If you can sit through a whole episode of The Bachelor and Fear Factor, you’ll do fine spending 50 minutes watching five lesbians from Calgary tell their story.
Morag and Kam cram into a Cadillac head for British Columbia with their flower girl, ring bearer, and a videographer to document their right to a legally binding marriage that will be recognized by Canadian courts.
Without stomping all over everything this film stands for–mainly that marriage equals choice equals equality–it’s safe to say I’d rather watch Xena Warrior Princess.
The best documentaries are made in the cutting room where the editor decides how long each scene will run. Several scenes drag well past an appropriate length, while the most important messages are lost in a barrage of giggles and self-inflicted lesbian jokes. In fact, for the most part the film edges around the critical issues involved with gay marriage.
Acceptance from family and community, religious opposition, and nation-wide legislation are dealt with so briefly you’d think same sex marriage was not an issue. Morag and Kam had to leave Alberta to obtain their marriage license while the Pope adamantly opposes gay unions of any kind on the seven o’clock news. The filmmakers couldn’t find time to explore this? Also notable was neither set of parents were present for the union and yet, forty percent of the footage was of the group engaged in fluffy banter.
At least the lesbian subtext of Xena provides the crass hordes with double entendres related to medieval weapons. The Calgarian camcorder footage of One Dyke Wore White just doesn’t have the same cachet.