Valentine DVDs

Five films to consider for a movie night for the holiday.

By David-Elijah Nahmod

Valentine's Day at Home

Here are five gay romances on DVD to curl up with for holiday movie night

Wallowitch and Ross: This Moment
Karmic Releasing (2002)

This Moment celebrates the lives of two old-school gentlemen who loved each other dearly. John Wallowitch (1926-2007) was a cabaret performer who reportedly wrote more than 2,000 songs. Bertram Ross (1920-2003) danced with the Martha Graham Company and later formed his own avante-garde dance troupe.

They shared a home for more than 30 years, living as though they were characters in a 1930s drawing room comedy. As this documentary reveals, it was no act. They lived for their art and for each other. During their final decade, they performed together in a cabaret act.

This Moment visits them at home, talking about their lives onstage and off, and putting on their show, with best friend Dixie Carter (Designing Women) cheering them on.

Round Trip
Wolfe Video (2003)
In Hebrew, with subtitles

In this intense drama from Israel, Nurit (Anat Waxman) is a bus driver in a small city. When she gets tired of her boorish husband, she takes the kids and moves to Tel Aviv. There, she hires Mushidi, (Nthati Moshesh) an undocumented immigrant from Ghana as a nanny.

Both women are on the run. They talk, share, get closer and fall in love. But it's a forbidden, doomed love. Nurit cannot come out to her husband or employers. If she does she could lose everything. Mushidi, as a lesbian, had to flee Ghana, and yearns to be reunited with her son. But when they're together, the women get a taste of the love and joy they both yearn for.

Strong performances and a thought-provoking script offer powerful statements on the issues lesbians face in more conservative societies, and on the right of two women to love each other.

The Bubble
Strand Releasing (2006)
In Hebrew and Arabic, with subtitles

The Bubble was written and directed by openly gay Israeli director Eytan Fox. The filmmaker claims Romeo and Juliet as his source material.

Noam and Ashraf, a gay Israeli and a gay Palestinian, fall hopelessly in love. As hate rages all around them, the two try to find a little bit of peace in the trendy Tel Aviv neighborhood of Sheinkin, which is considered a "bubble" that exists apart from the ever escalating conflict.

Actors Ohad Knoller and Yousef Sweid are beautiful men and their love scenes are as shamelessly romantic as anything produced in classic Hollywood, albeit with an intense eroticism. It's an old fashioned tear jerker peppered with a social consciousness.

Latter Days
TLA Releasing (2003)

The sometimes heartbreaking, but ultimately uplifting, Latter Days tells the story of Aaron (Steve Sandvoss), a Mormon on a church mission, who meets gay party boy Christian (Wes Ramsey). It doesn't take long for the two to realize their attraction.

Latter Days addresses the religious abuse that many LGBT people face, including a harrowing segment in which Aaron's family and church attempt to "cure" him. But ultimately, Latter Days is an old fashioned romance, filled with love and tears. The film benefits greatly by the beauty of the leads and their strong performances.

Jacqueline Bissett shines as a kindly restaurant owner who gives the local gay community the kindness they never got at home.

Desert Hearts
Wolfe Video (1985)

Desert Hearts broke ground and raised eyebrows upon its release at a time when LGBT people were largely invisible in popular culture.

Helen Shaver stars as the proper, reserved Vivian, who comes to Reno, Nev., in 1959 in search of a quickie divorce. She meets the free spirited Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), who flirts openly with women and doesn't care what people think about it.

Sparks fly.

But since Vivian has always been staunchly heterosexual (or so she thought), it takes some time for her to come to terms with who she really might be, and who her soul mate is.

Desert Hearts beautifully captures the growing love between the two women, as well as the ribald spirit of Reno. -E