You want to know why I love film? It’s simple, really. As a straight, white guy living in the United States, there are a lot of aspects to life I can only understand from a distance. Lucky for me, to paraphrase Roger Ebert, film acts as an empathy machine. I’m allowed the opportunity to drop behind someone’s eyes and get a glimpse of how they view and are viewed by the world. Here’s an example. One of my closest friends is a gay man. He grew up in a small, highly conservative town. He had a father that used religion as a weapon to try to keep the rest of the family in line.... Read More