francois@yale.ARPA (Charles B. Francois) (09/22/84)
I've seen mentions recently in the group of "The 4th Man" (loved it!),
and "Another Country" (mostly entertaining, though pat and unconvincing),
but no word about the French film, "Improper Conduct". I urge those of
you who have not seen this to catch it if you get the chance. This
documentary by famed cinematographer Nestor Almendros ("Places in the
Heart") and director Jimenez-Leal ("El Super") is one of the most
important films I've yet seen on the subject of homosexuality.
Briefly, this is a wry, dry-eyed examination of the treatment of
"undesirable elements" in Castro's Cuba, in the form of a series of
interviews and testimonials from various individuals ranging from Cuban
artists-in-exile to Marxist thinkers, from Marielitos to Fidel himself.
The situation they describe is a truly frightening one, and much of the
power of the film lies in its restraint and its worldliness in
presenting its evidence, so that it comes across neither as a blistering
expose nor as the sort of flippant cleverness that "The Atomic Cafe"
often became, but as a very human account of what it's like to be
different in Cuba.
What one goes away carrying from the movie are vivid moments and images:
an artist sheepishly considers the paradox implicit in the state's
acceptance of only "manly" homosexuals, including some who are well
known and respected in the Cuban military establishment; a television
interview of Castro claiming "No one is oppressed by our revolution" is
intercut with recollections by former internees of Cuban "UMAP"
concentration camps for homosexuals; Susan Sontag discusses the
long-standing Marxist unease with homosexuality and questions the Left's
usual skirting of the issue; a transvestite Marielito, who does a
dead-on nightclub impersonation of Celia Cruz, charmingly tells of his
prison guard's love for him; a writer in Paris quietly recalls his
neighbor in a Cuban jail, a very young boy arbitrarily arrested for
vagrancy who was raped by other inmates, then labeled a homosexual and
imprisoned accordingly.
As interesting a phenomenon as the film itself has been its reception
in the United States. Castro's Cuba has long held a privileged place in
the minds of many members of the American Left as living proof of the
possibility of a Marxist state. So the reaction to the film was not one
that would have been expected for such a pro-gay film. Some of our more
reactionary critics -- Canby of the NY Times and Sarris of the Village
Voice come to mind -- were quick to hail the film as the first attack
against Castro's regime that managed to stick. At the same time radical
J. Hoberman of the Voice, whom I usually respect, wasted no time in
expressing his general disapproval of the film's very warped perception
of the real situation. The controversy has been raging. An important
milestone is a rigorously presented attack on the film in the last issue
of American Film. The debate is likely to go on for a while. Meanwhile,
the general public is little aware even of the existence of the film.
I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of other people who may have
seen it. For my own part, I consider it less a documentary in the usual
sense than an extremely moving testimonial. What I found the most
sobering about it was, I guess, the basis for discrimination in Cuba.
Aside from various ideological dissidents and those denounced by enemies
and hostile neighbors, the vast majority of the victims consist of
acknowledged gays, usually visible in one way or another, whether by
appearance (tight jeans and long hair are a dead giveaway) or demeanor.
It made me all too aware of how much our greatest strength and our
greatest vulnerability both lie in our visibility...
Charles B. Francois {...,decvax}!yale!francoisrrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (09/24/84)
ARGH! NOT ANOTHER BIBLIOGRAPHY! Although the horror stories are now rolling in & being documented, no one to my knowledge has written a systematic account of communist and socialist homophobia, either as institutionalized in ALL societies with communist regimes or as repeatedly exhibited by leftwing political groups in nontotalitarian countries (the most famous example of leftist fagbaiting is the noxious and outrageous attempt to characterize Hitler and the German Nazis as "queer", a political smear (to German gays) that appears as early as the 1920s). Within this last year, the New York Native devoted part of an issue to Latin America, including Cuba; succeeding issues contain reaction from readers in the Letters section, especially to an absurd whitewash of Castro's island prison by two gay leftists. Activist Allen Young, who went to Cuba in the late 60s with the Venceremos Brigade to harvest sugarcane, probed officials about policies toward gays, and found a real can of worms in "progressive" Cuba; he's published a book on the subject, and written numerous articles and letters. MARIEL is a journal published by Cuban-Americans of the most recent wave of emigration, devoted to documenting their experience and the fate of all who don't fit in Castro's brave new world. CHRISTOPHER STREET magazine has contained articles on gays in the Soviet Union and China over the years; the Soviet articles were republished in the book anthology THE CHRISTOPHER STREET READER. The book we should all read is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's GULAG ARCHIPELAGO (3 pb v.'s, Vintage/Random House, 1800 pp.), even though it contains only 6 miniscule references to homosexuality & its author's social awareness like many Russians dates from about 1830 (he's ignorant of gay life and is essentially homophobic). Altho' the book is the object of many pious references, few people seem to have actually read it (even tho' a best- seller) or know the true extent of its indictment (of much that makes up the 20th century, the world we know & love or hate): rightwingers are gratified they finally possess a weapon with real bite, leftwingers would rather not think about it (isn't the author some kind of neo-czarist kook?), and "moderates" are 3 books behind in their reading and don't like non- fiction anyway. Pardon the appalling digression, Your compulsive bibliographer and compiler of lists, Ron Rizzo