Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

Sunday Morning Cartoon: Tribute to Queer Cartoon Characters...

I may quibble with some of the choices, but this video montage in tribute to the queer characters in kid's TV shows and movies (and I would argue that some are not even for kids, really, but it's too much fun to argue) is just hilarious.

Blogging the NewFest 2009

This year the economy has affected the festival and my attendance. Their funding dropped precipitously so that they couldn’t really keep staff on — the board has stepped up, with board member Lesli Klainberg doing heroic duty as acting executive director. The schedule was shortened because they couldn’t afford to rent the theaters over two weekends. But on the plus side, the festival has moved to the SVA theaters in the heart of Chelsea — avoiding the multiplex crush. Of course, there’s no popcorn, but I always bring my own food anyway.

My own tenuous employ has also meant that as a freelancer, I don’t walk away from work when it comes. So this year, unlike previous years, I haven’t taken the week off to live in the theater. Still, by the time the festival is over, I will have seen 13 of the 20 programs I had scheduled to see. Working late and fatigue kept me from the 7 I wanted to get to, but overall, it’s been a good program so far.

The opening night however, was a major disappointment: Mr. Right, a British soap opera masquerading as a full length feature, was as superficial as it gets. That’s not the usual fare to open the festival, and I was worried.

Next day, I caught City of Borders, a top notch film about which I’ve written extensively in the last couple of days, along with Tongzhi in Love, a run-of-the mill documentary about young gay men in China.

Smile ‘Til It Hurts was a winner. This documentary followed the story of Up With People, a singing group that had its origins in an organization that feels like a precursor to today’s Christian right groups. However, that is an oversimplification. Because Up With People was integrated racially in the 60s, and performed in places where this wasn’t welcome. All the more so because the singers boarded with local families wherever they performed. One of the more compelling stories in the film is the recollection of an African-American woman who faced a shot gun toting man when she was brought home by his wife to board with the family. At the same time of course, racial identity was erased in a kind of homogenization that seemed more appropriate to the 50s than the 60s or 70s.

Then there’s the gay thing. Oh yes, there were lots of gay men in Up With People. After all, you just have to watch all the guys dancing to know. But only one of the alums spoke about it on camera. So the gay content of this film was slight. And in fact, the first question from the audience was not to the director, but a challenge to the festival programmer why the film was chosen for an lgbt festival. His answer was that the sensibility throughout was queer. A poor answer I thought. However, I agree with him that the film belonged in the festival line-up. It has a lot to say about the relationship between religion, politics and business interests — and what that meant for marginalized people in a particular time and place. And it has a lot to say to us today about how business is happy to co-opt and tame an image in order to neutralize its revolutionary power and use it to sell consumerism instead.

This was commented on in last night’s film about Quentin Crisp’s final years, An Englishman in New York. John Hurt reprises his role from The Naked Civil Servant almost 40 years ago, and so we see Hurt as an old actor get to play Crisp in his 70s thru to his death at age 91. And it was a great film. One of the best scenes is towards the end as Cynthia Nixon, in a star turn as downtown performance artist Penny Arcade, takes Crisp on a tour of the new gay world of gym toned, waxed consumerists — gay men who are less interested in being politically correct than in being demographically correct for marketers. Of course, this will get a wider release than most films at the festival, and you should be able to see it somewhere soon. If not, Netflix will get it, and it is very much worth seeing.

Watercolors is worth mentioning for two things: the love scene shot under falling water that was exquisite, and the young Tye Olsen, who was also in a festival film last year, Tru Loved. Like many films about first love, it was over-indulgent and not very insightful. It did have Karen Black and Greg Louganis though. But Tye Olsen should get some more roles — and I hope he manages to break out of being typecast as a fey boy in coming out genre films.

