Billy Elliot

Of all the movies I watched, none were as touching and uplifting as Billy Elliot. I admit, even I was a little reluctant to watch a movie about a young, working-class tough whose life is transformed when he secretly gives up boxing for ballet. Many obstacles must be overcome, including the disapproval of many of the people in young Billy’s life, especially his father. Not to mention the area he lives in is in the middle of the famous UK Miners Strike of 1984-1985.

What makes this movie more than just the typical (British) feel-good/against-the-odds film is the spectacular acting from all the characters, especially Jamie Bell, who plays the eleven year old title character. Bell was fourteen years old when he played the role of Billy, a role which won him a BAFTA (the British Oscar) for Best Actor. Julie Walters is also excellent as Billy’s no-nonsense, embittered ballet teacher; as is Gary Lewis as Billy’s father. My personal favorite character is Billy’s best friend Michael Caffrey (Stuart Wells). He is effeminate and gay, clearly out of place in a coal mining town, but the movie doesn’t dwell on that, just the touching friendship two awkward and out of place young boys, one straight, one gay, can create.

To sum it all up, Billy Elliot is the first movie in a long time that made me want to cry for joy. This is a movie that will make you laugh and cry in the best of ways. If I were Ebert, Siskel, or Roper, I’d give this film two very big thumbs up.

Movie Review: Boys Don't Cry

The first movie that I want to review is also probably the most well known, and that’s saying something. Boys Don’t Cry is the 1999 drama which won Hilary Swank a VERY well-deserved Oscar for Best Actress.

The film is based on the true story of Teena Brandon/ Brandon Teena, a pre-op female to male transgender who was murdered in 1993 in Nebraska while posing as an anatomically normal male. Swank is truly phenomenal in this role, even the viewer must admit that she is thoroughly convincing as a man. The supporting cast is also strong, with Chloe Sevigny as Lana, the girl Brandon dates, and Peter Sarsgaard as John Lotter, the man who befriends, but later rapes and murders Brandon.

If the film has any weakness, it is that it does little to explain Brandon’s life before meeting Lana and John or trangendered people in general. There is no real explanation as to why Brandon would choose to live as a boy. Was he transgendered, a hermaphrodite, or was he simply a lesbian in disguise? A person less familiar or sympathetic to the transgendered would likely not view Brandon very favorably. Although I don’t believe that any movie should portray a character as an angel just to avoid stereotyping, there are points in the movie where Brandon comes across more as a daredevil pushing his luck rather than a transgendered man trying to get by in an unsympathetic environment.

Politics aside, Boys Don’t Cry is a beautiful piece of filmmaking which tells the story of one person trying to live a normal life in very unnormal circumstances. Since it is based on a true story, there is no need to try to avoid spoilers, going into this you should know that Brandon does not survive. But like Milk, another excellent film about the life of a doomed LGBT American, the lack of suspense does nothing to stop you from being engrossed in this fascinating tale of love, hate, death, and life.

Netflix for a Month!

As part of a Skype promotion, I got a free month’s supply of Netflix. So for most of June and July, I have been either working at my job at my local YMCA, then coming home and sitting on my ass all day watching Netflix, then going to sleep, then waking up the next day to start the cycle all over again. Needless to say, this hasn’t been good for either my social or blogging life. I decided to reclaim some of the latter now that my free month is over and I’ve disabled my Netflix account because I am a broke college student by blogging about some of the movies that I watched.

My taste in film is very eclectic, I love the classics, film noir, detective stories, action, horror, as well as documentaries, indie and foreign films, and queer cinema. I decided to blog about some of the films that most of you have probably never seen or even heard about. That means that most of these movies will some sort of combination of gay, indie, and/or foreign language films. Hope that you enjoy and discover a new favorite film!

It Gets Better, From the Massachusetts Congressional Delegations

Hi y'all!

I know it's been forever since I posted anything, and I promise, I will update this blog with more Turkey stories as well as some movie reviews.

However, I wanted to detour into politics and LGBT issues for a quick post. The "It Get's Better Campaign" has become famous for posting videos online by both regular and famous people encouraging young people, especially those struggling with their sexual orientation and gender identity. Although I think some people believe that posting a video is all they need to do to solve gay and teen suicide, it is a noble project.

