U People / Shirts & Skins

Friday evening, we went to the second night of the Oakland International Black LGBT Film Festival.
We watched a short about two women meeting after car trouble on a deserted highway, a documentary about the making of a Hanifah Walidah music video , and two episodes from an upcoming LOGO show .

U People (the documentary) and Shirts & Skins (the TV show) were an interesting double feature. Both took place, mostly, in a house, and both had people sharing their lives and experiences, talking from the heart, and laughter, anger, and tears. But the result was strikingly different. U People, a gathering of Black women making a video and talking about their lives, was incredibly rich, with a wide range of perspectives and experiences. They spoke from their hearts about their own lives, educating and supporting each other--and we in the audience got the privilege to hear it. It was naturally political (as opposed to intentionally structured to evoke a response), diverse in perspective, entirely approachable and unapologetic, and had really great clothes and music. What more could you ask for?
Shirts & Skins was a docu...I mean reality show about the SF Rockdogs--a gay men's basketball team with a history of gold medals at the Gay Games, who fell apart after the 2006. The show brings old and new players together in a house as they prepare and fundraise for the next Gay Games. It's a great premise, bringing different ages, race/ethnicities, and perspectives of gay men together to play basketball and share their lives. And, honestly, it's an engaging story that touches on important stuff like being out or not, family conflicts, religion and homosexuality, and the difficulties of being gay in sports. And John Amaechi, a gay former NBA player, costars as a mentor. But the frustrating thing is the reality TV. After two episodes, the high drama is stoked, and the reality show roles are being fulfilled: the identified patient, the earnest one, the playboy, the exasperated caretaking parent (a white guy who refers to them all as "my boys," an embarrassingly and infuriatingly ignorant thing for a white man to say about a Black man)...it gets a little too TV when I want something a little more real. The Rockdogs are interesting enough as a team, the motivation to be role models to young gay people who want to play sports is a beautiful thing, and the story of a team trying to mend itself back together is engaging enough--we don't need the reality TV overlay that makes everything emotionally frenetic and artificially full of drama.
Then again, my partner said he liked watching Real World when he was 16, and that's exactly the demographic of young people who ought to see talented, out gay people playing great sports.