Gay or Not? / Innocent

[opengoal]

My 2nd day at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. I watched 2 screenings: Hong Kong Indie Shorts and Simon Chung's latest film Innocent.

It was Innocent's world premiere and it was sold out. I like this film but I'm even more impressed with the short film Gay or Not?, a documentary made by highschool students about the homosexual gossip circulating in their class. It's very  true and funny. And like most of the audience, I was amazed how open and relaxed the classmates were in front of the camera. Like the directors later said in the Q&A session, only they can achieve that because they were classmates, not outsiders trying to shoot a film.


Gay or Not?
Hong Kong, 2004, 22 min
Directed by: Wai-yee Chan, Yee-nam Lou

Gay or Not? is a documentary made by a group of high school seniors about two boys in their class who were so close that their classmates suspected them to be gay.

The film started with footage of how the boys were always tickling and cuddling each other, whispering into each other's ears, and generally touching each other during lessons and in the library.

Then came the interviews with their classmates and teachers about their views on this pair (Do you think they're gay?) and then on homosexuality in general, intersected with further footages of the boys in question. Because of the school's buddhist connection, the filmmakers interviewed the Buddhism teacher, Ethics teacher and the Biology teacher. A Christian classmate was also interviewed to lend a little religious balance. The biology teacher expressed a rather funny view that purported to be scientific. She said that intercourse with vagina and penis was natural from a biological perspective, and that the anus had only a single-cell lining which was risky for intercourse.

Most of the classmates thought that the more effemine boy (Lau) was gay while they had reservations about the other boy (who seemed to be the tall, dark, sporty type, by the way). The directors asked the latter boy whether he thought Lau was gay. He said outright Lau wasn't. They asked him if he'd ever suspected. He said he had at first but he asked Lau rightaway. He went on to say that he used to play a lot of football and all the lads act like that, hugging and touching all the time. And he said he was not gay.

Lau also denied he was gay. And he denied it adamantly. So adamantly that I do feel it was denial. He asked the film crew why they didn't ask him himself. So they did. And they pressed him for what kind of girls he liked. A gossipy female classmate supplied that he was kind of close with Heidi. But despite the interviews with the girls the two boys were supposed with, I do get the impression that they were at least bi-curious and in serious denial. Why else did they persist with the affectionate behaviour when their classmates gossip about them so much?

In the post-screening Q&A, most of the audience were impressed with the young filmmakers. Honestly, it was the most entertaining film of all the short films. The other ones were all boring, self-obsessed arty stuffs.

Three lesbians were indignant, though, at the homophobia in the film and the negative light the film sheds on homosexuality. They also felt that the boys seemed to have been backed into a corner. I understand their concerns. Indeed, if there're young gay/bi-curious boys watching, they might be scared to act affectionately with other boys in school. But honestly, that's what highschool students do. They're cruel, no doubt about that. Granted, if there had been some input from LGBT groups in the making of the film, it might've been more morally sound and useful/informative. Still, as a documentary that portrays the reality, I think this film does its job and does it quite well. It's not only real (which is difficult enough), but also very entertaining. And don't forget, the filmmakers are still in high school.