Kareem Mortimer | Float / 2007

why do you have to act like a damn sissy all the time?

by Douglas Messerli

 

Kareem Mortimer (screenwriter and director) Float / 2007 [34 minutes]

 

This Bahamian film is one of the first to actually give us a fuller portrait of the intense homophobia that exists in the Bahama Islands, and which was revealed internationally when Rosie O’Donnell, leading a Caribbean cruise of about 1,500 people, mostly gay, lesbian, and straight allies received a reception in 2004 in Nassau demanding they not deboard, and that were unwelcome to visit the Bahamas. It is with these clips indeed that Mortimer begins his film, setting into motion what he realize quickly through the character of Jonny Roberts (Jonathan Murray), a painter, who is mocked and criticized for his artistic endeavors by his own father (Christopher Herrod), who insists he get a real job.

    Jonny himself has several problems: he is an obsessive-compulsive germaphobe, and a man afraid of taking chances. He is himself in danger of losing his scholarship to his art school because, despite his talent, his caring teacher (Christine Wilson) fears that he is making no progress on his art. She suggests that he visit the outlying island of Eleuthera, where she herself has a cottage, far from the worst of the homophobic anger and slurs. And having been simultaneously almost dismissed by his own father as a sissy and after being bullied by the locals, Jonny takes her advice.

    But even there, at least at first, he finds himself in a difficult position when the car he has rented happens to be stick shift, which he has never learned how to drive. (I know the feeling from when I traveled with a fellow student from Madison, Wisconsin to Washington, D.C., in which I promised to do have of the driving without realizing his car was a stick shift, which he taught me how to drive in the road, a truly harrowing experience).

    When he lets the break free, the car suddenly careens backwards heading toward a stone wall. He is saved by a local, Romeo (Stephen Tyrone Williams), who is able to stop the car, and with a truly friend face introduce himself to the terrified gay man.

  Romeo is not only friendly, but never forgets another face, and immediately recognizes the uncomfortable Jonny as a fellow student where he also goes to school. Jonny denies knowing him and is quite off-putting as finally Romeo walks way.

     But Jonny still faced with the fact that he doesn’t know how to drive a stick, calls him back, Romeo quickly returning. Soon Romeo has invited him for a swim, “Baptism by water,” Jonny insisting he has no swimwear, Romeo suggesting that he swim nude then.

     Meanwhile, Romeo drives him to his new home, a lovely pink cottage. But Jonny suddenly is aware that now Romeo has no way of getting home until his new friend points to a neighboring blue house next to which he declares he lives, making him a neighbor. Finally, he thanks Romeo, but is afraid to shake the hand Romeo presents to him as a goodbye. The germaphobe refuses to shake it, while Romeo immediately screams for a second, pausing to gently explain: “That was me at my scariest. You don’t need to be afraid to shake my hand.”

     Seeing the cottage for the first time, Jonny is pleased with its many comforts, filled with local art and objects. After brushing off the totally clear coffee table with a handkerchief, he finally sits back and signs in relief, soon after attempting, without much success, to create new portraits of himself, his major subject.

     By this time, however, we will know the set-up, and over the next many days Romeo shows up to challenge our basically closeted gay man. It begins with Jonny alone on the beach, Romeo showing up, having stripped off his own suit to offer Jonny, while he appears totally nude, in response to which Jonny almost runs off, Romeo making fun of his fear of nudity.

     Romeo insists that they now go swimming, and by the next frame there are sliding through the tropical paradise of hundreds of beautiful fish, goggles on their faces. When they come back up for air Romeo accuses his friend of being so serious all the time, insisting that he need to relax, “take a chill pill, cool off, don’t be a victim all the time and stop keep wounding before you even step into battle. You’re also running, but you feet ain’t goin’ nowhere.” Our dense friend doesn’t, so he claims, even know what Romeo means by his advice.

     Romeo asks why Jonny is “here,” to which he replies, “To paint my masterpiece.” Romeo chuckles, and when Jonny asks why he is there, Romeo replies, “To visit my girlfriend,” which Jonny perceives as a joke.

   Romeo insists that he knows a why that Jonny can get really relaxed, to “float.” But Jonny, predictable, has never learned, despite his ability to swim, how to float. Obviously, it just takes Romeo a few, convincing the man who is terrified of people touching him, that he is in the middle of the ocean where people piss and shit. He just needs to fall back, he lovingly supporting him in a gentle hold, suggesting he imagine the most beautiful place in the world, real or imagine, a place where he feels like he belongs, all eerily reminiscent of Barry Jenkins’ powerful later film of 2016, Moonlight.

    The next step in opening up this frozen being is what Romeo describes as the “complete opposite,” taking him to a high cliff, and demanding they both jump into the ocean waters.