Recently, eleven out of the twelve members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation posted a joint video for the Campaign. Although it may not be the best one out there, it is a wonderful reminder of how lucky some of us, including myself, are to live in such a liberal and accepting state. It's especially meaningful for me because I worked on both Congressmen Jim McGovern and Bill Keating's campaigns, so it's nice to see some of the people I helped to elect standing up for causes that I believe in.

It also is a reminder of the one eyesore in our delegation. Like I said earlier, eleven out of the twelve members are present in the video. The one missing? The one Republican, Scott Brown, of course. Now it is certainly possible that in today's hyper-partisan Washington the other members just didn't tell Senator Brown that they were making this video to make him look bad....but I highly doubt it.

Anyway, here's the actual video:

UPDATE: As I suspected, Sen. Brown was indeed invited to join in the making of the video, but declined. His spokesman insisted that Sen. Brown has a "strong record" of standing up to bullying and discrimination and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has gone so far as to attack Dan Savage, trying to distract from the real issue at hand. If Sen. Brown is truly the bipartisan, moderate Republican that he claims to be, the least he could do is take part with is home state colleagues in making a video urging young kids not to kill themselves!

Read more on the controversy here and here. 

Favorites and Most Memorable Moments

Since coming back from Turkey, the question I keep hearing again and again is, “What was your favorite thing about Turkey?”

Honestly, I’m never quite sure how to answer that question. There were so many positive aspects of my time there that it is hard to say. Making new friends and having crazy, hilarious, and awesome adventures with them would probably be my favorite memory, but that experience is not unique to Turkey, though I’m sure some of the situations we found ourselves in were. Of course seeing many historical sites, such as the Hagia Sophia, was amazing, especially for a history buff like me. And finally, just the experience of being a different country, culture and language I found to be much more thrilling than it was terrifying.

So, more for my own memory than anything else, I’ve gone all David Letterman and have  compiled three Top 10 lists to remember the moments, places, and sites which most stuck out to me, along with a few comments. Enjoy!

Top 10 Most Memorable Moments

1.      Hostel in Jordan (funny looking back on it, bad at the time)

2.      Getting quizzed by a 32 year old Turkish pot smoking, mechanic about being gay (hilarious both now and then)

3.      Getting yelled at by the Crazy Bitch Lady of Koc University (pretty funny and soooo ironic)

4.      Thinking we got left behind in Taksim Square and not having enough money to pay for a taxi back to Koc (kinda funny now, super scary then)

5.      Floating in the Dead Sea and seeing Petra  & Beirut (amazing)

6.      Going to Bosnia (very moving and as it turned out, timely)

7.      Having lunch with the villagers in the Black Sea Region (wonderful experience)

8.      Opening two bottles of wine in Cappadocia with a nail and my boot (hilarious)

9.      Our favorite cab driver in Istanbul (too much fun)

10.  Too many random nights out at KBox, Riddim, Hawaii, Rock Bar, or some other bar or club in Taksim to keep straight (sometimes good, sometimes bad, always memorable)

(Bonus)Marianimal’s Turkish Presentation (She knows what I’m talking about)

Ranking of Places I Travelled and My Memories of Them

1.      Istanbul: this place is the automatic winner, since it was my home for 4 months

2.      Beirut: beautiful city, friendly people, and lots of fun, not that many sites though

3.      Rome: very close behind Beirut, beautiful architecture and history, didn’t go out because it was a family holiday

4.      Sarajevo: beautiful city with a tragic past but friendly people

5.      Black Sea Region: beautiful country and incredibly gracious people

6.      Jordan: great sites, crazy people

7.      Cappadocia: really cool and beautiful, but so far away

8.      Eskisehir: far below Cappadocia, nice looking city, but little of historical value and not much fun either

9.      Sofia: seemed boring and unwelcoming

10.  Ankara: by far the worst, incredibly boring with far fewer sites that you’d expect in a capital city, however, the people were very friendly

