Film Reviews - Research Paper Example

Film Reviews Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989) Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt is a documentary film released in 1989 narrated by Dustin Hoffman. It follows the story on NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, focusing on various people represented by Quilt panels by combining footage from the archives and personal stories (Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt). The documentary is also punctuated by various statistics that detail Americans diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the epidemic’s earlier years. The documentary relates and narrates the lives of Dr. Tom Waddell, who founded Gay Games, a young hemophiliac David Mandell, Robert Perryman who got AIDS by injecting drugs, Jeffrey Sevcik who was gay, and David Campbell who was a veteran in the US Navy. As well as their personal stories, the film documents the delayed response to AIDS by the Reagan administration using archival footage of government officials (Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt), reactions by medical practitioners, and the initial attempts by gay men to use the AIDS issue to organize the community. The documentary clearly brings into focus the AIDS era, although it does not break any new ground that has not already been covered. However, what makes this film important is that it creates and documents a historical era during which hysteria on AIDS and its relation to the gay community was starting to turn to compassion for those who were infected. It seems to tell that this only occurred at the end of the Reagan administration, which, from the film, considered the disease to be a moral issue and not a public healthcare issue. The film narrates how AIDS broke barriers between middle class families of heterosexual leaning and the gay community in finding a common ground. One touching moment was when the Mandell family asserted they were middle-class Americans who, when it came to AIDS, found out that there was no Middle America as everyone who was affected clung to one another. Every story in this documentary is well narrated by those who survived the victims and who are on the quilt. The film draws sympathy as Sally Perryman talks about Robert, her husband, and the way he struggled to end his drug addiction until he died of AIDS. There is heartbreak when the Mandell family takes the viewer through the pictures and videos of their son, as he became sicker, while their struggle with prejudice from their community shows how stigmatizing the disease still was in the 80s. The film also discusses the life of Vito Russo, who originally wrote The Celluloid Closet prior to his death from AIDS in his prime. However, the story, which is most revealing is Tracy Torrey’s, whose partner David Campbell died, as he also is. He is shown on his bed dying with lesions and unable to rise from his bed. This film is a chilling look into how AIDS affected the entire country without discrimination. Silverlake Life: The View from Here (1993) This film documents the experiences that TOM Joslin, a film professor at UCLA, and his partner Mark Massi after Tom’s AIDS diagnosis (Silverlake Life: The View from Here). The film traces his struggles as he tries to cope with an AIDS diagnosis, especially their trip to New Hampshire for a Christmas celebration that Joslin believes is the last with his family, which has refused to accept his partner for the last 22 years. As the documentary progresses, the filmmaker makes it clear that the love between the two partners is what has made the disease bearable for Joslin. The filming continues after Tom’s demise, showing the manner in which the undertakers and other people handle his body through the filming work of Peter Friedman, his friend, who chronicles Massi’s acceptance by the family following Joslin’s demise. This documentary does not have overt political statements and acts only as a record of the experiences of two lovers as one of them dies from an incurable disease. The first-person diary style used to shoot the film enables the viewer to see the intensity of living with HIV/AIDS up close. By recording the everyday struggles of the two lovers, the filmmaker, is able to convey a high level of intimacy without exhibitionism, which has been a pitfall for most films depicting the AIDS epidemic in the early 90s. During the period the film was shot, the AIDS epidemic had moved on from being treated as a moral issue and was now considered a national emergency, although it was still viewed as a death sentence. The filmmaker, Peter Friedman, takes risks raising the awareness of the public about a disease that had no end in sight, using pictures of a dying Joslin looking emaciated and full of lesions. The film is obviously tough for those who retain an indifference to the disease, while it is also possible that those who have been infected will also feel uncomfortable with the depictions of Joslin’s last days. This is because it covers two taboo themes, homosexuality, and AIDS. The film seems to be attempting to break down the fear that people have about AIDS by showing the ordinary life of those going through the illness in relationships, visiting the doctor, and going to the grocers. The documentary also deals with the issue of how homosexuality was kept secret from society in those days as society made it invisible, which is one thing that the two lovers seemed to have been fighting their entire life. Ballot Measure Nine (1996) This documentary was made in the aftermath of Ballot Measure 9, an amendment made in 1992 by the Oregon Citizen’s Alliance against gay