Breathe – a gay movie review

Breathe is about a young boy (played by Lee O’Donoghue as Francie) in a ‘Traveller’ family whose father believes him to be to effeminate, and who then decides to make him toughen up through the manly art of ‘boxing’ (and in traveller form, this leads to bare-knuckle fighting).

In March 2001 I published the National LGBT+ Traveller & Roma Action Group’s first ever LGBT+ Traveller & Roma Calendar, so click the link and go off and read about them.

But back to the film Breathe, because it started me off on a personal journey; suddenly into my mind came the picture of my Mum (now deceased) and of her describing riding on a traveller caravan

as one of her ‘uncles’ belonged to the traveller community.  She remembered it with a laugh and said she really enjoyed the short trip.  The story ended with an aside that he left for Canada, and nothing more was heard.

I did not know anything about the traveller community other than various documentaries (few and hard to find) and the occasional article in papers or on the news (usually not very complimentary).

But they like any community not part of the ‘norm’ are looked on with suspicion, and unfortunately, a few have given the whole a bad reputation.

But Back to the Film

In the film ‘Breathe’, John Connor plays the father.  His portrait is of the old image of a father worried about his heritage and of how people will look at the whole family if he has a gay son – will he and the family lose respect?

John is from the old school, hard as nails, and he expects his son to be the same.  There are elements in the movie that a lot of people will reject; especially for the traveller community, but as John Connor comes from that community he can and has testified to the reality of the story.

I do not want to give away more of the story as Breathe is a short movie, however at the end, we are left with a message – ‘love does win’ – what happens in the future, who knows, but then that is another story.

Director:   James Doherty
Writer:   Theo James Krekis
Stars:   John Connors, Lee O’Donoghue, Lynn Rafferty

Links:

• YouTube – Breathe
• IMDB – Breathe

Breathe has won numerous awards, 

Belfast Film Festival 2016

PAGE International Screenwriting Awards 2015

Shocking and Frustrating

But what is so shocking, is that a film of this calibre ended up having to be crowdfunded to get made; what a gem we would have missed if some people had not decided to back the team!