The best film of the festival so far was the Centerpiece film, Rivers Wash Over Me. Directed by John Gilbert Young, whose film Parallel Sons just blew me away at a festival several years ago, Rivers Wash Over Me is an important film about race, class, and sexuality that is gripping. When a gay teenager from New York City has to move to a small Southern town the results are explosive. Written by Young, with Darien Sills-Evans who also appears in the film in a key role, the movie had the sold out crowd deeply moved. First time screen actor Cameron Mitchell Mason had a tough role, and he managed to communicate desire and lust, sadness and vulnerability, self-loathing and hatred all within seconds — he’s a major talent in the making with a strong screen presence. This is all the more amazing because he’s not the hero — he’s one of the bad guys. But one of the strengths of this film is that every character is nuanced with shades of grey. Nothing is black or white.

One of the more interesting issues in the film was the fact that the nominal power structure in the town was black, but seemed to be without real power in certain situations. The sheriff, new to the town and unaware of this situation, pushes up against the real power structure. It raises uncomfortable questions for our own local and national politics.

This was a rich and deep film on many levels. But the story of the young gay man, Sequan, as an outsider just as much because he is intelligent and a reader, is the central story of the film, and I hope this film gets the distribution and wide release it truly deserves.

If you missed it, it will be repeated Thursday night at 5:30. And it’s the star of the festival this year.

Like the narrative film about Quentin Crisp, there was a documentary about restaurateur Florent Morellet, and his eponymous establishment that captured a time in New York City that is gone. Florent, Queen of the Meat Market is about so much more than a restaurant, the film captures the gay community and AIDS activism, the downtown performance art scene (yes, we see the real Penny Arcade in this one), the go-go real estate market and the transformation of the meatpacking district from butcher, prostitutes and back room bars to rich and trendy boutiques. This was a work in progress screening, and I look forward to the final product.

Of course, the shorts programs are always a mixed bag, but I love them more than perhaps any other part of the festival, since most of the shorts will never get distribution. Today, with Logo as a major sponsor of the festival, some of them will turn up as programming on Alien Boot Camp, but I prefer the experience of watching them in a theater with an audience. However, I can’t complain, since these directors get a wider audience through Logo than they would have ever found otherwise. The Comedy and Musical shorts programs were great fun.

Faigele, Feigele, Feygeleh, Shmegeleh - no matter how you spell it, there's a queer film festival coming up at the JCC in NY

NewFest may be ending on Thursday, but next Monday and Tuesday nights, the queer film programs continue with three movies about lgbt life in Israel at the JCC in Manhattan. And all of them deal with the complexities of being queer in a country where religious fanaticism is rising.  This is the 4th year in a row that the JCC has held this short festival during Pride month, and the JCC has become a real resource for the queer community extending beyond just the Jews. Out Professionals has held several events there.

To get tickets

This coming Monday you can see:

Veahavta—And Thou Shalt Love - June 15th, 7pm
Directed by Chaim Elbaum (30 min, Israel, 2008)
Winner of the coveted Wolgin Prize for Best Drama at the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2008. Ohad is a student in a hesder yeshiva who is secretly in love with his best friend. Torn between his homosexuality and his religion, Ohad must struggle between his love for God and his love for Nir.

Zirei Kayitz - Seeds of Summer  - June 15th, 7:30pm
Directed by Hen Lasker - (63 min, Israel, 2007)
Hen Lasker’s feature documentary takes us back to the place where she first fell in love with a woman—the Israeli Defense Forces. Baby-faced teen recruits transform into combat-ready soldiers by day and cry for their parents by night. Lasker takes a close look inside a little seen world, and ends up revealing part of herself.

And on Tuesday...

Jerusalem Is Proud To Present - June 16th, 7pm
Directed by Nitzan Gilady - (80 min, Israel, 2007)
In the summer of 2006, Jerusalem was to host the World Pride events and parade. The planned events stirred turmoil in the politically complex city, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders banding together in an uncompromising battle against what they said would “defile the holy city.” On the other side stood the activists of the Open House, Jerusalem’s LGBTQ community center. Steadfast in the face of anti-gay sentiment, they dealt with threats that extended beyond their right to march.

All this comes at an important time, since the tensions are rising as we approach this year's Pride in Jerusalem. And normally safe Tel Aviv is less so, with the report that  31 year old openly gay actor & singer Yehonathan, was mugged and robbed during the weekends pride events in Tel Aviv.

