JUNE 13, 2008
cial circles and whose boutique was the center of
Tel Aviv style. He died in 1990; the story of his fas
cinating, complicated life is told, here through ar
chival footage and present-day interviews with his
family, friends and longtime partner, Eliezer Rath.
Braun and Rath were a couple for almost 40
years, hut those years were far from serene. Braun
was married to a woman when he picked up Rath,
who was waiting his table. He- evidently never
stopped treating him like a waiter, and he seems
to have had an ongoing harem of boyfriends be
sides Rath, who was perhaps the only one who
would stay with Braun through his endless phi
landering. Rath—a likable, soft-spoken man in
the present-day interview portions—recalls his
partner in an obviously rose-colored way, but the
cumulative recollections in the film cast Braun as
a demanding, temperamental elitist who liked to
be at the center of attention in the finest restau
rants, surrounded by the most beautiful people.
His relationship with the tolerant-to-the-point-
of-masochistic Rath resembles the one between
Joe Orton and Kenneth Haliwell in Prick Up Your
Ears: One is a talented narcissist, comfortable at
the center of attention; the other is an awkward,
unsocial, unglamorous enabler willing to live in a
shadow and give until it hurts.
After Braun’s death, Rath inherited every
thing, to Braun’s family’s hurt astonishment. Their
disappointment, along with Rath’s long-suffering
love,, informs the rueful, discordant back-and-
forth of the film’s often contradicting interviews.
Both sides come off as absolutely justified in their
feelings. But from our perspective outside the situ
iustoutisä
ation, the clearest truth documented by the film
is that Braun was an extraordinarily charismatic
man, a star—and that the closer one gets to a star,
the easier it is to get burned.
e-
Jam!
A roller derby revival documentary by Mike
Woollen, Jam! (9 p.m. June 30) confirms the
eccentricity of this long-lost “sport,” which still
retains some hardcore fans. The film also demon
strates that a unique personality—at least a little
crazy, maybe even a little desperate—is necessary'
when trying, against formidable <xlds, to resuscitate
a fad that disappeared almost three decades ago.
The quixotic drive to get roller derby back
on television (it attracted millions of viewers in
its heyday) is spearheaded by Tim Patten, a gay
man living in San Francisco. He pours hundreds
of thousands of dollars of his own money into the
project while dealing with the headaches of wran
gling the sometimes shady and frequently un
stable characters involved. Patten and his group
represent a spectrum of the marginalized—people
of every sexual orientation, people with HIV/AIDS
and racial minorities, all of whom have complicated
employment, financial and relationship situations—
who seem to have found a refuge in their sport.
Patten is a mild-mannered- guy who says
surprising things: “The interesting thing about
Alfonso is, he’ll beat the shit out of anyone,” or
“People love racial conflict,” or “Television is
gonna get pimp-slapped by the Internet." Hence
Keb’Mo’and
Taj Mahal
Sunday, June 22, $24
Blues masters
Continued on Page 65
Fanning the Flames of Faggotry
When did you know you were gay? That’s the simple premise of Fenton Bailey and Randy Bar-
bato’s engaging Cinemax documentary When I Knew, based on Robert Trachtenberg’s book of the
same title. This time the pair responsible for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster and Inside Deep
Throat focuses not on celebrities but on ordinary people. They asked 150 everyday queers about the
moment they realized they were, in Barbato’s words, “radically and unacceptably different from their
friends and family.”
Emmylou Harris
with Jimmy
Gaudreau and
Moondi Klein
When I Knew asks 150 everyday queers about the moment they realized they were gay.
Premiering 4:30 p.m. June 25 on Cinemax, When I Knew shows the drastically different effects
this realization can have from person to person. That isn’t surprising in itself, but there’s a specificity
to each situation as the speaker recounts it that makes it memorable. One man laughs as he traces his
gay feelings back to age 5, when he had “a very funny feeling" watching hunky Grizzly Adams in the
1970s TV show. That’s when his bear fixation happened, too. Pop culture imagery was a powerful
influence in the emotional lives of many of the interviewees, and not always positively. In an early
version of reparative therapy, Sean remembers trying to go straight by staring at a Farrah Fawcett
poster. Lisa recalls being in love with her classmate Wendy and associating her crush with the giddy
1960s pop song “Windy.” The filmmakers cleverly illustrate each speaker’s situation with whimsical
and dramatic imagery, from television clips to psychedelic effects.
For some of the subjects, the memories are more quirky than traumatic. “Cynthia,” replied one
mother to her dyke daughter, “I already know. And I want to watch this TV show!” Sometimes a
parent surprises his gay child, as when one father ^helves the football game in favor of picking flow
ers with his son. Inevitably, though, some of the memories here are ugly indeed, as queer kids who
cannot keep their secret face disdain, disgust and even outright banishment from the family.
Happily, though, there are plenty of balancing lighter moments in When I Knew. One dyke says,
“1 was a stud from Day One!” Another reveals, “I realized I was a lesbian, and I was so relieved.”
Then there are the unrepentant queers like Chris, 20, who show us a joyful future by celebrat
ing what the reactionaries, whose numbers are shrinking, revile: “I’m Liberace gay,” he proclaims.
“Flames of faggotry seem to emit from my pores!”
. —Gary Morris
Tuesday, July 22, $24
Nashville Diva with Bluegrass Roots
ticketmaster
Ticketmaster, com
503.224.4400