Brother to Brother
Rodney Evans, USA, 2004, Video, 90 min.
Coming of age as gay and African-American in contemporary New York, young painter and college student Perry Williams (8 Mile ’s Anthony Mackie) feels rejection from all corners of his stress-filled life. For one thing, his homophobic father has disowned him, not even allowing him back in the house to retrieve some textbooks from his old bedroom. For another, he finds little support in his college race-relations class, where he is verbally attacked by other black students whenever he dares to raise queer issues during the discussion. Even a once-promising romance with a sexy white freshman (Alex Burns) has quickly become fraught with racial and sexual tension.
Caught in an all-too-pervasive double bind as a homosexual from a racial minority, alienated from two different groups, Perry seems destined for loneliness, cynicism, maybe even bitterness. But then he meets Bruce Nugent, the legendary black and gay poet of the Harlem Renaissance of the late-1920s, who is, miraculously enough, still alive and well and living in the homeless shelter where Perry works.
Thus begins Rodney Evans’ Brother to Brother, perhaps the most impressive feature debut of the year. Covering some of the same ground as Isaac Julien’s short 1989 film on the Harlem Renaissance, Looking for Langston , it shares with that film a concern for history, identity, and the imaginative strategies that bring the two together. But whereas Julien’s avant-garde film offers dreamy meta-poetry and formal experimentation, Evans triumphs with a novelistic sense of character, narrative, and social scope in a film that feels far more audience-friendly and contemporary .
As the young Perry forms a friendship with the wise and witty Nugent (played, in an award-winning performance, by stage veteran Roger Robinson), the old sage recounts stories from his past – rendered in beautifully shot black-and-white flashbacks – involving his work and friendships with legendary figures including Langston Hughes (Daniel Sunjata), Zora Neale Hurston (Aunjanue Ellis), and Wallace Thurman (Ray Ford). As we witness the excitement of the times through the eyes of the young Bruce (played, in an especially winsome performance, by Duane Boutte), Evans manages to convey the era’s excitement and nearly utopian sense of promise, without ever relying on sentimental nostalgia or dishonest forms of myth-making.
Learning to embrace and take sustenance from a cultural past still absent from America’s “official history,” Perry gathers the strength to confront the world on his own terms, proud not just of his race and his sexuality but of the two fused into a harmonious whole. For his part, the fictionalized Nugent (who, in reality, died in 1987) finds himself vividly reconnecting to his own youth through the yearnings, ambition, and still-unvanquished idealism of his newfound friend. While the film wisely avoids an unlikely romance between Bruce and Perry, the deep friendship that develops between the two surprisingly similar artists from very different periods seems more quietly profound than any traditional love story.
Effortlessly exploring a catalog of themes that films twice its length often can’t handle, Brother to Brother is nothing less than a landmark of the American Independent Cinema.
Awards:
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: Sundance Film Festival
GRAND JURY PRIZE: Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
VANGUARD AWARD: New York LGBT Film Festival
AUDIENCE AWARD: San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
GRAND JURY PRIZE: Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
BEST FICTION FEATURE: Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

Tying the Knot
Jim de Sève, USA, 2004, Video, 80 min.
It’s a hot news item which only continues to get hotter: gay marriage! Basic civil right or the end of western civilization? Fundamental necessity for gay and lesbian couples, offering over 1,000 federal protections, or George W.’s worst nightmare? With The Netherlands, Belgium, close-to-home Canada, and now Massachusetts legalizing gay marriage, as well as technically illegal gay marriages taking place from San Francisco to New Paltz, the fight has become the fiercest civil rights battle around.
This fascinating documentary tackles the complex issue from a myriad of angles. Beginning with rare footage of a Gay Activists Alliance protest in 1971, Tying the Knot shows that the roots of the current struggle go back to the early days of modern gay rights, stemming directly from the black civil rights and feminist movements.
The film provides the issue with an even larger context: historians elaborate the changing face of marriage over the centuries, debunking the right-wing myth that marriage maintains a constant definition. An economic arrangement in feudal times, marriage developed romantic connotations only with the rise of the Industrial Revolution. Current beliefs about the legality of divorce, of equality between male and female partners, and of interracial marriage are all recent societal inventions.
Tying the Knot also keeps reminding us of the key importance of this legal and cultural battle: that the political is ultimately personal. One story focuses on Mickie Mashburn and Lois Marrero, both members of the Tampa police force. After Lois’ death in the line of duty, Mickie pursues surviving- spouse benefits, fighting an uphill battle but vowing, “We’re going to the end, regardless.”
Another main thread follows Sam, who, after his partner Earl dies, is left with the Oklahoma farm they built together. But Earl’s cousins manage to successfully contest his will, leaving Sam with the prospect of no home or income. In Sam’s words, “this mess of grave robbers” is out to take everything away from him. Appallingly, he doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on.
From American gays with foreign partners at risk of deportation, to queer people who lost their spouses on 9/11, to thousands of couples pursuing marriage licenses at city hall offices across the United States, Tying the Knot shows the vast implications of this battle. At times heartbreaking, but also deeply heartwarming, this crucial film surveys “the flood that’s happening all across the country.” Please join us for this timely documentary about a phenomenon that’s sweeping the nation, and touching the lives of gay people from sea to shining sea. ~ J. O’Neill
Awards:
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Tribeca International Film Festival
JURY PRIZE, EXCELLENT DOCUMENTARY: San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

