Trembling Before G-d looks at the effects of religious morality on believers whose sexuality falls outside the accepted norm with intelligence and compassion.
Trembling Before G-d looks at the effects of religious morality on believers whose sexuality falls outside the accepted norm with intelligence and compassion.
Shot in six countries, this documentary shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. Built around intimately-told 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 and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality. As the film unfolds, we meet a range of complex individuals - some hidden, some out -
from the world's first openly gay Orthodox rabbi to closeted, married Hasidic gays and lesbians to those abandoned by religious families to Orthodox lesbian high-school sweethearts. Many have been tragically rejected and their pain is raw, yet with irony, humor and resilience, they love, care, struggle, and debate with a thousands-year old tradition. Ultimately, they are forced to question how they can pursue truth and faith in their lives--and survive--while upholding the universal struggle to belong.
So how do gay men and lesbians who want to practice Orthodox Judaism reconcile these two seemingly contradictory forces in their lives? Director Sandi Simcha DuBowski's Trembling Before G-D examines this dilemma with compassion and sensitivity.
Does an incisive job in defining the contradictory natures of Orthodox Judaism and homosexuality, and honoring the condemned people caught in the middle.
It's that dilemma -- a commitment to Orthodox life, the refusal to deny one's sexuality and the fear of expulsion once that sexuality is revealed -- that director Sandi Simcha DuBowski illustrates so powerfully.
Trembling Before G-d, by no stretch a well constructed documentary film, is an important breakthrough for Jewish orthodoxy because ignoring a consistent problem helps no one.
The film helpfully translates onscreen some of the Hebrew words of the interviewees for the benefit of goyim whose only exposure to the Hasidim has been Yentl.
the human face it puts on the objects of intolerance speaks to discrimination at large in all its ugly forms. Its a moving and important piece of filmmaking
"Trembling before G-d" is a documentary about the difficulties faced by gay men and lesbians living in the Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish communities where biblical passages have been interpreted to condemn homosexuality. Another obstacle is how tight knit these communities are, making it extremely hard for a person to
come out of the closet, especially when they are expected to marry and have children.(Thus explaining why certain participants have their faces blurred for the camera.) It is very sad seeing people forced to live lies. The movie talks to gays and lesbians in Los Angeles, Miami, Brooklyn and Israel, along with rabbis and psychologists in the community. Whereas some professionals are clearly empathetic, others simply ask their charges to change and conform.(By the way, I think the woman with 12 children is not depressed because of her husband's struggle.) In the end, it is much easier to tell someone what to believe than it is to tell them how to feel. And if god exists, then I would be sure that she loves gays and lesbians as much as everybody else.
January 13, 2008
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
It's well made, but it seemed a bit repetitive, the subject matter seems more suited to a film of perhaps an hour. I was always interested, but there were definitely some slow stretches.
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