THEGAYUK

Author: Roger Walker-Dack

  • FILM REVIEW | Big Gay Love

    ★ | Big Gay Love

    Ringo Le’s comic drama admirably tackles the concept that even in our physique obsessed culture, gay men who are socially inept and more than pleasantly plump can still get their chance at a big romance.

    The lonely soul in this instance is Bob, who is a chubby successful party caterer in LA who has made enough money to buy his first house but desperately sad as he has no-one to share it with. For some reason (insecurity?) his only friends are a couple of vapid vain gym rats who are as self-centered as his mother who was once a famous Pin Up Girl.

    When at one of his own parties, he meets Andy a handsome beefy accomplished chef & restaurant owner, and budding writer to boot, who actually fancies him, Bob’s low-self esteem kicks in big time. The trouble is for Bob… and for us too… that once Le sets up the scenario the initially promising story disintegrates through a series of convoluted and somewhat ridiculous plot twists and the whole mishmash becomes one annoying big pity party for Bob.

    The cast includes the talented Jonathan Lisecki (the writer/director/actor of ‘Gayby’) and handsome Nicholas Brendon (from ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’) but with zero chemistry between them and a very stilted script, both of them looked as uncomfortable as we felt by the time the final credits rolled. They would be lucky to find a small gay love at best!

    Big Gay Love = Big Gay Yawn.

  • FILM REVIEW | Hollywood To Dollywood

    ★★★★ | Hollywood To Dollywood

    One of the very first things you learn from this enchanting wee documentary is that when you are growing up gay in a Southern Baptist family in a small North Carolina town you worship both God and Dolly Parton in equal measure.

    Handsome identical twins Gary and Larry Lane, now in their mid 30’s, got as far away as they could from their childhood homes when their family struggled to come to terms with the fact that they are both gay. Now they are living the lives they always wanted in West Hollywood, these inseparable brothers are desperate to fulfil their long-held dream. They want to present Dolly Parton with a movie script they have written for her based on her life story, and they also want their families to finally accept them for who they are.

    This film then is of their road trip in an RV christened ‘Joleen’ right across the country to Pigeon Forge Tennessee where Dolly is scheduled to appear in person at her famous theme park and where they are planning to get the script into her hands. They also hope that once their family see the finished documentary it will help them appreciate the fullness of the rather wonderful lives they have shaped for themselves.

    Before the start of the journey they persuade a few of their LA celebrity friends to read through the script and give them advice and any tips. They include Oscar Winning Scriptwriter Dustin Lance Black, and actors Leslie Jordan, Chad Allen & Beth Grant. None of them is immune to the boy’s infectious charm and boundless good humour.

    On the road with Gary’s boyfriend Mike doing most of the driving, the twins spend a lot of time verbalising about how childhood and in particular the rejection by their mother when at aged 25 they finally came out to her. She would not believe them and tried to make them swear on the Bible that they were not gay, and when they refused, she fell apart. Even now none of the rest of the family or their neighbours knows. Such treatment would have devastated most people but not these good-natured resilient twins who are still determined to be accepted regardless how long it takes them.

    The rest of the trip seems to be spending time with other people who also worship at the shrine of ‘Saint’ Dolly and who are so excited to give testimony with such fervour on camera as to how she has enriched all their lives. And when the boys arrive at their destination actually manage to get a brief meeting with Dolly herself, she is so welcoming and graciously accepts the script, they feel like they have died and gone heaven.

    Whether the script was any good, and whether Dolly liked it at all is really irrelevant. What makes this film so endearing is the twins unshakable faith in themselves and the people they love. And Miss Dolly Parton, who I would chose over God any day.

  • INTERVIEW | Sergio Tovar Velarde

    Once in a blue moon we get to preview a movie that is so wonderfully refreshing that it blows our socks off and we feel the need to share it with you even before it is released.

    31-year-old Mexican/writer-director Sergio Tovar Velarde’s remarkable new film Four Moons chronicles four stories about love, heartbreak and self-acceptance. What makes them so unique in our gay culture that is often very ageist, is that he has chosen four different generations of gay men to tell his tales. There is a teenage schoolboy secretly attracted to his male cousin; two college students starting a new relationship that gets complicated when one of them insists on remaining closeted; a couple who put their relationship in jeopardy due to the arrival of another man; and an old man dazzled over a young male prostitute as he tries to raise the money to afford the experience.

