The BEST of Lifelube - "Whole Milk - Never Blend In" From Friday, November 14, 2008

Whole Milk - Never Blend In

Chris Bartlett reviews Milk

[opens nationwide November 26]

Read more from Chris on LifeLube here

I went to see a pre-screening of Milk, the new feature film about Harvey Milk's life, with Sean Penn in the lead role. The movie was fantastic. I was in a theater full of Philadelphian queer activists and allies who represented all generations of our movement. There was the lesbian who helped found Giovanni's Room (our still running fabulous gay bookstore), many of our key political figures, AIDS activists who have been fighting for decades, fired-up youth, people of color, transmen and transwomen. That set the perfect scene for the movie itself-- a celebration of the power of gay communities at their best.

I started crying within the first two minutes of the film. The opening scenes (I'm not giving anything away here) show 1950s era bar raids-- police pushing hapless gay men into paddy wagons; the look of fear and resignation among the gays; and a wonderful moment when one angry queen throws a drink at the camera (go Sister!). Director Gus Van Sant from the very opening paints a picture of the tremendous gains we have made in queer organizing since that time, while also ironically noting that we are fighting many of the same battles of the 1970s. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and the movie is a remarkable reminder of what has often been forgotten by our gay movement.

It seems almost odd that this film could come out at this time. The ongoing battle against Proposition 8 so mirrors one of the major dramas of the film: Milk's spearheading the efforts against the infamous Briggs Initiative (Proposition 6), which sought to ban gay teachers and their allies. Watching all of the protest, marches, and advocacy was a very spooky deja vu for me. Perhaps the most telling example of this deja vu is a marvelous moment when Supervisor Tom Ammiano, playing himself (as a teacher who confronts Briggs), shouts "you're trying to take away my job!" But it is spooky to see that Ammiano's hair is gray, and that he has not been made up to look 20something. He is the adult version of himself transported by time machine back to the Briggs Demonstration. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It's bittersweet, almost, to see that the organizing against the Briggs Initiative succeeds-- it makes a critical viewer wonder what we are doing wrong nowadays.

Delightful moments include the wonderful portrayal of Cleve Jones (of AIDS Quilt fame) by Emile Hirsch. Hirsch brings out the sweet combination of Cleve's youthful bravado, ageism, and love for elders. When Milk first attempts to get Cleve to join in the gay liberation battle, Jones calls him "Old Man" and laughs in his face. But by the end, you can see the beautiful mentorship between Milk and Jones... and you can see the ways that Milk's lessons would live on in Jones' future organizing. It's all there.

Penn as Harvey Milk is really incredible. Milk protégée Anne Kronenberg reported many a double-take during the filming-- they just look so much alike! And Penn also brings out the wonderful paradoxes in Milk's behavior-- the flirtatiousness, the naiveté, the seriousness, the genius, and the bullying. And Penn plays Milk as I always had imagined him-- a mensch on a mission. There is such a sense of self-awareness and destiny. It's also possible from viewing Penn's performance to see what it means to be a leader-- the commitment that is required, the cost to relationships and family, and the charisma and charm that is required to generate a Tribe.

And to me the main story of the movie is the power of Tribe-building. Harvey does it with genius-- including all of the folks who, until the 1970s, had largely been outside political power networks. In the film, we see Milk's deft ability to build a coalition of progressive people-- gays, people of color, elders, union rank-and-file, youth, and others. Though he was a gay leader, he was far greater than that. As he says, he is there to lead "all the people".

The portrayal of the dramatic events leading up to Milk and Moscone's assassination is compelling and direct. I had hoped for a complex portrayal of Dan White (the assassin) by Josh Brolin, and I think he did a not bad job. We get a little picture into his life: the pressures, the conservative background, the police influence. In the end, the senseless assassinations seem unavoidable.

I've seem the documentary "Times of Harvey Milk" numerous times in my life, and there were moments when I felt transported back to that telling of the story. Both films are beautiful and different-- I recommend seeing the documentary before the movie to give you some background that isn't available in the feature. Notably, Van Sant omits the part of the story that occurs after Milk's assassination-- the trial and the dramatic White Night Riot. I was glad that my friend Micah had told me this ahead of time-- so I wasn't disappointed to miss the drama of police cars burning in the night. But I think Van Sant (and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black) were smart to omit the post-Milk trial and tribulation-- because really this story is focused on Harvey-- and when he is murdered, a new story begins.

