DVD/VHS

Stories from the War on Homosexuality

Arthur Dong’s Coming Out Under Fire, Family Fundamentals, and Licensed to Kill make this one of the best threesomes you’ll ever have

The historic collection of Arthur Dong’s landmark documentaries is here in a three-DVD box set. Dong’s acclaimed and award-winning films capture modern American society’s conflicts with homosexuality and gay culture. Together, these films powerfully illustrate the different fronts where the gay rights struggles continue to be fought—military, religion, and hate crimes.

Dong has done a truly remarkable job, creating the definitive versions of these important documents. Like he did with last year’s brilliant DVD edition of Forbidden City USA, Dong has taken full advantage of the format and added a wealth of resources to each film.

• Coming Out Under Fire shoots to the heart of today’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays and lesbians in the military. Recipient of a Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award, the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Award, and a GLAAD Media Award, this internationally acclaimed film uncovers the World War II origins of a military policy that labeled homosexuals as mentally ill and sought their discharge as “undesirables.”

The DVD now includes additional interviews, extended scenes from the 1993 Senate hearings, a 12-page illustrated viewer’s guide, and a historical document gallery, including the military’s “gag reflex and fellatio test” and other fascinating ways to detect gay servicemembers.

• Family Fundamentals. What happens when religiously conservative Christian families have children who “become homosexual”? Family Fundamentals takes viewers into the private and sometimes very public lives of families where parents actively oppose homosexuality, despite having gay children themselves. Placed on the 2002 Top Ten lists of the New York Press, Frontiers Magazine, and Windy City Times.

The DVD adds nine additional scenes and interviews, an illustrated viewer’s guide tracing the conflict between the religious right and the gay movement, and an interview with Arthur Dong on activist and political filmmaking.

• Licensed to Kill is a riveting journey into the minds of seven men whose contempt for homosexuals led them to murder. Inspired by his own experience as a victim of gay-bashing, filmmaker Arthur Dong meets convicted killers of gay men and asks them, “Why did you do it?” Licensed to Kill was a winner of two awards at the Sundance Film Festival and numerous Best Documentary honors from festivals worldwide

The DVD features 45 minutes of previously unreleased footage, a filmmaker interview with Arthur Dong about his journey from gay-bash victim to filmmaker, an illustrated viewer’s guide, and a new follow-up interview with one of the inmates.

From DeepFocus Productions (www.deepfocusproductions.com or 800/343-5540). —Troy Carrington

MORE DVD/VHS REVIEWS

• Gasoline

This compelling film ignites the screen with a sexy combination of danger, action, and unadulterated passion. Based on the acclaimed book of the same name, Gasoline is the touching story of two girls, young lovers destined to be together, who find they must confront an inhospitable world—though they’re fully prepared to fight back. • When one of the girls accidentally murders the disapproving mother of the other, they become guilt-ridden and anxious as they are literally haunted by the mother’s judgmental ghost. Compounding their problems, they are also menaced by a gang of marauding teenagers. The two women must rationally decide on their destiny, dispose of the body, and flee . . . in order to stay together. • “Intensely and proudly romantic,” exclaimed the New York Times during the film’s theatrical run. From the New York Post: “Take Thelma & Louise, throw in hot girl-on-girl sex, and you have Gasoline,” further proclaiming that the film has “a high-tech energetic look that keeps the thrill and entertainment levels high.” • In Italian with English subtitles, Gasoline is directed by Monica Stambrini. From Strand Releasing Home Video (www.strandreleasing.com). —Suzie Lynde

• Confusion of Genders

Ilan Duran Cohen’s Confusion of Genders, which is based on his best-selling novel of the same name, is an uninhibited romantic satire about Alain (Pascal Greggory), an attorney whose profound sexual indecisiveness leads him to be pursued by a female colleague (Nathalie Richard) as well as her hot teenage brother (Cyrille Thouvenin). All this attention does not stop Alain from continuing to fantasize about Marc (Vincent Martinez), a client whose case Alain has lost and whom Alain continues to visit behind bars. Trying to help Marc by passing messages to Babette (Julie Gayet), Marc’s girlfriend on the outside, Alain becomes further mired in sexual confusion when he becomes involved with her, too. • Openly gay Cyrille Thouvenin, one of France’s hottest young actors, starred most recently in the mini-series Dangerous Liaisons with Rupert Everett, Catherine Deneuve, Natassja Kinski, and Leelee Sobieski. • Confusion of Genders was an official selection of the New Directors/New Films Festival (2001) and Sundance Film Festival (2001). • Available on December 9 from Picture This! Entertainment. —TC