Eating Out
Q. Allan Brocka, USA, 2004, Video, 90 min.
Renowned for his popular animated short film series (Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, previously screened by ImageOut), director Q. Allan Brocka shines in his first feature production, delivering a witty, campy, and emotionally charged romantic comedy that heats up the screen with intense passion and sexuality.
Eating Out centers on Kyle (American Idol finalist Jim Verraros), an adorable, sexy, and yet very well-grounded young man lost in a circuit of muscle boys and dancing queens. His hunky and supposedly straight roommate Caleb has been having his own relationship problems that have left him high and dry.
Enter Gwen, a vivacious, aggressive blonde who Caleb considers the perfect catch. Unfortunately Gwen has a propensity to fall for gay men and doesn’t particularly trust any man who would want her (or any woman) for a lover. And so the charade begins. Kyle convinces Caleb to masquerade as gay in order to capture Gwen’s attention. Caleb is so immediately convincing, however, that Gwen decides to fix him up with her gay best friend Marc, a popular, hot, super-stud who just happens to be the object of Kyle’s affection. Add a crazed girlfriend from the past and a wild night out, and you have a rollercoaster ride of mismatched sexual identities, including a steamy ménage a trois that redefines the lines between straight and gay. Will Caleb get closer to Gwen through Marc? Will Kyle get closer to Marc through Caleb? How far will the straight guy go to maintain his gay “identity”?
With delicious dialogue and plenty of eye candy, Eating Out is a feast of comic confusion, offering a full course of heat and sexual melée to whet any appetite. – KJ Indovino
Awards:
BEST FILM: Phoenix International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
BEST LGBT FILM: Breckenridge Film Festival
JURY PRIZE: Levi's First Feature Award, San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
EMERGING FILM AWARD: Best Male Feature, North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
GRAND JURY PRIZE: Best Feature, Rhode Island International Film Festival

Farm Family: In Search of Gay Life in Rural America
Tom Murray, USA, 2004, Video, 74 min.
Tom Murray was raised on a dairy farm in northern Illinois in the 1950s. As soon as he could, he headed to the city to discover and explore his life as a gay man. However, he could never fully escape his rural roots. The result of that formative youth is Farm Family, a look at gay rural America and one of the most enjoyable documentaries of 2004.
Among the many fascinating individuals featured in this documentary are Jeff Hayes, a fourth generation Wisconsin dairy farmer, and his gay farm hand, Clint Walker. They don’t feel part of the gay culture seen on television or in the movies, but they lead rich lives as openly gay members of their community. Kevin and Bob Gross, on the other hand, moved into rural America to begin a family. With their five adopted children, several with special needs who were supposedly “unadoptable,” they are busy and content.
The film also explores the gay rodeo scene in the upper Midwest as well as the United Gays and Lesbians of Wyoming annual Pride event, where four hundred men and women from the far corners of our least populous state gather to renew old friendships and forge new ones.
Finally, Murray tells the story of Christian and Johannes Zinzendorf, who run the Hermitage, a community modeled after the early Moravians of eastern Pennsylvania. They discuss their conflict with area residents who tried to drive them out using legal (if unethical) means, as well as relentless harassment.
This eye-opening film is filled with admirable characters who have successfully bridged their country life and their gay life. You won’t soon forget this inspirational and engaging film. – Chuck Lundeen
Awards:
BEST FULL-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY: Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

Round Trip (Al Ha' Kav)
Shahar Rozen
(Israel, video, 95 min., Hebrew with English subtitles)

Nurit, a working class wife and mother, leaves her husband and takes her two young children with her to Tel Aviv to start afresh. Very soon, however, she finds it difficult to balance her long hours as a bus driver and caring for her kids. Enter Mushidi, a beautiful illegal immigrant from Ghana, who agrees to look after the children in exchange for room and board. Mushidi utterly transforms the lives of Nurit and her children. Though Nurit at first keeps her distance, a warm friendship between the women soon develops into a romance. But when Nurit’s estranged husband discovers their relationship, she is forced to make a difficult decision.

My Mother Likes Women

Ines Paris and Daniela Fejerman, directors; 2002; Spain; 96 minutes; 35mm; (in Spanish with English subtitles)

Three very different sisters have at least one thing in common: they can’t get over the fact that their mother likes women! When Sofía reveals that her post-divorce romance is with another woman, her daughters react with both shock and over-the-top despair. Convinced that Sofía’s girlfriend Eliska is a conniving gold-digger, the sisters set out to expose the fraud and break up the blissful couple. While conservative oldest sister Gimena frets about how her own family will react to the news, and youngest sister Sol performs an explicit rock song about her mother’s new love, it’s middle sister Elvira who’s chosen to carry out their deceptively simple plan: seduce Eliska and prove her unfaithfulness. In carrying out their reckless mission, the trio learns some important lessons and the consequences of meddling in affairs of the heart.
(description courtesy Seattle Lesbian& Gay Film Festival 2004)