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.

Doc Star of the Month: Raymond Braun, ‘State of Pride’

As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising this month, a slew of films reflecting on that seminal event in LGBTQ history are, unsurprisingly, hitting screens from coast to liberal coast. What sets Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s State of Pride apart from this pack, though, is the doc’s firm focus forward, as the Oscar-winning duo turn their lens on the many young queer communities celebrating Pride today. 

And not just the usual suspects — i.e., white cisgender gays and lesbians of means living in New York City and the Bay Area — that have historically been visible onscreen. Though San Francisco is indeed represented, its Pride is seen through the eyes of characters that include a recent immigrant from Syria who fled persecution for his sexuality. The filmmakers also travel to decidedly non-liberal Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Salt Lake City, Utah, encountering gay, lesbian and trans people of color (whose rural roots are as much a part of their identity as being queer) — and even meet with a disabled man who found coming out to be more frightening than losing the use of his legs. In other words, State of Pride — now streaming on YouTube as part of YouTube Originals — showcases an exciting variety of shades within the proverbial rainbow.

Also making State of Pride stand out is its earnest host on this cross-country journey, human rights activist Raymond Braun. The YouTube star serves less as onscreen interviewer than empathetic listener, allowing space for the people he lovingly greets to answer the profound question, “What does Pride mean to you?” in beautifully unpredictable ways. And because of this, Documentary is honored to celebrate Braun as our June “Doc Star of the Month.”

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.

Greta Schiller, “Before Stonewall”

“I made a whole film, Paris Was a Woman, about lesbians in Paris between the wars. Now we have the internet, and the communication on the web, and people can fly places, and you can live anywhere and still connect with other queer people. But back then you lived in Greenwich Village. You lived in the Left Bank of Paris. You lived in San Francisco. It was so hard if you didn’t.”

Such were the reflections of the award-winning director Greta Schiller when I recently got her on the phone to chat about First Run Features’s newly restored version of her landmark documentary Before Stonewall, in theaters this month (June 21st in NYC, June 28th in LA, with a national rollout to follow). Filmed in 1984 with a team that included co-director Robert Rosenberg and research director Andrea Weiss – who would go on to win both an Emmy for her work and Schiller’s heart (the married couple now run Jezebel Productions) – the film contains a treasure chest of revelations to surprise even the most queer history-savvy viewer.

To read the rest visit Global Comment.