Trembling Before G-D

Director: Sandi Simcha Dubowski
Studio: New Yorker Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

Trembling Before G-d is an unprecedented feature documentary that 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 eligious identity and tradition in the world.

Customer Reviews:

Can We Agree This World Is Not Flat?.......2007-02-12

Trembling Before G-d is a sad story of gay and lesbian people who are the victims of the traditions in which they have been raised. The film gives us glimpses of gay and lesbian individuals, struggling to be accepted into a heterosexual world where traditional marriage and reproduction is considered the highest esteem, even though they know they are not ever going to share this same goal. While I was watching this film, I kept asking myself why are these people giving so much credibility to those holding so much ignornace? There once was a time many thought the world was flat, but we now know better! God is love and men and women, who are not inclined to reproduce, have been given a special gift and have much to teach others about ending the trouble with normal. While marriage, land ownership and reproduction are the three pillars of family values which fuel selfish traditions, around the world, gay people need look no further than inside themselves for an answer!
While this movie is primarily focussed on the struggle of Orthodox Jews, concerning the issue of homosexualty, the film is for anyone who has thought about acceptance, by others, in light of their sexuality. It's the type of film which makes you feel deeply for the hurt and struggle of the characters.

"Hear O Israel".......2007-01-16

"TREMBLING BEFORE G-D"

"Hear O Israel"

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

One of the outstanding and most meaningful documentaries I have ever seen, Sandi Dubowski's "Trembling Before G-d" (New Yorker Films) stands in a class all it's own. It is a provocative look into the lives of gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews who struggle to reconcile their sexual orientation with their firm and devout religious beliefs. The film sheds light on a group of people who were not eager to be photographed but felt that they had an important story to tell.
Orthodox Judaism has a strict code for homosexuals; in fact it prohibits their way of life. Those that are gay and lesbian are forced into living hidden lives and this is why we see so few faces in this film.; If they were to be found out, they would not only face ostracism but very certainly would be asked to leave their religion. Most of the people in the film are not willing to give up their strong religious beliefs and therefore choose to live a life of hiding and silence. Several of those that appear in the film do so in silhouette or with faces obscured. But there is also Mark, who is openly gay and the son of a rabbi who was shipped to Israel because his parents mistakenly believed that there are no gay men there. (Little did they know that Israel is rapidly becoming an oasis for freedom for gays in the area). We also meet Michelle (a divorced woman) who is firmly convinced that she is the only Hassidic lesbian in Brooklyn and "Leah" and "Malka", a lesbian couple who observant the Judaic laws and deal with non-supportive parents. David from Los Angeles, has been battling his inner demons as he wants to remain an observant Jew but cannot reconcile what the rabbis tell him with the way he is. For ten years he underwent various "cures" and instructions to attempt to subvert his attraction to his own sex. There is also Israel from Brooklyn who underwent shock therapy in the 50's and wants to reunite with his centenarian father whom he has not seen for more than two decades.
For over five years, Dubowski followed these people's lives traveling form America to Israel and back again in order to get the material he needed and wanted for his film. Because of the nature of the secrecy of those that participated in the film it was impossible to get a complete picture because in many cases the parents were unwilling to participate. But no matter, what we have is enormous and heartbreaking as well as uplifting. Even with the admonitions of the religion, the people we meet here continue to live religious lives.
"Trembling" is an extraordinary documentation of what we know so little about. The Bible, according to one of the interviewees is abundantly clear on the matter and it is quoted as "They shall be put to death". It hurts so much to see the people longing for acceptance and not finding it and yet maintaining and continuing their religious way of life. What is especially interesting is that specificities about religion and sexual orientation disappear into the larger universal theme of family and acceptance. The subjects want their religion but they also want to find a place where their religion will accept the way they live.
We learn from the film that Orthodoxy is dogma that requires the banning of homosexuals at best and physical reeducation at worst. The dilemma of Orthodox life and the refusal to deny one's sexuality and the fear of expulsion if discovered is the overriding motif of the film. I cannot imagine having to live a life like this--living n fear of discovery and dreading the results. "Trembling" beautifully captures this crisis. Instead of an out and out indictment against Orthodoxy, the director allows both sides to have their say and their some moments that we see that are heartbreaking.
But there is optimism. Openly gay Orthodox rabbi, Steve Greenberg argues that religion is an adaptable institution and he feels that this too will happen with time. Judaism is a religion that is responsive to the human condition and if it does not respond then it is not the same religion of which the Torah (the Pentateuch) writes. But time is passing and we see no changes. We can only hope.

