Queer Love Call
January 16, 2006
by Marco Lovestar

OUT AND ABOUT WITH BREWER AND BERG
BREWER AND BERG are part of a new and still very rare breed of gay men - those who have taken the lesson and experience of coming out (essentially we might say learning to think for and trust oneself) and expanded that core of liberation into other areas of their lives… especially the spiritual. They turn around what has become almost a modern archetype - the gay man who, rejected and abused by religion, chooses to turn his back on spiritual affairs. Unfortunately he thereby cuts off his access to a vast and infinitely exciting source of creative power, a power these two entrepreneurial examples of delight and fascination have discovered, entered into and fallen in love with.

Just as gayness forced us to break away from the restraints and conventions regarding sexuality, Brewer and Berg celebrate the potential within us to break away from the limiting beliefs imposed by religion and enter into the flow and flowering of multi-dimensional consciousness. They describe this process eloquently and very enthusiastically, honouring the work of Carl Jung and identifying the route out of the collective (un)consciousness into conscious evolution, whereby we become liberated beings whose very purpose is to propagate joy, love and bliss - via embracing and exploring powerfuland ancient archetypes within ourselves.
Brewer and Berg's journey through Italy is a feast of splendour as they find examples ancient, medieval and modern of how artists and sculptors have depicted strong, beautiful, and often gloriously male and naked, visions of these archetypes, calling out to those who might understand the potential of grasping the power of these energies for themselves. The love of the human form, a love preserved through art even during the centuries of oppression of the body that the church imposed, stands out as a way to the transcendent - to joyful, ecstatic living. This undercurrent has survived the religious obsession with the 'thou shalt nots', and they speculate on the emergence of a new era which is perhaps to witness a point of balance being found between the indulgent, sexual free for all of much Roman spirituality and the restraint and sexual phobia of the Christian era.
They even succeed in making peace for themselves with the Church, coming to understand how the spiritual laziness of the masses enabled such a powerfulinstitution to arise, and appreciating how it has preserved iconography of beauty during a very dark period of human development. The challenge to reach out and form individual reconnection with the Divine is now stronger than ever, and one that will in all likelihood appeal to many gay and lesbian people, once a new paradigm takes its place, one that honours us for doing this work. Brewer and Berg dare to dream of the creative potential of humanity once its energy is no longer directed towards war, repression of sexuality and hatred of those who appear 'different.' They are not afraid to describe the blindness, blandness and ignorance of modern American culture.
Brewer and Berg have discovered, and loudly proclaim, that thinking for themselves has brought spiritual liberation to follow the sexual. Some will find their style too brash and over-confident: their energy and enthusiasm never seem to flag. The on screen stream of stimulating quotations will be too much for some too, and it is a shame that these phrases sometimes obscure the art on view. It might be said that for a study where beauty for its own sake is considered as perhaps reason enough for the existence of the universe, we do see rather a lot of the same two faces on the screen, tripping over themselves sometimes with one ecstatic revelation after another. For those who have already felt their own wonder, awe and excitement at the blissfulcreation we live in, and seen the doorway to how our sexuality can lead us to a richer and freer involvement with that universe, our guides' enthusiasm is quite understandable - while others, suffering from overdose of modern age cynicism, may be harder to win over.
The film has impact, though a tighter and shorter version might send the point home as effectively. Communicating spiritual insights to a gay populace who are more inclined to shut their minds and party (though then the drugs they use hopefully helping to re-open those minds!) is quite a challenge. Brewer and Berg have risen to the challenge, and their film may act as a rallying call to those of us around the world who are sharing their journey into consciousness, showing our awakenings as part of a global wave of change with a significant and striking heritage which we must reclaim. As in so many areas of human concern, it seems that gay folk, far from being the scourge, the demons, we have been portrayed as, may be bringing in revolutionary, liberating ideas that will benefit all.
Marco Lovestar
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