people. It details the fight by the gay community to stop the amendment’s enactment, using portions of videos showing anti-gay activists and citizens made by the Alliance together with interviews and archival news articles on people who fought the amendment successfully. Ballot Measure 9 as proposed was a ballot against gay people that would have prevented and revoked all laws that protected homosexuals from discrimination. This documentary chronicles the eight months that preceded the ballot in November, during which the amendment was defeated by a margin of 14% (Ballot Measure 9). The documentary also traces the amendment’s originators, offering input from the two sides of the debate with regards to the amendment’s ramifications. In addition, it also shows the increased incidents of gay bashing and protests from the gay community prior to the ballot. While most people know about the ballot in Oregon and its defeat unlike its counterpart bill in Colorado meant to deny gay people their civil rights, this film delves into how and why the ballot was defeated. This documentary was made in the latter years of anti-gay legislation, in the US, chronicling the increasing bravery and courage shown by homosexuals in the face of conservative backlash over increased gay legal acceptance as the “New Right” asserted itself. The documentary evades the headlines that followed the ballot and delved into the strategies, passions, and organization that characterized the period during which the US elected Bill Clinton as president and Oregon voted 57-435 to confer gays with a human status. The filmmaker and her crew chose to use a non-confrontational and low-voltage style in their examination of controversial and heated issues. The film is especially powerful when covering the courageous anti-gay discrimination protesters who risked being firebombed, attacked, and harassment to stand for themselves, LGBT allies and friends, and their personal beliefs. The filmmaker is able to give the film the suspense and tension of a fiction movie as the violence escalates and the odds even out, allowing the viewer to experience the hopes and aspirations of a community that was riding on the ballot. It is one of those rare films, which an audience comes away from with a completely different view to his earlier expectations. Although the film starts as a chronicle of local events, the documentary changes to one of hate politics that transcend sexual identity, religion, and race. This film reminds the viewer of the situation in California with its proposition 187 that seeks to curtail gay rights, just as Ballot Measure 9 did in Oregon. Golden Threads (1999) This documentary chronicles the 9th annual weekend celebrations for a group of lesbians from all parts of the United States. The group is presided over by Christine Burton, a ninety year old lesbian, who was part of a group of women who gathered to discuss how growing old affected them, as well as to share old memories of their lives as lesbians spanning over seventy years. The film includes a sudden turn after Burton suffered a stroke some twenty-four hours following the victorious weekend. Unable to talk, walk, write, or read, Burton is left helpless. What begins as a happy and feel good film expands, and discusses the realities of aging and illness, which leads to isolation and institutionalization faced by majority of the elderly today. However, Burton’s heroism still shines through, and she undergoes a rebirth following work by physical therapists (Golden Threads), coupled with her strong will. This documentary was made at a time when LGBT rights were beginning to be accepted in American society. It also arrived at a time when America was beginning to have a conversation about the plight of the baby boomer generation who had retired with no one to take care of them. The documentary affectionately chronicles the unconventional life of nonagenarian Christine Burton who founded Golden Threads for lesbians who had reached the age of 50. The documentary seeks to overturn society’s fears for aging and their deeply seated stereotypes about the elderly. Through its use of first-person entries and documentary styles, the film offers an inter-generational dialogue concerning aging in the United States, life choices, and same sex intimacy. Burton’s assertion that everybody is a fabric thread of humankind brings to the fore isolation and the lack of new challenges faced by the elderly, especially lesbians who have an increased chance of being isolated. This theme about isolation and the troubles of aging in America is starkly revealed after Christine Burton decides to end her lonely stint in upstate New York by applying to a networking service for lesbians. The service returned her check and application, contending that no one would want a lesbian aged over fifty years of age. By chronicling Burton’s activities after her rejection by the service, the filmmaker is able to show that no one is ever too old to surmount new challenges. Launching Golden Threads a few years after her rejection, she proclaimed that no one is ever too old to be loved, which is the major take away from this film. Our House (2000) Our House is an insightful and open film about children who grow up with lesbian or gay parents. The documentary, which spans an hour, seeks to profile the children of five diverse families, aged 5 to 23, who are going through the lows and highs and becoming adults (Our House: A Very Real Documentary about Kids of Gay and Lesbian Parents). The film follows them as they come to terms with the sexuality of their parents, as well as their encounters with the reactions of neighbors, teachers, classmates, and