    Romeo leads with a leap, Jonny eventually following, Jonny admitting that he has never experienced anything like it, with Romeo adding, “Me, neither. I was always afraid of dying alone,” Jonny piffed by his admission, but the two swimming off in tease of each other, almost in the manner of young boys in love.

     Jonny begins painting again, this time with Romeo watching, admitting that he is painting himself. Romeo suggests that such a think is easy, but Jonny claims it is the hardest thing he could ever do since he does not truly himself, but admits he is learning.

     When Jonny first moved in, we notice a Greek phrase written on a sign high up on the wall, and now Romeo translates it for him: “Let beauty always live in this house.”

    What it should say, Romeo insists, is “let beauty always live in our lives.” Both admit they truly had a good day with one another.

     Romeo has errands to do, but suggests they meet up at sunset at the local “Fish Fry,” to which the now desperately in love Jonny agrees. Romeo kisses him gently on the lips before he leaves.

     When finally Jonny shows up to the fish fry, the “joint is jumping,” so to speak, many participants dancing and others enjoying the food. He finally finds Romeo in the arms of a woman, Lonette (Rukenka Demeritte) seemingly looking back at his stares with the expression that indicates “He’s all mine, go away.” And soon she actually confronts Jonny, suggesting that if she sees him around there, looking at the way he is looking at him, she will attack. As it is, she pours part of her drink down his back. Romeo finally seems to spot Jonny, looking himself rather distressed, but Lonette quick returns to claim her prize.

    As he did earlier in the film, as Jonny turns to leave he falls flat on his face, Romeo desperate to help, but unable to move out of his girl’s embrace. He does, after all, actually lives in Eleuthera and cannot be recognized as a gay man. It turns out, ironically, that it is the free-spirited Romeo who is still far more closeted than our withdrawn artist.

    Johnny returns home with a bloody lip, realizing everything that he has just witnessed, but this time instead of taking a handkerchief to his wound or compulsively washing himself, he stands almost smugly staring into the mirror aware, for the first time, aware of his choices. He can move on and create art or cower away again as a constant victim.

     He calls his father, who immediately declares that he loves his only son no matter what.

    Jonny returns to the ocean, now floating all by himself. And suddenly he returns to his painting with a new vigor, this time outside, on the beach, dripping and pouring colors over the canvas that we might never before associated with him, including bright reds, blues, greens.

    Romeo does return, declaring that he sees Jonny as being mad with him. But Jonny insists he’s not mad, just disappointed. Romeo again tries to simply explain that’s my girlfriend, I told you about her, Jonny reiterating it simply thought he was joking. Jonny accuses him of leaving him there when he was bleeding.

     Romeo wonders what he expected of him, “to step out with him?” “How do you think that’s going look, Jonny. I like you, but people ain’t for that here."

     Jonny claims he knows himself, but Romeo argues forcibly that he has always known himself, and he has paid for it too. “You and me, it ain’t the same, got it?”

      But Jonny calls him out as a coward. What Romeo and most of the others like him refuse to perceive is that as long as they give into the homophobic culture in which they live, they are part of it. They have not escaped, and frankly not truly able to “float.” To really save their lives, they must dare to abandon the bigoted society in which they are living, to deny it, to speak against what is actually torturing them.

    Jonny’s words, however, had have an effect. We see Romeo and Lonette and dinner, Romeo hardly able to eat, stabbing at his plate. When Lonette, recognizing his dis-ease asks him, “Do you love me,” he can do little more that say he doesn’t know.

    Jonny, meanwhile, has finally learned how to drive his stick shift, and we see him now back at the university, “masterpiece” in hand. It may not look like a “masterpiece” to those of us who love art, but movies have never quite understood art, and compared with his earlier work, it is a piece of full genius.

     Confronting his bullies, he tells the worst of them that he has left his ID at his house, suggesting that he has been engaged in illicit gay sex, shutting up, at least temporarily, their jeers. And miraculously, Romeo shows ups, telling Jonny that he has permanently broken up with Lonette and wants a relationship with him.

    Jonny stands firm, asking why should he trust him, as his father comes up behind him, Romeo commenting that somebody’s watching them. Romeo begs for him to believe him, but is still troubled by the view of the supposed outsider. But this time it is Jonny who tells Romeo to relax as he moves forward and kisses him on the lips, his father watching.

      This 34-minute film reads more like a feature film than a short, hence such a long essay. True this film is overstated, underlining its themes again and again. And its artist hero is not only rather wanly portrayed, but is not completely likeable. Yet I think this is a rather important film not only for dealing with the Bahamian scene, but for how it demonstrates that there is no truce with homophobia; in order to destroy it, one must stand against and speak out about it, as difficult as that may be. In short, “coming out,” a genre which this film circuitously turns out to involve, is necessary in order to end bigotry.

 

Los Angeles, October 25, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (October 2026).