Artist Thomas Allen Harris on Black Gay Identity

via Advocate, by Neal Broverman

The varied issues of Africans and African-Americans is the point of "AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange," an innovative series that airs on the documentary channel WORLD and is hosted by The Daily Show's Wyatt Cenak.

Each episode is really a full-length documentary telling a different story, from the effort to get Africans hooked on solar energy to a profile on the queen of Calypso music.

Sunday's episodic film, That's My Face, is directed by Thomas Allen Harris, a prolific gay artist and producer who's shown work at the Whitney Biennial and won Guggenheim and Sundance fellowships.

Harris spoke to us about his Brazilian-based film, his childhood in Africa, and some of the projects he's working on through his company, Chimpanzee Productions.

The Advocate: Can you talk about "AfroPoP" and your film in it?
Harris: "AfroPoP" is a series being produced by the National Black Programming Consortium, a part of the minority consortium of PBS.

They’ve had this series for the last three years where they pick a certain number of films for the show. This year there are four different films, and my film, That’s My Face, is one of them. (Click here to find out where "AfroPoP" is airing near you.)

In the movie, I go to the Bahia region of Brazil. I was looking for another way of experiencing myself, kind of like a spiritual journey that Gertrude Stein and James Baldwin had when they went to Europe.

I lived in Europe and knew what that was like, so I went to Brazil. I was looking for what being black in the Americas was like outside of the U.S.

Brazil has more African-Brazilians than the U.S. has African-Americans. It’s also been interesting to me because I partly grew up in East Africa.

The Black-Brazilians were able to keep a lot more of their African roots through language and, most importantly, through religion.

I was very intrigued by their religious practices, some of which are very welcoming to gays and lesbians. It’s very different than what you hear in the press about what’s going in regards to the persecution of gays and lesbians in Africa.

Had you been to Bahia before?
I had been there before so I had experienced it. The time I went to make That’s My Face was the beginning of December.

From December all the way to February in the south coast of Bahia are all these public festivals that are inspired by these African deities and also Carnivale.

I was really doing my search in the middle of all this spectacular stuff. These Bahia festivals are very different than the Carnivale in Rio.

The latter is sort of a show and the Carnivale in Bahia takes over the whole city—all the shops close, with the exception of places selling beer and food.

It becomes a whole different world. Everything was sped up during the festival because the drums play all the night. In Brazil, the drums weren’t outlawed when Africans were brought over, like they were in the U.S.

So people in the U.S. weren’t able to pass on certain aspects of religion and communication. The drum is an important part of religious expression.

Through the drums, people start dancing and enter this trance. It’s transformative, and you’ll see that in the film.

You lived in Tanzania as a child. What do you remember of that time?
I remember people living close to the land. I went to a national school, with the local Tanzanians. We had to clean the toilets and work on the farm.

It was an African socialist country at the time, so the kids had to clean and cook.

When I was growing up there, intimacy between men was permissable.

With my friends, we could walk down the streets holding hands. Even if you hold your hands with brother in the U.S., you could get killed.

There's a very narrow way of how men can act in the U.S. What was also interesting, is that the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, is so cosmopolitan.

I had friends from India, Uganda, the Philippines, England, China. It was very different than the picture we have in our minds of Africa. It made me really want to see the world and played into me wanting to go to Brazil.

The U.S. and the U.K. have started applying pressure on African nations to end the criminalization of homosexuality. Do you think that’s helping?
It’s really important that the West get clear and articulate that attacks on gays and lesbians are human rights violations. The marriage equality effort here, it legitimizes the struggle in Africa, and also in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

These countries are using gays and lesbians as scapegoats. In Africa, it’s not simply the African leadership that makes the violent crimes possible, it’s the missionaries who say homosexuality is an evil import from the West.


Read the rest

Who's That Queer [Gus Van Sant]

Brought to you by Pistol Pete

Gus Van Sant Jr. is an American Academy Award-nominated film director, photographer, musician, and author. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon.


His early career was devoted to directing television commercials in the Pacific Northwest. Openly gay, he has dealt unflinchingly with homosexual and other marginalized subcultures without being particularly concerned about providing positive role models.

