As first place runner-up at the Falcon Film Festival for 2006, I decided this weekend to see the new batch of films for this 2007 competition.

Many of the short films produced by this year’s freshman were well done and entertaining. However, one film in particular really stuck in my mind.

This film took place in a residence hall and featured two freshman males as the lead characters. Throughout this piece, the leads were concerned about the image they portrayed to a former high school classmate, worrying that they were coming off as “gay” to her.

In the final minutes of the film, one of the male leads bent over to pick up his phone which he dropped, and the other male lead, who had just gotten out of the shower, opened up his towel, portraying the illusion that they were about to engage in anal sex. It ended with the former female high school classmate seeing this incident, causing the leads to panic.

The last image of the film was a close up on a dorm doorway with a dry-erase board attached to it, bearing the message “Get out Homosexuals!”

As an openly gay man, I found this to be very inappropriate and condescending to me as an individual.

There is a fine line between what is considered funny, and what is socially unacceptable, and this surpassed it. The film portrays homosexuality as something to be ashamed of, when that is simply not the case.

The film makers obviously didn’t think about the diverse audience that would be viewing their film. This should have been considered while preparing the film, and this subject matter could have been handled in a more tasteful manner.

Beyond that, the fact that the University and the Falcon Film Festival committee would allow such a film to be shown is audacious and undermining to the gay community.

BGSU fosters a community that respects all diversity from the moment students arrive here during freshman orientation. The fact that they allowed this film to be shown to a public audience contradicts their purpose.

This video is not only shown at the Cla-Zel for one night, but it will eventually end up online where it will reflect on the University as a learning institution.

If I was in the position of an incoming freshman and I saw this video on the Web site, I most certainly would not get the impression of welcoming diversity that the University often likes to portray. Instead I would feel singled out and uninvited in a place where I would live nine months out of the year.

Ultimately, the film depicted two young men who experience a hate crime in their residence hall under the false impression that they were homosexual.

This film in effect can also be taken as a hate crime directed towards the University’s gay community. Showing this film online could potentially invoke more hate and animosity towards a group that deserves respect from society.

Perhaps the fact the film experienced technical difficulties before its airing was a sign that the film should never have been aired at all.

Brian Metzger, Sophomore, Creative Writing, [email protected].