Filmes de Interés Gay

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A moral & sexual
dilemma. Whom
do they deny?
Themselves or G-d? . . .

"I was trying to
understand what it
means to come out
and to come home.
I wanted to see if
there was gay life
in this world I had
grown up in."
~ director Sandi Simcha DuBowski

With ''Trembling Before G-d,'' the director Sandi Simcha DuBowski latches on to a provocative subject and invests it with a compelling tenderness. This documentary is essentially about merging the Old World and the New, but with a twist that is shocking: it concerns the heartfelt desire of homosexuals to find a place for themselves in Orthodox Judaism, where they are shunned and repudiated. When does compassion supplant dogma, or can it? These are the deceptively innocent questions raised by ''Trembling'.

The director knows it would be wrong to take the easy way out and castigate the rabbi who tries to understand the sexual choice of David, a Jew who wants to be a part of the flock and cannot see a way out of his lifestyle. The rabbi does feel that things have changed since the Talmud -- which says homosexuality is punishable by death, ''an abomination,'' according to the Torah quote from Leviticus that opens the film -- but that has nothing to do with the demands of pure Orthodoxy. For the rabbi, David's path is simple, though for David, agonizingly so: stop his homosexual behavior or be condemned.

In the eyes of some Orthodox believers, death from AIDS becomes a hand striking down the blasphemers who dare to lead lives of open defiance, and ''Trembling'' doesn't overemphasize the opinion of many Orthodox Jews who think the problems that gays face are justified.

''Trembling Before G-d,'' a stark and appropriate title, tells several stories, profiling a number of people. Mr. DuBowski knows that the film would shatter if his viewpoint were rendered in hysterical terms or even condescending ones. The film is more interested in dealing with the intrinsic drama in these situations, like that of the gay Jews who decide to divorce themselves from their faith with the same forcefulness used against them.

The position taken by some of the gays and lesbians interviewed for the film is that this resistance gives purpose to their lives and provides a kind of reverse passion. What the picture needs is a little of what keeps them going -- the release offered by walking away from the strictures of the faith and from the harsh rejection they suffer from their families.

But that's not to say that ''Trembling'' is one-sided or simple-minded. Mr. DuBowski's camera subjects constitute a worldwide sampling taking up both sides of the argument; this kind of raw debate isn't limited to the United States or Israel.

The film's true sadness comes when a therapist, Shlomo Ashkinazy, explains the separatism that has kept such an anti-homosexual stance alive in Orthodox Judaism, even more than the dictum that men and women are to couple primarily to procreate. And after hearing the views of many fundamentalist Christians, it's obvious that strong views against homosexuals are not limited to Orthodox Judaism.

The fine and powerful ''Trembling Before G-d'' has gained a whole new urgency and purpose since its screening at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2001. The subtlety of the pressure on David -- the advice given, implying that the necessity to change is easy -- is what adds a much deeper undercurrent of tragedy to this unforgettable picture. ~ Elvis Mitchell

Film Information: ' Trembling Before G-d'

Web: Cast, Bios and Additional Details at IMDb
Director: Sandi Simcha Dubowski
Cast, Crew & Credits: Full Cast, Crew & Credits
Genre: Documentary
Awards: 8 wins & 3 nomination
Runtime: 80 min
Spoken Language: English | Yiddish | Hebrew

Film Clip: 'Trembling Before G-d'



Download Film Files: 'Trembling Before G-d'
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