His filmography as writer and director includes an adaptation of Tom Robbins' novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), which features a diverse cast (Keanu Reeves, Roseanne Barr, Uma Thurman, and k.d. lang among others); and My Own Private Idaho (1991), also starring Reeves as well as the late River Phoenix.

Read the rest at Gay for Today.

Remember Respond Resolve

This film was produced by GMHC for a ceremony at New York's Catherdral of St. John the Divine in 1991 to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the AIDS health crisis. It was shown on a large screen during a service that included a speech by GMHC founder Larry Kramer and a musical performance by Leontyne Price.

That we love each other is all that matters.

Producer / Editor: Victor Mignatti
GMHC Producer: Elizabeth Wetherell Eynon
Music: Peitor Angell
Archival Footage from the GMHC archive: Jean Carlomusto, producer 

http://victormignatti.com

AfterElton asks - Is “Heteroflexible” the New Gay?

What does it mean that there are three new entertainment projects where straight men are sexually involved with other men?

Read!

"Sex Positive" - How the most promiscuous men pioneered safer sex

Safe sex came from activists, porn stars, sex workers and their community driven efforts.



If you've been curious about how safe sex became the norm among gay men, then Sex Positive is your ticket to having all your questions answered. The film opened in New York Friday.

Sex Positive focuses on early safe sex pioneer Richard Berkowitz whose life of hustling on the mean streets of New York came to a crushing end when AIDS started its infectious assault in the 1980s. He was one of the first gay men to demand answers about the disease from the government and advocate condom use among gay men. His message, however, was met with resistance from men who were not ready to leave the party.

Director Daryl Wein culls together rare footage of Berkowitz along with new interviews to piece together his contributions to the invention of safe sex. Berkowitz's anger and frustration at the gay men who rejected his message is also on display.

Berkowitz molded his safe sex message off Dr. Joseph Sonnabend's pioneering AIDS research, which suggested as early as 1983 that anal sex among gay men was fueling the pandemic.

“It was Richard Berkowitz's book, Stayin' Alive: The Invention of Safe Sex, that forced me to face my own ignorance,” said filmmaker Wein in a press release. “Like most of my friends, I had always thought of safe sex as a government invented advocacy program, but I was enlightened to find out it was not the government at all but the tireless efforts of so many fervent activist who paved the way for change.”

“Both in the government and the gay community, the widespread silence during the early years of AIDS is absolutely shocking. What Richard taught me, among many other things, was that the most promiscuous gay men were the pioneers of the safe sex movement”

Sex Positive opened in New York City's Quad Cinema Friday, June 12 after winning numerous prizes on the GLBT film festival circuit.

Who's that Queer? Andy Warhol!

Brought to you by Pistol Pete

Andy Warhol was a was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and public figure known for his membership in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats.

Andrew Warhola was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1928. In 1945 he entered the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) where he majored in pictorial design. Upon graduation, Warhol moved to New York where he found steady work as a commercial artist. In 1952, the artist had his first individual show at the Hugo Gallery, exhibiting Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote. His work was exhibited in several other venues during the 1950s, including his first group show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1956.

Many people think of Warhol as "asexual" and merely a "voyeur", however it is now well established that he was gay. The question of how Warhol's sexuality influenced his work and shaped his relationship to the art world is a major subject of scholarship on the artist, and is an issue that Warhol himself addressed in interviews, in conversation with his contemporaries, and in his publications.


Throughout his career, Warhol produced erotic photography and drawings of male nudes and one rare one of a woman "pati palomeras". Many of his most famous works (portraits of Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, and Elizabeth Taylor, and films like Blow Job, My Hustler, and Lonesome Cowboys) draw from gay underground culture and/or openly explore the complexity of sexuality and desire. Many of his films premiered in gay porn theaters. That said, some stories about Warhol's development as an artist revolved around the obstacle his sexuality initially presented as he tried to launch his career. The first works that he submitted to a gallery in the pursuit of a career as an artist were homoerotic drawings of male nudes. They were rejected for being too openly gay.


