One of the best aspects of the festival is that it promotes cultural diversity, featuring films from around the world made by and starring people of many different races. The festival also includes films that address LGBT issues, both in the United States and other countries.
The festival even included an evening of screenings this past Sunday featuring short films dealing exclusively with LGBT issues.
My favorite short from that night was Swadhisthana, an uproarious comedy which portrays African-American parents coping with the discovery that their teen son is gay. This film shatters the stereotype that blacks tend to be more conservative than whites when it comes to homosexuality because of religious and cultural factors.
Rather than reject their son for his sexual orientation, lecture him about the error of his ways or try to "pray the gay away," the parents in Swadhisthana go overboard to show their son that they accept him unconditionally. At one point, the parents even dress up in ridiculous costumes and put on a skit in the living room to educate their son and daughter about tolerance.
With the mother wearing oven mittens on her head to represent a flower and the father wearing a black and yellow hazmat suit to look like a bee, the parents' skit conveys the message to their reluctant children that it's okay for flowers to be with other flowers and bees with other bees and they can still have "a life of honey."
With the mother wearing oven mittens on her head to represent a flower and the father wearing a black and yellow hazmat suit to look like a bee, the parents' skit conveys the message to their reluctant children that it's okay for flowers to be with other flowers and bees with other bees and they can still have "a life of honey."
Alessandra Pinkston and Stevie Johnson, the actors playing the parents, have excellent on-screen chemistry and very believably portray the parents' bumbling yet well-meaning antics. The son is played by Tyler Parks, whose understated performance challenges another stereotype: that gay men are effeminate and flamboyant. Parks' character is anything but.
Diana Reasonover, the young actress playing the daughter, is also a standout, delivering each line with the biting sarcasm and disdain for her parents appropriate for a girl her age.
Written and directed by Joel Mahr, the 20-minute Swadhisthana plays like a sitcom episode, but confronts serious subject matter head-on. The title, by the way, comes from a Hindu term referring to the second chakra and is represented in the form of a black lotus flower with syllables written on each petal in the color of lightning.
Diana Reasonover, the young actress playing the daughter, is also a standout, delivering each line with the biting sarcasm and disdain for her parents appropriate for a girl her age.
Written and directed by Joel Mahr, the 20-minute Swadhisthana plays like a sitcom episode, but confronts serious subject matter head-on. The title, by the way, comes from a Hindu term referring to the second chakra and is represented in the form of a black lotus flower with syllables written on each petal in the color of lightning.
I'm not exactly sure what the time means in relation to the plot, but the movie is definitely worth checking out if it ever comes to DVD, YouTube or some other distribution format.
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