Trembling Before G-d (2002) film still [Enlarge in New Window]

Sandi DuBowski: Trembling Before G-d

For Sandi DuBowski, making a documentary about the lives of gay Hasidic and Orthodox Jews was about illuminating the invisible. The feature-length film Trembling Before G-d throws a spotlight on gays and lesbians who are struggling to reconcile their sexuality with their profound religious faith, and to find a way to remain true to both their religion and themselves. It isn't easy, given the strict prohibitions against homosexuality within the Orthodox faith. Nor was it easy for DuBowski, who had to tell their stories while respecting the wishes of some to remain in the shadows, unidentified.

Despite the obstacles, Trembling Before G-d has shone since its premiere in 2001. The 84-minute film debuted in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. It subsequently ran the international festival circuit, then was released theatrically by New Yorker Films. Touring across the country, a city at a time, the film's impact was multiplied exponentially by the presence of the director -- at screenings in theaters and Orthodox synagogues -- to foster discussion. Trembling also received a grant from the Steven Spielberg Righteous Persons Foundation to launch an Orthodox community outreach project.

DuBowski, a 31-year-old Brooklynite who did not grow up Orthodox, thinks that outreach is a major component of his film. That's true with many social issue documentaries, but it's particularly the case here, since DuBowski couldn't tell so much of the story on screen because of the subject matter. The gay Orthodox Jewish community is by nature a hidden community, because those who are open about their homosexuality are ostracized.

"There was so much that I couldn't film," says DuBowski on a cell phone as he headed from Cincinnati to his next screening in Dayton. "I had so little access. I was basically creating the film out of crumbs. I can't believe what emerged from it."

The film's main characters include Malka and Leah, a lesbian couple who are trying to get their parents to accept their relationship, and Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi--all of whom have remained Orthodox and very much inside the community.

During the six years that DuBowski worked on the film, traveling across the country and to England, Israel, and every place in between, he was afraid that, without filming these hidden people, he wouldn't be able to convey the full stories of the people he encountered. So he came up with a dramatic device that allowed them to become the soul of the film. DuBowski filmed them in silhouette -- dancing, praying, celebrating Shabbat and a wedding, all behind a 14-foot screen that turned them into shadows. "It was like three days of creating a shtetl I wanted to live in," DuBowski says. He filmed these scenes on a soundstage at New York University, then interspersed the silhouette sequences among the live interviews and slice-of-life moments in the documentary.

The real point was to convey that these people have a lot to say, but can't be seen. "So much of documentary is delivered as verité, and so much about gay rights is visibility," he notes. "But this is a story that couldn't be told in direct address. So how do you value the unseen in this gay world and in documentary? For me, there's a mystic quality to these images."

At his public appearances, DuBowski is able to branch out and tell stories about those individuals he couldn't include in the film. He's also able to convey how the film relates to other communities, whether Jewish, Baptist, Mormon, or non-religious. He has participated in virtually every combination of interfaith event, starting at his Sundance premiere, when he staged a Jewish-Mormon dialogue in Salt Lake City. As Elvis Mitchell wrote in The New York Times after that event, "[the film] gained a whole new urgency and purpose." In addition, DuBowski plans to tour the film at Christian theological seminaries in the South with a group called Working Films.

"Our audiences are hugely wide-ranging," says the director. "At Sundance, a guy came up who was a Pakistani Muslim. He hugged me and said, 'I'm straight, and this film is about my life.' "

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THIS PROJECT'S CATEGORIES: Film / Video > Film / Video | LGBT | Politics | Religion & Spirituality | New York | 2000