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Gay Documentaries
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Dos patrias, Cuba y la noche
Director: Christian Liffers
Country: Germany
Runtime: 84’
Language: Spanish with English or French subtitles.
Year of Production: 2007
Awards 2007/2008
 
 
In Cuba there is no gay scene – not even in the city of Havana, which has 3 million inhabitants. If meeting places emerge nevertheless in the solely state-owned pubs and cafés, they are immediately closed by the government. Therefore there has emerged a system of clandestine and private meeting points which prevents the action on the part of the state, by changing the locations daily. Mainly the “fiestas particulares”, privately organised parties, play an important role: up to 300 people assemble in gardens of private villas in the suburbs of Havana to celebrate exuberant parties.
Dos Patrias, Cuba y la Noche, follows the texts written by Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas who describes the desire for love, sexual freedom and the fight against discrimination. Are these desires and attitudes still found and fought in Cuba? Six men from different backgrounds describe their lives, afflictions, wishes, longings and joys in Cuba. They have some thing in common: they are gay (with the exception of Isabel, the transsexual) and they feel a daily exclusion from the their macho society, and government. The subtle and rhythmic Cuban music somehow alleviates their souls.
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Searching 4 Sandeep
Director: Poppy Stockell
Country: Australia
Runtime: 52’
Language: English
Year of Production: 2007
2007 Awards
 
This is the story of film director Poppy Stockell in her search for love online. Despite living in Sydney, Australia, one of the gay capitals of the world, 28 year old Poppy, is forced online in her search for love. When she meets online 31 year old Anglo/Indian Sandeep Virdi, she thinks she's found the one. Unfortunately, Sandeep lives at home in the British Midlands with her conservative Sikh parents and three younger sisters. Oh, and she's not out to any of them...
Through raw, incredibly frank footage, Searching 4 Sandeep follows Poppy and Sandeep's relationship across two years and three continents. Poppy wanted to make a film about the way in which new forms of communication like the internet and SMS have changed the way her generation relate to one another. Searching 4 Sandeep does follow that theme – how technology can help us find other people but can also hinder our intimacy – and it’s also the story of a pretty serious dose of culture clash.
Searching 4 Sandeep is about how love is the most important element of life, and that it’s worth fighting for. Poppy believes that “Searching 4 Sandeep” is really a kind of love letter to Sandeep.
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Packed Lunch
Director: Tim Hunter
Interviewees: Andrew Creagh [Editor, DNA Magazine], Peter Travis [Original designer of Speedo brief], Kevin Hannah [Designer, Loaded Swimwear], Glenda Waverley, Ken Holmes, David Wain, Duncan McLean
Runtime: 24 minutes
Country: Australia
Language: English
Festivals: Melbourne Queer Festival 2005
Speedos, budgie-smugglers, dick-stickers, togs or sluggos – whatever you call them; racing briefs, bikinis, trunks, or g-strings – however you wear them, they’re often linked to gay men. It’s the seductiveness of the style, the sexiness of the fabric, the tease of tightly-packed lunch and bums in these figure-hugging bathers, leaving just enough to the imagination.
Through a collection of interviews with Speedo lovers, such as Mark, the man who owns 5,000 pairs, and Kevyn who co-ordinates his Speedos with the rest of his clothing and accessories; swimwear designers Kevin Hennah (Loaded), Duncan McLean (Funky Trunks) and Peter Travis, who designed the original racing brief for Speedo back in 1960; DNA Magazine editor, Andrew Creagh, La Trobe University expert David Wain, and drag queen Glenda Waverley; along with candid observations from director, Tim Hunter, and plenty of eye candy, this 24-minute documentary explores the appeal of these minimal pieces of Lycra, their role in body image, and their inherent link to gay men and gay culture. Beyond competition swimming and diving, are Speedos just a gay thing or something more? Is it a fetish, legitimate sportswear, or just well-packed lunch?
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Sister Galvan
Director/Producer:Marian Evans
Cast: Galvan Kepler Macnamara
Runtime: 89 minutes
Country: New Zealand
Language: English
Galvan Macnamara lives a hermit’s life on the banks of a New Zealand river. A legendary arts professional, familiar to many as James Mack (he took his father’s name when he turned 60) he spends his days with his much-loved dog Ozka-Ra and his chooks, reading and thinking and looking and praying and delighting in magic moments. Talking with a lesbian feminist and her son as they explore how difference - of gender, generation or sexuality - affects the questions asked, the stories told and the way these stories are listened to, Galvan presents his experience of gay life, prostate cancer, tattooing, Richard Grune and renowned New Zealand artist Colin McCahon.
“Marian Evans’ documentary on the irrepressible Galvan Macnamara was a sheer joy.” – Linda Clark, New Zealand Sunday Star Times 28 December 2003
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Saints & Sinners
Producers: Yan Vizinberg & Abigail Honour
Director: Abigail Honor
Cast: Edward DeBonis and Vincent Maniscalco
Runtime: 71 minutes
Country: United States of America
Language: English
After living together for seven years in a seemingly accepting community in New York City, Edward DeBonis and Vincent Maniscalco decide to get married. But unlike many other gay couples who formalize their relationship in a domestic union, Vincent and Edward, both devout Catholics, will settle for nothing short of the "Holy Sacrament of Marriage."
Determined to celebrate their relationship on their terms, the couple presses on with the preparations. Several months of elaborate planning begin. From dance lessons to bachelor parties, floral bouquets to custom-made cake decorations, no detail is overlooked. However, their efforts and search to find a Catholic Church where they can perform the ceremony are to no avail.
For Edward, who grew up as an altar boy, and Vincent, who was baptized at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Little Italy and who attends Sunday Mass regularly, getting married outside the Catholic tradition is not an option. The couple books St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, converts it to suit a Catholic mass and invites Rev. Raymond Lefebvre, a gay Catholic priest, to perform the ceremony.
But the real complications are yet to come.
Invitations to the wedding provoke previously supportive family members to voice their true feelings. Fears of going to hell for receiving communion from a gay priest and the possibility of being kicked out of their local church for participating in the ceremony rise to the surface as the wedding day approaches.
As America stands on the verge of legal acceptance of gay and lesbian unions, "Saints and Sinners" explores the social, political and religious aspects of same-sex marriage and examines its effect on American society
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