August 25, 2000

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Coming out from two different worlds

Two dark but interesting films are now out on video

Defying Gravity

Directed by John Keitel

Rites of Passage

Directed by Victor Salva Wolfe Video

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Two films that may have been missed as they traveled the festival and art-house circuit have been released on video. They offer fans of gay cinema an interesting look at queer life in America.

Defying Gravity and Rites of Passage offer two radically different stories about completely different milieus of Americana and yet at the core, the messages of love, forgiveness and enlightenment are the same.

Defying Gravity is set in the fraternity culture of American colleges. The film is advertised as "A daring new film about coming out on campus" and while it isn't as daring as last year's superflick Boys Don't Cry, the film does offer an interesting glimpse into frat culture.

The story revolves around Griff, a very popular fraternity boy who is the ultimate boy next door. He is well-liked, good looking, athletic, intelligent and perfect except for his secret-a clandestine affair with Pete, equally a boy next door. Pete and Griff's affair occurs in the hushed quiet of the night, away from the frat house and away from the belligerent machismo of the brothers.

Pete, who is deeply in love with Griff, tires of the secret nature of their relationship and gives Griff an ultimatum. Their falling out leads to a disastrous series of events for Pete. Left to face the guilt and the fear for Pete's survival, Griff goes on an inward and outward journey to reconcile the deepest parts of who he truly is. He finds a surprising ally in a fraternity brother, who leads Griff into the light with gentle yet. firm support.

The film, written and directed by John Keitel, is well shot and paces itself well. A sub-plot following an African-American lesbian coming to terms with her sexuality offers a nice parallel to Griff and Pete's tale but at times seems underdeveloped.

Daniel Chilson as Griff gives an affecting performance that seems natural and well motivated.

Pete (played by Ohio State University graduate Don Handfiled) is an important role and Handfield does well with the angst of a clandestine love affair. The physical contact between the two, however, is extremely stiff and passionless, exhibiting a discomfort the actors might have had portraying the more tender moments of the relationship.

The film showers us with some stereotypes of fraternity members, yet does well not to fall into the trap of many gay films in that there is no hysterical "fag hag" here—and that is a huge relief. The performances are worth watching as Defying Gravity takes us into a world that is seldom seen in mainstream film and television.

Rites of Passage is equally steeped in machismo but is a much more intimate tale of a father and his two sons coming to terms with their past. The film, directed by Victor Salva (who also made Powder) is a film that unfolds like a detailed portrait painting, in that each brush stroke reveals a new layer of the individual under scrutiny.

The Farrady men are the ones under the microscope here, and when they all end up at the family's mountain getaway, years and years of repressed secrets and unspoken feelings tumble out. The film, although a slice of life, also adds elements of a thriller in a subplot revolving around escaped convicts.

The film offers up a stellar cast. Dean Stockwell (Blue Velvet, Air Force One, and Quantum Leap) plays the hardened father Del who must, in the course of one night, open his heart to his gay son Cambell.

Cambell, stunningly played by Jason Behr (Dawson's Creek and Roswell) must assert his role as a man in the family on par with his father and his brother D.J.

While they confront their family secrets in the thick of the night at the isolated getaway, they are interrupted by two escaped convicts asking for help.

The two strangers are part of deeper and darker secrets that the Farrady men are holding from each other. As the night gets older the events catapult out of control. Del's rabid homophobia emerges and he must make choices about whether he will abandon his son Cambell completely, or if he will become the father he should be and keep Campbell from running into the arms of a much "deadlier father."

The film is well acted, and the taut relationships between these disparate men is filled with tension and deep resentments. Salva's story offers up a slice of life very rarely seen and when the worlds of a nuclear family and convicts collide, the lines of normalcy, love and family become very blurred and difficult to negotiate.

Both films can be found at local GLBT video stores as well as at larger chain stores. They can also be purchased directly from Wolfe Video, www.wolfevideo.com.

Kaizaad Kotwal is a Chronicle contributing writer in Columbus.

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