How hard would you fight for love? That is the question asked by filmmaker Tyson FitzGerald in this well made short film starring Ka’ramuu Kush, Shawn Carter Peterson, and Reggie Watkins.
Nick Delmacy
Nick is a founder, editor and the pop culture expert at Cypher Avenue. Serving as the designer and webmaster of the site, he is the architect of The Cypher Avenue Matrix.
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That 5 minute and change was better than about ¾ of what I've watched on Netflix in the last year.
I thought it was a very real representation of what I've seen and experienced in my time and the acting was good also.
I'd like to see more.
When they started to get jumped I prayed that the writers didnt turn them into "punks" (soft scared dudes). They showed 2 men defending themselves letting society know it aint as sweet as it looks!! Growing up i was shocked that so many gay people got "gay bashed" . Everybody have different expiriences. I grew up in the projects and the gayand lesbian people i knew didn't take no shyt from no-one. The worst thing is for a straight dude to get f**ked up by a queer so dudes would think long and hard. Love PDA
I was with it till the end of the fight. Why do they do this? Why do they just separate from reality like that? Have they never been in a fight like this-or any physical fight? Or even mugged? If you are attacked like that in an alley, are fighting and then two of the people who have attacked you are laying on the ground apparently unconscious, I can see the first thing being 'all you alright?'…but after that?. You then have a 'breakthrough moment' in an alley with two bodies laying there?
With all that adrenaline rushing?
No running and getting the hell out of there?
Strolling hand in hand possibly injured and not seeking any medical attention while one of the attackers may have woken up and come out of the alley with a gun?(that is if you have not actually killed one of the attackers…not like that might actually phase you and being gay men, might make you want to, oh I don't know, call the police, 911 or an ambulance while you quickly seek a safe space with people around?)
But instead you have a maudlin moment?
Please tell me this is not what would happen.
*I know I am being really critical but that was my honest reaction.
Why do you think those damn gay bashers deserved any consideration. They could have been killed. The were attacked. They defended themselves successfully and took up for one another. They owed absolutely nothing to the attackers. Hey whatever happened to them they did to themselves. What are you saying.
I enjoy the short film. I actually want to know more about the characters and the outcome of their relationship.
This little film trivializes the impacts of extreme violence. They could have a similar conclusion(the men being brought together) if they dealt with the aftermath of the violence in a more appropriate manner. Sorry I just can't 'suspend my disbelief' for this one as it is not science fiction or fantasy.
What are you people talking about. “A more appropriate way” What do you mean go back into the alley and apologize to the attacker and get attacked again. I do not understand some of these comments. That is absurd.
I'll give this one a thumbs up, here's why. The actors were actually convincing and the location and lighting really set the mood. However the biggest reason I like this they didn't follow the usual trope of gay men being the victim. They actually fought back and kicked those homophobes asses.
See I liked that part too….I liked it up to through that part at least, I will give it that.
That was the best and most unexpected part of it.
I wrongly assumed that one or both were going to die and when it took the defensive tone, I was both surprised and impressed.
DAMN! That was awesome! I did not want it to end. Mr.FitzGerald please, if you're reading either maybe we could help this to become a feature film. or, turn this into television show-similar to "FreeFall." Sigh..
I also liked that the "bottom dude" was not a "punk" if that makes sense. I kind of expected the masculine dude to stand up. But, the bottom actually was the one to answer back to those assholes. Also, I noticed that he actually put the board across old boy's head to help the partner. This was awesome! I want more!
I am at a loss with these comments.
@Ockydub @Nick Delmacy C'mon…what do you guys think? you just dropped this with no commentary.
I liked most of it and the casting was good, but really? you are ok with that transition right after the fight? Is that how black gay men would be? Really? You can overlook that for the 'good things' about it?