Furthermore, the artist recalls a conversation with the film maker Emile de Antonio about the difficulty Warhol had being accepted socially by the then more famous (but closeted) gay artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. De Antonio explained that Warhol was "too swish and that upsets them." In response to this, Warhol wrote, "There was nothing I could say to that. It was all too true. So I decided I just wasn't going to care, because those were all the things that I didn't want to change anyway, that I didn't think I 'should' want to change... Other people could change their attitudes but not me". In exploring Warhol's biography, many turn to this period – the late 1950s and early 1960s – as a key moment in the development of his persona. Some have suggested that his frequent refusal to comment on his work, to speak about himself (confining himself in interviews to responses like "Um, No" and "Um, Yes", and often allowing others to speak for him), and even the evolution of his Pop style can be traced to the years when Warhol was first dismissed by the inner circles of the New York art world.

Source: Wikipedia.org, mbergerart.com

"Cheerleader for Life" premiers at the Music Box - May 20

For nine months in 2008 the Chicago Spirit Brigade was followed by cameras having our practices, performances, conversations, etc. captured on video. This footage has been pulled together in a short documentary, entitled "Cheerleader for Life".

It will be shown along with four other short documentaries about Chicago culture at a Premier Screening at the Music Box Theater.

Tickets: $9.25

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
7:30pm - 10:00pm
Music Box Theater
3733 N. Southport Ave.
Chicago

Chicago Spirit Brigade on Facebook

The Times of Harvey Milk - Check it out on Hulu!

Click here to watch this amazing documentary (the precursor to "Milk"). Thanks to Lady B. for turning LifeLube onto this! MWAH.

Pakistan: Bollywood flick banned for homosexiness

The High Court in Lahore has issued ban on an Indian film after a petitioner claimed it "propogates homosexuality."

Dostana, which is hyped as Bollywood's first gay-themed comedy, cannot be shown anywhere in Pakistan as a result of Friday's court ruling.

The judge ordered that a copy of the script be prepared for a later hearing and that the Pakistan Film Censor Board should block any screenings.

Dostana is similar in plot to last year's Hollywood effort I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

Two Indian men in Miami pretend to be a gay couple to rent an apartment, and later to gain an immigration permit.

The slapstick comedy of errors has a cameo from Big Brother contestant Shilpa Shetty.

There is no actual gay relationship, but the two male leads share a kiss and it is being hailed as a breakthrough in Indian cinema.

Read the rest on pinknews.co.uk.

Whole Milk - Never Blend In

Chris Bartlett reviews Milk

[opens nationwide November 26]

Read more from Chris on LifeLube here

I went to see a pre-screening of Milk, the new feature film about Harvey Milk's life, with Sean Penn in the lead role. The movie was fantastic. I was in a theater full of Philadelphian queer activists and allies who represented all generations of our movement. There was the lesbian who helped found Giovanni's Room (our still running fabulous gay bookstore), many of our key political figures, AIDS activists who have been fighting for decades, fired-up youth, people of color, transmen and transwomen. That set the perfect scene for the movie itself-- a celebration of the power of gay communities at their best.

I started crying within the first two minutes of the film. The opening scenes (I'm not giving anything away here) show 1950s era bar raids-- police pushing hapless gay men into paddy wagons; the look of fear and resignation among the gays; and a wonderful moment when one angry queen throws a drink at the camera (go Sister!). Director Gus Van Sant from the very opening paints a picture of the tremendous gains we have made in queer organizing since that time, while also ironically noting that we are fighting many of the same battles of the 1970s. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and the movie is a remarkable reminder of what has often been forgotten by our gay movement.

It seems almost odd that this film could come out at this time. The ongoing battle against Proposition 8 so mirrors one of the major dramas of the film: Milk's spearheading the efforts against the infamous Briggs Initiative (Proposition 6), which sought to ban gay teachers and their allies. Watching all of the protest, marches, and advocacy was a very spooky deja vu for me. Perhaps the most telling example of this deja vu is a marvelous moment when Supervisor Tom Ammiano, playing himself (as a teacher who confronts Briggs), shouts "you're trying to take away my job!" But it is spooky to see that Ammiano's hair is gray, and that he has not been made up to look 20something. He is the adult version of himself transported by time machine back to the Briggs Demonstration. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It's bittersweet, almost, to see that the organizing against the Briggs Initiative succeeds-- it makes a critical viewer wonder what we are doing wrong nowadays.