• Boys Life 4: Four Play

Boys Life 4: Four Play continues Strand Releasing’s commitment to acquiring and distributing the best of award-winning gay short films, both theatrically and on home video, that deal with coming out and the trials and tribulations of being gay. • This new anthology, perhaps as a positive sign of the times, focuses on the vagaries of modern romance that demonstrates love has no boundaries. • Each segment is “polished, succinctly developed, and well-acted,” wrote the Los Angeles Times. “It deserves as warm a reception as its predecessors.” The New York Times called the film “substantial and ambitious,” while LA Weekly noted how “well-rounded” this collection is. • The four films in Boys Life 4: Four Play are: L.T.R., directed by Phillip J. Bartell and starring Cole Williams and Weston Mueller; O Beautiful, from director Alan Brown and starring Jay Gillespie and David Rogers; Bumping Heads, directed by Brian Sloan and starring Craig Chester and Anderson Gabrych; and This Car Up, directed by Eric Mueller and starring Michael Booth and Brent Doyle. • The DVD includes commentary from all four directors. From Strand Releasing Home Video (www.strandreleasing.com). —TC

• The Best of Insomniac Uncensored, Volume 2

In the spirit of true gonzo journalism, comedian Dave Attell understands adventure as a solitary pursuit. For the past couple of years he has made his customary jaunts around the country doing standup in comedy clubs, and he has left those comedy clubs afterwards each night and gone out partying and seeing the places he was visiting. The difference between him and other comedians is that he has brought a camera along with him and documented the entire thing. Though the alcohol involved is as much a cast member as is Attell, partying is not his primary pursuit. He has obviously carefully taken the time to research each city and found places he is able to visit in the middle of the night, interviewing night workers and partygoers and the like. Whether he’s piling into a van with a couple of Kansas City bail bondsmen for a 3 a.m. bounty hunt, drinking beers at 2 a.m. with a contingent of trapshooters or taking a couple of strippers out for a rack of lamb, he keeps it interesting, he keeps it fun, and he stays drunk. Some of OutSmart readers may be interested in Attell’s visit to a Boise gay bar full of bears enjoying “fetish night,” complete with live piercings, spankings, and a whole lotta leather. From Comedy Central (www.comedycentral.com). —Lance Walker

• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

Starring Angelina Jolie, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life finds the resilient, sexy adventurer on a new mission to carry on her deceased father’s work as an archaeologist and antiquities hunter. When she uncovers an ancient orb that is the map to finding Pandora’s Box, which contains the most unspeakable evil ever known, the intrepid tomb raider travels the world from Greece to Hong Kong and China to East Africa. Demonstrating her physical prowess and her courage, Lara proves that she will stop at nothing in her search for the place known as “The Cradle of Life,” which hosts Pandora’s Box. Now, Lara must find the box before it falls into the hands of the maniacal Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Jonathan Reiss (Ciaran Hinds). • The Special Collector’s Edition DVD offers fans to follow Lara as she travels to exotic locales on her quest to save Pandora’s Box, plus hours of interactive entertainment: commentary by director Jan De Bont; six deleted scenes and an alternate ending, all with commentary by De Bont; five featurettes on the film’s training, weapons, and vehicles, visual effects, stunts, and scoring; and more. • From Paramount Home Entertainment (www.paramount.com/homeentertainment). —SL

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• Strangers with Candy: Season Two

Set in a timeless Anytown, USA, Strangers with Candy deals with topics very close to everyone who has suffered through freshman year in high school. However, this time they are told through the eyes of an extremely unique freshman, 47-year-old Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris), who thinks she’s straight, but her constant leers at women let us know otherwise. Jerri faces the hassles of high school with a new moral crisis, introduced in every episode, brought to a comically tidy, but twisted, resolution by show’s end. Jerri is joined by other dubious characters, including two of her closeted teachers who are lovers, Mr Noblet (Stephen Colbert of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), who is married, and Geoffrey Jellineck (Paul Dinello). • Strangers with Candy features all 10 episodes of the second season, and contains audio commentary provided by Sedaris, Colbert,, and Dinello on four episodes. Additional bonus material includes a 44-minute interview with the cast. From Comedy Central (www.comedycentral.com). —SL

• Upright Citizens Brigade: The Complete First Season

The Upright Citizens Brigade was either severely underrated or just terribly underacted—either way it never seemed to really take off for audiences. The sketches are smart, the writing is well done, and the acting is sufficient enough, but nothing ever really leaves your gut hurting afterwards from uncontrollable rounds of laughter. At the same time, a lot of the characters and sketches from the show are very memorable, such as “Little Donny,” a skinny, less-than-brilliant kid who runs around with an 18-inch schlong hanging out of his shorts and swinging between his legs at all times, to a piece about a businessman revealing his secret to success involving “ass pennies.” You do the math on that one. From Comedy Central (www.comedycentral.com). —LW

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