LLGFF Review Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue is a bleak film. Told with subtitles the film is humorous in places, but mainly you worry about the characters. While this film errs on the pro-gay side, there isn’t a lot of joy.

Ruth is in her mother’s kitchen when she is given the opportunity to out herself as a lesbian. Once she starts confessing she seems unable to stop, telling her mother about her occasional marijuana habit and her sister’s abortions. Shocked, her mother collapses, needing medical attention and causing trouble between Ruth and her sister.

Later, after rising from her bed, Estela (Ruth’s mother) is desperate to understand her daughter’s strange affliction. Her neighbour tells her their hairdresser is gay, her priest gently warns her that gay people face damnation and torment, and a conversation with her sister sees her ending up in a bookshop to study up on being gay.

Finally, buoyed up from her new knowledge of Freud’s Oedipal Complex, Estela is ready to meet her Daughter-in-law and Ruth’s partner of fourteen years, Nora. At this point you really like Estela for her attempts to accept her gay child. She not only invites herself over to her daughters home in order to build a relationship with Nora, she also takes herself off to a lesbian bar on Bingo night where she wins a bottle of champagne.

Uncomfortably for us, the audience, we discover this was not the right time for Ruth to come out. Unbeknownst to both Ruth and Estela, Nora has started an affair with her formerly heterosexual assistant, an affair which is eventually discovered by Estela.

Once the affair is discovered the movie falls flat. Rather than dealing with the breakup, the possible conversations between mother and daughter and Ruth’s pain, instead the film just ends. We see Ruth and Estela sitting in a café together and later crying in a bathroom. It is a shame the director didn’t feel to give the story more time, as the ending really took away from the movie.

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Review by Ida Raine

LLGFF Review The Perfect Family

I was quite excited about The Perfect Family, in fact it was the one film I was determined to see. Still, I rolled into the theatre just in time and brought an entire row to their feet to let me in during the opening credits.

The film starts in sunny suburbia. Eileen Cleary (Kathleen Turner) is driving through town, heading to her local church. Once there we begin to discover how devout she is when she begins her confession with ‘It’s been a day since my last confession...’. Next we see her during communion, standing next to the priest and dropping the Body of Christ onto the floor. The Perfect Family starts off humorous and continues that way through much of the movie, something you appreciate later when the tissues come out.

The storyline is very believable. Deeply devout Eileen is unknowingly the mother of a gay daughter and a son going through a mid-life crisis. At any other time this may have been within her ability to handle. Right now however, she’s been nominated as Catholic Woman of the Year and desperately needs her family to be perfect. Upon discovering her son is leaving his wife, Eileen tells him, ‘Who cares if you’re happy when you could do the right thing?’. Later during an argument with her daughter she says, ‘I don’t have to think, I’m a Catholic’.

Despite the drama the characters in the movie were very likable. Eileen, despite her deep convictions, is a true Catholic and always tries to do the right thing by her family. By the end you genuinely want to see her win that award, just as much as you hope she can accept her children and allow them to be happy. Oh, and you cry. I cried for 5 minutes.

Overall The Perfect Family was not a comment on the Catholic Church; instead it was a movie about families sticking together, about acceptance and looking forward instead of back.

The Perfect Family will be released in the States for 10 viewings and on View On Demand. There is no word on a European release. This is a shame as The Perfect Family is one I would see again.

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Review by Ida Raine

Dykeumentary - fundraising for Dyke March London

The Book Club is a rather nice bar, selling tea and coffee as well as alcohol and tends to get busy in the evening. I never knew it had a downstairs until today. After walking around like a nob for a few minutes, I was pleased to note someone else looking equally as confused. I ended up following her down the stairs and finding the event. Whoever you were, thank you.

The room downstairs was rather odd. Deliberately rough, it was divided in two by a broken wall. This meant there were two projectors and two tightly packed groups. I chose the group at the front and took my seat. After an informative introduction by Emelia, one of the event organisers, the films began.

