Reel Advice: What’s up? Docs!

Fri. May 3, 2013 12:00 AM
by Gregg Shapiro

In theaters

Hava Nagila: The Movie (Katahdin): Beginning at a wedding reception, and taking viewers "from Ukraine to YouTube," the melodic doc Hava Nagila: The Movie, narrated by Rusty Schwimmer, opens "the door in our house we didn't know was there." From its roots as a niggun (a wordless prayer) sung in The Great Synagogue in Sadagora, in what was formerly known as the Pale of Settlement (including Warsaw, Minsk, Kiev and Odessa) to becoming Jewish America's unofficial theme song, the rich and storied past of "Hava Nagila" is laid out in great detail.

If you've ever been pulled by that "ancient Jewy force" to the dance floor at a wedding, Bar or Bat Mitzvah, you will definitely appreciate filmmaker Roberta Grossman's affectionate tribute to the song. Tracing the history of "Hava Nagila," from the early years of Israeli, Eastern European and Hasidic music, from the shtetl to the city, Grossman incorporates a variety of resources. Interviews with experts, including KlezKamp founder Henry Sapoznik, cantor Danny Masseng, Rabbi Paul Levenson and Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Gila Flam (Sound Archives director at National Library of Israel), Israeli dance legends Danni Dassa and Ayala Goren (daughter of the Hora creator), as well as more familiar personalities including Regina Spektor, Leonard Nimoy, Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis and Glen Campbell, rank among the highest.

Grossman wisely incorporates a variety of renditions of the song, including those by Belafonte and Francis, as well as Glen Campbell and Elvis Presley. We get to hear how Bob Dylan butchered it, Allan Sherman's parodied it (check out "Harvey and Sheila") and it became a civil rights anthem in Lena Horne's hands. Film footage from Hollywood and personal collections augment the visual component, combining for moments of delight and poignancy. Of course the song has its detractors, but the fact that it's lasted this long and inspired a documentary must say something affirming about it.

At home

The late Graham Chapman, the openly gay member of the groundbreaking, often cross-dressing, comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus deserved a far better cinematic tribute than the one he got in A Liar's Autobiography (Virgil). Employing an array of animation techniques, vintage performance and interview footage (including narration by Chapman from a recording of him reading the book on which the doc is based), A Liar's Autobiography wants to offer the viewer a good time. But the offer is hollow.

The animation, for instance, while marvelous to look at, lacks the liveliness and originality of the animated segments used in the old Monty Python's Flying Circus television show. While it may have been Chapman's intention, with his book, to paint a confusing and flustering portrait, it is lost in the transition to film. Ironically, the most revealing parts of the movie occur in footage from interviews with Chapman. The frank presentation of Chapman's coming out story (including when his parents found out during a TV interview) is, by far, the most entertaining aspect, although, like much of the rest, it goes on far too long. DVD extras include several featurettes, as well as the Anatomy of a Liar doc.

Over the years, porn stars, gay and straight, have been the subject of feature films. Seventies porn legends Linda Lovelace and Jack Wrangler, for instance, have been featured in documentaries. But the fact that hypermasculine, tattoo-scalped gay porn performer Francois Sagat gets his own doc, Sagat (TLA), directed by Pascal Roche & Jerome M. Oliveira, definitely makes a statement about him and his career.

Sexually graphic and including numerous clips from his gay porn videos, Sagat features an assortment of interview subjects, including directors Chi Chi LaRue, Bruce La Bruce and Christophe Honore; fellow porn stars Ethan Anders, Wilfried Knight and Dean Monroe; Brian Mills of gay porn company Titan Media and even Francois's sister Caroline, among others. Of course the most interesting interviews are the ones with Sagat himself. Hearing the 2007 GayVN Performer of the Year speak, in his own words (in French with English subtitles), about how doing porn is "like jumping into space and trying to bounce back," about the origin of his trademark scalp tattoo, how he ended up doing porn because he was a fan of porn and the pleasure he gets from drawing, is as revealing as watching him perform.

Sagat follows Francois in 2010, from San Francisco (where he signs calendars and dildos in an adult bookstore) to more personally biographical regions including Paris and Cognac. An intensely private person, he does open up about his childhood and his physical transformation. Sagat also shares his strong feelings about bareback videos; he thinks they should be banned and that the porn production firms should be sued for the lack of controls when it comes to STDs. A performer with presence and connection, who has been credited with changing the porn world, and loves to play with costumes, it's easy to understand why he deserved to be the subject of a film. More than an hour's worth of DVD bonus features include interviews, short films and more.

Out In the Open (Breaking Glass/QC) gets off to a bad start with an ineffective parody of the old black & white anti-homosexual scare-tactic flicks of the 1950s. Incorporating the homophobic narration throughout Out In the Open also doesn't do much to help matters, even after we encounter actor/director Matthew Smith and his actor boyfriend Solly Hemus. Instead of relying on themselves to be interesting enough to carry the picture, not to mention the multitude of interviews with queer celebrities and regular LGBT folk, they detract from the content by resorting to this cheap device.

That's too bad because listening to interview subjects including Carson Kressley, Greg Louganis, actor Josh Strickland, DJ/writer Paul V., politician James Healey, as well as straight actor Eric Robert and his wife Eliza and straight allies Patrick Burke of the Philadelphia Flyers, musician Keaton Simons, matthew and Solly's parents and siblings, people of the cloth and others was the best part.

Nevertheless, there are some points of interest raised. Matthew, for example, thinks there is a need to change the "fight" for LGBT rights to a talk, in order to improve and open more channels of communication. The common ground of the shared negative middle school experience is a fascinating component and a comment on the need for a societal change.

Out In the Open does take some unexpected turns, including spending too much time focusing on Matthew and Solly. It also gets very serious more than halfway through the movie when it comes to the subject of bullying. Well-intentioned but overly ambitious, Out In the Open would have benefited from a little more time in the editing room before coming out in the open. DVD special features include bloopers, extended interviews, a featurette and more.