Review: 'Tt' says ltle about gay life the 1980s - Los Angel Tim

Venice and Cann Film Ft had stuted a prize for bt LGBT-themed film 2007 and 2010 rpectively. However, Berl began handg out s "Teddy Award" back 1987 (wh Pedro Almodovar's "Law of Dire" snaggg the very first one). In 2014, one of the eagerly-awaed movi was Chris Mason Johnson's "Tt", a sly low-budget die about Frankie (Stt Marlowe), a dancer San Francis 1985, who juggl his reer and love life while agonizg over gettg the newly HIV tt. Wh perd tail and propulsive soundtrack (featurg Bronski Beat's club anthem "Smalltown Boy"), the film, st wh profsnal dancers, achiev thenticy. The protagonist is not passive--both his anxiety and thirst for life are released when he danc. Tt" tak a h approach, pictg the panic and paranoia LGBT muni after the AIDS outbreak. But 's also a film about bodi motn, about dance as affirmatn of endurance and revolt agast the imment threat of mortaly. Revisg this particular moment history, when the HIV tt was troduced? CMJ: I thk the stori that need to be told first were of ath and dyg and ernmental actn and polil activism. But I thk enough time has passed that a different kd of story n be told. We've seen movi about olr men and men their 30s alg wh this. However, a movie about the 20-year-old facg the AIDS crisis isolated and alone – that hasn't been done as much. The dance world is very closeted, even though there are a lot of gay men -- jt like Hollywood. So back then, the qutn for a lot of male dancers was: How uld you be open about this disease if you weren't open about your sexualy? It was sort of this double problem. I don't thk that story had been told. Furthermore, this particular moment our history was plited. When the first tt me out, there was no guarantee that the rmatn would be protected. There was a lot of homophobic spegoatg, talk of a quarante of gay people, or the ernment keepg a list of people who were sick. In hdsight, seems extremely farfetched. But was a real fear at the time. And there was this tt, but the disease was a ath sentence, bee there was no treatment. There was a bate wh the muny about whether you should even be tted. So was all very ght. Autobgraphil film? CMJ: Y, to some extent. I was a teenager at that time, dancg profsnally. I was fely there, and I was fely sred. I'm fely drawg on some memori this movie. Current state of queer cema? CMJ: Those are plited qutns. What we see on TV and ss, even on I rpect, is kd of the gay character as urt jter, which has a long history gog back to 1930s Hollywood. I'm grateful for "Will and Grace" and "Morn Fay," but I feel like we're ready to evolve beyond that. Movi like "The Kids are All Right", "Brokeback Mounta," "Weekend" and I hope my film, do that. The real issue for me is not mastream vers margalized, but between typ of reprentatn. I thk after an ial phase of amazg queer cema the 90s, we entered a phase that was ls adventuro. And now I thk we're g out of that to a more artful, realistic reprentatn that don't pend on the urt jter prototype. So I do thk there's progrs, even if 's slow. "Dallas Buyers Club" drew cricism bee tells the story of this disease through a heterosexual character CMJ: I haven't seen "Dallas Buyers Club" yet, but that won't stop me om havg an opn! I thk the polics of reprentatn are pecially important when you don't have a lot of reprentatn. So how Hollywood do a black character, a Lato character, a transgenr character, a gay character – that matters, bee we see so equently. When more and more of that ntent is out there, gettg exactly right will matter ls. So I'm happy for the makers of "Dallas Buyers Club" for makg , I thk that story should be told. But bee there's so ltle reprentatn around the subject of AIDS, I unrstand why people the gay muny might have an issue. Gay sex Amerin films is chaste CMJ: I thk that's bee of the Puran thg, but there's also a real squeamishns about gay sex. I tried to addrs that my film by havg some fairly ank scen. We're still not fortable as a broad dience watchg gay sex, but hopefully we'll get there, too. I want to add that I'm not terted sex onscreen unls there's some nflict or drama. A sex montage set to mic is embarrassg to watch, gay or straight. 'Tt' official trailer