Queer Documentaries - DVD and Video Page 4

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It's a familiar story. Boy meets boy. Boy and boy start an organization to help gays "convert" to straightdom. Boy realizes he's in love with boy, and they leave their group to become outspoken denouncers of the movement.
Okay, so maybe it's not that familiar. Regardless, One Nation Under God is an insightful peek into the world of "ex-gays." Gary and Michael were two founders of Exodus, a ministry devoted to "curing" gays. Religious men, they felt that a gay lifestyle was incompatible with the teachings of the Bible, so they promoted heterosexuality. But despite leading heterosexual lives, the two men realized they were in love with each other. Their commentary anchors this documentary directed by Teodoro Maniaci and Francine Rzeznik. Interviews with the current head of Exodus, ex-gays, teachers in the ministry, psychologists, and ex-ex-gays create a surprisingly well-balanced film. While a glimpse inside the workings of the ministry would have been interesting (how, exactly, do you make a person "ex-gay"?), the archival footage from 1950s and '60s psychologists and discussions create an occasionally funny, definitely thought-provoking film that will both horrify (the implications of what the Religious Right is doing here are ghastly) and entertain. - Jenny Brown (Amazon)

In this video, producer/director Meema Spadola (the daughter of a lesbian mother) offers a frank exploration of what it means to grow up with gay or lesbian parents. It profiles the children in five diverse families who are facing the usual ups and downs of family life while encountering varied reactions from extended family, classmates, teachers, neighbours and public officials. The featured families come from a variety of socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds and live in urban, suburban, and rural communities throughout the United States.

Reviewer: Lisa G. from Van Nuys, CA This outstanding video is centered on a modern day fight for equality as it engagingly weaves the reality of our history into today. This inter-twining allows the viewer to grasp how history impacts the lives of everyone, hundreds of years later. It's excellent in its story telling and point-making. I, too, believe this should be required viewing in all Jr. High, High School and College level curriculum. It's invaluable because of how it invites the viewer to challenge stereotypes and question the false history they're being taught in some many books.

Eleven Lesbian Women ranging in age from 23 to 67 speak easily and frankly about their family, friends, and lovers.

Paragraph 175 (2000) Director: Jeffrey Friedman, Rob Epstein - Studio: New Yorker Video Purchase Links for this Documentary DVD / Video - TLA Films USA Region 1 DVD - Amazon USA

Rupert Everett narrates this sensitive documentary about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals during World War II. "Paragraph 175" refers to the old German penal code concerning homosexuality, which was used to justify the prosecution of gay men during the war (the code ignored lesbians, still considered viable baby-making vessels). As mere rumor became enough to justify imprisonment, over 100,000 were arrested and between 10,000 and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps. In Paragraph 175, Klaus Müller, a historian from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, sets out to interview the fewer than 10 who are known to remain alive. The film covers the astonishingly quick rise of Hitler (one interviewee points out how ridiculous a figure he seemed at first) and the shock that more liberal Germans felt as it became clear that he was a force to be reckoned with. Some of the film's most touching moments come when the participants reminisce about their first loves and the "homosexual Eden" that was Berlin in the 1930s. This is a beautifully well made documentary that poignantly captures a piece of nearly forgotten history. - Ali Davis (Amazon.com)

The work of Paul Monette, the gifted writer whose death in 1995 brought an early end to a promising career, dealt with themes of anger, love, and maturity; the documentary Brink of Summer's End recounts Monette's life while remaining faithful to the ideas in his writing. Finding himself in the right place at the right time, Monette developed a voice that spoke for the gay community just when the AIDS crisis had provoked a need for such work with his book Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story.