*fight…bodies laying on the ground*
"are you ok'
*pause*
'I am sorry I yelled at you'
*bodies still lying on the ground*
'laughs'
*sentimental music plays while they hold hands and walk away together and everything is allllll riiiiiighhht ..while bodies still lay on the ground*
I don't think they were striving for stark realism and some questions may not need answers. Running may have been difficult because they were hurt, or deemed unnecessary since their attackers were apparently unconscious. Maybe they sought medical attention and drove to a hospital after reaching the car, thinking that their injuries were only minor since they were capable of moving.
The filmmakers wanted to make a short and sweet film and felt that these details were unnecessary. Calling the police would have interrupted the flow of the 4 minute and 45 second film. And they wanted to do that shot at the end that mirrored the one at the beginning, which would have been difficult if they ran away to call the police. Viewers would have to watch them talk on the phone, or the real-time story would be interrupted by an abrupt time jump or other scenes that weren't needed to convey that this experience helped them get past their conflict, at least temporarily. And that conflict resolution was shown by them walking the other way and commenting on it, calling back to the beginning, which might not have seemed as natural if they addressed these other details.
I'm glad you shared your thoughts but do you react to all "grounded in reality" films like this lol? I just think it would be hard to fully enjoy anything but the most extremely, brutally, 100% real, totally uncompromising dramas. Despite the fact that the climax is a gritty, realistic situation, the filmmakers were probably aiming for romantic beats rather than straight realness. I doubt they considered questions like, "When will they call the cops?" or, "Should they wait for an ambulance?" But I'm sometimes critical too.
When it comes to films or shorts where there is not an explicit reason to have a 'suspension of disbelief' then yes, I am critical. Grounded in reality means just that. The afterfight part was just intellectually insulting to me. I think this could have been just a little longer, and with just a little tweaking, could have been much better. I like much of it, the characters were engaging and I could see some of my younger self in the younger guy and some of my older self in the older guy. I admit I am critical but this could have been stronger and I am sorry, but the part I am critical of IMO is nothing short of emotional masturbation, and if I am going to be subject to that I don't want it to come as a surprise.
And this director is a pale soulless white ginger! lol which makes it even more galling. LMAO! I went to investigate and now I think there might have been racial bias and stereotyping involved. I am ready to get out my tinfoil hat even.
:sass1:
Whereas his site…
Features coldplay
He worked on a Tom Cruise thing = infected by $cientology
He was involved with reality tv-three times!
Therefore…
Three strikes and the soulless ginger is out!
:camby:
*gingers are abominations!
And I am not alone in my critique:
Yeah, I f'd up by immediately following "grounded in reality" by saying that the filmmakers likely weren't aiming for total realism. I would be critical if a serious, realistic, feature length film suddenly had a sweet ending. I guess I looked at the short a little differently.
The aesthetics of the cinematography were well executed in the variation of shot selections, good lighting, and clean audio. I loved the establishing shot in the beginning, craning down from the theater marquee, to the entrance. The delivery of the acting was solid. The plot succeeded in addressing a few social constructs within the given time frame. The ending however, was sappy, and can leave the story to appear somewhat inconclusive.
This was very well done.
I like the short! It was very well produced and nicely acted. With that being said, I will agree @ColumbusGuy it does seem to dilute the instances of extreme violence gay men and women face, sometimes just walking down the street. On the other hand, I did like the fact that they showed the men fighting back, all too often gay men and women are depicted as being purely victims of gay bashing. I personally know and have witnessed several 6 foot drag queens beat the shyt of their would be attacker. Nice share.
I was harsh in my criticism, but overall I liked it. And that stuff about the director was just in fun. There was more to like than not like.
And I liked that they fought back-I have been the victim of an attempted mugging and while I was hurt(attacked out of the blue from behind) I fought back and got away(without any material loss anyway)…I will share this because I did have a strong reaction about the attack part and aftermath and I guess I should explain that.
I guess I am also projecting my feelings about what happened to me (fight back/get away from them, run like hell(the biggest part), oh shyt I am bleeding from my head -let me find some people and get help-I need an ambulance) on this film. I will admit to that.
