Gale Harold in Rhinoceros Eyes

It's been a while since we've done an Out on DVD post on Tuesday, but the sad fact is that there really hasn't been all that much coming down the gay pike lately. But today there are a few releases of interest...

For the Bible Tells Me So
Whether you're a lapsed Catholic, an avowed atheist, a devotee of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or anything in between, you should watch this movie. Seeing how these very different Christian families deal with having a gay child is illuminating, frustrating, and ultimately incredibly moving and inspiring. We don't see enough dialog about gays and faith on a human level, and this film opens up the discussion for anyone who has friends or family who are at odds with what they understand their faith to say about homosexuality. We reviewed the film when it had its limited theatrical release and interviewed director Daniel Karslake, if you'd like to know more.

Rhinoceros Eyes
I actually saw this movie about 5 years ago and while I can't say I loved it, the story of a young prop warehouse employee (Michael Pitt) who will go to any lengths to secure rare objects for a woman he falls for has something about it that sticks in the memory. While there isn't anything gay about the film, I'm mentioning it here because it features an all-too-rare appearance by Queer As Folk's Gale Harold as a dancing gumshoe. Yes, I just said "dancing gumshoe". And he's light on his feet! 

Check out this clip of one of Harold's scenes for more...

In a continued effort to bring you all that is important in the world of gay entertainment and ensure that you are being spoon-fed images of gorgeous, commoditized manflesh, we present the newly-minted AfterElton Briefs. Following the usual assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• I don't know which news is more exciting: that Scissor Sisters are heading back to the studio to record their next album (which may feature a collaboration with Kylie Minogue) or that Jake Shears has been working for a year on the numbers for a musical version of Tales of the City. Seriously, how perfect is that?!

• Instinct mag's cover touts the first openly gay Chippendales dancer. Uh ... from the looks of it, he's also the troupe's first demon. What's with the eyebrows, dude?!

• The documentary A Jihad for Love, which explores the lives of gay Muslims, has been picked up for U.S. theatrical and DVD distribution by First Run Features, who last year released the similarly themed For the Bible Tells Me So.

• Counterfeit Skin, a new play about modern gay love by Jason Charles, opens next week in London. Not to be confused with Mysterious Skin, The Skin of Our Teeth, or No Skin Off My *ss.

• David Hyde Pierce fans take note: the Tony-winning out actor will be appearing on Good Morning America tomorrow at 8AM EST with his Curtains castmates to promote the Warm Coats and Warm Hearts drive.
  

• Michael Petrelis has a piece up looking at some of the gay media response to the UCSF's sensationally-headlined staph infection report ("Sexually active gay men vulnerable to new, highly infectious bacteria" ... as are schoolchildren, people who go to the gym, your mom, etc.), which was picked up across the country, including in the NY Times.

What I'm thankful for in gay entertainment this year, in no particular order:

Neil Patrick Harris on "How I Met Your Mother" – One of the most underrated shows on TV and also one of my favorites. NPH deserves oodles of awards for his scene-stealing role as the self-centered, womanizing (yet still totally lovable) Barney. It’s a performance that’s legen... wait for it... dary!

Alex Sanchez’s The God Box – I’ve been on a gay young adult fiction kick recently and just finished Sanchez’s latest. I'm a big fan of his Rainbow Boys series, so my expectations were high going into this one. It didn’t disappoint. I’m always impressed at how well Sanchez is able to blend education and entertainment in his novels without ever making the reader feel as though they're being beaten over the head with the nutritious stuff.

Ugly Betty- Much has been written about the show on this site, so I’ll just say that I adore it. It’s the gayest show currently on network television and the most consistently entertaining.

Enchanted – I cannot wait to see this movie. I know it’s not technically gay, but it might as well be: For once Disney is actually poking fun at itself; the adorable Amy Adams (who’s consistently fantastic in every movie she’s in – just watch her Oscar-nominated performance in Junebug and tell me she doesn’t break your heart) plays an animated princess who gets transported to real-life New York City; it’s a musical; James Marsden plays prince charming, sings, and looks damn good doing it; and Susan Sarandon looks like she's having the time of her life chewing the scenery as the evil drag queen Narissa.

