Documentary about homosexuality and Judaism opens in Kiev
March 15th, 2007 by Zsofia
The award-winning American documentary, “Trembling Before G-d” has been shown in Ukraine, raising eyebrows, but also generating much needed discussion. Filmmaker Sandi Simcha DuBowski and Rabbi Steven Greenberg, who is believed to be the first Orthodox rabbi to openly declare his homosexuality, are touring Kiev and Odessa in an attempt to generate debate on the thorny subject.
“Trembling Before G-d” (2001) has been described as a film that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. Built around personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian, the film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma - how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality.
Several Jewish institutions in Ukraine refused to host the filmmakers saying the topic was too controversial. “At first we didn’t know what this film was really about. Now we refuse to screen it in our institute because we are not going to propagate such things,” said Leonid Finberg, director of the Institute of Jewish Studies in Kiev. Kiev’s Solomon University also refused to host a screening.
The editor of a Ukrainian gay-interest magazine said that there still is “passive resistance” toward gay people in Ukraine. As if to prove the thesis that gay people do not feel comfortable there, many of those who attended the documentary screening in Kiev’s House of Cinema were seen leaving before the lights went on. Read more about the film’s Ukrainian reception here.
DuBowski is now the producer of a film called “In the Name of Allah”, about the complex intersection of Islam with homosexuality, currently being shot in US, UK, France, and Pakistan.