    They are four differing kinds of love although each one is full of hope and the true value of accepting who you are, and Verlade gives each of these stories the ending they deserve, but not necessarily the ones that we would expect. His stance on these conflicts facing gay men of all generations is a sheer joy to watch, and a remarkable achievement from such a new (ish) filmmaker.

    We caught up with Sergio in Mexico City as he was preparing to leave for New York where the movie is about to open,  and we talked to him about love and life in general and Four Moons in particular.

    RWD: Why did you have this concept of covering four generations of gay men and their lives?

    STV: I had been looking for some time at different stories about how people deal with being gay and realised that whilst no two stories are the same, there are elements that are common to us all. Often when we talk about the LGBT community as a whole all the figures and statistics seem to eclipse these individual stories. I wanted to focus on just four of them dealing with both love and acceptance and the fear that accompanies that, and just how these men each evolve through their own journey. For example, back in the 1950’s in Mexico things were definitely more difficult for gay people and in the movie there is a retired married Professor who didn’t have a chance to live according to what he wanted.  Then at the other end of the scale there is a young schoolboy facing his future reality, plus a partnered couple who have already accepted it, and then two college chums who will accept it eventually.

    Every person has different tools and weapons to deal with what they are afraid of, so I think exploring them from different angles gives us more of an accurate description of what these stories mean. I think it is a matter of diversity because within the same gay community there can be big differences, so the way that I tried to approach the child is completely different than the way I approached the middle-aged characters.

    What motivated you to do a virtually unheard of concept of having a young gay guy’s story and that of an old gay guy in the same movie?

    I’ve been in all these situations. …(laugh)

    No, you haven’t, as you are not that old yet….

    But I’ve wanted to be (laugh). In a way, the stories work as a metaphor.  I have been in situations when I have not been young enough, or old enough, or hairy enough, or attractive enough, or handsome enough.  For many reasons, I believe that you do not have to be an older man to feel the connection with that character as anyone can feel less of a man because of lack of attractiveness. All my life I have never really fitted in and have felt quite awkward. I am too short, and I am chubby and hairy, but not quite enough to be a Bear. I’m a light-skinned Mexican guy, so I don’t even look like a typical Latino gay. In fact, I have felt unattractive my whole life, as I believe most of us do. I can easily relate to paying for a sexual experience even though I am not an old man like the Professor.  In a way his particular chapter was inspired by my own story because when I was first a filmmaker, and I had made a couple of films, I was trying to get a very handsome young man into bed by impressing him that I was a very important person, which is very much what the old Professor does.

    Did it work for you?

    No, but sometimes it does….(laugh). Everybody uses everything they have to get what they want. If you are not tall or handsome then you must try with what you have.  Sometimes it’s about intelligence; sometimes it’s about talent or often it’s just the magic of the surroundings.

    Was it an important element to you that each of the four stories end on such a positive note of hope?

    Yes, and that is why I chose ‘Four Moons’ as my title. The moon has a life cycle and resets every month, and then there is a new moon. When there is the moon it is the night and there is darkness.  For a very long time gay people had to be hiding in the dark otherwise they would have to bear too much pain and suffering, which I believe is not the way it should be. So pretty much the film has four different types of moon, and the last segment is the dawn where the sun is rising up again.  Even though they are still ‘dark’ places such as Uganda and Russia where life is really difficult for gay people I really believe that this is an evolving world that is allowing us to lead a better life. I believe this is a new era full of hope, and that the future is bright for all gay people, and is changing as it did so in the past for the black community and for women too. It’s important to me to say that good times are ahead and that we are approaching an era of better understanding, of better sympathy for each other, and a world where the small detail of who you go to bed will not matter anymore. I believe we are approaching the end of the night for gay people.

    Are any of the actual stories in the movie autobiographical?