Gay Film Festivals – For the past few years, I've been attending my local gay film fest. It's always tons of fun and my moviegoing year wouldn't be half as gay without it. There's something heartening about being in an audience of GLBT people and seeing our own stories played out on the big screen. True, independent gay cinema is notorious for having more than it's share of awful films, but the fun is digging up the gems of the bunch. This year, my favorites included: The Bubble, For the Bible Tells Me So, The King and the Clown, Red Without Blue, and The Curiosity of Chance.

And finally, I’m thankful for my wonderful boyfriend, Matt. Hey, he entertains me, so I say he counts.

Earlier this week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named the 15 films it was considering in the Documentary Feature category. That list includes For the Bible Tells Me So, Daniel Karslake's film exploring the topic of Christianity and homosexuality.

Making the shortlist is a pretty big step towards walking away with the big gold guy: the current list of 15 was cut from 70 films. For the Bible Tells Me So's best-known competitor is Sicko. It also faces a number of war-themed documentaries including Body of War, which was co-directed by Phil Donahue.

Congrats to Daniel Karslake for making it this far. We're keeping our fingers crossed for him!

In case you missed it, former Presidential candidate Dick Gephardt and his lesbian daughter Chrissy appeared on Wolf Blitzer last night to talk about their participation in the documentary For the Bible Tells Me So. (That's them in the poster.)

We have an interview with the director Daniel Karslake running on the main page today, and I encourage those folks living in cities where the film is playing to check it out, as it gives a long-overdue voice to families and theologians alike who refuse to accept the popular wisdom that faith and gayness are mutually exclusive.

And of course it's always encouraging to see a politician (or any parent, for that matter) speak in unconditional support of their gay child.

This week I had a chance to check out the new documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, which tells the stories of five Christian families at various stages of reconciling their faith with their having gay children (yes, that's the Gephardts in the poster!) and presents a fascinating discussion about what the Bible really says about homosexuality (from a wealth of resources going all the way up to Archbishop Desmond Tutu).

We'll have a full review of the film and a brand-spanking new interview with director Daniel Karslake up next week. But in the meantime I encourage you to see the film this weekend if it's playing in your area (cities listed after the break). Here's a teaser of our chat with Karslake to hopefully nudge you along...

AfterElton.com: A documentary about the Bible is not exactly the sexiest, most marquee-ready thing...
Daniel Karslake: NO? What do you mean?! (laughs)

AE: But the film is so inspiring and has so much to say ... how would you encourage people to check it out?
DK: I would just say that this is a film that really tries to take the whole conversation to a new level, and to restart the conversation. And it's really a film aimed at this "movable middle" in America that mostly lives in the Red States who are meeting a gay or lesbian person for the first time in their world, either in their church or in their school or their family or their workplace, and they're confused because this gay person they've met, the first one that they've ever known, isn't this dark, after-your-children kind of person that Jerry Falwell always talked about. "He's a nice guy and when I was sick he actually called me to make sure I was okay! Huh!? But, eh ... the Bible condemns them."

I really wanted to make a film for those people in particular and for gay and lesbian people who have those people in their lives, that they could take to the film or give the DVD, so that people can understand that it's not either your faith or your sexuality ... it's not either your faith or your child, or your brother or your sister or your cousin or your nephew. They're not mutually exclusive AT ALL.

You know, I don't really know how to "sexy it up", because ... it is a doc. It is a doc that I think really does profoundly affect a lot of people, miraculously. I hear that a lot and, as a filmmaker, that's like the best thing you can hear. So I guess the sexiest thing is, if you want to be moved and informed and armed to face those on the right, see the movie so that you can emerge stronger and more able to have that discussion.