Daniel Stedman | Celebration / 2002

the truth of the lie

by Douglas Messerli

 

Daniel Stedman (screenwriter and director) Celebration / 2002 [4 minutes]

 

This is a film whose entire plot and its subsequent significance centers upon what one might describe as a celebration of a lie.

    It appears as the film begins to be a special day, 6-year-old Alex (Alex H. Krinsky) taking extra time in his bath, his mother (Kristen Vermilyea) calling into him “It’s time to come out,” as she puts the final touches of lipstick to her mouth.

   Numerous family members and friends have gathered in the backyard as if to celebrate some special event, white chairs in rows having been put out for the occasion.

    Our now well-dressed six-year-old, his family members standing nearby, climbs up upon a high chair to speak at a lectern.

   Is he about to announce some special feat, an accomplishment, a birthday? He looks out over the crowd and in a tiny, but firm voice announces: “I am a homosexual.”

    The crowd madly applauds, smiles on their faces, only when the camera pans back a few seconds later, there is no applause, no smiles.

   Of course, such events to do not take place. We know that most 6-year-olds, no matter how precocious, do not yet fully comprehend sexuality, let alone a difference from the majority so significant that they can name it as being “homosexual.”

     Besides, boys (and girls) of that age generally do associate with their same sex, exploring their shared world, bonding, and helping to define their gender characteristics. Although many parents are known to celebrate before birth gender news, no parents that I know of celebrate a child’s sudden recognition of his sexuality, and certainly not at such an early age.

      In fact, there is no need to. Until later years, it is simply presumed by the primarily heterosexual society that all young boys are heterosexual. But that is precisely the point of this ironic metaphoric work. Why would we expect our young sons to know their sexuality and announce it? How could applaud such a deviance when sex is not yet an issue in the child’s life?

      Is the film suggesting that in our fears, in the vast amounts of information that even our children assimilate daily, that we are forcing decisions upon them that are completely inappropriate? Or is the film hinting that already at such an early age, gay boys begin to perceive difference which, unlike their heterosexual friends, will never be applauded to even generally approved, by many families not even permitted?

     The absurdity of his story is the message of the film. Gay children are made to feel different from the very beginnings of their life, made to begin to consider issues that they cannot even comprehend and will not fully understand, if ever, until they are adults. And surely those differences will not be shared with others until we come of age in our teens, and will never be universally applauded, most certainly not by our family members.

    There is no celebration ever for the homosexual child until he or she can look back and see how she or he endured and survived to become an adult. We have no such gatherings for heterosexual children either—but there is no need for that since they are celebrated every day just for being who they are.

    Stedman’s film won the Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002.

 

Los Angeles, April 5, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (April 2026).