As a gay, independent filmmaker who has made 2 gay themed feature films, I can tell you why most American gay indies are about 'hairless gym-bots in shorts and angel wings'. There is NO money to be made telling stories about normal gay folk! - save for a few exceptions. I wish more filmmakers would stray from the stereotypes - my production company is certainly trying. I'm very grateful that both my films have sold and can be found on tv & DVD. But, as clean and honest as they both are, they were considered 'risky' by the distributors because there was no sex, no twinks or hot shirtless muscle boys. Yes, admittedly, there are glimpses of stereotypes in my movies - but at the heart, they are very slice of lifey. Other gay movies, with sub-par writing & acting, have sold for more & had more 'success' because they've fit in better to what the industry thinks of as gay cinema.
I agree that, often times, foreign gay films are much more successful in terms of story-telling. But, if you look at the credits, you'll notice that they've also been supported by their governments and national arts foundations. American gay films are usually truly independent and paid for out of the filmmakers pocket. (Often times the reason for lower production values - filmmaking ain't cheap!) Sex sells. You gotta make your money back. I'm not saying it's right. In fact, you'd think I would have learned my lesson - but our newest film in development, again, is a gay themed human experience story about real guys with, at the moment (and probably not even eventually), no sex or gym-bots in angel wings. We've toyed with making a shirtless boy movie, but those aren't the stories we want to tell. (don't get me wrong - I'm not knocking cute shirtless boys!)
I know the filmmakers of A BIG, GAY MUSICAL. I know their intention in making the movie was not to offend, but to entertain and make some money. I do feel that we need to learn to laugh at ourselves (gay or not), but I agree that it'd be nice to see the tide start to turn. I don't think giving up on gay indies is the way to go. Does it mean sitting through some really bad low budget films - probably. But there are also a lot of gems in there about real people and the human experience. If we don't support those, they'll stop getting made.
That's all.