Delightful moments include the wonderful portrayal of Cleve Jones (of AIDS Quilt fame) by Emile Hirsch. Hirsch brings out the sweet combination of Cleve's youthful bravado, ageism, and love for elders. When Milk first attempts to get Cleve to join in the gay liberation battle, Jones calls him "Old Man" and laughs in his face. But by the end, you can see the beautiful mentorship between Milk and Jones... and you can see the ways that Milk's lessons would live on in Jones' future organizing. It's all there.

Penn as Harvey Milk is really incredible. Milk protégée Anne Kronenberg reported many a double-take during the filming-- they just look so much alike! And Penn also brings out the wonderful paradoxes in Milk's behavior-- the flirtatiousness, the naiveté, the seriousness, the genius, and the bullying. And Penn plays Milk as I always had imagined him-- a mensch on a mission. There is such a sense of self-awareness and destiny. It's also possible from viewing Penn's performance to see what it means to be a leader-- the commitment that is required, the cost to relationships and family, and the charisma and charm that is required to generate a Tribe.

And to me the main story of the movie is the power of Tribe-building. Harvey does it with genius-- including all of the folks who, until the 1970s, had largely been outside political power networks. In the film, we see Milk's deft ability to build a coalition of progressive people-- gays, people of color, elders, union rank-and-file, youth, and others. Though he was a gay leader, he was far greater than that. As he says, he is there to lead "all the people".

The portrayal of the dramatic events leading up to Milk and Moscone's assassination is compelling and direct. I had hoped for a complex portrayal of Dan White (the assassin) by Josh Brolin, and I think he did a not bad job. We get a little picture into his life: the pressures, the conservative background, the police influence. In the end, the senseless assassinations seem unavoidable.

I've seem the documentary "Times of Harvey Milk" numerous times in my life, and there were moments when I felt transported back to that telling of the story. Both films are beautiful and different-- I recommend seeing the documentary before the movie to give you some background that isn't available in the feature. Notably, Van Sant omits the part of the story that occurs after Milk's assassination-- the trial and the dramatic White Night Riot. I was glad that my friend Micah had told me this ahead of time-- so I wasn't disappointed to miss the drama of police cars burning in the night. But I think Van Sant (and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black) were smart to omit the post-Milk trial and tribulation-- because really this story is focused on Harvey-- and when he is murdered, a new story begins.

Milk Does a Homo Good

so yeah, we are excited for this movie to open

A Jihad for Love

Devotion and angst play equal roles in the lives of gay Muslims who struggle to remain devout members of a faith that decrees them deserving of being stoned to death. A JIHAD FOR LOVE chronicles the personal jihad, i.e. spiritual struggle, of gays and lesbians desperate to remain true to the faith they love yet forced to remain in the closet or emigrate from homelands including Egypt, India, and Iran, where they are hunted and imprisoned. The heart of the tragic dilemma is exposed in the film’s stark contrast between interviews with subjects including a gay South African imam, a Parisian lesbian couple, and gay Iranian men persecuted for attending a gay wedding, and the harsh dogmatic pronouncements by conservative clerics. In English, Arabic, Hindi, Persian, Urdu, and French with English subtitles

Movie opened in Chicago this past Friday and is screening at the Gene Siskel Film Center through Thursday. Click here for more info.

A May-December Love for All Seasons

Devoted LifeLuber John points us to a new movie called “Chris & Don: A Love Story” about the relationship between Christopher Isherwood and his partner Don Bachardy.

"As I’m sure you know, Isherwood wrote the short story that was turned into Cabaret. It’s a fasinating story about an almost inter-generational love affair and being gay in the 1950s and ‘60s," he says.

IMDB, with video clips

NY Times review - "The three-and-a-half-decade relationship of the British writer Christopher Isherwood and the American portrait artist Don Bachardy is one of the ultimate true stories of a proto-gay-marriage succeeding in a forbidding climate."

Fresh Air with Terry Gross – audio interview with Don – his voice is something else!

[thanks for the cultcha John!]

Memories That Matter

Terry Oldes reviews "Rock Bottom" a documentary on crystal meth and gay men by Jay Corcoran

[Terry is the author of "Dancing with Tina"]

Films about meth, books about meth, news articles, whatever...at times they can really get to a person who was once there. Sort of like Tina Turner when she commented about her own movie, "Why would I want to see it?....I lived it."

