Sunday, March 05, 2006
And the winner is...
It doesn't really matter who the winners will be. What's important to me is that so many of the films nominated for tonight's Oscars celebrate sexual diversity. The Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing callls for full inclusion of sexual minorities in congregational life and in society at large. It's easy to get discouraged by denominational struggles over if and how to include gays and lesbians in the life of the church. This June at least three Protestant denominations will be voting on reports on sexual orientation at their General Assemblies. But while the churches struggle, society is changing. It's hard to imagine even five years ago that the Academy Awards would feature loving films about lifelong love between two men and the struggles of an M to F transsexual or that so many straight A list actors would be willing to portray GLBT people. It felt brave when Tom Hanks played a person with AIDS in Philadelphia; if not quite commonplace, this year's stunning performances seem less so. Yes, I'm routing for Felicity Huffman and Brokeback Mountain, but those are artistic choices not political ones.
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I was sad to see "Brokeback" and "Transamerica" lose out on so many awards, and meanwhile I remain a lonely advocate of "North Country," a film about the nation's first class-action sexual harrassment lawsuit, which was brought against an iron ore mine in Northern Minnesota. Having grown up in the town in question during the 80s and 90s, I can say the film was very accurate in portraying the incidents of harrassment as well as the misogynistic, hyper-masculine culture which enabled such systemic harrassment to take place. If anything it under-represented the what was actually a nearly 16-year legal process. Frances McDormand and Charlize Theron were rightly nominated for their performances, and director Niki Caro deserves kudos, too. Soundtrack composer Gustavo Santaolalla received his accolades for Brokeback, but his work for North Country was equally beautiful. I hope this plug is not too shameless!
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