my uncle, the ghost
by Douglas Messerli
Ana Galizia (director) Inconfissõ (Unconfessions) / 2017
[21 minutes]
In Unconfessions, Brazilian documentary
director Ana Galizia, given by her aunt boxes of photographs and letters that
remained from her mysterious and quite colorful uncle, Luis Roberto, attempts
to bring some aspects of the man to life.
Although it is often a touching glimpse of the man who was involved in
the Berkeley, California theater scene of the 1970s and 1980s, it ultimately
does little more than to create a kind of scrapbook-like portrait of him,
particularly such she has added no commentary or even explanation of what she
is showing other than reading out a few letters of admiring male lovers and
friends, and mentioning near the end how this archive came into being.
That’s not to say that this work isn’t of interest, particularly to the
gay community of that period, so many of who died of AIDS, as did Luis Roberto
at a time when the disease was not yet well-known in Brazil. I couldn’t help
but be reminded of the recent film directed by Rodrigo de Oliveria, Os
Primeiros Soldados (The First Fallen) which explores some of
the earliest Brazilian victims of the epidemic living in small Vitória, Brazil
during the early 1980s, about the same time that Luis Roberto died, 1986, in
São Paulo.
Here, however, we have only remnants—the numerous snapshots and super 8
films which feature Galizia himself and the many beautiful men who passed
through his life, as well as a brief series of photographs of theater
performances similar to that of the Bread and Puppet Theater of the 1960s and
70s. And nothing at all is mentioned of Galizia’s career in theater and film
including Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Maldita Coincidência
(1979), and O Olho Mágico do Amor (1982). In the most famous of these,
however, Spider Woman, he only played a nurse.
Some of these “remnants,” however are certainly fascinating. Early in
the film, in fact, a narrator reads from Luis’ psychological evaluation as a
young boy 16-year-old:
“His personality: Presents accented traces of
inferiority and insecurity, mainly affective. Has an enormous need for
validation and projection, adopting a behavior that he himself disapproves of,
feelings of guilt, and of not being liked by the group. Attempts to self-affirm
through reverie. Sexual and family issues, intensely seeking affection and
communication with parents. As a consequence, he is overwhelmed with marked
anxious-depressive features. Conclusion: Group psychotherapy is recommended.”
I
don’t know if Luis’ parents encouraged him to enter into group therapy, but I
had to laugh since everything the psychiatrist observed is what almost any
young gay man of his age feels, or at least did in those days when we were
daily taught and shown just how inferior and guilty we should feel for having
the sexual desires he had. Obviously, most of us sought out some signs of
approval from our parents and other family members, far too often never shown
since we could not fully share our full feelings.
Yet
the later photos and letters reveal a beloved and seemingly healthy outgoing
individual, relating fully to the like-minded social groups with whom he later
allied himself. He appears to have been a beautiful, mercurial clown, who
delighted most of his friends, even as he grew more and more ill.
If
only his niece had provided us with some sort of narrative trajectory, a
chronological identification of images, a hint about the year he first traveled
across the vast spaces of US to New York City and what he did there when he
arrived. Did he attempt to perform in off-Broadway or Broadway theater? Where
those Bread and Puppet Theater-like images actually of that company? Who did he
meet on his travels? Who are these beautiful faces that keep appearing and
disappearing? When did Galizia return to Brazil and why? With whom did he study
at Berkeley? What roles, if any, did he perform? These and dozens of other
questions frustrate the viewer at the very moment when we want most to get to
know who the mysterious uncle really was. Alas, his niece offers us only images
of a long-ago ghost.
Los Angeles, April 17, 2023
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (April
2023).
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