But... it's a necessary part of recovery since reliving the past can wake me up again and again to what I need to stay away from. I was there, I lived it, I've moved on....BUT..... I have to go back occasionally in my mind via writing, movies, the news... simply because if I don't, there is the danger of forgetting and making those same mistakes again.

Jay Corcoran, the director of "Rock Bottom", has done a necessary service to the gay community with this film, which details the meth abuse of seven gay men in New York City over a period of two years. Harsh to some, terrifying to others, REALITY to many I've known...the film captures moments I'm surprised Jay actually got on film. When I was doing the drugs I said many of the same things these men did, but I would never have stated them so honestly to an outside documentary film maker! He must be either incredibly easy to relate to or the subjects have some type of emotional exhibitionism. Perhaps they just needed to talk to an outsider honestly in order to wrap their heads around what they were doing? They seem to be just as honest while sober as when high, so I couldn't chalk those moments up to the "Chatty Kathy" Syndrome most meth users exhibit.

Although Jay said his film was not accepted for the Reeling: Chicago Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, I can't figure out why because it is certainly worthy of it. Maybe folks are still too scared to face the realities of meth onscreen, but I find that hard to believe, in this modern day age of reality tv and sensationalism. The film was finished two years ago, yet it just now got a premiere showing in Chicago on June 19th at the Center on Halsted? There is something very wrong with that scenario and I hope Jay can get more publicity and coverage since the film deserves it.

Much like the film "Meth", Jay's movie consists of on-camera interviews with users, sometimes high, sometimes not, but always with emotional candor. There is not as much "on-screen" drug use as in "Meth", but in many ways "Rock Bottom" is actually darker and more realistic, to me. Both films have a place in our community, but Jay's film hit me harder than the first one, perhaps it is just due to the space I am in now compared to when I saw the other.

There is so much pussy-footing around regarding meth nowadays. Some people glamorize it, some think it so dark they won't even talk about it. Everyone is going to have their own opinion on such a serious, political subject. I know, since I've had people claim my own memoir was "airing dirty linen" but any young kid who tries meth in a bathhouse or during an online hookup is going to eventually encounter these dark scenarios. Some perhaps more than others, but it is a common truth. Looking the other way because of "morals" or "fear" is bullshit. "Rock Bottom" doesn't glamorize OR avoid the issues, it simply places them out there and allows the audience to make up their own minds.

Jay said some people have gotten on his case about the film, which is a realistic, non-judgmental series of interviews weeks or months apart. The truth is the truth, and if someone WON'T listen to how sex revolves around gay meth use, then they have no business even talking about the subject. Gay Meth abuse is two addictions wrapped around and feeding each other. In conversation Jay made no apologies for the content of his film or his take on it all.

Triggers, lies, death, wastage, barebacking, denial....these are all discussed in "Rock Bottom" and to a current or former user they are going to bring back memories. To a novice or an outsider, they may shock, but it isn't "shock" for "shock's sake", it's to educate.

Education is a key component, to me, in drug abuse activism. Stories such as those told in "Rock Bottom" are ones that need to be told. Jay gave these men a forum and I certainly think he's made a difference by doing so.

Yeah, I lived it, but "Rock Bottom" helped remind me of a place I do NOT want to go back to...and that's a good thing.

Rock Bottom - June 19 Screening at The Center

Thursday - June 19

Center on Halsted

RSVP to Jason McVicker

click to enlarge

Special Screening of Rock Bottom

Thursday - June 19

Center on Halsted

RSVP to Jason McVicker

click to enlarge

A Jihad for Love: Can your faith really kill you?

A film about gay Muslims will surprise a Western audience

[via Times Online]

Inevitably, Parvez Sharma filmed some moving testimonies in A Jihad for Love, a collection of real-life stories that show what it is like to be gay or lesbian and living within, or in the shadow, of Islam. The stories come from Iran, Turkey, India, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

In one of those quirks of timing, the film will be shown on Sunday at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in the wake of the controversy around the case of Mehdi Ka-zemi, the gay Iranian whose deportation back to Iran was halted recently after an indecent, indeed shaming, amount of prevarication on the part of the Home Office. An Iranian lesbian, Pegah Emambakhsh, is also seeking asylum in this country.

Read the rest.