interviewed by a conservative female journalist for a state-run newspaper he tells her "these women will be more of a woman than you ever will be, because they know how to attract males and keep them happy more than you ever can." During the only moment when a Female-to-Male transgender individual was touched upon, the young woman who sought surgery told the doctor, "I already attract so many women, can you imagine how many I will attract when I have a beard."

Watching this movie I was incredibly touched by the footage of daily life on the streets of Tehran, making me yearn to visit, to see my family, but upon hearing the stories and listening to some of the parents talk in such a harsh and sometimes violent tone towards their children I simply did not want to believe that this mentality still occurs. While there is a move towards acceptance, whether silent or explicit, there is a lot of work to be done. Despite the fact that I have just written this review, I can still say that I am speechless, and so will you. Whether
you are interested in Iran or the Middle East, sexuality or cross-cultural studies, or simply interested in human rights, you must view Be Like Others.

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All My Life

This Sunday night, Frameline Film Festival featured the world premiere of
All My Life, the first honest and multi-dimensional feature film about gay men in Egypt. In a sold out house, many members of the local Middle Eastern LGBTQ community gathered together to create a lively and loving ambiance to support their dear friend and director Maher Sabry. As the lights dimmed the entire crowd cheered and clapped out of excitement. What only added to the joyous mood was that many members of South West Asian North African Bay Area Queers (SWANABAQ) lent their talent as actors for this film, as well as a beautiful composition by SWANABAQ member Ilyas Iliya.

The film portrays Rami, a young gay accountant who holds both traditional and modern views of the world. Rami is just getting comfortable with his sexuality when his boyfriend decides that he cannot take the pressure from his family anymore and marrys a woman. Shortly after, Rami is faced with a governmental crackdown of gay men in Cairo after 52 men were arrested in the infamous Queen Boat Case. In an attempt towards self-comfort Rami continually tells himself and others that the men who were arrested must had been doing something wrong, therefore he is not at risk since he leads a "respectable" life.

As the film follows Rami through his transformation and experiences with casual sexual encounters, challenging stereotypes, and trying to protect his friends, the viewer only becomes more connected with his struggles and enjoyment in life. Sabry adds to this intense feature by brilliantly including the stories of other individuals who are also growing and learning from life, including a woman who moves to San Francisco but is faced with the urge to move back to Cairo to help with feminist activism and a devout Muslim man who is battling with his desire for premarital sex.

In all honesty, half of my enjoyment from the premiere was seeing this gorgeous and amazingly honest film, and the other half came from seeing the SWANABAQ community together, elated and proud.

If you would like to join SWANABAQ during pride please check out Bibi, a Middle Eastern Queer club night this friday, June 27th.

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Cthulhu

What happens when you leave your home to not only escape your family’s oppression of your queer sexual identity but also because your father is the head of a “Great Old Ones”- idolizing cult in a small Pacific Northwestern town?


Director Dan Gildark and screenwriter Grant Cogswell depict one of the possible answers to this question in the film Cthulhu.

For the uninitiated, the title is pronounced “kuh-THOO-loo.”

Who are the “Great Old Ones”, you may ask? Early 20th century horror writer H.P. Lovecraft created the fictional deities called the Great Old Ones who, when awoken from their deep sleep at the bottom of ocean, would come back to the surface to reclaim the planet as their own. No one is exempt from the sheer horror of their return and you had better be on their good side because these ancient deities are merciless and will destroy your perceptions of reality with a mere flailing of their tentacles. Cthulhu is just one of these terrifying Great Old Ones who will resurface.



Yeah…I don’t want to get on Cthulhu’s bad side. Ever.

Gildark’s film, shown this past Saturday night as a part of Frameline’s San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, deals with issues of family, sexuality, religious cults and the ultimate understanding that one can never go home again. A reinterpretation of Lovecraft’s short story, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Cthulhu involves a mystery surrounding the hometown of Russell Marsh (Jason Cottle)and his family’s involvement in a shadowy cult that may be responsible for the disappearance of numerous townspeople. As Russell searches for answers, he reunites with his old friend/flame, Mike (played with a sexy steadiness by Scott Patrick Green).
Oh, yes, and Tori Spelling is in it as well. She is actually quite good.

When introducing his film to the audience, Gildark announced that the film will be undergoing another edit and then distributed by Regent Releasing in August or September of 2008. Along with those big plans, he also commented that his film is about “just plain folks.” I agree with that assessment. What makes Cthulhu so riveting is not only the mounting suspense as the mystery surrounding Russell and his family begins to spiral out of control, but also the exploration of sexual orientation and gender that take place within the bond between Russell and Mike, as well as the depictions of heterosexuality as expressed by the religious cult.




This film has chills, thrills and the sheer dread of knowing that no one, not even queer folks, are beyond the unspeakable horror that is Cthulhu.

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The Young and Evil

Although the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival is great place to see stars and preview upcoming full-length features, frameline 32 is also showcasing some of the best LGBT short films around right now.

The Young and Evil collection was a presentation of eight shorts dealing with youth and confronting your vices. The packed crowd in the legendary Castro Theatre liked the variety, and the narratives kept everyone on the edge of their seats.