Maybe pure "realism" is not the point here. Perhaps the film should be looked at as more of a didactic "message" to gay men to defend themselves from these kinds of homophobic attacks and that fighting back should become the norm and not the exception in these situations. Realistic or not, I'm glad the gay men "won". Another thing is that more gay men should acquaint themselves with the laws and regulations regarding gun ownership AND "concealed carry" in the states and/or jurisdictions they live in and act accordingly. You are simply not serious about defending yourself and your loved ones if you haven't done this. The Constitution of the United States of America accords us 2nd Amendment remedies too! Just saying.
That was pretty good. Only complaint…. not long enough. GREAT JOB GUYS!!!!
Done very well! Kudos! Wished I'd wrote it!
JUST WATCHED THIS – 1] IT IS WELL MADE 2] HOPE THE WRITER/DIRECTOR MAKES A LONG FORM FILM SOON 3] ONE POINT IN THE FILM IS BE OPEN AND COMFORTABLE , BUT YOU MUST THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU MIGHT LOSE [ CAREERS, PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE , ETC… ] IF YOU ARE OPEN AND OUT THERE. 4] ANOTHER THING IS SOMETIMES WE DON'T CHOOSE GUYS THAT ARE GOOD FOR US. SOME GAY GUYS WANT TO BE FLAMING MOST OF THE TIME. — WE ALL DON'T WANT THAT – SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT – OVERALL NICE SHORT FLICK
It was very well done. The actors' performances were great! Overall, it was a very compelling film. Once it began I could not take my eyes off the screen. Look forward to more of your work!
Ok, so in full disclosure, I have worked with one of the actors in this before on a project or 2. That being said, I didn't like it. I thought the first half where they were having relationship issues was well done. I could even get into the fact that the tension was very nice when the thugs(who only one looked even remotely dangerous) showed up. But once the gays turned into superheroes…I'm sorry, it lost me completely.
I could buy it even up to the superheroes part-because the three thugs turned into two thugs, and a weapon was used against both thugs – a rock for the first one, and a board for the second. One thing I learned growing up with older brothers is all bets are off in an unfair fight-if you are trapped you fight to win and use anything available as a possible weapon. So it was not a likely outcome, but still a plausible one.
I just could not get with the ending. These are apparently guys who are not used to fighting or being attacked-if they were they would have been more careful and aware of their surroundings to begin with. And given that, their reactions to it all afterwards to me, were not plausible.
Why did you tell us you worked with one…can you at least give a hint or DM me? But only if it is the older one.(shallow)
How would you rewrite this?
I see things through a different lens when it comes to a situation like this.
The more mellow of the two seemed to be situationally aware and got caught up in the moment of trying to bring peace and quiet the loud dude down.
Afterwards, being both black and gay and not having any other information available, it's not a stretch for me to think that not every black and or gay person feels safe to call the police or an ambulance if they're not shot, stabbed or beaten to a pulp.
It could in some cases make things worse for them on many levels.
Having been in a couple of physical altercations and dangerous situations, I can only say from my perspective that sensible reactions vary…but in the movie of life, I always make the sequel!
I'm not at liberty to say which one lol. Gotta be careful in these streets.
I don't know, it just felt forced to me. I think if it would have been just a bit longer so we could actually get into the characters and care a bit it would have been better.
As @ColumbusGuy noted, I refrained from giving commentary on this short because I wanted to see how others reacted to it first. Overwhelmingly the readers have loved it, as did @Ockydub when I first showed it to him. I agree that the directing, acting and writing were pretty refreshing up until the gay bashing turn. I discovered this short maybe a year ago, but never posted it on the site because of the second half.
My biggest issues were that not only did it turn into a 90's gay afterschool special, with "bullies" and everything, by the end their otherwise interesting relationship issues seemed to have been completely resolved by violently conquering their enemies, not by working things out or accepting their roles/sexuality, etc.
