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Actor/Writer/Director Kenneth “Charlee Summer” Brown Jr shows us how to convince black heterosexual homophobes to accept us in this short student film with the controversial title, Faggot.”

The story centers around a heterosexual man named Jahmahl (played by Kenneth Brown Jr. himself) who travels across the country to visit his best friend Ian, who happens to be Gay with a live-in effeminate boyfriend. As he socializes with Ian, his partner and his Gay friends, Jahmahl’s prejudices come to the surface threatening to end their fragile friendship altogether.

“This film aims to test the possibilities of a friendship between Straight and Gay African American Men while exploring the homophobic title attached to the Black Community. The title is NOT meant to offend anyone by no means.” says Kenneth Brown Jr.

Having said that, the film awkwardly depicts the “possibility of the gay and straight friendship” as one where the burden falls on the homosexual man to mend. Most of the screen time is spent (unsuccessfully) trying to convince the lone heterosexual man that he should accept gays.

Spoiler Alert: It only takes one question at the end to turn Jahmahl around, breaking his deep seeded bigotry. “Why are you here?” That’s it. That’s all it took.

Wait, what?

But it was actually a good question. The character appears surprised and disturbed to see gay people show up at this dinner party…but we learn through dialogue that Jahmahl had learned that Ian was gay before traveling cross country for the visit. And he had already long rejected his friend for it, like many others.

So yeah, Why was he there? And why was he so surprised?

The only creative reason for this is this story is meant for the benefit of Straight Men, not gays. Why else would this film be (unnecessarily) titled, “Faggot?”

From the beginning, the character of Jahmahl seems to only exist to voice how many black heterosexuals feel about the LGBT movement and Gay community as a whole. In an extended out-of-place conversation, Jahmahl preaches that gay civil rights are not the same as black civil rights merely because gays can hide their sexuality. This comes literally minutes after we see Jahmahl instantly detect 2 men are gay immediately after they walk into the room. So much for that hiding theory.

I have no idea if the filmmaker is heterosexual…or what his politics are…or if he’s in fact a homophobic black man who shares the views of the character he plays in the film…but I do know this film doesn’t add much to the conversation on Gay rights, Homophobia or even Black Cinema itself.

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