VQFF 2007 Diairies, Part 2: Shelter shows we are family
A gay surfer movie with an emphasis on the importance of family—who woulda thunk it?
Saw Shelter last night at the VQFF. Having had a number of mutual attractions with closeted skaters, snowboarders, and other outdoorsy types in my own life (an inherent self-absorption in these guys, however, were the deal-breakers for me, but that's another story), I was curious how the gay aspect would be handled within the context of surfer culture and how it would be resolved.
Living in San Pedro, California, cute surfer dude Zach, who has an on and off relationship with a pretty ex-girlfriend, is weighed down by a sense of over-responsibility to his irresponsible single sister's son (who knows how to manipulate and take advantage of that). What little free time he has between his job as a chef he spends surfing, skateboarding, and grafitti stenciling.
When Shaun, the older brother of his best friend arrives, the two become fast friends on the waves. And one drunken night, the two become a little more than that.
Shaun is out to everyone, but Zach is confused. Making things even more difficult are his homophobic sister who heaps more and more responsibilites on to Zach, who doesn't know how to say no.
Zach's internal conflict with accepting his attraction to Shaun is handled realistically, and it is interesting to see gay identities outside of the stereotypical gay lifestyles we normally see depcited in mainstream TV and film.
The ending though seems to rely a bit too heavily on a feel-good Message, which betrays the complex angst and frustration that makes up most of the film. Something incredibly bittersweet might have been fitting.
In the Q&A session after the film, the director, who was in attendance, said that both actors were straight. It's quite commendable that they were, and were able to act in numerous physically intimate scenes, including a lot of kissing.
The strong emphasis on family and caring for youngsters also gave the film a twist, and if that's something you're interested in, there seem to be several other selections in the festival that might interest you.
Another such film is the (ironically) similarly entitled Shelter Me (Riparo) (I guess the idea of "shelter" and "family" go hand-in-hand) on Aug. 20. It's an Italian film about two lesbians find that when they get back home from a trip to North Africa, they have inadvertently brought back a souvenir they didn't realize: a young Moroccan stowaway. The three form an unexpected relationship that faces many challenges along the way.
There's also Queering Family: Transparent and Queer Spawn on Aug. 25 about transgender men who have given birth and the stories of how they are raising their children.
The closing film, Vivere, on Aug. 26 is also about family ties, as an older German-Italian sister goes searching for her younger sister, who has runaway from home on Christmas eve with her rocker boyfriend. Along the way, the older sister runs into a mysterious lesbian woman, who becomes a symbollic maternal figure for her (the mother of the two girls died and the older sister became the family's surrogate mother).
All of these stories add a different dimension to the traditional queer love stories—it's queer familial love. Perhaps, now that gay marriages have been legalized in Canada and other countries, it's something we'll be seeing more and more of as the years go by.
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