Local gay activist takes on religion in movie
Posted by Gay News Desk at 10:32 AM. Filed under: Gay News
The local writer-activist who created the stage satire “Candy Corn, Christ and the Convoluted Creation of Golf” now is swinging from a cinematic tee.
Swartz Creek resident Antonio David Garcia has made a movie, “Fences,” in which he uses an unconventional cross-country trip to take a few swipes at the religious right.
Garcia plans to give the 75-minute “Fences” its first public screenings at 7:30 and 9 p.m. Friday at Good Beans Cafe, 328 N. Grand Traverse. Donations will be taken at the door for the Flint AIDS Walk (set for the following day) and the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
“Fences” chronicles a three-week journey by gay-rights advocate Garcia in 2005 to find Oregon-based filmmaker Gus Van Sant (”Good Will Hunting”). Along the way, Garcia attempts to visit conservative Christian groups such as Dr. James Dobson’s Colorado-based Focus on the Family and the Kansas church pastored by the Rev. Fred Phelps, who is known for protesting at funerals.
Garcia visits Laramie, Wyo., where gay college student Shepard was beaten to death by two men in 1998 in an attack that received national attention, and also deals with his own upbringing in a devout Mexican-Catholic family.
“It all started with my trying to find Gus Van Sant,” Garcia said. “The day before my trip (started) was when Hurricane Katrina hit, and some (Christian leaders) were blaming it on Sodom-and-Gomorrah behavior in New Orleans. So I asked people on various street corners around the country what they thought about this, and about subjects like gay marriage and gay adoption.
“Every time something happened on the trip, I let it lead me to something else.”
Garcia said he made “Fences” for about $5,000; he bought equipment to edit the film himself. He plans to enter it in film festivals, but he also is thinking about giving out copies of the movie at house parties where donations would be collected for the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
“This is my response to the religious right, and I thought this would be the most creative way to do it,” Garcia said of making the film. “I’m not trying to make money off of it.”
Garcia’s play “Candy Corn, Christ and the Convoluted Creation of Golf,” a religious satire, played on stages in Flint and Ann Arbor in 2004-05. A follow-up, “Sissy Boy,” debuted in 2006. Garcia, a social worker, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in communications at the University of Michigan-Flint.
Source: mlive.com