“The Most Important Thing in an Image is the Feeling That What You’re Seeing is Completely True — Like an Accident….”: Bruno Santamaría on his Hot Docs Digital-Debuting Things We Dare Not Do

Executive produced by Charlotte Cook, and making its debut at this year’s (virtual) Hot Docs, Bruno Santamaría’s Things We Dare Not Do is a stunning look at the small Mexican town of Roblito through the eyes of its deeply impoverished, yet happy-go-lucky, youngsters. Serving as mother hen to the carefree kids, for whom random violence seems no more noteworthy than water delivery day or a taco snack, is 16-year-old Ñoño. Though the vivacious teen’s exploration of his own gender identity forms the basis of the film’s title, Things We Dare Not Do is no mere coming out saga. It’s a visually risk-taking, multilayered portrait of growing up and learning to live out loud.

Filmmaker took the opportunity to learn more about the project from its Mexican cinematographer-director prior to the film’s Hot Docs digital debut.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“We Read Adam’s Blog Every Day...So It Was Like a Daily Script”: Pia Hellenthal on Her Social Media-Themed Doc, Searching Eva

Having made my “Best Yet-to-be-Distributed Docs 2019” list, Pia Hellenthal’s Searching Eva, currently streaming on Mubi USA and with a virtual release upcoming on June 2nd through Syndicado, can now be shifted to the “best docs of 2020” category. My assessment of this “portrait of a restless, gender-ambiguous, philosophical millennial who documents her entire life — from fashion week to freelance sex work —  online” might not make the film seem like must-see viewing. But that’s precisely the point — and what makes Hellenthal’s talent all the more apparent. As an often cynical critic who couldn’t care less about a globetrotting poet with an Instagram account, I found myself absolutely riveted when I accidentally discovered the film at last year’s CPH:DOX. As I wrote at the time, “Between Hellenthal’s exquisitely composed shots and her titular protagonist’s surprising bon mots (Eva longs to “go to the beach or start a revolution — depends on what my friends are up to”),” this “addictively cinematic” doc is “also pure poetry in motion.”

Filmmaker took the opportunity to find out more about this unusual work of cinematic nonfiction from its Cologne and Berlin-based (and Teddy Award-nominated) director a few weeks prior to the doc’s digital debut.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

Doc Star of the Month: Pat Henschel, 'A Secret Love'

When one thinks of a coming-out story these days, an LGBTQ teenager proudly declaring their identity on Instagram might immediately spring to mind. Which wasn't the case for the two women at the center of Chris Bolan's heartfelt doc A Secret Love, streaming on Netflix starting April 29. 

The film is a decades-spanning portrait of the director's great-aunt Terry Donahue, a member of the women's pro baseball league that inspired the 1992 film A League of Their Own, and Pat Henschel, the hockey player she fell in love with way back in 1947. Over six decades later, facing their mortality and the challenges of aging, the two make the difficult decision to let the entire family in on the fact that they've always been more than just roommates. Which launches the couple into an unfamiliar — though ultimately exhilarating — gay marriage-accepting world.

Though Terry Donahue died in March of 2019 at the age of 93, her nonagenarian wife Pat is still very much alive and speaking out about her life (and the love of her life). And most fortunately for Documentary, she was willing to be featured as April's Doc Star of the Month.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.

No exodus: Pray Away

SEXUALITY: Former survivors & leaders of the gay conversion therapy movement contend with its aftermath.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That aphorism could easily be the tagline for Kristine Stolakis’ debut feature Pray Away, which was selected for this year’s Tribeca Film Festival Documentary Competition. Stolakis, whose work is informed by an eclectic background in anthropology, journalism, politics, and community art, has crafted a fascinating character-centric study of a long-discredited movement that, nevertheless, continues to thrive. This in spite of its founders’ near-religiously zealous efforts to kill it off year after year.

To read my critique visit Modern Times Review.

Jennifer Lyon Bell and Stoya Talk “Blue Artichoke Films Presents: Adventures In Intimacy” (and Sex Positivity)

Taking place on Friday, February 28th in Amsterdam (or via a live stream near you), “Blue Artichoke Films Presents: Adventures In Intimacy” will be, according to the event’s press release, “a celebration of sex-positive, p*rn-positive, queer-friendly culture as explored by p*rn performers, scientists, and sex educators in their own work.” Organized by the feminist force behind Blue Artichoke Films (which will simultaneously celebrate its platform launch) Jennifer Lyon Bell, the evening’s quartet of speakers, including the host herself, are an international array of notable thinkers on the subject of erotica in cinema. The Netherlands Ellen Laan, a sexologist and “pleasure activist,” will be joined by performers Bishop Black (Berlin-based by way of the UK), and the US’s own high-profile Stoya.

Both award-winning filmmaker Bell (who was crafting “ethical porn” long before that was a thing) and prolific sex writer Stoya (“Philosophy, Pussycats & Porn”) found time to fill us in on what to expect.

To read my interview with the duo visit Filmmaker magazine.

The Whitewashing of Mayor Pete

Let me begin by stating the obvious. For the majority of his life, US presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg passed as a straight white male. This is how others viewed him, and thus treated him accordingly. So the notion that the South Bend, Indiana politician can possibly “relate” to, say, the African-American experience – or that of a drag queen for that matter – is ridiculous at best, insulting at worst. People are defined by the society in which they live, by how others see them, with rewards and punishments doled out accordingly. And Mayor Pete did not challenge – and indeed profited from – that fact.

To read all about why I can't come out for (former) Mayor Pete visit Global Comment.

A 5-Step Guide to a Nonbinary Life in the Post-Stonewall, Pre-Caitlyn Era

Long before there was wifi and smartphones, let alone language to define my identity, I’d envisioned a world in which a boy could feel comfortable living his true self in a girl’s body, and vice-versa – as opposed to one in which hormones and surgery, medical intervention masking a societal ill, would be celebrated as the Holy Grail to psychological wellness.

And after a bit of halfhearted trial and error playing a straight chick, I found that the radical act of simply pursuing my inner gay male desires freed me from caring how others perceived me.

And to read the rest of my back-in-the-day take on pursuing Pride visit Global Comment.