September 18, 2006
Homotopia: Gay Annulment Tour
Love Revolution, not State Delusion
Our tactics are as varied as our genders, our activism as hot as our sex and our resistance as untethered as our desires.
An independent short film Homotopia follows radical queers "dedicated to exposing the trouble with gay marriage, dismantling the State, undoing Empire, while looking totally fierce." It'll be touring the Northeast US in October, spreading subversion with each screening.
Self-consciously patterned after "radical feminist guerilla cinema of the 1970s" (or 1983... Born in Flames anyone?), you probably won't see this one at VIFF or NYFF or SIFF or TIFF - this is cinema in the streets!
"Set sometime in the future-present Homotopia chronicles a group of radical queers dedicated to exposing the trouble with gay marriage, dismantling the State, undoing Empire, while looking totally fierce. Woven into the story of Yoshi's adventures in love, resistance, and sex, is a critique of the crushing violence of homonormativity and its deadly perpetuation of US patriotism, conservative kinship structures and affective accumulation. Homotopia holds cinematic assumptions hostage through its motley assemblage of never-passing crew. Race, gender, ability and desire are reworked through an anti-colonial take of queer struggle creating a visual rhythm of melancholic utopianism that knows there may be no future but still hopes today is not their last.
More at the Homotopia website.
Comments
Greg said...
I don't mean to piss on the fire or anything, but one has to wonder how much good will be done for the gay rights movement by spreading the idea that militant homosexuals are hitting the streets...Ah hell, let your freak flag fly!
Posted by: Greg | September 20, 2006 11:32 PM
Andrew said...
Hey Greg, I don't think you get it.
Posted by: Andrew | September 21, 2006 2:50 AM
Andrew said...
Sorry, that was a little glib. Let me explain further.
From the Homotopia Manifesto: "Too many have kept silent while we are brutalized, buried in shallow, unmarked graves, set on fire, and strung up on fence posts. We hide so that we dont meet the same fate and because it is written on our bodies that queer life, in the shadows of global capitalism and imperial phantasies, is nothing more than bare life. The closet will not keep us safe, nor has it ever. Attempting to live a straight white life may give some of us access to privilege but at whose expense?"
Essentially, Greg, your notion of "good" is what Homotopia is challenging. The film seeks to begin to define the struggle on its own terms, and not the terms of privilege and silence.
Posted by: Andrew | September 26, 2006 4:35 PM
Greg said...
When I used the phrase "militant homosexuals" I meant just that. We're not talking about gay pride parades, rainbow bumper stickers, or the general promotion of gay awareness and tolerance. We're talking about people who advocate "dismantling the State, undoing Empire." However tongue-and-cheek, that sounds pretty militant to me.
The fact is that one of the best tools the far-right uses in its various attacks on the gay community is the propagation of the myth that gays are on a revolutionary crusade to convert your children and change the face of society in some homo-explosion. That if they are given the right to marry and have equal protection under the law, traditional society will be upended. As far as I know this is not the case, nor is it the design of the gay community. Most gay activists simply advocate for the freedom and acceptance they are due.
I merely meant to offer the dissenting viewpoint that from what little I have seen of Homotopia, it seems to endorse the gay myths of the right-wing hate machine. It is my opinion that this myth is destructive to the goal of a free and harmonious society where gay and strait are equal and friendly. I would thus challenge what appears to be the strategy of Homotopia, and say that the greatest "good" can be done by embracing the current, more moderate, yet still proud and expressive tone of the larger gay rights movement.
Also, the above excerpt from the Homotopia Manifesto doesn’t sound any more radical (or really much different at all) from what I would say are the normal, moderate views of the general gay pride movement. The idea that homosexuals should be able to be who they are out in the open and still have a place in the world is hardly new. I think those are great positions, and if that is what homotopia is advocating them my criticism would shift from their prescription to the depiction. If these are the most radical of their views then their claim of originality and radicalism are false, and their message is choked by undue romanticism and the juvenile lust for revolution of a middle school communist.
Posted by: Greg | September 29, 2006 12:19 AM
Andrew said...
Again, Greg, I think you've missed the point. You're still asking the makers of Homotopia to stifle their own struggle for the sake of the moderate "good," and this is exactly what they are challenging.
"Gay marriage does not challenge transphobia, or stop racist cops from murdering us in cold blood. Rainbow flags will not slow the bleeding. Privilege given, can always be taken back. We work towards radical change without ends and towards a world were oppression will not be replaced with other forms of violence under the name of progress."
In essence, you're saying: "Don't rock the boat, that's what conservatives want." But why should conservatives define the terms of struggle? Shouldn't queers define their struggle for themselves?
There is a lot that is original and radical to Homotopia, and if you can't recognize it, I'm afraid you need to study up on history a bit... It's apparent to me you don't know much about gender, and your language and the constant polarizing of gay and straight are rather dated.
Posted by: Andrew | September 29, 2006 3:00 PM
greg said...
I fully recognize the importance of the movement being fought on its own terms, and also the idea that in many struggles, radical action is warranted and necessary. I recognize that this may be the case in this particular struggle as well. I never indented to brush aside any of those ideas or to totally delegitimize this film. I only meant to offer some counter points in the spirit of discussion. I think it’s always important to way the possible costs and benefits of any course of action. I think it is important to always have an open, but skeptical mind. In this case, to “ask the makers of Homotopia†these tough questions before espousing their message.
Also, I didn't say that Homotopia (a film I have not seen) was unoriginal. I said that your...
"... above excerpt from the Homotopia Manifesto doesn’t sound any more radical (or really much different at all) from what I would say are the normal, moderate views of the general gay pride movement."
What I got from your except was this:
1. The brutalization of gays is bad.
I agree completely as I would guess most people do.
2. Hiding your homosexuality is bad and will not keep you safe from violence.
Again, standard tenant of the gay community.
3. The benefits of living a "strait life" are outweighed by the costs.
Agree.
4.On the context in which "global capitalism and imperial phantasies" are reference I'm not quite clear, so I my have in fact missed the point there.
Your last excerpt (9/29) seems to say that the current program of the movement (gay marriage, etc.) is insufficient to address the issue of the violent persecution of homosexuals, and that different, more severe action is needed. This is obviously a more radical statement. And I think it’s legitimate. For my part, I would have no problem endorsing any reasonable action aimed at ending hate violence.
If my frankness has offended you I apologize. I think that’s important for discussion. If my terminology has been incorrect, outmoded, or offensive, again I apologize. I’m not sure what you meant by my “not knowing much about gender†or my “constant polarization of gay and strait.†But again, if you’re offended I apologize.
Posted by: greg | September 29, 2006 11:32 PM
Andrew said...
No need to get defensive Greg. It just comes across as if, in "offering counter points in the spirit of discussion," you interjected comments into a discussion you were hardly even listening to prior to interjecting.
For instance, it doesn't seem like you even watched the Homotopia trailer. If you did, you'd find the film is very critical of the mainstream gay rights movement for very specific reasons (e.g. the prioritizing of middle class white lifestyles, reformist goals, etc). You'd also find its got a sense of humor - Homotopia is all for "undue romanticism and the juvenile lust" ... seriously, what are hotter than romance and lust?
Posted by: Andrew | October 2, 2006 2:42 AM
Jared Cook said...
They showed this film at my college a few days ago, it was fierce!!!!!
I am an anarchist already, so I didn't need much convincing. I've never understood why so many other anarchists are against capitalism though, perhaps they mean corporatism?
Whatever...this is a sexy funny film with a bit of nudity. See it.
Posted by: Jared Cook | October 14, 2006 10:51 PM