'MO - May 2008 - (Page 26)

what’s hot SIFF Preview: Finding That Gay 10% by Matthew McQuilkin Although barely less than ten percent of it features ﬁlms with gay, lesbian or transgender content, the Seattle International Film Festival is still large enough to provide a mini-Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, half a year away from the ofﬁcial gay festival. With its reliably diverse array of ﬁlms about and made by people of all races, religions, nationalities, sexualities and genders, SIFF has something to offer everyone—including anyone with a hankering for ﬁlms with queer content. About 20 of the roughly 240 ﬁlms to be presented in the festival will ﬁt that bill. Presented here is a preview of a few of those ﬁlms, a series of highlights that might just whet your appetite for some quality independent ﬁlm that speaks to you and your community. Chris & Don: A Love Story Anyone who doesn’t know who Christopher Isherwood is might start watching Chris & Don thinking it’s just a documentary about a unique, long-term relationship between two gay men—one of them thirty years older than the other; the older one dead since 1986 and the younger one now a much older man, by far the most prevalent interview subject in the ﬁlm. From that angle alone, it’s indeed a fascinating and compelling love story. But Isherwood happens to have been a wellestablished author, perhaps most famously of the works on which the play and ﬁlm Cabaret were based. Isherwood met an 18year-old Don Bachardy when he himself was 49; Bachardy subsequently found himself exposed to Isherwood’s elite social circle, which included the likes of fellow writers Somerset Maugham, Saki, and Truman Capote. With Isherwood’s full support, Bachardy went to art school and ultimately became a noted portrait artist, a vocation in which he is still employed during the making of this ﬁlm. With brief interludes of commentary by various Isherwood academics and scholars, most of Chris & Don consists of Bachardy reminiscing about his very long-term relationship with that much older man, providing much food for thought as he notes wistfully of Isherwood’s largely paternal affection for him. Viewers can draw their own conclusions as to the appropriateness of a 49-yearold man seducing an 18-year-old boy, but there’s no denying the affection that blossomed between them during the thirty-four years they were together, until Isherwood died at the age of eighty-one (when Bachardy was around 50). Chris & Don provides some insight into a rarely seen—and even less often understood—type of relationship in a time long since passed. Breakfast with Scot In a refreshing twist on the otherwise tired formula of two men stuck raising a kid unexpectedly, in Breakfast with Scot, the kid is completely androgynous, and the two men are gay. And in this scenario, the tween’s ambiguous gender identity doesn’t threaten the men’s security in their own sexuality, but rather one of the men’s status as a closeted sports news anchor who also happens to be a former professional hockey player. This charming Canadian ﬁlm bucks cliché at nearly every turn, featuring that rarest of breeds—the gay sports nut—as well as an effeminate young boy who is both conﬁdent and well adjusted. Playing the title character, Scot, 12-year-old Noah Bernett demonstrates an impressive depth of understanding. And his caretakers, played by Thomas Cavanaugh and Angels in America’s Ben Shenkman, give a sense of what it might be like if Jon Stewart and Ray Romano became a gay couple. With Scot’s mother having died of a drug overdose and the deadbeat stepfather named in an outdated will shirking his responsibilities in Brazil, Scot is sent to his gay uncle’s home for a temporary stay. It’s the gay uncle’s partner who happens to be the closeted hockey player/sports anchor, predictably resistant at ﬁrst and then ultimately falling in love with the kid. The plot arch may offer no surprises whatsoever, but Breakfast with Scot still has plenty of charms due to the deftly played unconventional elements placed within this formulaic framework. The characters are unusual yet relatable, which is something from which a lot of ﬁlmmakers could learn a thing or two. 26 celebrating seattle’s gay community

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of 'MO - May 2008

'MO - May 2008 Contents Letter From the Editor Voices Instant Activist Pet Project 'mo-BIZ: SeattleMeds Pharmacy 'mo-Money: The Federal Reserve 'mo Magazine Interview with Will & Grace Star Leslie Jordan Form & Function: Better Legs By Summer Healthy Alternatives Vancouver: Heading North in Rail Time Book Review: Where Are You Now? By Mary Higgins Clark Seattle International Film Festival Preview Capitol Hill Guide SceneOut: People@Places 'mo-Single Q&A

'MO - May 2008

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