Jim's Film Festival Diary for Friday, July 18th

Film: The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman

Future Screening: None

I'll come right out and admit it: I've done a bad job of attending the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival this year. But, I have done better this year than any previous year, because this year I've actually made it out to a film, and I have definite plans to see at least one or two more. Part of the problem is, I've always considered the Philadelphia International Film Festival to be my festival, so I've always poured all my energy and time into that one and had little left over for PIGLFF. Also, to be frank, I'm not gay or a lesbian, so I was never sure there were really movies for me at PIGLFF, or that I really belonged there. But this year I finally decided that was a silly way to feel, and that I was cheating myself out of seeing a lot of great films. Unfortunately, I've been so busy I still didn't end up having a lot of time for festival going, but hopefully I can make up for things at least a little bit in the next couple of days.

The Polymath, or The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman
The subject of this documentary, Samuel "Chip" Delany, is a respected author of both science fiction and nonfiction, a celebrated thinker... and a self-described relentless sex cruiser. I'm sad to say that although I had certainly heard of him going into the film, I've never actually read one of his books. That's a mistake I now plan to remedy at the first opportunity. Although Mr. Delany sees himself as a boring and empty individual—little more than a machine for generating sentences—this film makes immediately clear that he's one of the most fascinating and unique people you could ever hope to meet. First-time filmmaker Fred Barney Taylor rather wisely steps back and just lets Delany talk, and the author regales us with stories about his family history (how his grandfather, born a slave, became free at the age of eight without really understanding what that meant; how his father came to New York; how his cousins were brutally murdered by racist whites), his own personal history (how his complex and rocky relationship with his father has shaped him; how he ended up married in New York by the age of 22, producing novels at an insane rate; how he spent a typical day split between writing for a few hours, then taking a walk down to a train station bathroom or a park and having sex with half a dozen random people; how he had a complete nervous breakdown and discovered a strange and apparently inherited obsession with throwing himself in front of the subway; how he slowly learned to accept his own sexuality; how he came out to his mother's bridge club—one of his most hilarious stories), the history of gay sex, the history and socio-sexual mechanics of porn theaters, and his thoughts on various subjects, including monogamous heterosexual sex (he doesn't recommend it), time, death, and religion. His books, of course, also come up, although not as much as you might think. Which is perhaps just as well, because while he's an excellent speaker, he's not a fantastic reader of his own work.

Throughout Delany's fascinating monologue, the visuals we are treated to vary from abstract shots of the Brooklyn Bridge, to old Delany family home movies, to an extremely strange and surreal short film made by Delany, to video of Delany attending writing conferences and receiving awards and encomium of various sorts, to video of him walking the streets of New York and Philadelphia. Delany teaches creative writing at Temple University—at the end of the film he tells a memorable and funny story about a technique he came up with to get his students involved in class, and his passion for teaching and for getting people to learn and change comes through very strongly—and there are a few shots of him wandering South Street, passing the Ducks, poking around in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and perusing Fat Jack's comic book store, but it's clear from the stories Delany tells that his town is not Philly, but New York City. His speech is full of the streets and buildings and architecture of that city. (I'll try not to hold that against him.)

The only person interviewed in the film besides Delany himself is another New York science fiction writer (this one whose work I know pretty well)—Jonathan Lethem. Lethem has nothing but positive things to say about Delany, calling him a genius who knows no boundaries, and who is able, in his work, to break them down for other people. It seems like a fair assessment.

It's a very engaging, educational, funny, and moving film. It seems to me it could stand to be a bit more organized and focused, with more of an overarching narrative; it seems to wander randomly from subject to subject, and from time period to time period, and large portions of Delany's life are left out entirely. Still, the content is so interesting, the organization doesn't end up being all that important. And Delany himself is so multifaceted and rambling, perhaps the structure makes sense after all.
Festival rating: Excellent

Image Credit: Flickr user pedrosimoes7