Arts
Snipping the Zeitgeist
Snipping
the Zeitgeist
An
interview with award-winning filmmaker
John Scagliotti
Film still from Dangerous Living
by Scott Sherman
John
Scagliotti has a cold. He always gets them when he flies, and he's just
returned to his Vermont home from San Francisco, where he was shooting
material for the Here!TV premiere of his new film Dangerous Living:
Coming Out in the Developing World.
The award-winning Scagliotti (responsible
for Public Television's In the Life, and the documentaries Before
Stonewall and After Stonewall, and the film Oliver Button in
a Star!) may want to scarf down more Vitamin C. His new documentary
looking at GLBT oppression outside the western world is taking him all
over the planet – and the film is being featured at the Geneva Human
Rights Conference's Film Festival. Scagliotti will join a panel discussion
on homosexuality and oppression – the conference's first-ever discussion
of gay rights.
Dangerous Living may be his
most influential film yet. The documentary uses the experiences of 52
men in Cairo, Egypt, who were arrested, tortured and imprisoned for gathering
at a gay disco on the river Nile, as the springboard for looking at the
dangers of being gay in places such as Pakistan, Honduras, the Philippines,
India, Namibia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Watching the film, it is impossible
not to be moved by the incredible struggles of LGBT people in these developing
nations. Scagliotti shows us the insurmountable odds they face, as well
as the indomitable courage they possess.
We had the chance to speak to John
Scagliotti about the film, as well as a few other things, by phone from
his home in southern Vermont.
OITM: You've made a career of showing the world the true face of LGBT
people. What motivates you to do this?
John: I
came of age during Stonewall. When you come of age in such an historic
moment – and most people didn't realize how historic it was –
you have the chance to document it. To snip the zeitgeist, so to speak.
Almost every institution has
been changed by LGBT people coming out: church, schools, entertainment,
and literature, to name a few. Thirty years ago, I was excited to buy
one LGBT book – now I have to find more places to put them because
I've run out of room.
OITM: Is there one universal truth you've learned about LGBT people in
your work?
John: I think because LGBT people were so despised by society, we've been
able to reevaluate the old rules. We've had to see the world differently.
If the rules didn't work for us, maybe they don't work for anyone.
I think we are different
– and there's nothing wrong with being different. The whole concept
of diversity came about because of the gay community. The idea that you
can be different, and that there is value in coming together to share
those differences, comes from the gay community.
OITM: Describe Dangerous Living in a sentence or two.
John: I went after the idea of identity. What happens when LGBT people
gain an identity in the developing world? Homosexuality is not new anywhere.
What is new is gay identity. That's what I was interested in exploring
– how LGBT identity transforms the individual and the society.
OITM: Why did you make the film at this point?
John: When we were at the Gay Games at Amsterdam, I learned the Games
attract a lot more than athletes. You could see there was the beginning
of a human rights movement forming. I wondered what kind of effect this
is having in Vietnam or Thailand.
Then I saw The New York Times page-six
story on the Cairo arrest. In the past, no one had covered this kind of
thing.
OITM: Describe the logistics of the film.
John: Making this film was a two-year process. Traveling to some of these
places was tricky. Due to the subject of the film, we had to sneak in
equipment and pose as students or tourists. We also had other crews that
shot some of the footage of the demonstrations and such.
The stories in the film are very poignant.
We meet men who are jailed for their sexuality, and women who are threatened
with violence and rape. But the film isn't depressing, it's hopeful.
OITM: How did you choose the stories you featured?
John: We wanted to focus on people who survived and continued. We chose
people who went on despite the brutality they faced. Resiliency is a big
theme of the movie.
Some stories I didn't use because
they were just so horrifying – stories of young transgendered people
who were really tortured. There were some things that were just too difficult
to watch.
We see a lot oppression in these interviews,
but also a strong desire for liberation. We see LGBT people wanting to
come together and organize, despite terrible risks.
OITM: What did you learn about human nature making this film?
John: It wasn't so much learning as experiencing. I've read books and
seen these great changes take place. But to actually meet the people who
are making these changes, to have the chance to touch them, it added a
whole new dimension to my understanding. I've never met Joe Hill or Rosa
Parks, but I imagine to sit with them and look them in the eye is probably
an overwhelming experience. It was like that for me making this movie.
OITM: Why do you think Americans need to see this film?
John: There's a direct line to our neighbors in the world. The root of
the oppression is the same, but the expressions of it are different. The
first time I showed this film was in Amsterdam, but what was exciting
was the connection people made to their own lives, the realization that
we can't just sit there and do nothing.
All of the gay organizations in VT can think
internationally. They can make connections, form sister cities. There
are a lot of imaginative ways to create relationships.
Dangerous Living will be shown at the Green Mountain Film Festival on March 20 and March 26. The festival runs in Montpelier from March 18-27, with showings at the Savoy Theater and at City Hall (see www.focusonfilm.net for a list of films and showtimes).
Scott Sherman lives with his husband and son in Richmond.