I simply can not view a lot of films and socialize much at big festivals, but once in a while, I feel the urge and accept the best offer, if there is an offer to accept. I didn’t make the cut for last night’s IFC dinner, so I halfheartedly agreed to attend a more casual affair organized by a prominent sales agent for about 10 people—all male. There were trade journalists, filmmakers, and publicists at the table in a restaurant that was selected not for its considerable ambience and delicious cuisine but for its proximity to a club on Yonge Street called Remington’s (with the sub-title “Men of Steel”).

After eating we walked there and entered a den of men, most of whom were ogling the muscular go-go boys (most, I’m told, are straight) who dance on a little stage and strip down to their birthday suits. For $20 Canadian one could purchase a lap dance in an upstairs booth. The exchange rate being what it is, I did not even think to experiment—who sits on top of whom?—but I have the feeling that I will remember the evening for much longer than I would recall another distributor’s dinner. At least I have grist for the New York cocktail (no pun intended) party mill.

On the subject of same-sex interface (again, and I mean it, no pun is intended, really), I had looked forward to Parvez Sharma's long-in-the-works study of homosexuality in the Muslim world, A Jihad for Love. This is a daring, groundbreaking venture, since the subject is taboo in most Muslim societies. Essentially the film is a chronology of stories of gay men and lesbians, loosely divided between those who deal with their sexuality in the home country and those who, for reasons of safety or ease of lifestyle, have become part of a gay/lesbian diaspora.

The most probing subject is the South African imam Muhsin Hendricks, an intellectual who relates his development as a devout Muslim and as a gay man. Most of the other stories, however, do not go very deep, and in some cases border on exoticizing the cultures. Probably the biggest problem is the pedestrian nature of the filmmaking itself. To be brutally honest, it looks like a school project, with a few pretty exteriors tossed in.

More successful in the exploration of alternative sexuality is Argentinian director Lucia Puenzo’s XXY [pictured above], a fiction in which an intersexed (formerly known as a hermaphrodite) 15-year-old who has been programmed to identify as female finds maleness creeping into her persona and desire. A fine young actress named Ines Efron plays Alex, an only child whose parents have moved from Buenos Aires to the Uruguayan coast to avoid the stigma of difference. They do not really understand Alex’s needs; neither does a couple they invite to visit with their teenaged son (the man is a plastic surgeon who has operated on intersexed people before).

When Alex plants her flag in the willing boy’s backside, we begin to understand her dominant proclivity—though she is in some ways comfortable having the organs of both sexes. Puenzo films neatly, without fuss, letting the camera follow the characters. XXY is timely, and it’s lovely to see a cinematic plea for tolerance that is cinematically competent.

Tonight Fox Searchlight is throwing a bash, but I am going to be a good soldier and meander over to the Varsity to catch a late movie. I hope you don’t think I was considering a return to Remington’s. After all, I was dragged there.

# posted by Howard Feinstein @ 9/08/2007 09:06:00 PM

Comments (4)

 
I could not disagree more about "A Jihad for Love." The film was beautifully shot, and all the stories were intensely moving. To say that the subjects were exoticised, when the director is an Indian Muslim himself, is disappointingly ignorant. And how irresponsible to say this film looked like a school project!
# posted by  Anonymous @ 9/11/2007 11:42 AM  

 
The reviewer is right...the film is very raggedly made. Its a good subject, with much potential, but the film ultimately does not offer a precise, potent counter argument to the Orthodox views expressed. I'd refer the filmmakers to THE BIBLE TELLS THEM SO, a recent film which eviscerates Christian conservative arguments against homosexuality. This was a sloppy, missed opportunity to be a truly effective political film.
# posted by  Anonymous @ 9/13/2007 1:00 AM  

 
Clearly the reviewer and this commentator have no knowldege of the cinematic form. We saw 'For the Bible Tells me So'-an incoherent mess of talking heads. And ofcourse the reviewer and this commentator carry the prejudice of ignorant, ill-informed Westerners not used to seeing an honest, anguished and compelling depiction of Islam in this beautifully made film that will be a source of much debate in the years to come. We were happy to be a part of the standing ovation the film received this week.
# posted by  Anonymous @ 9/13/2007 4:26 PM  

 
Oh, now it's also "raggedly made," "sloppy" and a "missed opportunity"? What a crock. What's your agenda here?

I thought the film was excellent and visually stunning, and the audience at the screening I attended shared my enthusiasm. What kind of high-school level logic are you operating on that dictates that there must be a tidy argument/counter-argument structure for a film? The entire point of the film, which obviously went over Howard Feinstein's and the second reviewer's heads, is that there IS no "precise" easy answer for all the subjects in the film. There IS no easy defense. The characters are struggling (thus the "jihad" of the title) to reconcile their faith with their sexuality. If you came to this film looking for some obvious, political diatribe that clearly lays out "right" vs. "wrong," I'm sure the subtlety of the film was a disappointment.
# posted by  J. Richmond @ 9/19/2007 12:25 PM  

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