My Night @ the Gay Cinema

No Disclaimers.

To say the films I saw at Seattle’s Gay and Lesbian Film Fest were excellent would be an overstatement. Granted I enjoyed both and the first welled my eyes with tears, I still thought that they lacked key elements. What exactly I may or may not be able to precisely pinpoint, but if you’ve had the chance to watch either you should let me know what you think.

On my way to “Invisible Men” (the first movie I was privileged to see for free) I was greeted outside the theater by protesters fabulously dressed in all pink. They handed me a flier explaining Pink Washing. Basically, in 2005 the Israeli state launched a multi-million dollar Public Relations campaign called “Brand Israel” to distract from their decreasing popularity. As a way to divert public attention from violent checkpoints, discrimination and imperialism, Brand Israel spends loads of cash to front as a Middle Eastern leader for sustainable energy, Jews and LGBT equality. Pink Washing is the term coined for exploitation of the LGBT struggle to cover up the realities of Israel’s occupation. Brand Israel has spent ninety million dollars trying to make Tel Aviv an international gay vacation destination, financed pro-israel movie screenings at Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals and even produced gay pornos that show off the ancient towns of the area.

“Invisible Men” followed the stories of three gay Palestinians living in Tel Aviv without documentation. Looking to escape the constant fear of deportation, the men were seeking asylum in European countries. The first protagonist had been kicked out of his home on West Gaza strip and his family had vowed to kill him, the second was in a similar situation. In the film, Palestinian culture was described as dangerously homophobic. While there is truth in that, the film neglected to mention the rise of the Palestinian LGBT rights movement. It should also be mentioned that it is difficult to progress as a culture when one faces such a violent occupation. Refreshingly, we saw the third protagonist speak with his mother on the phone who was supportive. I wish that that relationship would have been further developed in the film. To that end, while the story was well shot and conveyed, I felt like it only dwelled on the surface of the issues and stories presented.

So were the men granted asylum? Did they escape a generally homophobic culture and oppressive occupying state? As I’m not a fan of spoilers you will have to see the film to find out. I would definitely recommend this film to anyone interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the intersections of immigration and sexuality.

After the film I stuck around just briefly for the talk with the director who grew up in Israel, I had to leave early to meet up with a friend. From what I did see, he was very defensive when answering questions. One woman said that she’d visited one of the cities in the film and found bars that gay Palestinians would frequent. This was contrary to what the film had portrayed and the director only negated her. I found out later that one of my co-workers was one of the people flyering outside of the theater and that he tried to start a dialogue with the director after the Q&A. He reported that the director was dismissive and wouldn’t even respond to my friend until he spoke in Hebrew. Based on the director’s behavior, the film’s one-sided portrayal of Palestinian culture and its glossing over of the realities of Israeli occupation I would not be surprised if this project was funded by Brand Israel.

After I left I caught up with my friend, Madeline, at a local coffee shop, we wrote for a short while and I invited her to see another movie with me (which she did). It was called “Strange Frame: Love and Sax” a futuristic animated lesbian love story set on one of Jupiter’s moons. I chose this film to inspire more fairy tales to bring to My LGBT Plus.

There were musical breakdowns, inventive creatures, cloning, murmurs of revolution, the whole nine yards! Two women aspire to make it as musicians, but fame tears them apart and they have to struggle to find each other again. Visually the film was a treat, there was one incredible sequence where what appeared at first as a usual ‘shot’ revealed itself as a reflection on the back of our main characters eyes as the ‘camera’ zoomed out of her pupils. The characters were a bit underdeveloped and the plot was boring at times. That paired with some technical difficulties prompted Madeline to exit the film early. I stayed until the end and was glad that I did, the story which seemed predictable at first brought in some unexpected developments. This is definitely a film for any queer lovers of sci-fi.

I met up with Madeline at a bar down the street from the theater afterwards, grateful for My LGBT Plus for providing me with the opportunity to experience part of Seattle’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival! Like I said if you had the chance to view either of these works don’t hesitate to comment and share your thoughts.