    They all are! (laugh). When I was a kid I was very curious and was the kind of teenager who would look across the classroom wondering what my schoolmates would look like naked.  I was dying to know if they masturbated at all, and if they did what position did they take. I knew such thoughts were forbidden as I was raised as a Catholic and I was therefore totally convinced this was a sin, and I would have given anything in the world just to be ‘straight’.   At this point in my life when I look back to those days I realise that I was so stupid as now I wouldn’t give up being gay for anything.  But I still remember my childhood fear of being discovered was an unimaginable horror.

    Growing up in a Mexican suburb the fear of being ‘outed’ occupied my mind a great deal of my youth. I know there are still places in the world where young people are killing themselves because they feel it is impossible to be who they really are.  It’s too tough for them to deal with their own reality. I am an optimist but also a realist too.  One review of ‘Four Moons’ critiqued that its stories were neither current nor relevant because they judged it was about gay life back in the 1990’s, but they were wrong as it is still like this in very many places today. I hear stories even today of people who are still being kicked out of their homes by their parents for just being gay. Even on our Facebook page, there are lots of unpleasant homophobic comments from parents and rants from right-wing religious zealots from around the globe. However, the purpose of this film is to contribute not necessarily to the ongoing struggle for acceptance but more towards understanding who we are as people.

    Do you think of your stories as purely being about your own Mexican community or did you perceive them to reflect gay men everywhere?

    When you are making a film, or a piece of art, you have to try to be as honest as you can in order to be able to really connect with your audience. You bare your soul and open your heart in order to let everything out and when you act like an honest human being then others can relate to you, and that goes beyond our different races and cultures. All gay men are raised in straight societies … at least in our youth ….and discovering our sexuality is the same universally.

    Have you had different reactions at International Screenings of your movie?

    I had no concept about how other audiences outside of Mexico would react. When we first showed the movie in the US at the Opening Night of the Gay Film Festival in Fort Lauderdale, I was totally shocked. I had thought the audience would like it, but the reactions were overwhelming. The people next to me were crying their eyes out exactly like Mexican audiences, and I realised that maybe I had achieved my goal of being both local and universal. Being honest with my story really paid off.

    On a more personal level when I showed the movie to my father, it was like an illustrated confession. (laughs) I thought now my dad knows what I was really thinking about at school, and now he knows how I have sex.

    What was the most challenging aspect of making the movie?

    Working with the young actors, as one of them was just 12, and the other was 13 years old, and I had to talk to them about masturbation, circumcised penises, and innocent foreplay. I had to work a lot with them and earn their trust and it was important for me to treat them with respect as young adults. We shot their scenes with two cameras and with both sets of parents and a lawyer on the set which didn’t faze the young actors who were superb to work, and the result was really so beautiful and innocent and something I am so very proud of.

    A lot of the backers who were so eager to work with me after the success of my first two films withdrew their offers in a panic when they first saw the script. Having two teenage boys touch each and then having an old man pay a hooker for sex was just too much for them.   They said it was way too gay, and that they couldn’t be seen by their own families endorsing something that implied they approved of gay life styles, which I found very hurtful.

    What happens next?

    I’m off to New York for the opening at The Quad Cinema this week, and then the film is getting a general release in Mexico next February, and I’m not sure what to expect. Probably I am going to make a few new friends, but I will also lose a few old ones too, I really don’t know. It’s a film that I am proud of and which I needed to make, and am willing to face whatever comes.

  • Mike Nichols, director of The Birdcage dies

    The acclaimed film and theatre director Mike Nichols has died in New York at the age of 83. Nicholls was one of the few people ever to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.

    He won his Oscar back in 1967 for his groundbreaking film The Graduate and went on to be nominated for another 4 Oscars after that. Nichols’s stunning TV miniseries of Tony Kushner’s political epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-eighties Angels In America earned him a Best Director Emmy, one of 9 that the series was awarded.

    Much loved by the gay community… he did, after all, start his film career directing the magnificent Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe? he will always be remembered by us for his hilarious and joyous camp movie The Birdcage with its glorious performances by Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

    Meryl Streep who worked with Nichols on “Silkwood,” “Heartburn” and as well as “Angels in America.” Said today: ‘He was an inspiration and joy to know, a director who cried when he laughed, a friend without whom, well, we can’t imagine our world, an indelible irreplaceable man.’

