SXSW Film Reviews
By Rachel Proctor May, Fri., March 19, 2004
When Ocean Meets Sky
D: Crayton RobeyDocumentary Feature Special Screenings, World Premiere
When Ocean Meets Sky makes us all wish we were nearly as fabulous as the artists, gay men, and lesbians who have populated Fire Island Pines over the years. The film traces the resort community (situated a ferry's ride from Long Island) from its adoption by gays in the Thirties through its heyday in the Seventies, and into the inevitable cooling-off as disco-era hedonism became a bit passé (and demonstrably dangerous). Robey got his hands on a mountain of old movies and photos, and illustrates interviews with longtime residents with stunning visual proof of what a smashing, sparkling, spectacular time everyone was having in the Seventies. Politics, as always, comes into play, but while Robey sticks it to the homophobia that led Ike-era property owners to erect a sign vainly declaring the resort "a family community," he also confronts such issues as the shunning of drag queens and lesbians when hypermasculinity was all the rage.
(Convention Center, March 19, 2:30pm)
