Are gay men from Mars and lesbian women from Venus? Well, yes and no, according to interviewees in the latest offering from filmmaker Paris Poirier (see Last Call at Maud's in VL-9/94). Examining the gender gap between gays and lesbians in a wide range of issues (male domination vs. female submission, promiscuity vs. commitment, AIDS vs. breast cancer support, etc.), Poirier's scattershot treatment combines interviews with Barney Frank, Camille Paglia, Martin Duberman, Barbara Gittings and others, together with numerous archival clips ranging from the 1920s to the 1990s. Unfortunately, no synthesis emerges from this gabfest in which the serious (gender roles are perhaps more ingrained than we thought) and the ridiculous (one interviewee suggests that lesbian women contracting AIDS from gay men is becoming a "trend") are given equal weight and the whole is somewhat undermined by the film's reliance on archival clips featuring lots of nudity (as if the filmmakers were afraid that the ideas alone wouldn't carry the film; which, in point of fact, they do not). Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)
Pride Divide
(1997) 57 min. $350. Filmakers Library. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 14, Issue 3
Pride Divide
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