The message was: We have serious sexuality and relationship issues. Solution: beat up some homophobes. "Glad we had this time together, where did we park the car?"
This seemed like half of two separate ideas for short films slammed into one. I would have rather seen the hesitant gay character continue to talk through and work out his issues with intimacy with his more open partner than to see the elaborate fight scene.
And as others have noted, was he a superhero? How was he able to slow down time? Or was he The Flash, able to take down the muscular man restraining him faster than the time it took for the main thug to swing the piece of wood?
[Side note: notice that he also never got that nice cream colored sweater dirty while fighting in a trash filled alley way.]
Overall, the short is definitely well made and better than most we've seen featuring black gay characters…While I'm glad the talented Tyson Fitzgerald made this film, it saddens me that a black gay filmmaker didn't make this. Proving @Ockydub's observation that white filmmakers often tell "our stories" better than we do.
Contrast this film to many of the black gay web series and reality shows we've highlighted on Cypher Avenue to see the difference.
Nick, I'm going to charge you rent for occupying space in my brain. It did feel like 2 movies put into one. I was way more into it when they were discussing their relationship issues.
You also touched on a point you've mentioned before that straight white filmmakers seem to make better black gay content. I wrote a gay horror short (don't care what Ocky says, it won awards for best horror). However, despite having a black writer, everyone else on the production team was white including the director. I've worked with black gay filmmakers and straight white ones on gay projects and, sadly, there is a huge difference to approach. The straight white filmmakers only cared about one thing: the story. If it did not make the story better, it didn't make the film. Everything was done to get the best possible story and not give lip service to gay audiences. Working with black gay filmmakers, the story didn't matter. All that mattered was getting the most references to grindr, jack'd, blogs, and sex as possible. Its almost as if black gay filmmakers are so busy trying to make a film for the audience that they forget to simply just make a good film.
:kermit::babylawd::feedme:
Correction, I believe I said straight people (white and black) write/make better Black gay stories and characters than black gay writers and directors do.
Other than that, the choreographed fight scene was something refreshing that I hadn't seen in a black gay short or web series before. I think yours and @hannibal 's observations are spot on but I think your "I would have rather seen it developed liked this" ideas (although logical) would have made it a boring drama and just another black gay relationship snoozefest. This has been done-to-death.
I think its safe to say my expectations are in the toilet and almost irreversibly jaded when it comes to Black gay short films or web series…This gave me some hope but like you said this is now well over a year old even though technically new to many.
Like you both have admitted, with all the short comings and "what I would have like to seen" aside …the story and production value was good, which made it entertaining to most.
FYI…this is how dudes H&M sweater didn't get dirty. Technology muthafuka LMAO.
As I think about something, I'm perplexed. @Nick Delmacy how long has this short been out or when was it released?
I follow many black gayleberites, black gay socialites and ear to the black gay streets media gays, on social media. I see all the constant updates to all the black gay podcasts (except ours of course), terrible black gay web series, vlog series, short films, etc and have never seen this.
I wonder if it wasn't on their radar because the creators were not black, no salaciousness was involved or because it wasn't a knock off wannabe messy black gay reality series?
The short was released 2 years ago…I found it around a year ago…watched it and saved it to my Short Films folder on my computer and forgot about it. The way I found it is I was, um, "researching" one of the actors, lol. Was surprised that he had played a gay character. Impressed with the bravery, although there were no gay kissing or sex scenes so maybe it wasn't that much of a leap for him to portray.
Wow ok. When I google the film, Cypher Ave is now the first to come up. I did find it on one other gay themed sight that talks about minority LGBT films. I see that it was featured at two film festivals in 2013 & in 2014.
Good points. I was looking at it through my own lens-you make some good points.
* I knew something was up with this when this was just dropped with no commentary
Gratitude.
My lens is a little wider than most, I think because my life experiences have basically been a string of unbelievable tragicomedy scenarios.
On top of it all just plain good filmmaking