If you know me, you might know that I have an unhealthy obsession with Johnny Weir.  He initially caught my attention because of his flashy costumes and flamboyant skating style, but after seeing his “Swan” program it was seriously a “you had me at hello” moment.  It is to date the only figure skating program that has literally brought me to tears.

As anyone who follows figure skating knows, he’s been quite the controversial figure, one because of the constant speculation about his sexuality (and really, who cares?), two because of his gender-bending skating style and costumes that often times give him a disadvantage with the judges as compared to “all-American” competitor Evan Lysacek, and three because of his brash and outspoken nature which has gotten him into hot water on numerous occasions.

There’s a documentary being released about Johnny in the summer–right now it seems the release is limited to festivals, but maybe it can at least get a limited theatrical release so I can see it before it goes to DVD.  It’s called Pop Star on Ice, and it looks both ridiculous and thrilling, which I think perfectly captures the essence of Johnny Weir.

A while back, former skaters Mark Lund and Nancy Kerrigan ripped Johnny a new one over his feminine style of skating on a television program about figure skating, and I in turn ripped them new ones with this article.

Here’s the trailer for Johnny’s movie.

Thursday we watched a film called Tongues Untied in my Advanced Video Production class, and given the subject matter of the film I was sort of shocked I had not only never seen it, but I’d never heard of it either.  In addition to the fact that it was extremely helpful by aiding me in determining how exactly I was going to use mostly stock footage to demonstrate how unequally we judge male and female sexuality, it was an beautiful film that addressed issues of internalized racism and self-hatred among black gay men.

It was made by Marlon Riggs, who unfortunately died of an AIDS related illness in 1994.  He’s a black poet, educator, and filmmaker that went on to make other films like Affirmation, Anthem, Color Adjustment, and Black Is…Black Ain’t (which he unfortunately didn’t finish working on before his untimely death, but was posthumously released in 1995.)  The film is not a typical documentary, in the sense that it has a purpose and it has a topic, but it doesn’t say “I am a documentary and I’m now going to tell you about something”.  It knows its message, it knows its audience, and once it starts it just goes.

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