Review:
DVD
(collection): "Stories from the War on Homosexuality" by Arthur Dong (USA 2003)
Article by
John Frame jvframe@bigpond.net.au 07 3350 1562
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ARTHUR DONG is the
recipient of over 100 film excellence awards, including three Sundance
awards, the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award, the Peabody Award, two GLAAD
Media Awards, an Oscar nomination and five Emmy nominations. He has received
fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation
and the Guggenheim Foundation. Arthur is on the Board of Governors of the Acclaimed USA documentary
film maker Arthur Dong has released his first DVD project - a 3 disc boxed
collection under the significant title “Stories
from the War on Homo Sexuality”, comprising three feature length films “Coming Out Under Fire” (1994), “Licensed To Kill” (1997) and “Family Fundamentals” (2002). All are
digitally remastered and include added features,
extended scenes, music selections and detailed liner notes. The films deal
respectively with: gays and lesbians who served in World War 2; the convicted
killers of gay men; and families in which openly gay and lesbian children
have parents who campaign actively against homosexuality. Arthur says it’s important that the
documentaries and their packaging do reach out to everyone. So why did he
choose this title? “It took a while to come up with this
title. One of my first ideas was ‘America’s War on Homosexuality’… a few of
my friends were surprisingly upset, saying America’s not at war with
homosexuals, that it’s too big a word. Because I knew the word ‘war’ really
produced an emotional response, I wanted to keep that - but I knew that for some
people I needed to temper it. So I thought: What are my films about? - and
they are stories – they’re personal stories.” “Each of the viewer’s guides has an
essay, putting the film into context – into broader social and political
ideas. I really wanted people,
regardless of their sexuality, to look at these viewer's guides and go on and
look at the films and the extra materials in the DVD, and to appreciate it as
a commentary on our society. And that’s something that we all share – that we
need to deal with these issues and that they not only affect the gay
community, they affect all of us – because we’re talking about human rights
and civil rights and any time any of these rights are violated, that’s a
violation on all of us. That’s how I really approached the
whole set – the choice of the title, the way the graphics were designed. I
wanted the word ‘WAR’ big and I wanted the word “HOMO” big. In fact I thought
– “Well if this were on a shelf at your local DVD shop in your neighbourhood and you were a non-gay person, what would
you possibly be attracted to, to make you pick this up?” ‘WAR’ is something
people see instantly and the logo has the word ‘HOMO’ quite bold,
deliberately, because homo is a word that many anti-gay people use as a
derogatory term. I want non-gay people to pick this up and wonder what this
is about. Many of the conservative religious
leaders see it as a war - a cultural war, a spiritual war - so I was playing
off “How would they see this? Would they connect with this?” And I think the
title is very important in saying “It’s OK – you can check this out. You can
agree with this title as well, because you too think it is a war on
homosexuality.” It’s important that it’s ‘homosexuality’
and not ‘homosexuals’ because something I’ve learned is that
for the religious conservative people who are against homosexuality, they
feel good about that. They’re not against homosexuals - they’re not against
the people.” Arthur carefully remastered
the films with the express purpose of combining them as a set: “As a film-maker, working on this for the last six
months, what I felt was this new synergy (being) created, and I really do see
it as a new film. It takes a while for me to figure out what I’ve done with
each of my films – it usually takes about five years, and having spent the
time putting the three films together -
the booklets, the viewers guides that go with it and all the extra
material – for me it’s making sense now. What I’ve been trying to do for the
last fourteen years is coalescing.” Television timeslots have always determined the
finite length of documentary films. The DVD set contains over four hours of
valuable extra material: “Oh, it’s so exciting – it’s like making a new film
doing this collection, because I wasn’t under those traditionally accepted
narrative restraints, where in a given amount of time you tell a story from
its beginning, up to the middle and through to its end. There’s a certain
amount of dramatic tension you want to build and get released by the end of
the film. Well with a DVD, you have the film yes, but then it’s a more
interactive process of watching or experiencing an issue or a story. Viewers
can choose to say “Oh yeah well I’d like to know more about this particular
part of this story, so I’ll just hit the menu button and go there and check
it out.” And it’s pretty exciting ‘cause for me, as with all
my documentaries, there’s all this research that was conducted, just to get
to the point of putting a finished product on the screen. And so much of that research and many
stories and people I’ve met from the research, ended up not being a part of
the finished product. With the DVD I was able to dig through my hundreds of
boxes of material (I’m kind of an organised
pack-rat) and look through things that I really liked – and somewhat lamented
leaving out – and say “Ah! Here’s my chance – I can put it back in, in this
new format”. Another one of the things I wanted to do with these
DVD’s was to really focus on the music. Each one of the films had original
music scored for it and I’ve always loved the music for different reasons.” Just a year after the release of “Licensed To
Kill”, Matthew Shepard’s murder highlighted the urgent need for wider
understanding of the contempt for homosexuals which results in such violence. Considering
recent Supreme Court legal victories (striking down sodomy laws, potential
marriage reform), does he see any likely quick resolution to the War on
Homosexuality? “Sometimes I paint a very pessimistic point of view,
and I know better than to do that constantly – because I see the progress
that is made, but I think some of us just need to be ever vigilant against
those forces that oppose us. It seems as though, if we let up and celebrate
too much, then we forget that this war is happening and that it’s all
around us. Despite the successes we see and the steps that are
being made, we can’t forget that if we relax a little bit, the opposition’s gonna step right in and do their job.” "Stories from the War on Homosexuality” is
Arthur’s first “home video” project, but his main aim is educational: “More than home video though, I’m focused on the
educational market – ‘cause I really want these in schools. What’s exciting
is that when I self-distribute my product I know where it goes, I know who’s
using it. For example a couple of weeks ago we had an order from the Deer
Park Police Department in Texas (I
mean where the hell is Deer Park?) but they ordered ‘Licensed To Kill’ and
they wanted it for their police training academy and I thought “How
wonderful!” There’s a study guide that goes with the
educational editions of these titles – it’s much heftier than the viewer’s
guide that goes with the home videos – and we worked a long time on them. The
‘Licensed To Kill’ study guide deals with issues such as heterosexualism,
religious bigotry, and the non-responsive police when it comes to anti-gay
hate crimes. So if these issues were never on the radar of the
Deer Park Police Department in Texas, they are going to be now – and
that to me is so exciting. When I receive a request like that it just tells
me “OK, this is why it’s OK for me to do this – and this is why I must
continue to do this”. This is the way I can see it happening: - Certainly
there are politicians and politics, and what we call community leaders that
fight on another front – and are very effective, but for me as a media
artist, I really see these products as part of the range of tools that we can
have for social change.” These DVD’s are region 1, NTSC - but that should be no problem for us because most
recent DVD players are both region free and NTSC compatible (as are TV’s). Certainly
all PC DVD software is NTSC friendly, and with free downloads like “DVD
Genie” your region settings are infinitely selectable. Each DVD is also
available separately. For full details and to order visit www.deepfocusproductions.com |
"Stories from the War
on Homosexuality" is a highly accessible, powerful and empowering resource
for anyone working toward social reform and LGBT acceptance. Great value lies
not only in the high quality of craftsmanship, but also in the entertaining
and compelling presentation and the respect and compassion with which Arthur
treats all of his contributors. "Stories from the War on Homosexuality" gives us a
detailed perspective on the experiential gap between how we view ourselves and
how others may see us. Young people need to know that homosexuals do have an
ongoing and integral role in society…and older persons need to know that we
can’t afford to rest on our laurels. |
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