Encore Performance at NewFest: City of Borders, an important film about so much more than simply being queer in Jersusalem

The first in two posts: today NewFest, tomorrow The Feigele Film Festival at the JCC.

The next 7 days in New York City is a great time to see films about what it means to be queer in Israel today — from the point of view of queer Jews across the religious and political spectrum, from secular Zionists to the orthodox, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And the distance between those two cities can seem like the distance between the 21st Century and the Iron Age. 

First, there will be an encore screening of City of Borders at NewFest, the annual lgbt film festival, tomorrow night, Wednesday, June 10th at 6pm. It’s an amazing film that chronicles the story of Jerusalem’s only gay bar, through the eyes of its courageous owner (who also became a member of the city council) and its patrons — including a Palestinian man who would have to sneak into Israel to feel safe about being openly queer, and a young man from a settlement community who was one of the people stabbed by a crazed Haredi at the Pride parade in 2006. There is also a cross-national lesbian couple, Israeli and Palestinian, negotiating the rocky shoals of relationship with the added burden of war and oppression. This film asks all the right questions and shows Israeli society with all its beauty and ugliness, with its commitment to equality for all and the discrimination and danger faced by Muslim Israelis  by Queer Israelis. This is a fully nuanced view of the multi-faceted reality free of the sloganeering of the knee-jerk crowds on all sides of the issues. And as such, is a film that is important for everyone to see.

It’s all the more interesting to see in the context of the news. The Jerusalem Post reports that international Israel advocacy organization Stand With Us has invited prominent gay opinion-shapers from around the world to Tel Aviv for the Pride celebrations, to show the progressive face of the country and a view that shifts the focus away from the conflict between peoples.

This is clearly a concerted PR effort that has the government behind it, even as the city government in Jerusalem prepares for violence by the Haredi against the upcoming Pride march in that city two weeks from now. Certainly in the face of protests by gay groups in Toronto and elsewhere against Israeli policies towards the Palestinians this is meant to mark the difference between the two societies in treatment of sexual minorities, and to say to these protesters, pardon my French, “what the fuck?”

Of course, you can’t make grey white by comparing it to black. And let’s be clear, while it is certainly true that I’d rather be queer in Israel than in Cairo or Damascus or Ramallah, I sure wouldn’t want to be Palestinian in Tel Aviv.

What’s more I feel used. Not like a politically active gay man wouldn’t feel used in the US today (are you listening Barack? I think not). But last year, when there was a pro-Israel demonstration outside the United Nations against Iran's president Ahmadinejad, I was asked by a Jewish organization called The Council of Presidents to help out by writing a print ad to help draw crowds to the demo by appealing to people concerned about human rights. My copy made it clear that many people were oppressed in today’s Iran, from religious minorities to women to gay men. At first they were happy. But of course, when push came to shove, queer folk got shoved. They didn’t really care about human rights — it was about Israel, pure and simple. And while I support Israel, I am not interested in being used by the Jews in this way.

Yes, my marriage (if I were married) would be recognized in Israel. And I would be killed in Egypt. Makes being an Israel supporter feel like being a Democrat in the US, huh?

Celebrating Pride, Jewish Style

It’s Pride Month, and for Jews around the country — and around the world, it’s the time of year that has become traditional over the last couple of decades to celebrate a Pride Seder or a special Pride Shabbat.

This weekend in New York City there are a number of Queer Jewish Pride events. At Congregation Rodeph Shalom on the Upper West Side there is a dinner following Friday night services with Judy Gold as the Guest of Honor, you can register on the JCC site, or at this date best to call 646-505-5708.

At the Village Temple, the Pride Shabbat d’var will be given by Gabriel Blau on this weeks Torah reading, and titled "Building Open Tents, The Jewish Journey and Civil Rights."  I’d like to be at both of these events, but this weekend I’ll be at NewFest, where I’ve marked out about 22 films I want to see — which means I will probably see about 15.

Meanwhile, the Temple for Universal Judaism is screening the film Hineini, a documentary about a young woman coming out in a Jewish high school, following services.

