Sunday, March 03, 2013
Shorts: "Camionero", "Triple Standard", and "Fishbelly White"
Here are three fairly substantial gay-themed short films, all recent and apparently completed in 2012.
The largest is “Camionero” (“Bus Driver”), by Sebastian Milo
(from Idunnu), based on the short story “La Tercera va la Vencinda”, by Yomar
Gonzalez. The film (28 min) does not
have subtitles and appears to come from Mexico.
In a boarding school, two boys are severely bullied because
they are suspected of being gay, and cannot leave. The each find drastic solutions for their
problems. There are scenes of hazing or
blanket parties that are quite graphic, involving cigarette lighters, urine,
shaving cream, and general mayhem. It’s
hard sometimes to say whether the hazing is specifically anti-gay or just what
this culture sees as a rite of passage. On YouTube, there are varied opinions in
comments as to whether the boys are justified in what they do. The link is here.
“Triple Standard” (19
min), by Branden Binn, presents two young men (Lee Amir-Cohen and William
Jennings) on what appears to be a professional or semi-pro basketball
team. They are in a relationship, and
one of the men is taunted by teammates.
The other claims he is “bisexual” and is hesitant about the relationship
and coming out. A great line in the film
is simply “I’m done”. It seems that the
film intends to say that this could happen with any pro sports team (and the
Major League Baseball 2013 season is about to begin). Professional players normally share hotel rooms (two to a room) on road trips
(unless that’s changing in MLB, NBA, NFL, etc).
But I doubt the behavior on the
film is representative of today’s pro world. The link for the film (from Norcoda) is here.
“Fishbelly White” (17 min), by Michael Burke, from Pink Slip
films, presents a shy and sensitive farm boy Duncan (Mickey Smith) growing up
in the Green Mountains of Vermont. He is
a bit of a fowl whisperer, and gets called “chicken man” by the other kids (so was
I, in the Army). An older boy Perry
(Jason Hayes) helps him get better with chores and with swimming and other
manly things. The film has allusions to "Mudge Boy" and "Billy Joe", I think. Slowly, the two teens get closer. There is a lot of cigarette smoking in the
film. The link is here.
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