The Celluloid Closet

Watching The Celluloid Closet I was astounded by my lack of daily cognizance of the depth of discrimination of LGBTQ community in film during my lifetime and before. What an amazing and important film! Imagine living a life either not reflected or negatively misconstrued by the dominant media. The theme of resilience in the LGBTQ community throughout the documentary stood out to me.

Nobody really sees the same movie.

For the last 100 years LGBTQ movie goers have been reading between the lines, understanding unspoken text, and having to maneuver through whatever prejudiced or despicable messages about being gay were popular that decade. Enduring the popular negative perspectives of the mainstream media about who you are is an amazing quality of resiliency.

If The Celluloid Closet had been released this year, I think it would have had a larger reception, wider immediate distribution, and a mainstream discussion of the important content in the documentary and other examples. Marketing and advertising today are very different than a decade ago, and a movie like this could spread easily through email groups, and I imagine discussion would flourish on college campuses and in the bogosphere prompting the mainstream media to include this content in their coverage of “news.” Today, we also live in a different climate. We have more openly gay characters in the mainstream media, and have a greater acceptance of the LGBTQ community. This climate difference would also enhance the conversation inspired by the documentary.

Homophobia is still rampant in our culture. It is ingrained to the point that many people don’t recognize the overt nature and depth of the homophobia around them. I highly recommend a documentary that is part of The Masculinity Project on Blackpublicmedia.org

Beyond Beats &Rhymes examines representations of manhood, sexism and homophobia in hip hop culture. The documentary touches on the important discussion of homophobia in mainstream culture. Secondly, The Gay Straight Alliance Network supports groups nationwide to increase community and consciousness. Our public high schools in San Francisco have active GSA branches that do very important work.

Blogger: Don Garcia