  • FILM REVIEW | Hockney : A Wonderful Gush-Free Tribute

    ★★★★ | Hockney : A Wonderful Gush-Free Tribute

    David Hockney, O.M. C.H. R.A. is possibly the greatest living English artist and is considered a ‘national treasure’.

    A painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer he has been a major presence on the art scene since he first caught the public’s eye when taking part of Young Contemporaries Exhibition at the Royal College of Art in 1962 (who subsequently initially refused to let him graduate). His move from his dull northern hometown of Bradford to the bright sunshine of L.A. just two years later was a major turning point and where this quiet Englishman found happiness and his metier. It was also where he found the first of many bottles of peroxide for his hair.

    Hockney’s life has been examined many times previously but this new documentary by filmmaker Randall Wright, whose previous subjects have included Lucien Freud and the ubiquitous Sister Wendy, is probably by far the most definitive. Helped by the fact that Hockney gave him unfettered access to his vast personal treasure trove of archives which included some great footage of home videos and a seemingly less collection of photographs, it gives such a full picture of the great man and his life.

    The charismatic Hockney made great friends of other famous artists on so many levels and those still living gave a fascinating insight into their friend and peer. Particularly touching was an interview with Don Bacardy who spoke of the time that a very young Hockney turned up on his doorstep of the Hollywood home that he shared with his lover Christopher Isherwood. Hockney had been openly gay since his Royal College days even though homosexuality was still illegal in the UK, but this was the first time he had met a partnered couple and it was quite a shock for him.

    Hockney’s sexuality was an important element of both his life and his work as the public first discovered with his acclaimed ‘Bigger Splash’ series of pictures that featured his young naked lover Peter Schlesinger that started making waves in and out of his pool. An obviously highly emotional man, a fact that is nowhere more apparent than his moving account of the impact of AIDS in the ’80s which so decimated his circle of friends and acquaintances.

    Wright expertly weaves his film back and forth from Hockney’s childhood in a post-war Britain still rationing its food, to his current sojourn in his beloved Santa Monica home where at the age of 77 although painfully deaf, he is still working on new pieces of art. The ‘journey’ in between shows a man obsessed with his art and bent on continually exploring new techniques and ideas that are very uniquely his own. His famous ‘polaroid’ pictures of the ’80’s have progressed into a whole new wave of art he now makes on his iPad.

    It is undoubtedly a wonderful gush-free tribute to this iconic artist and quintessential Englishman who up to a couple of years ago was still living part of his year in the bracing seaside town of Bridlington. What it lacks, however, is any mention of Hockney’s personal life after his tempestuous relationship with Schlesinger decades ago. All mention of Hockney’s later relationships, including one with John Fitzherbert that lasted over two decades, were completely omitted which seems odd given the importance that Hockney places on his close friendships.

    (*C.H. = Companion of Honour, and O.M. = Order of Merit both extremely high honours that are awarded by The Queen)

  • When Being Is Just Not Enough, I Mean What Is A Sapiosexual?

    Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, there wasn’t even an option for being gay on dating websites used mainly by straight people, but now OKCupid has begun offering select users twelve options to describe their sexual orientation.

    What’s even more generous of them is that you don’t have to stick with just one, as they allow you to select “up to five” of those twelve to describe themselves. Some bright spark has worked out that’s a possible 1,585 different combinations.

    Here are the twelve choices:

    1. Demisexual: no sexual attraction toward any person unless they become deeply emotionally or romantically connected to someone
    2. Asexual: does not experience sexual attraction
    3. Straight: attracted to opposite sex
    4. Gay: male attracted to other males
    5. Bisexual: attracted to both sexes
    6. Lesbian: female attracted to other females
    7. Questioning: not sure of sexual orientation
    8. Heteroflexible: mostly heterosexual, with minimal homosexual activity
    9. Homoflexible: mostly homosexual, with minimal heterosexual activity
    10. Queer: someone who does not conform to traditional sex or gender norms
    11. Pansexual: sexual or emotional attraction, desire, or romantic love toward people of any sex or gender identity
    12. Sapiosexual: sexual attraction based primarily on intelligence

    When you have finally decided who you are, then you can pick a gender identity that best describes you too.