Todays films were courtesy of Dykeumentary, a fundraising event for Dyke March London. The Dyke March itself is happing on the 31st of March in Central London. Before that date there will be another fundraiser at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern with 4 bands and hopefully, a lot of anticipation.

The films themselves were all lesbian orientated. It is very rare you sit in a room and watch three movies about lesbians, in fact I think this was a first for me. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, particularly since all three were on hand-held cameras. I needn’t have worried as they turned out to be funny, heartbreaking and educational. I think sometimes we forget, or don’t know, how things used to be for lesbians in the world. These films were a good reminder.

The first was about a San Francisco Dyke March in 2002, filmed by a Chinese filmmaker by the name Shi tou. 20 minutes long, she managed to capture the joy of the day, the size of the march, the families, the supporters and most importantly, the amount of breasts on show. Yes, there were breasts everywhere at the Dyke March, in all shapes and sizes. Not that I disapprove, in fact it made me homesick for Pride Parades back in Australia.

The second film was 55 minutes long and all about the American Lesbian Avengers. I had heard of them, I hadn’t known how prevalent they were, nor how successful they were at achieving their aims. They were radical lesbian protestors who weren’t afraid to stand outside schools, storm hotels, carry their protest into office blocks and sing outside in the snow at 12am. They even told a hilarious tale of opening up a bank account in the name of The Lesbian Avengers.
I think one of the loveliest things for me in this film, was the portrayal of the avengers as normal, everyday women. Women who were afraid to walk into public buildings, who suffered from internal homophobia, who could laugh at the fearful reactions of others, and who quite enjoyed home crafts. It was a very powerful film.

The third film was one we never saw due to a technological issue, which was a pity as it sounded fantastic. ‘Women’ by Shi tou, was a documentary about the lives of women in China and a lesbian-heavy village in the province of Guizhou.

Instead we were all crammed into the front of the room to watch a 20 minute doco (We want to get married, 2006), also by Shi tou, about Chinese attitudes to gay marriage. Despite most people commenting that ‘It’s a private matter’, and ‘Marriage is a personal freedom’, that illusion of acceptance falls down when Shi tou asked one man how he would feel if it was his own son or daughter. ‘That would be impossible’, he said ‘As good parents have good influence’.

I’m very pleased I went and was even more pleased to hear the event raised £300 for Dyke March London.

Who Cares?

The Vigil against Hate Crime 2011 wasn't well publicised from where I'm standing. I first saw it on my newsfeed in response to the brutal murder of Stuart Walker. Planet London was the next to publicise it and later, a member of Pride London. Yet each time it dropped like a stone in the ocean. Asking around today, almost none of my social circle were going and in fact, few seemed even aware it was happening. 

With this in mind I made my way to Trafalgar Square at 7pm and was almost not surprised to see the too small crowd surrounding the 'No to Hate Crime' stage. With both a voice and wind ensemble at work, the curious were being attracted to the cause, with the surrounding crowd being both supportive and respectful.

By 8pm the crowd had thankfully tripled in size and many held candles protected from the wind during the two minutes of silence. As the names of the many who lost their lives were read out, the crowd remained silent, their heads bowed.

Lindsay Wolf was the first inspirational speaker on the stage, discussing the devastating effect of hate crime on the lives of elderly LGBT. Stuart Milk, the founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation was next and asked

"Where is the media? Where is anyone who is planning on running for public office?. Where were they?"

It struck me as ironic that peaceful protestors have been dominating the news, yet the many who died due to anger and intolerance don't even attract one reporter.

Two years ago 10,000 people descended on Trafalgar Square to send a public message against hate crime in all it's forms. For all our sakes, lets hope this event can galvanise that kind of support again in 2012.


Review by Ida Raine

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What do you think?
Were you at the vigil, did you know it was happening? Did it pass you by completely? Add your comments below.