My decision to watch Allen Ginsberg Gives Great Head, a film by X' Ho, a director from Singapore, speaks volumes about having a film’s title begin with the letter "A" so it will appear at the beginning of the alphabetical catalog listing! I like to laugh, and I must admit that I was drawn to the title of this film. I couldn’t help myself but to watch a film from Singapore referencing the legendary gay American Jewish poet who played a large role in bringing Buddhism to America. The catalog also notes that this film is daring, particularly given where it comes from. “In Singapore censorship is fairly strict. So when the filmmaker filmed an erect penis, he knew he could never screen it at home. And he might go to jail.”
The film begins with text describing the repression in Singapore, a city-state well known for its affinity for capital punishment. In this context, the title of the film is very powerful, and speaks to the filmmaker’s courage. So are the images of a young Singaporean man showering, then touching his penis for some very long, anticipatory minutes.
I must admit to feeling somewhat awkward as I watched the footage in the screening library, with a large group of professional-types gathered around me. I wondered about the reasons for including the film in the festival. I know the Dutch are well known for their tolerance, which, from the outside, appears to be a cultural openness about sex and drugs. But tolerance is quite different than embrace and, strangely, I find the Dutch to be somewhat suppressed. In that context, the fact that this short film is included in a Dutch festival captured my attention.
The film features a voiceover of lines from Ginsberg. As much as I’m interested in Ginsberg, I have to admit that I couldn’t find an entry point into the experience of the film. It felt somewhat shocking, simply to see extended pornographic-like shots, but after a while I became bored and stopped watching. In other words, the power of breaking taboos is only as powerful as the audience’s investment in that taboo. I don’t think that I was the intended audience, and I wasn’t stirred by the erotic flavor—at the same time that I recognized the power of all the creative choices.
Perhaps if I was sitting in a theater instead of the screening library, and could pick up the responses of the audience, I would have remained more interested. As it was, my short American attention span was feeling fatigued.
