Episode 025: Boys on Film Presents, Campfire
Boys on Film Presents: Campfire is a collection of four short films by Bavo Defurne from 1995 to 2000, all reflecting certain aspects of youth and sexuality.
We are reviewing this collection this week as it is the new year, I wanted to try another new medium to review, and we haven't looked at a collection of short films yet, so here we go!
Now as this is a collection of short films, we are going to forgo the usual layout of the show where you have a brief summary, spoiler-free thoughts and feelings, and then a more spoiler filled discussion. The format instead will be talking about each of these films in turn, and since it's super hard to not spoil something like a short film, do expect spoilers throughout the episode. We will still have the usual final rating and recommendation before a heads up on the next episode at the end though, so it's not all completely radicalised this January.
You can either listen to the podcast with the link below, or read the transcript on this page.
SPOILERS AHEAD
As mentioned before, the whole episode is spoiler filled due to discussing a collection of short films.
So the four films we are about to review are presented here as the complete short film collection of Bavo Defurne. You might recognise the name for the person behind North Sea Texas, another piece of queer media that is in the list for this podcast to get to. The collection of films is being released by Peccadillo Pictures under the Boys on Film Presents moniker, which is a series of compilation films the company puts out under different themes. So you can be sure this won’t be the last time you hear about Boys on Film either, as there are currently around 22 collections that have been released too.
The first film presented is “Campfire”, filmed in 2000 and it runs for 21 minutes (the longest in the collection and the one that lends its name to this collection. The summary provided for this is as follows:
“First Love - but is it a boy scout's true desire for his girlfriend or his best friend? A tension-filled camping trip leads to revelations of self-discovery.”
We meet Tijl, our happy camper who will be the focus of our story, as he asks his girlfriend to come sit on his knee at the back of the bus. However, like most teenage boys, he is messing about with other lads at the back of the bus and so decides it's best to not join them all. It's the typical case of when boys think they're funny but others just think they're being childish at play.
We soon learn that although he brought her to this summer camp, he doesn’t look at her or spend much time with her, and when she tries to kiss him he rejects this and says they should not go on the hike together and that instead they should break up. So instead, Tijl goes on the hike with Wouf, the boy he has sort of been watching instead. Hmmm, I wonder what this could mean?
As both boys do the hike, we get a vibe of a lot of tension between the two, especially when one of them gets injured and the other has to apply a plaster to the wound. And it isn’t long before Tijl and Wouf end up getting quite intimate in the tent. Yet it's not all happy campers when the morning comes, with Wouf suddenly being all awkward and asking to be left alone. Which is especially rich since he is the bloody one that initiated it the night before! But clearly he isn’t ready yet to deal with his sexuality or he has potentially realised his feelings aren’t actually for those of the same gender. But either way, Wouf could handle this better.
We then join everyone at the titled campfire where they are drinking and playing games. Just a side note, ahhhh, the feelings when I see people use their teeth to remove bottle caps, just no! Anyway, Tijl’s girlfriend just throws down the gauntlet and dares Wouf to kiss Tijl. After a bit of tension, there is a quick peck on the cheek which pisses Tijl off so he tries to go in for a deeper kiss from Wouf. Unsurprisingly the unwanted kiss then erupts into a fight between the two boys. The fight is not the best, since at some points it really does just look like fists waving about in the air.
But we see that Tijl wins, but at the cost of everyone liking him since he is now getting the stink eye from them all for knocking out Wouf after he is the one that tried to force a proper kiss. And we then get to the end of summer camp with everyone going on the bus the next day but again when Tijl appears everyone goes quiet from being loud and joking just seconds before.
Overall it’s an okay film as some of the shots of the landscape and during the night are well done, but the story feels like plot beats you will be familiar with and that really, to do the story justice the film could have been expanded in time to allow an adequate coverage of the ideas presented. Worth a watch but nothing that will change your life.
Next up is “Saint”, filmed in 1996 and running for a short 10 minutes. The summary provided for this is as follows:
“The ‘homoerotic’ Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian has, for hundreds of years, been sensually represented within all forms of art and transformed the unfortunate Sebastian into the patron saint of homosexuality. In SAINT, Bavo retells this ancient tale with a distinctive queer eye.”