Sensitive Orthodox Jew.......2006-09-06

Being an orthodox Jew I had many feelings while watching this film. The strongest feeling was a feeling of frustration about the way orthodox Jewish people were being represented. Having personaly spoken to R. Feldman many times I was surprised that when he said the orthodox position on homosexuality (there is no room to debate what that position is) he said it with little empathy to the plight of this person struggeling with his nature. Latter I learned that this was one excerpt from a 45 minute interview. Selectively choosing negative and non-sensitive clips about orthodox Jews is not much of a documentary then it is political propaganda that we are so used to.

An amazing film: extraordinary, sublime.......2006-07-23

This movie really moved me.

I'm a Catholic in my mid-30's who has never married nor taken any other vow. My life is an ongoing struggle (not always successful) to maintain affective integrity and chastity while celibate. A struggle to be staunch.

So I really identified with the all the people in this film. All of them are faith haunted. Their tradition prescribes- and proscribes- certain types of sexual behavior. Adhering to that ethic can be excruciating. Some reject it, yet others embrace it. The rebellion and embrace both fascinate and move me. Their struggles, revolts and submissions all put paid (in my febrile little mind, anyway) to the ridiculously rigid paradigm with which our dominant contemporary discourse tends to address sexuality and faith. It doesn't have to be either/or. In fact it never is.

As one of them, a HIV positive Hasidic (?) kid, says near the end of the film [and I paraphrase from memory, using goyim lingo]: being sexual isn't a curse, it's a tenderness, a mercy from Hashem (God). And being a Jew [having faith] is the greatest mercy of all.

Amen. Watch this film.

Irrestible force (flesh) meets an immovable object (religion).......2006-07-22

There are two aspects of people - the clay and the spirit. At its heart, Trembling is about the tensions that arise when the spiritual side of humans (and the adherents of faith) and the clay that we are made of conflict.

Can a gay person live a live of celibacy in order to not conflict with religious teachings? Can a gay person force him or herself to change so that a heterosexual marriage can work for them?

Can a religion with thousands of years of tradition change to accommodate people who want to be more than casual, and not entirely welcome, participants?

Can rabbis, people who care both about religion AND the Jewish people simply accept what they see as an immoral lifestyle because they want to see all people accepted into the larger community? What can be sacrificed for the sake if inclusiveness and what must remain intact for a religion to maintain its internal consistency?

I would like to describe one incident in the film. A young gay Jewish man of deep faith asks a very respected rabbi what he should do in order to stop being gay. The answer is that he must listen to the spiritual side and ignore the physical and psychological needs of companionship.

The man goes home and really tries to live the life of a good, heterosexual, Jew. The results were years of pain and loneliness. Ten years later the man returns and asks the Rabbi whether he must persevere. The rabbi said no - a shocking answer to all of us watching this film. The rabbi's reasoning goes to the crux of this issue - as a human he cannot tell another person that he must give up on happiness and companionship. This is a profound message. The rabbi does not condone or excuse homosexual behavior - his counseling now is less religions and more personal.

I want to be clear that this documentary does not overtly press an agenda - it is not one long argument for changing Judiasm. It is simply about real people asking profound and very personal questions. It would have been easy to edit a few words here and there in this documentary to push an agenda. After all, we are all being bombarded constantly by news programs that are less about informing us and more about trying to push an agenda. I walked away from this documentary believing again that it is possible for a person to transcend his own beliefs and to use film to inform society.

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