SAINTS AND SINNERS: A LOVE STORY
Directed, Produced & Edited by: Abigail Honor.
Produced by: Abigail Honor & Yan Vizinberg.
Director of Photography: Yan Vizinberg.
Released by: Avatar.
Country of Origin: USA. 71 min. Not Rated.

A documentary about same-sex marriage released in the year 2004 has it challenges. The media gives the issue a lot of space and time these days (the quality of the coverage is, of course, a different matter). The documentary Saints and Sinners works hard to distinguish itself from the fray by focusing on how its protagonists care little about legal recognition of their forthcoming marriage. What Vincent Maniscalco and Edward DeBonis want is recognition from no less than the Catholic Church. The film has two major problems. One: Vincent and Edward are, well, less than exciting. Articulate? Yes. Intelligent? Yes. Tenacious? Definitely. (One is a lawyer.) But admirable qualities can't quite carry the film. And two: As we watch Vincent and Edward being fitted for beautiful suits in a swanky store, or planning to feed a large wedding party, or wondering whether their wedding will be the first-ever gay-related announcement in The New York Times, there seems to be little to no consciousness - on their part or the filmmaker's - of class or, more precisely, of their advantages. We don't dislike them for being comfortable, but we wish they would say something, anything, about the matter.

In the end, it's the talking heads - community activists and progressive religious leaders - who steal the show with wicked observations. Here, for instance is the religious Brendan Fay: "I wish I were as promiscuous as my heterosexual cousins seem to think I am." And here, activist William Berger: "What happened to couples... in the 1980s - when their lovers were dying from AIDS - trust me, that was not about having sex. That's about love. That's about till death do us part, that's about tenderness, affection. That is not a story that's often told - the truer nature of gay and lesbian life." Steven Cordova is contributing editor to Film-Forward.com and a poet, whose chapbook, Slow Dissolve, is available from Momotombo Press
June 18, 2004