Ellen Page is going on Gaycation!
February 27, 2016 8:06 AM   Subscribe

Viceland comes screaming out of the gate with Gaycation. A series by Ellen Page and Ian James Daniel, they visit locales and investigate how it is to be gay in foreign countries compared to the United States; the first episode taking place in Japan.
posted by Talez (17 comments total) 38 users marked this as a favorite
 
omg. I heart Ellen Page with the biggest of hearts and cannot wait to watch this.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:44 AM on February 27, 2016 [4 favorites]


I'm very excited about this (one of my best friends in the world might be a producer on it!)
posted by Navelgazer at 9:03 AM on February 27, 2016


I've been looking forward to this for a long time.
posted by Automocar at 9:35 AM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


That title sequence is lovely. Pausing there and saving this one to watch on the TV tonight!
posted by sektah at 10:13 AM on February 27, 2016


This was really good. Love Ellen Page, it's awesome to watch her doing something that she clearly finds extremely meaningful and important.

The final scene where the guy comes out to his mom with the help of a "friend-for-hire" was intense.
posted by windbox at 11:00 AM on February 27, 2016


Ellen Page wanting a penis of her own just so she could try out the silicon fleshlight-type thing modeled after the bartender's throat made me smile.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 12:15 PM on February 27, 2016


This was interesting and I'm glad that they went beyond the superficial yaoi angle, but I felt something unpleasantly voyeuristic or at least superficial about them tagging along on in the coming-out section ā€” and bringing viewers into that, as well.

I know there was partial consent (no apparent consent from the mother), and maybe it's just my own experience with it, but it just seems like such a private moment between someone and their parents, for the Vice photographer to zoom in on the mother's face for dramatic effect when she finds out ā€” it made me feel a bit ill.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:39 PM on February 27, 2016 [5 favorites]


re: 'unpleasantly voyeuristic...'

also btw, fwiw, Bompton with Kendrick Lamar (linked from viceland's gaycation video)
posted by kliuless at 1:12 PM on February 27, 2016


She was pretty much infinitely adorable when she was talking about being shy about all the pretty people at the lesbian bar.
posted by Akhu at 1:33 PM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


i also found some of it a little.... inappropriate? the last bit, but also the point where they got "married" at the temple. on the other hand, they're both adorable, and i think quite well-intentioned, and watching their friendship shine through is really sweet.
posted by you're a kitty! at 2:26 PM on February 27, 2016


The coming out bit was incredibly intense. I agree that I'm not totally down with how it was filmed, but I'm glad that it was shown. I assume they talked with the guy's mother afterwards and obtained her permission, etc., but still.

My SO studies Japanese religion and history and I've asked her about how Japan sees LGBT people. She said that part of the issue is that Japan modeled good part of it's idea of what is right and moral during the Meiji Restoration's drive to westernize. This meant importing the views on homosexuality found in the west during the Victorian Era. Apparently, if you go further back in Japanese history, the culture was much more accepting of homosexuality, although it was not exactly something about a person that was a core part of their identity, as it is considered now. (One of the other people in her program is looking at same sex relations among the samurai in the 1600's.) Both of the wedding scenes, the one in the temple and the civil union at the very end, made me smile.
posted by Hactar at 4:33 PM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Man I loved this. Can't wait to see the next in the series.

Previously, Ellen Page at the Iowa State Fair debating Ted Cruz Aug, 2015. Apparently shot for this series, or so says the trailer.
posted by lalunamel at 5:26 PM on February 27, 2016


Apparently, if you go further back in Japanese history, the culture was much more accepting of homosexuality, although it was not exactly something about a person that was a core part of their identity, as it is considered now.

If you look at the 18th century in Britain -- at least among the more affluent and educated of London, which inevitably weighs heavier on the dominant cultural record -- then you see a culture that's not necessarily 'accepting' of queerness but at very least recognised it as something that existed within that culture and wasn't somehow alien to it or an attack upon it. The Victorians didn't run with that, but that's perhaps because that was the century in which it started to be seen more in terms of identity than behaviour.

(Out Ellen Page is righteous. This is good, serious stuff, whatever you think of Vice as a media entity.)
posted by holgate at 7:35 PM on February 27, 2016


the silicon fleshlight-type thing modeled after the bartender's throat made me smile.

Previously, on MetaFilter...
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:09 PM on February 27, 2016


This is good, serious stuff, whatever you think of Vice as a media entity

Thinking on it for a while, and trying to find the precise words for what bothers me about it, it veers into emotional tourism of the variety that Vice seems good at.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 11:36 PM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


I don't know what documentaries, and films more broadly, and storytelling more broadly still, are if not a form of 'emotional tourism'. And if the man invited the film crew along to record this incredibly courageous act I think it's very, very patronising for us to call it 'voyeuristic' and 'superficial', and maybe we're just projecting our own discomfort onto the video. I think it's clear from the fact that he contracted the services of the friend-for-hire that he wanted physical support and he did not mind if other people witnessed it.

Certainly, I was pausing the video every two seconds and having a good minute-long break because of how intense it was at that stage. But I'm glad I got through it, albeit a bit blurry-eyed. It was extraordinary to see (as was the entire film). I know I came out much less courageously than that man did, and I live in a place where same-sex relationships are many times more accepted. I hope he's doing well. I hope Ellen and Ian have kept in touch.
posted by Panthalassa at 1:48 AM on March 5, 2016


So far I've seen the first two episodes available on YouTube, the shows on Japan and Brazil. As a queer person who loves travel, I'm really enjoying and appreciating this series. I'm not a big fan of VICE for the many reasons it's criticized; however, I'm glad they've produced this and made it available for free online. I wasn't surprised when Ellen Page came out but have been paying extra close attention to her acting and activism since.

I recognize each episode just a snapshot of each country -- two major cities in each to be exact -- but they're still informative and interesting. I have always liked Ellen Page as an actress but now I am loving her as herself in the documentary. She appears to be very genuine, compassionate, and someone I'd love to meet and talk to in person. I admired her bravery coming out in front of the self-professed killer of LGBT+ people in Brazil, and appreciated her realness when she explained her own reasons for coming out to the young Japanese man about to do the same. I guess I can really relate to it and to her: she's positive and optimistic but also real and not willing to sugarcoat things.

My favorite parts are when she and her best friend Ian Daniel go to gay clubs in the various cities. It's fun seeing the open celebration of LGBT+ people in safer spaces! I plan to watch a short clip of the man coming out to his mother in the Japan episode with my teen LGBT+ group. I'd love to watch the entire episode; while it's mostly PG, there are a few parts that make it inappropriate for the setting.

Right now I'm reading this feature on Ellen Page in the NY Times magazine.
posted by smorgasbord at 12:16 PM on March 13, 2016


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