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Film Broadcasters:
The title role of "Michael, A Gay Son" was played by my wonderful friend David Douglas Kelley (1951-1996) who is much loved as an exceptional man and for his high-profile professional and volunteer work.
He co-founded the Toronto Counselling Centre for Lesbian and Gays in 1981, was a director of the AIDS Committee of Toronto, and was appointed co-chair of the Ontario government's Committee on AIDS by the Health Minister. David was very proud of his work in this pioneering film, and he was familiar to a generation of young people who saw the film in high schools, universities and on television throughout North America for decades after the film's initial release. David succumbed to AIDS on April 25, 1996 at age 44. The David Kelley Services program was named in recognition of David and his contributions.
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MICHAEL, A GAY SON (1980) FILM EDITOR: CAMERA: SOUND: The half-hour docu-drama explores Michael's decision to reveal his homosexuality to his family. It follows his preparation in coming out by his participation in a lesbian and gay male peer support group. In this session, the participants reveal their own actual experiences, both positive and negative, in coming out to their families. An improvised dramatization of a family counselling session with Michael and his family follows. The session is facilitated by an actual social worker, Karen Kaffko, who specializes in such counselling. Each family member is given the opportunity to explore his or her feelings about Michael being gay. The film concludes with Michael's evaluation of his decision to come out to his family.
Trivia:
As reported by Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper on February 12, 1982, St. Michael's College refused a request from Gays at the University of Toronto to allow the film, Michael, A Gay Son to be shown in its auditorium.
Reviews: " 'Michael' performs a valuable function in challenging assumptions about who we all are, and what roles we play, in film and in life." "An activist hybrid documentary about coming out, the prizewinning Michael was the first major independent queer work of an educational orientation in Canada, and as the first to get TVO broadcast and NFB distribution, had an important impact throughout the 1980s."
"All the more impressive at its ending, when the credits revealed Michael and his agonized family were played by actors."
Press: Bawden, Jim. TV Ontario Offers Sensitive Alternative in The Toronto Star (Toronto, Canada), 10 February 1981, (NP) Dyer, Richard and Pidduck, Julianne. Now You See It: Studies in Lesbian and Gay Film Routledge, 2002, Pgs. 223, 231, 238, 239 (BK), ISBN 041525499X Gross, Larry P, Katz, John Stuart and Ruby, Jay. Image Ethics: The Moral Rights of Subjects in Photographs, Film and Television Oxford University Press US, 1988, Pgs. 251, 260, 265 (BK), ISBN 0195067800 Hardy, Robin. Have We Lost It At The Movies - Independent Documentaries Take The Lead In a Cautious Canada in The Advocate, 26 November 1981, Pg. 16, (MG) Hayward, David. L.G.T. Film Festival Shows Fascinating Images in Metropolitan Gazette (Atlanta, Georgia, USA), 17 June 1982, (Weekly NP) Martineau, Barbara Halpern. Bruce Glawson's Michael, A Gay Son in Cinema Canada (Toronto, Canada), December 1981, Pg. 38, (MG) Pennington, Bob. How Will Public React to Second Show on Gays? in The Toronto Sun (Toronto, Canada), 12 February 1981, Pg. 90 Spalding, Roger. Celluloid Come-Out in The Body Politic (Toronto, Canada), Vol. 70, February 1981, Pg. 32, (MG) Waugh, Thomas. The Romance of Transgression in Canada McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006, Pgs. 150, 420, 547, (BK), ISBN 13:9780773530690 |
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