relatives. The documentary chronicles how children with lesbian and gay parents grow up by travelling to such families in New York, New Jersey, Arkansas, and Arizona. Profiling five such families, made up of Jewish, Christian, Mormon, White, Latino, and African American families, the documentary illustrates the diversity present in lesbian and gay families all across the United States. This documentary is among the first to be shown to a wider American audience about the lives of children growing up with gay parents. It was released at a time when homosexual Americans who had grown up during the LGBT protests of the 60s and 70s were now openly raising children. It was also during this period that the debate about children being raised by single-sex families was making its way into the national discourse. This film is of utmost relevance with an estimated three to five million American children now being raised in same-sex marriages. In addition to being confronted by challenges that face all children, those profiled in this documentary also have to put up with personal feelings on the sexuality of their parents and reactions from society. This film seeks to improve understanding of same-sex family children due to the judgmental attitude prevalent in the world today. Watching Our House, the viewer is confronted by how ordinary the lives of these sixteen children are, dealing with the same issues that other children have to deal with. These children look like the average children one would come across on the street, and they claim that everything is alright until those around them realize the sexuality of their parents. It leaves one being sympathetic of children who have to suffer homophobic taunts and attitudes, despite not being gay themselves. By showing the ordinary nature of their lives, as well as their diversity from children of divorce to adopted children from those conceived in vitro, the filmmaker is able to show that they are just like all other children and should be treated as such. Outrage (2009) This 2009 documentary film presents a narrative that discusses individual hypocrisy by politicians who support legislation against gay people, despite being gay themselves. The film argues that various politicians in the US have been secretly gay, although they have supported legislation against gay people and endorsed it (Outrage). It also discusses the reluctance by the media to discuss gay politicians in spite of the many stories and scandals that emerge about straight politicians. This is described as institutionalization of homophobia that has led to self-censorship ion issues of gay politicians. The film accuses former Idaho Senator Larry Craig, former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, former Congressman David Dreier, former NY City Mayor Jim McCrery, and former Virginia Congressman Ed Schrock of being closet gays. It also includes interviews with openly gay politicians who discuss their own experiences with the government’s secret gay culture. The film also interviews former governor of NJ Jim McGreevy and his wife whose political careers were damaged after his affair with another man was uncovered (Outrage). The main point in this documentary involves gay politicians who vote against gay legislation because of its political ramifications. The film acts as a light to the hypocrisy that pervades American politics, which was and is relevant at a time when openly gay politicians are being elected to Congress. The film, however, makes it look like only Republican politicians are guilty of going with the flow of their party as they secretly engage in homosexual relationships. In essence, the film misses the point that it does not really matter what one’s sexual inclination is when voting on bills that affect the entire country. For example, a smoking addict would not be required to vote against a bill that outlaws smoking in public simply because he/she was a smoker. In addition, the documentary did not really have the right to expose these politicians as gay since these are their personal lives. Outrage is one of those documentaries that touches on a particular issue and delves into some aspects, while completely leaving out other ethical issues. It is up top the viewer to decide what to think of the film since it has a lot of gray areas with regards to individual rights to privacy. However, the hypocrisy of some of the politicians covered in this film is striking, such as former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who was an ardent anti-gay activist as Governor. The fact that some of these politicians have to lie to their wives for such a long time in order to keep their political careers afloat is also shocking. However, this viewer believes that the manner in which the documentary was done ended up creating controversy where people took sides along party lines, rather than a national conversation. Works Cited Ballot Measure 9. Dir. MacDonald, Heather. Sovereign Distribution, 2008. Film. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt. Dir. Robert. Epstein. P, Jeffrey B. Friedman, Perf. Vito Russo, Dustin Hoffman, Sara Lewinstein, Sallie Perryman, Tracy Torrey, Suzi Mandell 2004. Film. Golden Threads. Dir. Karen Eaton, Lucy Winer, Perf. Christine Burton, 1999. Film Our House: A Very Real Documentary about Kids of Gay and Lesbian Parents. Dir. Meema Spadola Perf. Russo-Young, 2000. Film. Outrage. Dir. Kirby Dick, Perf. Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Wayne Barrett, 2009. Film. Silverlake Life: The View from Here. Dir. Tom Joslin, Peter Friedman, Perf. Tom Joslin, Mark Massi, Liane Bonin, 2003. Film. Read More