New Jersey won’t be left out — after all, they’re ahead of New York state in partnership rights for same-gender couples. And at B’nai Keshet, a Reconstructionist congregation, there will be a Pride Seder tied to the cause of marriage equality (which was the focus of the last seder at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun). And speaking of marriage equality, there is a great posting on the Jewish case for marriage equality from Australia (where pride seders have been celebrated as well).

Next weekend, down in Miami, at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, there will be a Pride Seder. I am always thrilled when I read about Pride Seders, since we started doing them at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in 1995, based on the liturgy developed by the Queer Minyan in Berkeley. We expanded the text and added a number of rituals, calling it the Stonewall Seder.  And over the years, as the text was picked up at other synagogues with additions and edits, we revised our text to reflect what we liked that we saw elsewhere. I wish there were one place where all the texts were collected so that someone could study the evolution of this new tradition.

Also next weekend in Boston, what is perhaps the oldest Pride Seder in the country will be held at Temple Sinai, and is sponsored by Congregation Am Tikva, CJP GLBT Team, Keshet, Ohel Tzedek of Temple Israel, and the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality.

The text of the Stonewall Seder (which can be downloaded here) was particularly influenced by revisions made by Andrew Ramer and Joss Eldridge at Congregation Sha’ar ZaHav, which this year will be holding their seder on Saturday, June 20, 2009, 6:00 pm. And for those of you who can’t go to a seder, you can see clips from the last Stonewall Seder at B’nai Jeshurun on YouTube, with the complete speech given by the guest of honor, Lisa Kron, and selection from the readings over the course of the night. My favorites include readings about the objects on the seder plate and a very different set of four questions:

And speaking of video clips, also at the JCC in NYC later this month is the Feigele Film Festival, with some great movies about queer life in Israel, including Veahavta—And Thou Shalt Love, Winner of the coveted Wolgin Prize for Best Drama at the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2008 and also inlcuding a documentary about pride celebrations in Jerusalem and how finally all religions of the middle east finally united — around a message of intolerance.

However you celebrate Pride Month — as  Jew, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Jain…may it reflect the deep love that our expression of love in the world stands for.

Gay Sexual Politics and Film in China: Spring Fever opens at Cannes

The last time Chinese film director Lou Ye made a movie, the Chinese communist dictatorship banned him from making films for five years. What was the last film about that got their knickers in a twist? Well, of course, it was about the Tiananmen Square protests and the deadly crackdown by cowardly party bosses. Do I have an opinion here? I hate the bastards. Well, clearly Lou Ye is not afraid of what will happen next, since his new film, Spring Fever" was shot covertly with hand held cameras. Yes, he's still under tha ban. So what was the subject matter of the new film?  Relationships between gay men in Nanjing and the gay underground life there. You can see an interview with this courageous director here. I don't know what, if any, political subtext there may be to this film, which can't be shown in China until at least 2011 because of the ban. But if it is anything like the groundbreaking East Palace, West Palace, Chinese cinema has a sophistication and depth in its exploration of where the personal and political meet for all people even as it shows gay lives. In fact, EPWP was so smart it got past the censors because they didn't understand it.

Eat, Drink, Man, Man, Man, Man: Gay Film in Korea

Okay, so when King and Clown came out a few years back it was impressive, and totally shocking given that any lgbt film coming out of Korea was rare. And it was a terrific film - a historical romantic tragedy that felt as real as it gets. So now there's a new film based on a Japanese Yaoi comic book, which is generally as unreal as it gets, and it looks like great fun:

Sunday Morning Cartoon: Is It A Choice?

Sunday Morning Cartoon: הזדמנויות

Queer Jewish Animation! From Israel. With a dismemberment that is re-membered by birds, this little stop action cartoon has an almost mythic feeling to it. If anyone can tell me what the song in Hebrew means, I'd be grateful, since all my Hebrew is ancient and liturgical.

Sunday Morning Cartoon: Cucumber Chronicles

I remember seeing this a few years back in the shorts program at the New Festival. It made me laugh then, and it makes me laugh now, though perhaps with more rueful awareness and compassion for all the ways we try to connect...