There once was a time in which only one sexual identity was accepted as valid and natural. Law and church taught that a man was supposed to be with a woman, and that everything else was just wrong and a crime against nature. Homosexuality was suppressed, hidden and forbidden until science began to argue against the laws and establish that it is not a mental illness to be cured. It took generations of debates before people would begin to accept gay men and lesbian women as natural part of human identity, but even today debates about gay rights and marriage remain in some places.
Behind this backdrop a different kind of sexual revolution took place and new generation evolved, one that eludes the sexual identity struggles and debates of the previous generations. Bi The Way did not try to present scientific numbers, but portrayed this new “whatever-generation” of open and free-thinking bisexuals, which I thought did it very well.
Bisexuality is often debated as not real, not true or not possible. One could only be either straight or gay, but not both. Bisexuals are sometimes accused of being really gay or lesbian who try to be socially acceptable, afraid of outing themselves or that they are just young and will be gay later. I always had a different opinion and was curious about which opinions would be presented in this documentary. I was also wondering if the young “whatever-generation” is really just a label for an identity that has been as present and natural as every other orientation in the history of mankind. And what about lust vs. love?
This documentary was not able to provide a lot of answers, but it did provide an interesting view of the young generation and their relationship to sexuality. It raised a few questions and illustrated how complex this topic really is. It doesn’t really matter if someone is born with a certain sexual orientation, or found one later in life, if someone is hetero-, homo-, bi-, pan- or asexual: there is more than the simplified black and white views people tend to define everything into. Between these two ends there is a whole spectrum of colors. And I think it is important that the whole spectrum is recognized and discussed without any prejudices or bad feelings. Films like Bi the Way can serve as an excellent basis for discussion. [imdb]
This jaunty little film puts forward the idea that sexual preferences may start in our DNA, but they are also formed by experience, ebbing and flowing as we grow up. With a loosely structured road trip appropriately at is core, directors Brittany Blockman and Josephine Decker set out to explore how diverse members of the “Whatever Generation” in a variety of towns across America identify themselves sexually, and how they think about their sex life and sexual partners.
While no pretensions of academic anthropology are made, the filmmakers are also determined to avoid the monotonous prurience of so-called reality TV, and take us on a funny, intuitive ride fueled by natural human curiosity. Along the way, certain characters take center stage. Jonathan Caouette, a gay man fresh off his own film of self-discovery, Tarnation, is the parent of ten-year old Josh. The filmmakers keep coming back to Josh and his parents as Josh precociously ponders the question of who or what he’s going to be sexually. Their family structure is complex and unconventional, but undeniably full of love, and their interviews are forthright and charming. As his parents and other people in the film cheerfully talk about a variety of sexual experiences, labels fall away, and we begin to see that the filmmakers believe that the whole subject of human sexuality, far from being scary or taboo, can be discussed as openly as any other aspect of the human experience. (Jed Dietz) (from the filmfest-guide)
