basketball, kisses, and a waltz
by Douglas Messerli
Luis Fernando Midence (screenwriter and director) One on One /
2010 [10 minutes]
We’ve seen this happen in so many short queer films before. Two
gay men who truly love one another, yet one of them being averse to displaying
that love through kisses and touches in public. It used to be a product of the generation
in which you grew up. Howard and I, both were born in the late 1940s, were from
a generation of gay males who having just escaped the closeted worlds of a few
years previous, came of age when it was still sometimes necessary or at least
advisory to not challenge the many homophobes who still dominated the society
at large. My husband Howard, for example, was far more cautious in public
expression that was I, although there is only a few months difference in our
ages (I am the younger). But I had determined to break from of conventions
while he was simply somewhat more conventional in his thinking.
In the case of the two
figures in Luis Fernando Midence’s short film, One on One, for Alex and
Trevor (Braulio Cruz-Ortiz and Timothy P. Brown) it’s an issue of macho defined
by Trevor’s emphasis on the sports world, his game being basketball, and
perhaps the fact that the black community is not quite as open to queer life as
are some members of the Hispanic community.
After a basketball
scrimmage which they win, the others hurry off, while the exhausted Alex lays
down on the court, his lover Trevor towering over, which before Trevor even
knows it, leads to a kiss.
A few moments later, they are arguing, Trevor
accusing Alex of always wanting to make a civil rights issue over their
relationship, while he just wants to play ball—obviously with the unstated
qualifier that he doesn’t want his straight friends to know that he’s gay or
least be reminded of it.
By the time they reach
the second floor of the gym, however, Alex has, at least, convinced him of
providing him in the empty corridor with a manly hug.
At the moment Trevor
realizes that he doesn’t have his keys and calls over to Alex who has been
drawn to a nearby open doorway where numerous couples are learning to waltz.
As Trevor follows him
to the door, the teacher (Shain Clark) greets them, Alex suddenly perceiving
that perhaps the answer to Trevor’s fear of public display might be mitigated by
sharing in a dance. But just like basketball is not really Alex’s game, so is
dancing in a room with several other couples not something he’s good at, particularly
when it represents an even bolder public expression than kissing on an empty
basketball court.
Trevor storms off, but when he still cannot find his keys, he is forced to return, and this time—far too easily, I might argue for a somewhat realist-based comedy—is convinced to join in, letting Alex lead, and finally, given the success of their efforts, even willing to award his partner with an open kiss, which the others have all stopped to watch.
“Will you be joining us
next week?” asks the teacher. When they unanimously respond “yes,” she holds
out her hand, demanding payment of $10 each, reminding us, after all, that even
expressing love in the US costs.
Los Angeles, September 26, 2025
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2025).
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