First LGBTQ+ Movie Night Held At BUEI

[Written by Vejay Steede]

The first in a series of movie nights kicked off at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on Saturday night [April 8]. The event was organized in collaboration with OUTBermuda and is designed to showcase films that explore LGBTQ+ stories, concerns, and ambitions.

The film that featured on Saturday night was The Inspection starring Jeremy Pope, Raul Castillo, Bokeem Woodbine, and Gabriel Union. The film itself was not especially groundbreaking; based on the true experiences of director/producer Elegance Bratton, the film depicted a 25-year-old gay man’s path through bootcamp, on his way to becoming a U.S. Marine in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Jeremy Pope was excellent as Ellis French [Bratton’s character], delivering an emotionally complex, often fierce, and always heroic performance. The film was actually bursting at the seams with wonderful performances, with Bokeem Woodbine’s drill sergeant, Leland Laws, hitting slightly harder than most others.

The story told in The Inspection, while true and certainly inspiring, is not as impactful in 2023 as it may have been a decade ago. Gabriel Union played Ellis’s mother, Inez French, and her refusal to accept her son for what he was eventually becomes expected. It’s the unfortunate tale of a staunch Christian refusing to accept what science has long since proven to be as natural as rain in April.

So, there was hope for redemption when Inez showed up to Ellis’s graduation, but her final declaration that she would always love her son, but she can’t love what he is was not the gut punch it should have been. There’s not really much that the film could have done differently, its just that at this stage of human development, that mother/parent has become nothing more than an eye-roll-inducing caricature.

Ellis was triumphant, Sergeant Laws was fully redeemed for the, at times, evil things he did to Ellis during camp, the U.S. Marine Corp even came out of this film shining. Inez French, however, had absolutely no redemption, and she was the only person Ellis truly wanted to accept him.

It was, therefore, a story of triumph and tragedy, inspiration and ignorance – a story that most of us have been touched by in some way during the modern LGBTQ+ struggle to move from the closets and fringes of society to the wide open spaces and safe realms we all deserve to occupy. We’ve seen the characters in The Inspection before; indeed, we’ve heard this story before – but that doesn’t mean the film is not a worthy work of art.

The Inspection is a necessary testimony, delivered by a hero. Gripping and entertaining throughout, this was an outstanding selection to start what, hopefully, will become a regular fixture on the local arts circuit.

OUTBermuda Executive Director Tiffany Paynter was quite pleased with the way the first event unfolded, saying, “Our team at OUTBermuda is really happy with the audience numbers for our first LGBTQ+ movie night event. We were so fortunate to be able to partner with the incredible team at BUEI to bring The Inspection to our community. We could not have done it without them, and we look forward to partnering with BUEI to offer more movies in the future.”

On where the series will go from here, Ms Paynter highlights the importance of representation in film, media, and art for LGBTQ+ people, as well as Black and Indigenous people of color [BIPOC].

She said, “Looking ahead, we plan on surveying our community to find out what movies they’d like to see OUTBermuda bring in, and we will strive to offer a range of options that represent the diversity of our LGBTQ+ communities.

“LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities know how important representation is. The positive reactions to Disney’s casting of Halle Bailey as a Black Ariel is an example of the uplifting impact seeing oneself as a protagonist can have on under-represented and marginalized people.

“One of our hopes for the LGBTQ+ movie nights is that seeing queer characters and stories on screen will help us to come together to see, share, and celebrate our stories. These films can also be a way for loved ones and families to better understand the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in their own lives, and help kickstart important conversations.”

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