Dear Jesse . Austin Chronicle . 03-30-98

Dear Jesse

DIRECTED BY: Tim Kirkman

REVIEWED: 03-30-98

A gay man from North Carolina. A dissonance in that phrase, as if it's a contradiction in terms to be homosexual and come from the state so strongly identified with National Homophobe Jesse Helms, leads Tim Kirkman to take an extended leave from his comfortably outed life in New York City and return home, camera in hand. He's seeking a way to reconcile who he is and where he comes from, but his path to self-revelation is through his opposite, the gay-hating, gay-baiting Helms. Kirkman goes on a tour of the state, exploring Helms' background and talking to North Carolinians of diverse political persuasions about the senator and their experiences with him, politically and personally. There's a bit of a dodge in Kirkman's approach; in shifting the focus almost exclusively to Helms, the filmmaker also removes himself from close scrutiny, leaving us with holes in his history and not a few questions about what all contributed to his self-imposed exile in New York. Still, the calm, reasoned air with which Kirkman investigates his subject gives this profile of an incendiary figure an extraordinary compassion and commendable humanity.

--Robert Faires

Capsule Reviews
Dear Jesse
Dear Jesse

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