Top 10 Sites

1.      Hagia Sophia (Istanbul)

2.      Vatican (Rome)

3.      Petra (Jordan)

4.      Cappadocia (Turkey)

5.      Blue Mosque (Istanbul)

6.      Chora Monastery (Istanbul)

7.      Dead Sea (Jordan)

8.      War Tunnel Museum (Sarajevo)

9.      Topkapi Palace (Istanbul)

10.  Jeita Grotto (Lebanon)

Final Moments in Turkey

June 13^th

As I write this, I’m sitting in Ataturk Airport in Istanbul right, waiting for my 6:30 am flight to Rome and then back to Boston. Surprisingly, I haven't broken down and cried yet, though I’m sure if the immigration officer in Boston says anything along the lines of, “Welcome home,” I probably will bawl my eyes out. Istanbul honestly feels like home at this point. The past few days have been spent visiting a few remaining unvisited sites, saying goodbye to the Hagia Sophia, gift shopping, and saying goodbye to friends. It is hard to believe that it has been four months since I arrived in Istanbul. I can remember clearly waiting for hours for our pickup in the Starbucks in the far right hand side of the airport, seeing people selling bananas in the middle of the highway, and hearing the very strange song “Barbara Sreisand” playing over the bus radio.

That day I remember thinking, “What exactly have I gotten myself into.” Now I know and it has been the best experience so far in my life. I love Istanbul, I love Turkey, and I love the Turkish people. I had a chance to see historical sites that I had read about since I was ten but never dreamed I would actually get to see. I made friends with people from across the world who I would never otherwise have met. For every time somebody tried to rip me off, there were five other times that a random Turk welcomed me to their country, helped me find something that I had lost, or gave me food or drink and then refused to accept my money.

I have grown so comfortable in this country that it feels like home. It is going to be weird going back to small-town suburbia, to actually understand what the person sitting next to me on the T is saying, and to actually have choices of what to eat besides Turkish food. I’m still not sure how smooth the transition is going to be; we’ll have to wait and see.

This is not the end of this blog. I’ve still got plenty more to post on Istanbul and Turkey, including travel tips, must see sites, and districts of Istanbul. Depending on how much free time I have, this may take a week or months. Once I’ve said everything that I can about Turkey, I’m going to keep up blogging periodically, about life, travels, politics, and whatever else I feel like. I’ve found this process to be very therapeutic and it’s a great way to capture memories. Whether anyone besides me actually reads these posts is unimportant (but thank you for reading if you do!).

War Criminal, Plain and Simple

Ratko Mladic

Less than a week after I came back from Bosnia, it was announced that Serbia had captured one of the most wanted war criminals from the Bosnian War, Ratko Mladic. This event made me even happier that I had gone to Bosnia, because it allowed me to see and hear for myself the destruction and pain that this man had helped to create.

After his arrest, Serbian ultra-nationalists in both Serbia and Bosnia called for his release because he was a “hero.” Whenever I heard people saying that, I couldn’t help but be reminded of one of the stories my hostel owner, Jasmina, had told me about the Siege of Sarajevo. She remembered constantly having to duck and run across the streets whenever she went outside because there were always Serbian snipers who would shoot anyone that they saw. She told me, “Now I understand in war soldiers kill soldiers, and that is fine, but I cannot understand how someone can shoot an unarmed woman or child. To me, you have to be crazy or something to do that.”

One of the times I was walking through Sarajevo, I came across this monument in a park. The monument consisted of a fountain and two twisted pieces of glass in the middle. Next to the fountain, were revolving metal cones with the names of birth and death dates of people. I didn’t really look too hard at the names because honestly, when you see a bunch of names, especially if you cannot even pronounce some of them, they all kind of glaze together. But as I continued walking, I saw a sign pointing in the direction that I had just come from and it said in Bosnian and English, “Monument to Murdered Children.”

1500 children died during the Siege of Sarajevo, not to mention the thousands more who were killed in other cities and towns across Bosnia. Anyone who thinks that a man who led the army that deliberately killed most of these children is a hero I think is just as crazy as the ones who actually pulled the trigger.

Monument to Murdered Children

The names of the children killed in the Siege of Sarajevo