"Every Sunday night, this girl wo uld come to my house and I would stand in my garage and I would hike my boxer briefs up into the crack of my ass and she would give me a spray tan."—Matt Damon, on playing Scott Thorson
I was thrilled last night to slip in at the last minute to see an intimate screening of About Face, photographer/director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders's HBO documentary on supermodels. Fame, plastic surgery, aging, gossip—how could I not love this movie? And, as it turns out, there was no real way I couldn't. It helped that I was seated next to photographer Gordon West, a perfect companion for such a heady mix.
As deeply socially trenchant as it is superficially entertaining, About Face goes a long way toward dispelling the notion that models are stupid. How could they be if so many of the top models of all time could come together and speak so intelligently about their perceptions of themselves, the world's perception of them and how those things relate to how we view women and aging in general?
Cleveland & Alt at the post-screening Q&A
The pleasantly meandering documentary is blessed with the enthusiastic participation of model icons Carmen Dell'Orefice, Paulina Porizkova, Marisa Berenson, Jerry Hall, Beverly Johnson, China Machado, Pat Cleveland, Christie Brinkley, Isabella Rossellini and more. It takes the form of an oral history via exquisitely (but not deceptively—no filters and other tricks) filmed interviews with the models and with A-list fashion figures like Eileen Ford and Calvin Klein, allowing the women's insights to dictate the direction of the narrative. Tangentially related topics such as plastic surgery and racism are covered in a way that feels organic.
As of midnight last night, it was exactly six years since my first post. It's been a tough thing to keep up with a dayjob and outside activities, and just when I think I might walk away, a valuable connection or interesting opportunity or a kind word comes my way. Thank you all for reading me.
RAPT PUPIL (2006): The final night of Outfest with Boy Culture; I was fat but on the other hand got to meet Bryan Singer.
MY ART
Construction worker (shot this week) vs. James Dean
GUYDAR (since at least January 17, 2008) & ENDS OF THE WORLD (since at least January 13, 2008): Attractive men of the world—I got your backs. Your fronts, too.
i-i-i (phone)
Not totally built
Unaltered iPhone image that still blows me away
"Your pictures suck" (2008): An art critic attacks me, but not without sustaining some hits in return.
Let's call it a draw
DRAWN TOGETHER (2008): How my desire to draw related to my secret desire. One of my absolute favorite posts.
The shirtless one
LOST ANGELES (2009): My favorite photographic travelogue of L.A.
Even then, New Yorkers feared 9/11 was the beginning of the end
ART IMITATES LIFE (2006): My 9/11 and my distaste for grief tourism.
ME
Death of the party—Jeff in high school, already halfway through his life
BURNING MAN (2007): Tribute to my late high school friend and first romance.
Signed, sealed (eventually) delivered
LOST BOY FOUND (2011): There is a book in here somewhere.
I was invited to a special screening of The Strange History of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the new documentary by World of Wonder wizzes Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey that debuts at midnight tonight on HBO—DADT is history as of that time.
Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know, this pop documentary (it's got lots of visual candy to make all the complex policy talk idiot-proof) underscored a few things for me, such as the fact that DADT, considered a "step forward" back in Clinton's 1993, was actually the first time it became illegal to be gay in the military as opposed to being in violation of a policy. It was definitely a case of two steps back to get forward 20 years later.
Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Victor Fehrenback, Mike Almy & Aubrey Sarvis
Also interesting was the history of our country's policies on gays in the military (a quickie look at gays in the armed services over the past few thousand years was a bit cutesy for me)—I'd had no idea that WWII was the first time it became against policy, and loved the film's argument that the very notion of a gay community came from gay soldiers during WWII being discharged and dumped at ports...like Manhattan and San Francisco. Anchors aweigh we go, Mary!
The filmmakers have crafted an almost shockingly apolitical film Yes, John McCain is a delicious villain, but he's not manipulated nor is he a metaphor for all anti-gay people; he was there in '93 and there again in '10 for the birth and death of DADT. The film depicts Bill Clinton as an idealist who grossly underestimated the necessity of getting the military to buy into his plan to open its ranks to gays, and depicts Barack Obama as more of a pragmatist, who wanted the ban lifted and who set about doing it methodically. Neither man comes off poorly, and Republicans are not singled out by party; instead, we are able to see each individual man and woman who testified or worked for or against DADT in his or her own words. It's quite weird to see a film about something that just happened, yet to see so many of the players already relegated to the sidelines—Patrick Murphy in particular.
Choi & Fehrenbach
The film is greatly boosted by interviews with actual servicemen and servicewomen whose lives were heavily impacted by DADT, including the heroic Margarethe Cammermeyer, Victor Fehrenbach, Mike Almy (pictured, right) and Dan Choi. Their testimony about how DADT affected them stands in stark contrast to the sophomoric nonsense about shared showers and "unit cohesion" parroted by the powers-that-were, including Colin Powell.
Not exactly the best way to change the minds of gay-squeamish troops, but...wow!
I highly recommend the film. It's therapeutic to watch it and remember, "Whatever happened from Point A to Point Z, we won this sucker."
After, we were able to quiz the filmmakers, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's Aubrey Sarvis as well as Fehrenbach and Almy, who gave terrific answers:
My question was the one someone asked last, which is: If a Republican wins the presidency and decides to reinstate DADT, would that happen? The answer seems to be it totally could happen, but the military (ironically) would probably protest:
Clearly, more still needs to be done:
Afterward, I had a chance to meet all involved. I missed shaking the hand of Melvin Dwork, the 89-year-old man who just this week had his "undesirable" discharge from 70 years ago converted to an "honorable" discharge. (Now to take care of the 99,000 others!)
SLDN'S Aubrey Sarvis with the newly desirable Melvin Dwork
Mike Diamond, whose fisting parody of Katy Perry's "E.T." will have you (and your duodenum) in stitches, threw himself at the servicemen so shamelessly I had to borrow some Crisco from him to lube them up and pull him off. But it's okay—gay people have every right to become servicemembers in the military, and those of us not in the military have every right to attempt to service the members of anyone on or off active duty.
I wasn't sure what to expect of the Todd Haynes take on Mildred Pierce—a five-hour mini-series that began airing last night on HBO and that stars Kate Winslet—but I was mostly pleasantly surprised. To quote from the novel, "It's beautiful, just beautiful." Though not exactly a thrill ride.
If you like my exhaustive wrap-ups of pop-culture events, you'll love Kenneth's nearly moment-by-moment recap of his evening with Lisa Kudrow poring over The Comeback. I missed that and Lady GaGa while I was in L.A.! (More about my eventful and event-filled L.A. trip this weekend, hopefully, but in involves Jared Leto, Vanessa Hudgens, RuPaul and some food.)
