Parvez Sharma (L) and Sandi DuBowski (R)
I am dedicating one of my last posts of my special Gay Pride 2011 series to two remarkable, beautifully rendered and controversial documentary films. The films are, Trembling Before G-d and A Jihad For Love.
Trembling Before G-d was released in 2001. It is a documentary profiling several gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews trying to reconcile their sexuality with their faith. It was directed by Sandi DuBowski. The film also earned several film awards, including the Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival, as well as Best Documentary at the 2001 Chicago International Film Festival as well as the 2003 GLAAD Media Award for outstanding documentary.
A Jihad For Love was released in 2007. It is the world's first documentary film on the coexistence of Islam and homosexuality. The film is directed by Parvez Sharma, and produced by Sharma and Trembling Before G-d director Sandi DuBowski. The film won the 2008 Best Documentary Award at both The Milan International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and The Torino International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival as well as the 2009 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary.
Both films have obviously been out there for some time now. Unfortunately many of their messages are more relevant now than ever before.
Both films use an expose' type format and reveal a series of individuals who speak of their unique struggles between their respective religions and their sexuality. The stories are diverse, complex and contain a number of emotional arcs, anxiety provoking sequences and sometimes expected and unexpected outcomes. Both films also introduce us to a prominent religious leader from their films respective religion who is openly gay. In the case of Trembling Before G-d that religious leader is rabbi Steven Greenberg, the first person with Orthodox Rabbinic ordination to announce his homosexuality to the world while also continuing adherence to Orthodox Judaism. In A Jihad For Love the religious leader is Imam Muhsin Hendricks, a soft spoken gay Imam living in Johannesburg, South Africa.
There are many ways these two films can be interpreted and understood. There are many various, lasting and prevailing impressions one could be left with after viewing these films. This is one of the reasons they are both seen as being controversial. Both films depict a particularly righteous and vehement type of homophobia and heterosexism that religious institutions seem to have cornered the market on.
In the case of A Jihad For Love the existence of such homophobia and heterosexism is somewhat more disturbing on some levels, owing to the fact that some Islamic country's interpretation of acceptable punishment for homosexual actions includes death. While the shunning and separation from the community that certain orthodox Jews profiled in Trembling Before G-d may absolutely be experienced by them as a death of sorts, those aren't the physical deaths some of those in A Jihad For Love potentially face. Nevertheless, these acts are nearly as disturbing within the larger universal contexts of intolerance and ones inherent and desired freedom to express ones true self.
All of the potential negative consequences for religiously observant people who simply desire to love their God as well as any human expression of that divinity of their choosing are severe by almost any standard of humanity. Because of that fact there are those whose ultimate assessment of both these films is that they represent overwhelming tragedy, sadness, oppression and defeat on one or more levels. Some believe both films make a very strong albeit unintentional case for the total abandoning of religious devotion by all LGBT people, that in the face of the type and degree of religious judgmentalism shown in the films only atheism or agnosticism are sane options. There are also those who will only see blasphemy and sin in both films. There are those who will only see propaganda. There are those who have received both films with great hostility and much gnashing of teeth. Interestingly, there have not been any official calls to death for neither Sharma nor DuBowski as I far as I know.
Nevertheless, I see something different and considerably more uplifting in both films. I see hope. I see an opening of spaciousness for needed dialog. I see a spiritually inspired type of courage. I see love. I also see a developing degree of tolerance by a religious world not always use to demonstrating tolerance. And in many ways I see myself in both films. I see myself because of my experience of being someone who has been deeply religious for as long as I can remember, someone who has been same gender loving for as long as I can remember and someone who for many years experienced those two realities as being in deep conflict with each other. I eventually discovered a way to be both intensely religious (Roman Catholicism) and completely true to my same gender loving self without any conflict whatsoever. Some difficult choices were made. I am no longer active in the catholic church. By the same token, I do not in any way view myself as a "fallen away" catholic. My current spiritual life is very rich and multifaceted and also heavily and positively influenced by my catholic upbringing. Granted, I personally never had the constant threat of death or separation from those I loved hanging over my head in the same ways as some of the people profiled in Trembling Before G-d or A Jihad For Love. Though like every LGBT person in America intuitively knows, any of us can be the next Matthew Shepard at any moment. That is one of the tangible and realistic links between those in these two films and myself. And it is those shared links that exist between those in the films, most religious LGBT people on the planet and myself. Links, I believe these films potentially help to significantly weaken for us all.
Both films are available for viewing through various internet sites.
Here are a few of those sites--
Trembling Before G-d
1. http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/trembling_before_g_d/
2. http://www.hulu.com/watch/76545/trembling-before-g-d
A Jihad For Love
1. http://www.logotv.com/video/a-jihad-for-love-full-documentary/1607744/playlist.jhtml
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