The program was named after a short of the same name. It centers on a troubled Black gay teen trying to intentionally infect himself with the HIV virus.

Yes, you heard me right.

Writer-director Julian Breece explained his inspiration for the film was to show how destructive behavior can sometimes be beautiful defiance. “Often times [when talking about HIV/AIDS and the African American community] we just hear statistics and such, but I really wanted to show the heart of the matter…the tortured desire,” he said.

Starring Vaughn Lowery (who you may remember from those Joe Boxer ads) The Young and Evil had its world premiere at the festival, but expect buzz/controversy as it plays more around the country in the coming months.

El Primo (The Cousin) was another crowd favorite. Set it Loredo, Texas, it tells the story of a Latino teenager who visits his older cousin and learns (the hard way) when you want to be like someone else so bad, you often lose yourself in the process. The chemistry between the actors was endearing and engaging (the frontal nudity didn’t hurt either).

For a full list of shorts in the program, visit the frameline 32 website.

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Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror! A Frameline Film

Alright people, it's time for the largest gay event of the year, the "Blue Party" in the desert, do you have your leather pants, tanning oil and elicit substances? Good! Did you reserve lodging? Well how about the Sahara Salvation Bed & Breakfast? At Sahara Salvation, Helen and her daughter Luella are your typical God loving mother-daughter team running the quaint "gay friendly" B&B in the hilariously campy horror flick "Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror". At this "slice of paradise" in the desert there seems to be a more horrifying experience awaiting the five couples staying this year. There's the reigning Mr. Leather and Alex, his drag queen boyfriend (played by gay porn star Michael Soldier who came to the premiere as his drag alter-ego "Precious Moments"), a yuppie gay couple with their older "fag hag" straight friend, a body paint creating lipstick lesbian couple, a singer/song writer and her tomboy girlfriend, and a sugar daddy with his boytoy in tow.

Normally I would mention the cinemagraphic quality of the film, but that queen Precious Moments decided to sit right in front of me with her flawless but overwhelming bloom of a hairdo. This campy, over-the-top horror production featured more hilarious one-liners than an episode of Last Comic Standing, with gems such as "boys will do boys," "We'll find you a nice boy to marry and convert to save from Satan," and the loving homage to Mommie Dearest, "NO MORE GIRLFRIENDS!" While the production value was low quality, this only added to the b-movie horror aspect of this raunchy, gorey and sexually exhilirating feature. The tongue-in-cheek portrayals of stereotypical gay couples only added hilarious moments but also offered a poignant review of misgivings towards and within the LGBT community.

Writer, director and actor, Jaymes Thompson, creates a thrilling but intentionally "so bad it's good" creature feature with a steady momentum, gripping death scenes, and brilliant frightening moments that leave you standing in your seat screaming, "run girl, run!" Keep a look out for "Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror" as it was just picked up for theatrical release in September. In other exciting news, director Jaymes Thompson will be releasing a gay grindhouse double feature with another gay horror director!

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Affinity, opening film LGBT festival

Lead paragraph(s) here.
Class is often invisible to those in the upper echelons. So it is that the movie, Affinity, as revealed to us through the eyes of one of the principal characters, Margaret, fools us as she is fooled in this beautiful adaptation of the novel by Sarah Waters. Margaret is a wealthy woman who has lost her father to whom she was devoted. To relieve her grief she becomes a regular visitor to Millbank, a notoriously bleak prison for women in London in the latter half of the 19th century. There she meets and falls in love with a beautiful medium. The story has all the elements of a picturesque lesbian love story but I found it affected me much more deeply than such a scenario might.
The rest goes here.

I read Waters first novel, Tipping the Velvet, and viewed the adaptation, as well as read Affinity. I loved the first novel and enjoyed the adaptation but I must admit that I enjoyed the movie version of Affinity even more than the book, which seemed weighted down somehow by a slow paced description of Margaret’s life. She is as confined in her gilded prison as Selina is in gothic goal. The dresses she wears, as well as the customs of the times are richly visualized in a way that doesn’t require words. I was also intrigued by the film’s portrayal of spiritualism, a topic I researched for a play I wrote some time ago. Waters and the film convey a true sense of what it might have meant to believe in communication with the dead and the power of a world beyond the material. They show us how a logical, sane person might be convinced of the existence of spirits, especially when falling love.

In the discussion after the film, Waters and the screenwriter, Andrew Davies, expressed a belief about spiritualist mediums I share. Some were or are today sincere and can help people, even if they have to cheat a little to keep up their reputations and produce the results their believers come to demand. I won’t reveal the ending but I believe you will be surprised and you will be left, as I was, to wonder why you didn’t see what was so obvious. It’s almost like that old riddle about the car accident where a child and his father are rushed to the hospital and the doctor says, “I can’t operate on that boy, he’s my son.” Who is the doctor? People couldn’t get that the doctor was his mother.

I strongly recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in women, historical dramas and welcomes a chance to examine their own assumptions about gender, class and sexuality.
mercilee

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