By going with black and white as the presentation style, it makes the entire story quite visually striking with the aesthetics being used. So we join this silent, black and white film with Sebastian quickly being apprehended by Roman soldiers and taken away to the woods to be executed due to his sexual convictions.
Sebastian is stripped down by the soldiers and tied to a tree, clearly held ready for the execution squad that has been assembled. It presents us with an interesting mixture of the seductive alongside the horrific, as we are presented with a beautiful male bound in front of these men who are there for one purpose, his execution.
There is a slow build up of tension to whether or not the assembled soldiers will execute Sebastian, as at some point we see hesitation and a false start to when the arrows will be fired. And while this is occurring, we also have a little kid blowing the horn to alert people about what is happening and alerting Sebastian’s lover to the fact he has been taken and needs to be rescued. All of it plays into creating a very tense scenario for the viewer wondering when or even if the execution will take place.
However when Sebastian’s lover does show up and is about to throw a rock in an attempt to free his lover, he gets the shake of the head from him, being told not to waste his life at this time. And sadly we end with three arrows executing Sebastian, giving us another depressing ending to queer romance presented in the collection.
Third film included is “Particularly Now, In Spring”, shot in 1995 and the shortest of the films included at just 8 minutes. The summary provided for this is as follows:
“It’s sports day and a seventeen -year-old boy prepares to compete, as he has many times before. Only this time it's different, his childhood is behind him, different feelings, emotions and desires engulf him as he watches his classmates. His life is about to change.”
It is another black and white showing, this time with the addition of a voiceover as well. We listen to the voiceover from a young boy who is about to leave the safety of childhood behind him and go and become a movie star since they are currently looking for actors, all while we witness scenes in the changing rooms and at athletic competitions. There’s nothing explicitly gay about this piece, although there is a gay desire subtext for those wishing to read between the lines on this film.
Although this was Defurne’s first film to achieve extensive exposure at international film festivals, I did feel that this film was overall just meh. I don’t think I really found it worth watching and so I guess I was thankful that it was a short one.
Final film included is “Sailor”, created in 1998 and running for 17 minutes. The summary provided for this is as follows:
“Dreamlike, magical and poignant, a teenage boy meets and falls in love with a sailor and when they part the boy imagines the adventures of the sailors onward journey, certain that he won’t be forgotten.”
Now I couldn’t tell if it was because the previous two showings were in black and white, but because this one was back in colour it really felt like it POPPED with colour. I imagine this might have been done on purpose to further draw us into the film, since it is all around our main characters daydreaming as he imagines his sailors adventures, so having the colour turned up to eleven probably does help reinforce the dream-like quality of the experience. However, there is also the addition of some terrible greenscreen for the two motorbike rides that are presented in this chaotic presentation.
But I do have to say it again, because this is the second film that shows it happening, STOP OPENING BOTTLE WITH YOUR TEETH! Seriously people, why do this to yourself or your dentist! But other than that, there are no other horror stories in here and it actually has some sweet scenes such as a playful fight, rolling about the hillside while looking intensely at each other or people playing with boats in the bath while daydreaming about the sailor life.
I will say that compared to other films in the collection, this one felt to me as the most positive of the films since our main character is untainted by cynicism yet as he falls in love for the first time. I still don’t think I was a massive fan of it though since it felt very trippy to watch and it just became hard to keep track of how the segments all flowed into one another.
Final Feelings and Recommendation
So in terms of who would I say should watch this? Well if you are a fan of Bavo Defurne then you will probably love this little collection of his films. Or if you are someone who likes short films with a variety of presentation styles with a mix of explicit and implied queer storylines, then it might be up your street. Otherwise, I am not clear I would suggest this to others unfortunately.
Overall, I would give the collection of films a 3 out of 10 terrible CGI campfires. I think although there is nothing inherently wrong with the films collected, there is nothing that is super exciting or engaging to me either, with most of the premises on display easily found in other pieces of media which find ways to make the stories compelling.