Rory Dering | Pittsburgh / 2013

 

hand to hand combat

by Douglas Messerli

 

Rory Dering (screenwriter and director) Pittsburgh / 2013 [18 minutes]

 

At the beginning of Pittsburgh we encounter a scene that provides us a puzzling clue that only in retrospect can we comprehend. A handsome young man, Brett (Tommy Korn) arrives at apartment building, takes out his key and opens the door, a woman ladened with grocery bags calling out to him to hold the door. He seemingly refuses and the door slams shut before she gets there. She knocks, trying to bring him back to be kind of enough to open the door, but he moves on to the elevator and up to the apartment to which he has been headed.

     My first reaction was to perceive this as a character clue, indicating a man who was insensitive to the concerns of others. And when we enter the apartment, witness a kitchen full of dirty dishes and a bedroom full of clothes strewn about the floor, we might almost seem to get confirmation of his generally slovenly behavior, although strangely he looks well dressed and seems slightly disdainful of the mess around him.

      We soon have to alter our entire perspective as we observe another handsome young man lying in a nearby bed, a bong and other drug paraphernalia strewn about a night stand nearby. He awakens the sleeping beauty, who seems delighted to see our seemingly rude friend. A moment or two later, as the man in the bed, Alex (Brandon Crowder) and Brett begin communicating in sign language we realize that it is not that Brett didn’t care, but simply hadn’t heard the woman’s call and her pleading knocks on the door of the apartment house. Our perspectives shift, and we are encouraged to do throughout this short film, listening openly to both sides of the ensuing conversation without prejudice.

      For the rest of this film, with the exception of a verbal outburst at one point from Alex, in what is surely one of cinema’s firsts, the language spoken is exclusively American Sign Language, we as foreigners required to read the film’s subtitles.

       The story we encounter is an all-too-common one. Brett has returned to his lover Alex after what appears to be a rather lengthy time away, in an attempt to once more try to convince him to come out and openly accept him as his lover.

       Alex, a jock with the worst kind of delusions, obviously loves Brett and would wish with all his heart to openly be in a relationship with him like so many gay men throughout the country, but simply can’t or perhaps one should say, won’t. The worst kind of closeted man, he still desires and imagines a wife, kids, and a suburban house, despite the fact that he seems to be a drugged-out man-boy who has been unable to accept any of the responsibilities even of his own life.

      Pittsburgh consists of one of the best interchanges between the logic of an openly gay man attempting to explain to the other that his fears of how he be perceived and treated as a gay are mostly an illusion that he will be far more unhappy if he persists in his delusions—without even discussing the fact that he will probably hurt far many more innocent people, including some future wife and their children, if he persists in his heterosexual fantasy instilled evidently by an unbearable father and his own weak emotional makeup. At one point, Brett does suggest that if he were to have children, they would they might have the most “chilled out” father on the planet given all the drugs he daily ingests.

      It is simply a marvel to see this debate, played out in so many gay movies, represented in sign-language, the actors conveying their emotions brilliantly even while being voiceless. No yelling matches here, just hand gymnastics. Indeed, the only true testament to Alex’s love and possible commitment to Brett is the fact that he has bothered to learn sign language and uses it quite fluently, except in one comic instance.

     Otherwise, the only weak part of this engaging film is trying to comprehend why an athletic (he plays baseball with a gay team), talented, intelligent, financially sound, and loving man like Brett would want a dumb slob who can’t except the fact that he’s a homosexual.

     In the past, Brett has apparently given in to Alex’s demands to continue having sex with him while allowing him yet a little more time to come to terms with the reality of his life; but this time, even though he has purchased an engagement ring with the hopes that he might finally convince the man he loves to come to reason, he knows by film’s end, that he has no choice but leave his lover behind.

     It is not only fascinating to see this debate expressed through the movement of hands, facial gestures, and bodily gestures, but to realize that even with all that full expression, some individuals will never be able to escape their patriarchally controlled, heteronormative childhood pasts. In their selfish devotion to what they have been taught, time and again they end up destroying others and themselves.

      Pittsburgh has long been a favorite of the gay festival circuit and the gay-friendly on-line networks such as Vimeo, YouTube, and Dekkoo, and now that I’ve finally seen it, I can well understand why.

 

Los Angeles, May 24, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (May 2023).