French documentary on gay seniors strikes timely chord

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http://www.france24.com/en/20121126-les-invisibles-france-film-gay-marriage-adoption-documentary-homosexual-sebastien-lifshitz

Sébastien Lifshitz’s “Les Invisibles”, a documentary about elderly gay French people, hits screens as France finds itself embroiled in debate over gay marriage and adoption. FRANCE 24 spoke to the director of an (unintentionally) topical film.

With a debate over a proposed law to allow gay marriage and adoption gripping France’s political class and spilling out into the country’s streets, a documentary to hit French screens this week packs a particularly topical punch.

Timely as it is, however, "Les Invisibles" (or "The Invisible Ones&quot barely alludes to the hot-button issues currently dominating newspaper headlines. Rather, director Sébastien Lifshitz offers a quietly touching, gently paced glimpse at elderly French gay men and lesbians who had to grapple with their sexuality long before it became part of the national conversation.

Born before World War II, many of them in conservative, traditionally Catholic rural regions, the people profiled in “Les Invisibles” tell personal stories of love, shame, sacrifice, and hard-won pride. The film avoids didacticism and sentimentality largely thanks to these bracing testimonies, peppered with wisecracks or candidly shared memories of forbidden encounters in the bedroom (or, in some cases, behind the haystacks).

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1. I love that excerpt, thanks for posting it.

And I love her story.