Pushing the Boundaries of Film & Music
By Chris Carpenter
The DVD releases of Solos (Red Dawn Productions) and Pick Up the Mic (Rhino Films) deserve notice and celebration. Both films deal with boundary-pushing subjects: Pick Up the Mic highlights queer rap/hip-hop musicians; Solos tackles extreme sensuality.
I included Solos among my 10 best films of 2007. It is an extraordinary film from Singapore about an illicit sexual relationship between a teacher, identified simply as “Man” (Lim Yu-Beng), and his underage, male student, “Boy” (Loo Zihan). Its only other significant character is the boy’s “Mother” (Goh Guat Kian).
Zihan also wrote the screenplay and co-directed the film with Kan Lume. The film contains graphic male nudity and sexuality, and it was banned in its home country as a result.
The movie is inspired by actual events in Zihan’s life. In an era when the sexual abuse of minors is often front-page news, Solos provides a uniquely intimate perspective into the processes of seduction and recovery. Despite the appearance of exorcising demons, Solos ultimately is a revelatory and hopeful accomplishment.
The two-disc DVD contains a number of deleted scenes, as well as intimate conversations between Zihan and out actor Sir Ian McKellen (Gods & Monsters, X-Men) and actor-director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus) on a variety of topics, including being gay in Hollywood, coming out and censorship.
Meanwhile, Pick Up the Mic is an informative documentary about “the evolution of homohop.” People who don’t consider rap music or hip-hop appealing should see this movie for its insights into the overall progress of the LGBT community. Director Alex Hinton was inspired to develop Pick Up the Mic in 2002, when he came across a vibrant queer underground in the rap/hip-hop community. During the next three years, Hinton and associate producer Bret Berg traveled from San Francisco to New York, with numerous stops in between, to interview and film such homohop artists as the bigger-than-life Aggracyst, the thoroughly adult Johnny Dangerous, bisexual “raptivist” Dutchboy, Latina lesbian JenRO and the impressive, female-to-male Katastrophe.
Hinton subsequently — and impressively — whittled more than 300 hours of footage down to the 95 minutes that make up Pick Up the Mic. Lest viewers feel shortchanged, the DVD includes numerous bonus performances from the various featured musicians.
As one rapper in the film, Tim’M T. West, said, “I got tired of going to gay clubs and hearing people call me faggot from the speakers, so we have to make our own music.” West is credited with coining the term “homohop” to describe the growing LGBT underground in the rap/hip-hop music industry.
“The egos and bullshit of the hip-hop industry are so large now and so condescending,” Hinton said. “Is [the proliferation of homohop artists] all for a quick buck and to catch that multimillion dollar deal? Hardly. It’s about demanding their place at the table.”
Solos is scheduled for DVD release on June 2, and Pick Up the Mic hits DVD on June 9.