Sundance Comes Out: 40 Films with Gay Themes

[OneFinger]

I didn't realize that the Sundance Film Festival had 40 films this year with gay themes. Below are excerpts from an excellent article.

 

After the breakout success of "Brokeback Mountain" and during a Sundance Film Festival packed with films by and about people of various sexual orientations, the gay film community is asking itself whether homosexuality is becoming more mainstream - and whether that's a good thing.

 

Ellen Huang, a former film executive, directs the Queer Lounge, hosting events and filmmakers networking during the festival. Gay and straight celebrities including Nick Nolte, Toni Collette and Anne Heche hung out and attended parties there; for the first time in its three-year history, the lounge is an official Sundance partner.

 

Huang says at least 40 films with gay themes screened in Park City this year; some are overt ("Small Town Gay Bar" is about finding a gay-friendly oasis in Mississippi), while others include prominent, but not primary, gay characters ("Little Miss Sunshine"). Roles are broadening; gay characters are regular people with dilemmas everyone, gay or straight, can relate to.

 

"Quincea era" focuses on a pregnant Latina teen who is rejected by her family and goes to live with relatives, including a gay cousin. The hard-living, tattooed Carlos isn't exactly a stereotypical gay man, Huang said...

 

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site297/2006/0129/ut_gaysundance_0129~2.jpg

Jesse Garcia stars as Carlos in the 2006 Sundance film "Quinceanera."

 

...Huang says "Brokeback Mountain" was "carefully crafted" to be appealing to a wide audience. For one thing, most people involved in it, including the actors and director, are heterosexual. Huang says it's still not acceptable to be an openly gay leading actor in mainstream film. She has heard agents tell their clients not to go to gay bars or otherwise indicate their true leanings.

 

Gay filmmakers aren't going to get a lot of support from studios, which means they struggle to make quality movies. "Hollywood is a strange, strange beast. On the one hand, it has perpetuated bad stereotypes - and now is breaking them. But behind the scenes, there's a lot of homophobia," Huang said.

 

There's also a reluctance on the part of gay filmmakers to make films for general audiences, she said. "We really want these filmmakers to have a broader voice. . . . Gay filmmakers need to get out of the shelter of their community."

 

Read the entire article at:

 

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3449322#

 

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"We need to have more respect for each other. Things have just gone really crazy, out of control. ... We're on a very weird kind of cycle." Stevie Wonder

[trilingual]

Of course it's good if homosexuality becomes more mainstream! It's only when the heterosexual majority finally understands that gays aren't a threat to them or their marriages or their kids, and that being gay is normal, that the prejudice and discrimination will stop. Studies show huge changes in attitudes when a straight person knows somebody gay personally. But there are still many people who don't know (or think they don't know) anyone gay. Films like "Brokeback Mountain" help those people know someone gay, someone who isn't weird or eccentric or far out. Someone with whom they can identify, at least in part. Someone like people they actually DO know. When they realize that gay people aren't space aliens from another planet, their beliefs have to change, if that's what they believed before.

 

It's good to know that there are more films with gay characters/subjects coming, but I think "Brokeback Mountain" is going to mark a major cultural turning point in the U.S., and there will come a time when people think of things in terms of "before" and "after" the film. It's a very powerful film because it speaks truth, in imagery that evokes Americans mythical perceptions of themselves, and it will make people who see it confront their own feelings and prejudices.

 

BTW, the official site for Brokeback Mountain : http://www.brokebackmountainmovie.com has a section where people can post their own stories and let others read about them. I strongly recommend it. The messages come from everywhere, and some of them are heartbreaking in their own right. They're also eye-openers. And that's what this film is all about, opening eyes and hearts to truth, and the consequences of denying truth.