Members of the University of British Columbia football team allowed themselves to be fake waterboarded as part of a provocative short film that deals with human rights and what the filmmaker sees as the conformist nature of Gay Pride events. (Film clip below).
Xtra in Canada details the film by Noam Gonick, who contends that Pride is becoming a “military parade that glorifies fascist imagery of cops, conformity and corporatization.” Gonick originally produced his film to address human rights issues. His subjects in the film were the football players from the UBC Thunderbirds.
Gonick asked the Thunderbirds to imitate waterboarding techniques on each other, with players’ faces covered in rainbow-colored underwear. They also performed hazing rituals.
“I didn’t even have to direct them,” the filmmaker says. “It took off on its own.”
Gonick and animator Dennis Tam edited the football player footage with graphic text ‘scorecards’ recalling military dictators like Adolf Hitler and Augusto Pinochet. He also gave his film a name: No Safe Words. In SM culture, a safe word is what a slave says to a master to force them to stop. “In human rights abuses,” says Gonick, “there are no safe words.”
When Gonick showed the short film at the 2008 Toronto Pride he was struck by how police and soldiers were part of the revelry, which bothered him given past negative associations with police and gays. “We’re willing to do anything to get the approval of the state.” He incorporated images from Toronto into a longer film to be shown this summer.
Gonick clearly is meant to be provocative, so what kind of response does his film provoke in you? I found the clip below muddled and not very effective in its message. Had I not read the article and Gonick’s reasons for making the film, his message would have sailed 10 feet over my head.
Hat tip to Queerclick.
on Jun 10th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
It looked a bit like a homoerotic short film. The message was lost in the filmmakers quest to tantalize.
on Jun 11th, 2009 at 6:50 am
In no respect is this “waterboarding,” since they’re bolt upright and the water flows harmlessly away from mouth and nose. (Check the angle of the head.)
on Jun 11th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Pride is becoming “military parade that glorifies fascist imagery of cops, conformity and corporatization.”
on Jun 11th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Maybe in context there will be a message.
Or maybe they’re just Canadian and don’t need one.
Now, now boys. Play nice. You know I love you all.
on Jun 11th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
S&M especially the fetishistic aspects gay “and” straight has always incorporated taboo elements of domination, uniform and role playing. The “style” this rather muddled, troubled militant is adopting is nothing new.
and if Gay Pride is now incorporating police, soldiers etc who are joining in with the revelries rather than pulverising the revellers, why may I ask is this bad?
Surely a cornerstone of Gay rights is acceptance and integration? Who’s to say that any number of those police and soldiers were gay themselves? The men and women who marched in the 60s and 70s at great risk to their lives and safety did so for such a day that they could march with those who’d once beaten seven shades oh holy shit out of them.
Under Hitler, Stalin Castro etc homosexuals were forced underground, led hermetic terrified lives - by referencing these eras to make a case against integration surely Gonick is regressive, calling for marginalisation not progress.
What exactly is his problem?
on Jun 11th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
While bringing attention to human rights abuses is always noble, the filmmaker’s apparent dissatisfaction with the inclusion of police and military in pride parades sounds like run-of-the-mill petulant anarchist agitprop. Yawn.
on Jun 11th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
“military parade that glorifies fascist imagery of cops, conformity and corporatization.”
isn’t the whole point of our movement to integrate into mainstream society? but hey if this douche is happy to have us stay on the fringes then whatever. next he’ll be romanticizing the times when we all stayed in the closet…….
on Jun 13th, 2009 at 7:40 am
I couldn’t read the playcards/scorecards and didn’t notice the text scrolling across the screen because I was trying to keep up with the visuals…
If I hadn’t read the article, I would have had no idea what the clip’s message was… And I’m still not sure what the message is… Seems like a way to put a lot of imagery of shirtless, muscular young men onscreen… Very soft-core porn???????
Derek
on Jun 13th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
“isn’t the whole point of our movement to integrate into mainstream society?”
Yes and no. Integrate yes, but also change mainstream society for the better and allow more space for expression of views that are different. I don’t have a problem with cops and soldiers being involved with Pride, but corporatization and conformity, yes, that’s a problem.