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Latter Days: A
Celebration
Latter Days Is the Hit
Movie at L.A. OUTFESTOfficial movie site  Movie City News Story By Sean P. Means, The Salt Lake Tribune January 20, 2004 PARK CITY -- Gay and lesbian groups, both nationally and in Utah, are furious that a Salt Lake City movie theater has backed away from plans to screen a new romantic comedy involving a gay man and a closeted LDS missionary. "This is a film that needs to be seen and needs to be heard, particularly in a city that has a large Mormon population," said Stephen Macias, entertainment media director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, at a press conference in Park City. "It is a story that [someone] is trying to suppress." Added Michael Mitchell, executive director of the political advocacy group, Equality Utah, "It deserves to be seen here in Utah." The movie, "Latter Days," tells of a West Hollywood hunk who tries to seduce a sexually confused Mormon missionary. It is largely a comedy, though it does depict church leaders trying to "cure" the missionary's homosexuality through electroshock. The movie was written and directed by C. Jay Cox, who wrote the Reese Witherspoon hit, "Sweet Home Alabama." The movie has won audience awards at six gay-themed film festivals, including Outfest in Los Angeles. The movie, which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York, was scheduled to open Friday at the Madstone Trolley Square Theaters. But last Friday the film's distributor, TLA Releasing, was informed by Madstone's film booker that the New York-based theater chain would cancel the film's Salt Lake City run. The stated reason, said TLA Releasing's President Raymond Murray, was that the movie did not meet Madstone's level of "artistic quality and integrity." Unofficially, Murray was told the Trolley Square theater received threats of boycotts, pickets and customers dropping out of Madstone's membership program. Madstone co-CEO Chip Seelig said several of his staff watched the movie, and "we thought it lacked artistic merit," he said from New York. "If it has merit, we play it." Seelig said he had not heard of any boycott threats. The mix of gay themes and religion are not a turnoff to Madstone, Seelig said, citing the acclaimed documentary "Trembling Toward G-d" -- about homosexuality among Hasidic Jews -- as an example. "We support great films," he said. In a statement from California, Cox said, "At a time when the LDS Church is claiming a supposed newfound tolerance for gay members, I am deeply disappointed by such an intolerant stance. For a church whose founder Joseph Smith believed in "teaching correct principles and letting people govern themselves," I find it quite sad that they would attempt to take such a choice away from the people of Salt Lake. I truly hope that we will be allowed to screen this movie and give people the opportunity to discuss the issues it raises and to judge its artistic merits for themselves." Brooke Harper, president of the Salt Lake Film Society, which operates the art house Tower Theatre and Broadway Centre Cinemas, said the quality of "Latter Days" may indeed be the issue. She called the movie "awful" and "embarrassing," and she has no plans to book it. The Tower and Broadway frequently show gay-themed films, and Harper said "the entertainment options available for gays and lesbians in our society today are too varied and too high in quality to expect people like myself to exhibit films like "Latter Days" in the name of bringing representation of gay and lesbian people into cinema." Mitchell said Madstone's move may backfire because appeasing one set of customers may rile up another set. "Whenever I go to a movie there, I see a lot of gay and lesbian people. I don't see a lot of conservative folks," he said. Equality Utah likely will send a protest letter to Madstone, and Mitchell said he is helping TLA find another venue. |
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