Benjamin Bratt

Style »

Follow Benjamin Bratt Updates:

. . .

« PREV NEXT »

Too Ghetto Maybe? Gay Press Mafia Ignores Latino Homo Breakout Film La Mission

By derrick920 on | From renwl.org

La Mission star Benjamin Bratt showing off them tits ‘n’ tats

We gotta kick it off with an East LA back in da day classic by WAR. Press play!

Director Peter Bratt teamed up with his brother actor Benjamin Bratt to make a film about this hot thugged-out hoopsta lovin’ San Francisco bus driver and single parent, Che Rivera (Benjamin Bratt) raising his son, Jesse (Jeremy Ray Valdez), a successful high school senior who has been keeping his gay identity and white boyfriend, Jordan (Max Rosenak), secret from his father.

The film follows Che as he struggles to accept his son. But that’s just one layer of this film, which explores machismo, cultural identity, misogyny, and the evolution of America.

To their credit The Advocate interviewed La Mission’s star and director the brothers Peter and Benjamin Bratt in early 2009, when it debuted at Sundance Film Festival. The film has won awards and has been in several other film fests including LA’s own OutFest last year. Most recently Towleroad and Ontop Magazine each dropped some ink about the film which was released for public screenings in select theaters earlier this month.

But that’s all we’ve seen in terms of gay rags and the film’s recent release—minus those San Francisco-based newspapers and Web sites who wrote about it since the film’s story is based in the SF—that’s it. And don’t think we haven’t searched hi ‘n’ low. When the likes of Milk debuted you’d of thought it was the 2nd coming to here the fag rags and gay equality orgs tell it. And what about all the press love that 8 The Mormon Proposition documentary got last year. It also screened at the same time La Mission did at the Sundance Film Fest. Yea, there was some newsworthy drama surrounding it with a few protests but still—it was if it was the only gay-themed film in the whole festival. Certainly didn’t hear a peep about La Mission. And that was awhile ago—-nothing to do with why La Mission isn’t getting more gay press play these days. Oh, there’s probably a few other gaycentric Web sites out there that have recently given the film some love. Still—-we think it a crying shame in this day and age when so many non-gays of color are front row and center demanding inclusion—equality wise, and yet continue not to practice inclusion in both subtle and glaring ways in their own community. No, the filmmaker of La Mission Peter Bratt is not gay. But neither was Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee.

To add insult to injury by all counts so far (we haven’t seen it yet—just read several glowing reviews and watched the trailer) this film looks REALLY GOOD. And the music—some Marvin Gaye—-a touch of Curtis Mayfield, that works for us, too.

As we stated earlier, we’ve read several very positive reviews on the film. But there’s an exchange between the two brothers Peter and Benjamin—-San Francisco Mission District natives (yeah, they grew up there ) during their interview with The Advocate that completely encapsulates why this movie is very significant for the LGBT and SGL community—in terms developing a more cohesive understanding of how attitudes towards sexuality, masculinity and one’s race are so intertwined and complex for many LGBTs of color. Check this out this short excerpt of the two brothers discussing the taboo of homosexuality and being a man of color in the inner-city.

The Advocate: Why do you think that homosexuality is the ultimate catalyst, the most horrible thing that can happen in that community?

Peter: It’s interesting, a few Latino men who read the script were so uncomfortable with the idea that Che, who is such a badass, has a son who is a “faggot.” The question came to me, “well, couldn’t he be a drug dealer?” [Laughs] That is more acceptable! That taboo nature of homophobia in our community is that we just don’t want to shed light on it.

Benjamin: It’s not an accidental irony that here within arguably the most progressive and liberal city in the world, you have a dinosaur, a man who personifies the resistance to change, and certainly of anything that is different from the traditionalism in which he grew up. The discovery of his son’s homosexuality is a catalyst that leads him to behave in the way he was socialized to behave. One that is apparent to us at least, and we find less so in the dominant community, by which I mean the white community, this is not an issue that has been dealt with in the African-American and Latino communities. In fact it’s so taboo that it is hardly discussed. It could be argued that it has been dealt with in the white community.

(Left to right: La Mission star Benjamin Bratt, his brother director Paul Bratt, and cast member Jeremy Ray Valdez who plays Jesse. )

And that’s the other thing that’s really cool about La Mission and that is it’s centered in a Latino neighborhood smack dead in the center of San Francisco. It’s gritty and it’s real. Such is the life of gay folks growing up in the hood. We so can relate to the otherworldliness of mainstream and white culture ourselves having grown up in Los Angeles, a city also renowned for being beyond socially progressive. But the life in the hood in the city is a much different reality—-different rules, ways of expression and being. Cultural identity and tradition rules the day in communities of color in large “socially progressive” cities such as LA and San Francisco.

You’d think the sorry likes of EQCA would jump on this flick—do something smart and intersectional for a change like sponsor a screening of them film themselves where the filmmaker and his brother are invited to talk about the film along with a panel maybe of Latino gay and lesbian activists who can also share about their experiences growing up in a major city yet struggling with cultural issues of homophobia within their own community. Something cool could come out of something like that. Then again, that would be too much like right. And we wouldn’t wanna break the winning streak on EQCA’s behalf in its dealings with LGBT communities of color.

La Mission is screening all over L.A., the O.C., and Pasadena at AMC and indie theaters. You can go to the La Mission Web site below for screening listings and info.

~La Mission Web site

Possibly Related Posts: