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On The Sea (UK)

By Golu
This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...
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Out Of The Past (Documentary)

By Golu
This documentary film is from way back 1998. It is always interesting and educating to see things that have happened in the past in the whole spectrum of various gay rights movement. There are so many stories out there and with every different documentary, you get to learn something new. Its my personal issue that I do not remember most of the stories (am I getting old?) , but these stories are worth telling and worth hearing.

The primary story is about Kelli Peterson , a senior in high school in Utah, who was the first person to start a Gay Straight Alliance club in her school. What started off as a safe space for gay and lesbian people to be in their comfort zone soon turned into something that no one would have ever imagined. The event soon becomes political, where a small high school group becomes a national debate and before she realizes Kelli is fighting for her rights and eventually wins it. In between the main story of Keli, we are also told of stories of other very prominent historical figures like Michael Wigglesworth, a 17th-century Puritan cleric, at the 30-year love affair of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields, at Henry Gerber's attempt after World War I to establish a gay-rights organization, at Bayard Rustin's role in the civil rights movement, and at Barbara Gittings' taking on of the American Psychiatric Association's position that homosexuality is illness. 

One of the interviewers makes a comment that "To create a place for ourselves in the present, we have to find ourselves in the past." And this statement resonated with me quite well. We hear the love letters and other multiple anecdotes by some stalwarts said in a calm serene voice to give us the time to absorb the magnitude of what has happened. Having said that, I personally think that the documentary would have been a lot more impactful, if the focus had been only on Kelli, the Utah student. Her story is so fascinating, she is a charmer in interviews and is a very good orator. I would have loved to hear more of her back story and her family's reactions in her journey of coming out and the whole details of her fights for the gay straight alliance group. I felt that in hope of including many more stories form the past, the makers rushed a bit in telling Kelli's story. Besides that it was a quick easy watch and something I would still recommend people to watch and learn. (6/10)
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