Connor Clements | James / 2008

nowhere to go

by Douglas Messerli

 

Connor Clements (screenwriter and director) James / 2008 [17 minutes]

 

James by Northern Ireland filmmaker Connor Clements is one of the most intelligent and emotionally engaging of short films I have yet seen that explore the need young boys have for older men who might explain and help them to explore their nascent gay sexuality.

     As many young gay boys feel about themselves, James (Niall Wright) perceives that he is an outsider both at school and at home. He has no close friends at school and at home his parents (Margaret Goodman and Gerry Doherty) are locked into never-ending battles with one another, his father even, somewhat unapologetically, declaring that he never wanted the familial responsibilities of which his wife constantly reminds him. He is so inattentive to his son that he doesn’t even notice the lost and confused expressions of the tortured boy, which his mother observes in frustration since James realizes he dare not express his fears to her.

      The boy perceives his gay desires, even going so far as to visit the local public restroom, where an older man (Louis Rolston) tries to lure him into a stall for a little sexual exploration or, perhaps even worse, into his car with whatever destination he has he mind, despite his assurances of safety to James; we can only imagine the worse.

     James’ only friend seems to be his literature teacher, Mr. Sutherland, who regularly loans him books. He previously has given him Electra to read, with which James is almost finished but admits to not enjoying it. Sutherland selects another book from his personal library, The Glass Menagerie, in that gesture suggesting, as the film clued us in earlier when the teacher was playing the piano for a chorus rehearsal, that the man may be homosexual. James promises to take good care of the loaned treasure.

      But at home the constant fighting of his parents gives him little time for reading or even studying. James stays late in the school library to read and, in part, to elude the school bullies; but when he forced to call his mother to come pick him up because he’s missed bus, incurs her wrath as well. He is in a spot where there is no way out, a place that the world in which he and so many other boys of his age live that he might as well be walled away in a prison created by people like us.

      When, the next day, he meets up again with Mr. Sutherland, he finally gets up the nerve to admit to him that he believes he is gay. The teacher praises his bravery if revealing something so many others, perhaps even himself, cannot. But he advises the boy not to share that information with others.

    The advice, however, is not only in connection with the boy’s best interest, but his own. Now that he knows for certain that the boy is gay, he must tell James that their meetings cannot continue, that he cannot advise him any longer. He can refer him to the school counselor—who even the boy realizes will offer him nothing but psychological and perhaps even medical solutions—or the help lines of church groups, etc. we all know to be worthless. Even James comprehends the situation, pleading with the teacher, “I need to talk with someone who ‘understands,’” giving evidence that James himself knows that the man is homosexual.

     But the “understanding” man can no longer be witnessed trying to consul the boy; surely endangered by the fact of his own sexuality and the inevitable suspicions of others that he may be grooming him for sexual encounters.

     It is a horrific catch-22 for James. The only person who can help him refuses for his own (and the boy’s) protection. We live in times like these, in which those males who might most be able to offer just what the boy is seeking, including perhaps their first sexual encounter, are denied that possibility by societal conventions and the suspicions of the prurient concerning pedophilia.  

     James has no other choice. We see him jump into the car of the man waiting outside of the public restrooms, asking the question usually asked of between two adult male lovers, “Do you have somewhere he can go?” The innocent has been thrown to the wolf. Even if the gentleman is caring and protective, his desires are clearly what dominate his behavior, and those will most certainly have sway over anything else he might offer. That may, alas, be the best thing for a child who has no other choices. But mightn’t we have wished a better guide, a most trustworthy and responsible being to help the boy come out? Yet we know, had Sutherland put away his fears, he would most certainly be without a job and possibly living out his life in prison.

     This is a frightening, but all too accurate portrait of what being a young gay boy often means in today’s societies.

 

Los Angeles, May 31, 2023