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July 26, 2002
Slices of (lesbian) life
Israeli films featured at Vancouver's queer festival.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
The emerging reactions of an Israeli family to a daughter's lesbianism
is the emotional terrain of a film to be screened in Vancouver next
month.
It Will End Up in Tears, a film by Gonen Glasser, follows the
love of 20-year-old Maria and her girlfriend, Nira, and the reactions
of Maria's Argentinian-Israeli family. It will run in Vancouver
as part of the 14th Queer Film and Video Festival.
Maria's family struggles with the reality of her orientation and
the film does not offer simplistic revelations. The father, who
has a remarkable resemblance to Albert Einstein, also has his own
theory of "relativity." His daughter's lesbianism is a
source of great anxiety for him and his reaction is primarily one
of denial.
Viewers might suspect that, were a camera not introduced into his
home, the father might not speak of the matter at all.
"It's a very complicated matter," says Maria's father,
"...which I hope will go away. Meanwhile, I am in standby.
I just want to leave it as it is and wait. If it doesn't change,
I will take it into my own hands and the resolve the issue ... for
myself."
Her brother doesn't take it much better.
"Call it what you like," he says. "She's sick."
Maria's mother doesn't like the situation either. She is in a state
of denial like her husband, but she tends to keep impolitic comments
to herself.
Not so the father, who compares his daughter's lesbianism to bestiality.
"She could just as well say she was in love with some dog,
and go out with a dog," he says. "Or a horse. She would
bring the horse here, upstairs, to bed."
Nira, meanwhile, has been thrown out of her family's house, leading
her to spend much uncomfortable time at Maria's family home. The
discomfort is not lost on Maria, who describes the scenario clinically.
"I'm aware of being a black sheep," she says. "I
have destabilized the family unit."
Fence-sitting is challenged, however, when the father and daughter
have a blow-up that threatens the obviously loving family. Family
members are forced to take sides and, though the resolution, if
it can be called that, is not clearcut, it is nevertheless interesting
and even somewhat encouraging.
It Will End Up in Tears screens Sunday, Aug. 11, at 7 p.m.,
at the Pacific Cinémathèque. It runs in conjunction
with the short film Yellow Peppers, another Israeli film
about lesbians.
In Yellow Peppers, Alma and Ronit talk about how their love
emerged from a kiss in the washroom at the wedding of a third friend.
The two eventually go on to open a soup bar and the yellow peppers
of the title represent a specialty soup, but also seems to stand
for something more.
"Is food related to love and passion for you?" asks the
unseen narrator of the film as the two women relax in the kitchen.
"I don't know," replies Ronit. "But the yellow pepper
soup I ate at Alma's for the first time was the best I ever ate
in my whole life."
"Did she invite you for soup?" the narrator presses. "How
did that happen?"
These are both "slice of life" films. Neither is explosive
in any social sense – issues cannot be extrapolated but must
be understood as they apply to individual families. Both films are
in Hebrew with English subtitles.
Also screening at the festival is Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc's
Adventure in Plastic, about self-defined "all-American
Jewish folk singer" Phranc (Frances Gottlieb), who once toured
with The Smiths. Looking like a butch Pee Wee Herman, she became
famous among lesbians for classic songs like "Do the Bull Dagger
Swagger." After 20 years in the music business, she decided
to settle down in Los Angeles with her family and began selling
Tupperware.
Director Lisa Udelson inserts clips of hilarious vintage Tupperware
promo films into the proceedings, yet it gradually becomes clear
Phranc really does love both Tupperware and its world. The singer
insists she's never had such a powerful communal female experience.
She's genuinely upset that the company didn't recognize her appearance
on the Donny and Marie Show, where she got Marie to sing
her Tupperware lady song.
Lifetime screens Aug. 14, 9:30 p.m., and Aug. 15, 5 p.m.,
at Cinemark Tinseltown.
The film festival runs Aug. 8-18, coinciding with the city's Pride
Week festivities, which include a parade Aug. 4. Tickets are available
from Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.ca)
or, after Aug. 1, at Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, 1238
Davie St., or at the Celluloid Drug Store, 1470 Commercial Dr. For
more information, see the Web site www.outonscreen.com.
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