Hand Off is a movie written and directed by Chadlee Skrikker, is 24 minutes long and is about rugby in Cape Town, South Africa. Jaco decides to admit his feelings about Willem just after they have come out of the changing room having cleaned up following rugby training.
Willem is taken aback having had no inkling that Jaco was gay, and that he had feeling for him. As they walk towards the car Willem walks on by leaving [Jaco] feeling isolated and downcast, and not knowing whether their friendship will continue.
He gets home and is met by his mother but moves away from her with a lame excuse and goes to his bedroom collapsing on his bed and falls into a fantasy world with an imaginary friend. You can tell he is imaginary by the heavy gold on his forehead and his earrings – Leo then directs his
fantasy. It at this stage almost has a feeling of Caravaggio or Sebastiane. The languid bodies lying on rugs with cushions and roses set the scene.
Hand Off is a rugby term, it is when a ball-carrier is permitted to hand off an opponent provided excessive force is not used, to push him away whilst he (or she) continues with trying to get a try.
The actors are of a suitable build to all be rugby players, and indeed carry themselves as testosterone ladened lads. Jaco seems to move from training to his fantasy, all the while Willem is on the periphery reconciling what he has been told and trying to understand how it affects him and his friendship.
Jaco’s fantasy moves forward and becomes more sexually explicit, but the question that is raised is will he come back from fantasy?
Jaco then discovers that Willem (or someone) has told all his fellow team members that he is gay, and they take the action of shunning him with the stereotypical reactions that writers of these scenes often use. He meets up with Willem expressing how he feels and Willem shows how good a friend he is and becomes the friend he was before Jaco came out.
Soundtracks: there are several musical tracks used during the movie, but “Lucifer’s Tear” which was written by Ayden Marthinus stands out for me, and fortunately there seem to be three or 4 other tracks hidden away in YouTube.
Links:
Two poems by Ian Duhig were submitted In January 1991 to Sean McGouran, the Editor of various publications for NIGRA (The Northern Ireland Gay rights Association) to be published as two pieces of poetry because of a piece that Sean had written in ‘Fortnight’magazine, a left-of-centre magazine produced in N Ireland for the N Ireland market, but with larger ramifications.
The National LGBT+ Traveller & Roma Action Group has proudly to produced its first ever LGBT+ Traveller & Roma Calendar and has begun distributing to national and regional Traveller and Roma organisations, as well as national and regional LGBT+ organisations this week. Traveller and Roma families and individuals who want to celebrate their LGBT+ identity or express their allyship with LGBT+ members of their communities will also receive copies through their relevant services.
Short films do not get the press they deserve. Silver Road is about two young men, best friends through childhood, and how their road splits and their lives. Of how they struggle with saying goodbye to each other, and of underlying feelings.