Queer movie notes

[sasha_feather]

A Secret Love - Netflix

This is a documentary about 2 older lesbians. I turned it off after 5 minutes, because it was giving time and voice to the homophobic relatives, which I found super irritating.

Douglas - comedy special by Hannah Gadsby - Netflix

Lovely and fun. She basically gives content notes at the beginning of the performance. Really enjoyed some of her use of language, like "pufferfish" meaning to react strongly and quickly to some minor annoyance.

Circus of Books - Netflix

A fascinating documentary that I'm still thinking about. The film maker, Rachel Mason interviews her parents, who are a straight Jewish couple who for decades ran a gay sex/porn shop in LA. They saw a business opportunity and took it, then just kind of kept running it out of momentum I guess? The husband/father (Barry) is a very easy-going, chill kind of guy. The wife/mother (Karen) is more complicated and difficult. Mason also talks to store employees, porn industry people, and her brothers.

One of her brothers is gay and the mom had a problem with it due to her conservative Jewish background. This was so odd? I mean i guess compartmentalization and all that, but it seemed like up until the brother came out to his parents, Karen seems to lack political awareness or an activist mindset. Some time afterwards, she and Barry joined PFLAG.

I wish Rachel Mason had pushed harder here, and raised the issue of appropriation. If you are profiting from the queer community, even modestly, don't you have a responsibility towards that community? Aren't there ethical issues with hiring and supervising people, with putting money into gay porn movies, with buying stock for your store, if you don't fully support what you are doing? This wasn't explored enough.

Still, I enjoyed this film, it was fun to watch.

Comments

[boxofdelights]

Thanks for letting me know about new Hannah Gadsby!

[sasha_feather]

I hope you enjoy it! I found it so fun.

[lilysea]

Circus of Books - Netflix

A fascinating documentary that I'm still thinking about. The film maker, Rachel Mason interviews her parents, who are a straight Jewish couple who for decades ran a gay sex/porn shop in LA. They saw a business opportunity and took it, then just kind of kept running it out of momentum I guess? The husband/father (Barry) is a very easy-going, chill kind of guy. The wife/mother (Karen) is more complicated and difficult. Mason also talks to store employees, porn industry people, and her brothers.

I watched this a while ago and really enjoyed it.

[sasha_feather]

What did you think of Karen?

[jesse_the_k]

I always appreciate your thoughtful movie reviews.

I shared your mystification re the Mason parents’ disconnection from the community they served. It’s a common pattern. Retail in poor communities can be the gateway for recent immigrants’ ascent to the middle class. This may in part be thanks to access to community capital through mutual aid. The result is more than a century of tension between poor African-Americans and the “outsider” shopkeepers — Italian, Jewish, East and South Asian, Arab.

[sasha_feather]

Oh, wow, I never even thought of that, thank you. I wonder if the film maker's relationship with her mom prevented her from challenging her more than she did.

[jesse_the_k]

Have you seen Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing? Tensions between Italian and African Americans in Brooklyn feature prominently. Also two characters with disabilities, and I don’t know how I feel about them. /runs off to search for analysis

[sasha_feather]

Yes, I believe we watched that at your movie night, though it was some time ago and I don't remember it all that well.