    It’s great that such organisations and corporations are now starting to recognise that we are all different.

    We have just one tiny reservation, and that is now incorporating them all as part of the LGBTQI community may make our collective title one very big mouthful.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • INTERVIEW: Daniel Ribeiro: On The Way He Looks

    In 2011 a newbie 29 year-old Brazilian filmmaker Daniel Ribeiro showed his 3rd ever film ‘I Don’t Want To Go Back Alone’ at a Film Festival in Cardiff and won THE IRIS PRIZE, the most prestigious award in the world for a LGBT short film.

    (more…)

  • FILM REVIEW | Life Itself, Totally Unmissable

    ★★★★★ There are very rare occasions when the somewhat jaded and skeptical Press and Movie Industry audience at the Sundance Film Festival are ever moved to tears.

    (more…)

  • FILM REVIEW | Campaign Of Hate: Russia And Gay Propaganda

    ★★★★ | Campaign Of Hate: Russia And Gay Propaganda

    Uber gay porn king Michael Lucas has kept his clothes on in front of the camera for a second time with his new documentary about the plight of gay men and women in Russia. It is a vast improvement on his first attempt at getting serious with his ‘Undressing Israel’ movie where life for the stream of hot gay hunks he interviewed couldn’t have been any rosier. Here Russian-born Lucas (born Andrei Lvovich Treivas) was back in Moscow his birth city to discuss that being a homosexual during Putin’s regime can be a serious danger to your health.

    It’s hard to get past a culture where the first time young gay kids learn anything about their sexuality is when they open their Soviet Encyclopedia and turn to the letter H. There for homosexuality they read just three facts. 1: it’s a sickness, and 2: a harmful influence of the West, and 3: it;s a crime for which you can go to prison for. And it doesn’t get much better for when the boy turns into a young man he will not just be mocked and humiliated by society but gay bashed several times and quite severely.

    The personal accounts of the gay Russians trying to lead normal lives, albeit almost all of them in the closet, were grim and depressing. Given the fact that they have to deal with so much sheer undisguised hatred every working day, it is no wonder that all of them without exception would choose to leave and move anywhere else in the world to live if they could.

    One of the commentators that Lucas interviewed made several good observations about in this present tough economic climate in Russia, Putin needs to distract people’s attention from his main problems and focus them on other media grabbing agendas. The harassment of gay people is one such target especially as they are considered a soft option and will not fight back. It has eerie overtones of the old Bush campaign that stirred up the US conservative wing about gay marriage in such a way that they would be sure to turn out to vote on Polling Day and at the same time re-elect him. Coincidentally our economy was in ruins then, but somehow that was hidden from us at the time.

    The rhetoric spouting by one of the vehemently anti-gay legislators as he justified his unequivocal hatred of the LGBT community was barbaric and heinous and he refused to accept either reason or factual information. When Lucas informed him that there was data that showed that the largest single group of people who committed suicide in Russia where young gay teenagers, I thought the man would explode with rage.

    Some of the gay and lesbians that Lucas interviewed tried to put a brave spin on the situation saying that things were definitely improving and that LGBT was now becoming accepted as part of the general protest. The majority of the others, however, thought it was just getting worse.

    Lucas’s interesting film probably didn’t say anything new, and it avoided drawing its own conclusion as to what lie ahead for the gay community there. It does however quite rightly serve as a wake-up call for those of us that live in the relative freedom of the West, lest we should ever think that gay rights are the rights for everyone.

  • FILM REVIEW | In Their Room: London / Berlin / San Francisco

    US Filmmaker Travis Mathews is a professional voyeur.

    His documentary movies all focus on gay men and their intimacy and are very raw and explicit. His most successful project to date is ‘Interior Leather Bar’ where he, and a somewhat obsessed James Franco, pieced together what they thought maybe the content of the chunk of William Friedkin’s 1980 gay classic ‘Cruising’ that the Censors insisted on being deleted. Before this however, Mathews embarked on series of videos, that have now been released under the banner of ‘In Their Room’.

    The first ‘episode’, a 20 minute short, was filmed in Mathews hometown of San Francisco where armed with just a simple video camera he visits 8 men alone in their bedrooms. Some are clothed, some naked, some are silent or reticent to share, whilst others are happy to expose every intimate detail of their thoughts about love and sex. Although it is always mainly the latter.
    The second film, shot in 2011, continues to voyeuristically document what goes on in the minds and bedrooms of urban gays. Now in Berlin, Mathews lingers on the tension and circular nature between intimacy and loneliness by documenting a handful of gay men as they troll the web looking for hook-ups or love. It is the only film in which he actually features a coupled pair, and is probably the most explicit of the three films.

    The third and final film made last year focuses on 8 gay men in London. I’m not sure if it was deliberate on Mathew’s part, but the bed-sitting rooms of his subjects this time around look decidedly squalid. Again he manages to draw out the men’s most private thoughts and aspirations as they talk aimlessly as he films them doing the banalest daily tasks. It is also the one episode when the vulnerability and loneliness of urban gay men really starts to seep through.

    The work is an interesting experiment, which although shares nothing new with us, at least gives us a moment to reflect on parts of our lives that many gay men have difficulty discussing. The series is definitely not for everyone, but at least you don’t have to have a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology (like Mathews has) to appreciate it.

    Out December 2015

  • FILM REVIEW | Human Capital, Morals May Be Loose But The Pace Is Fast

    On a snowy wintry night in a small town in the suburbs of Milan, after he has worked at an Awards Evening for the local school, a waiter jumps on his bike to make his way home. However before he can get there, he is run over by a hit-and-run driver who leaves him at the side of the road to die. This tragedy affects many more people than the ones involved in the accident, and this complicated multi-layered drama is the tale of a number of people from all walks of life who end up embroiled. ★★★★

    Director/screenwriter Paolo Virzì tells this story in three chapters through different sets of eyes, and each re-telling of the same events has its own particular focus.

    The first one is ‘Dino’ and it starts 6 months earlier when Dino is dropping off his teenage daughter Serana at her boyfriend’s family fancy villa. Massimiliano and she go to the same school together even though they come from totally opposite ends of the social scale.

    Massimiliano’s father Giovanni runs a major international hedge-fund, and Dino a small-time real estate broker is desperate to be allowed to invest in the fund. As it happens that particular day Giovanni is short of a tennis partner and so the anxious-to-please Dino wangles his way on the court and into the Fund. He mortgages his business and house to find the necessary minimum €500,000 investment without telling his new second wife who is expecting a child. You know its not going to end up well for him even then.

    The second chapter is named ‘Carla’ after Giovanni’s insecure socialite wife who is bored to tears as she is always left to her own devices by her neglectful wheeler-dealer husband. An ex-amateur actress, Carla persuades an indulgent Giovanni to save the local dilapidated theatre for the sake of the town’s culture, but he does it to make a quick buck on the property. She at least gets to have a one night stand with the theatre director as a way of compensation.

    The final chapter is the one on ‘Serena’ who has been keeping dumb to the police on who actually drove Massimilani’s car the night it hit the driver. This is where all the loose ends of the story get tied together and as the Fund fails both Dino and Giovanni’s wives act like they are both completely in shock at discovering their husband’s greed. Dino had believed the myth that easy money was just that, and it would bring him happiness too, whilst Giovanni used it as a tool simply to buy anything and anybody he wanted, including his son’s freedom.

    This very Italian tale was surprisingly adapted from an American best-selling novel in which the action had been set in Connecticut. Avarice is avarice wherever it is. Although the emphasis was on the menfolk, in this movie, it was the three women’s performances that were the attention grabbers: newbie Serena Ossola in her first screen role as Serena, Valeria Golino in the small but vital part of Roberta, Dino’s wife, and the stunning Valeria Bruni Tedeschi who picked up the Best Actress Award at Tribeca Film Festival for her excellent portrayal of the neurotic Carla.

    The morals may be loose but the pace is fast and consuming in this look at capitalism in crisis. It’s a sorry tale, but one that is told very well.

    Available From Amazon