John Greyson Movies

Canadian filmmaker John Greyson teams up with South African activist Jack Lewis to direct the period romantic drama Proteus. Based on a true story from 1735, the story involves a forbidden love affair between two prisoners in a colony near Cape Town. Black servant Claas Blank (Rouxnet Brown) is arrested for stealing back his own cattle from a white man. Because he has learned to speak English and Dutch, he is allowed to help European botanist Virgil Niven (Shaun Smyth) cultivate flowers. Part of his punishment is fetching water with white Dutch prisoner Jacobsz (Neil Sandilands), who eventually becomes his lover. After Niven leaves the colony, Blank and Jacobsz are caught and forced to confess. Proteus was shown at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Justin (Randy Harrison) is clearly suffering from post-traumatic stress. He's having nightmares, and he won't let anyone, not even Jennifer (Sherry Miller), touch him. Emmett (Peter Paige) decides that he wants a butt lift, but it's a costly procedure, and he doesn't have steady work. Michael (Hal Sparks) has been spending all his time partying. His friends and family tell him to get over David and get back to work. He goes back to the Big Q, but his old job has been filled. Jennifer goes to Debbie (Sharon Gless) for advice about Justin, but doesn't want to hear it when Debbie suggests that Brian (Gale Harold) might be able to help. For his part, Brian abides by Jennifer's wishes by sending Justin home when he comes to visit. But soon enough, a desperate Jennifer changes her mind. Ted gets caught looking at gay porn on the internet at work, and is fired, even though his straight co-workers spend a lot of time on similar pursuits. After checking with Melanie (Michelle Clunie) about what a long shot an anti-discrimination lawsuit would be, Ted decides to confront his boss. Michael and Emmett get jobs doing domestic chores in skimpy outfits, mainly for lecherous older men. The pay is good, but Michael feels violated; Emmett doesn't seem to mind all the attention. While planning for Gus' first birthday party, Melanie and Lindsay (Thea Gill) argue over whether or not to get married. On the advice of a psychiatrist, Brian and Justin reenact prom night, in an effort to spark Justin's memory of the brutal attack. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Freely drawing from a variety of film genres, including musicals, the sudsy melodramas and documentaries and combing them with a free-flowing narrative and bright pop-art sensibilities, this hard-hitting experimental romp from Canadian filmmaker John Greyson packs a political wallop while satirically comparing and contrasting the issues of censorship and circumcision. The tale centers on the exploits of three homosexuals named Peter. Peter Koosens is obsessed with the semi-scandalous behavior of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau while college student Peter Cort, ponders the significance and necessity of male circumcision. Peter Denham is an artist who seduces the other two and freely borrows from their work to make something of his own. Their exploits land the trio in prison after an operatic number (the police sing songs adapted from Bizet's Carmen). Though they are housed in the same facility the Petes have no normal way of communicating. To this end, they devise their own unique manner, one that has results that are simultaneously amazing and tragic. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The surreal and the supernatural join forces in this extremely unusual "AIDS musical." The story features the ghost of the French-Canadian airline steward (played by Normand Fauteux) who, according to And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts' book about the AIDS epidemic, was the origin of one of the largest outbreaks of HIV. Known as "Patient Zero" by the Centers for Disease Control, the handsome and promiscuous steward was basically the "Typhoid Mary" of the AIDS phenomenon. In the story, Patient Zero comes back from limbo as a ghost to see his friends suffering from the syndrome: some dying, the rest protesting at ACT-UP rallies. He realizes that his memory has been vilified as the extremely promiscuous source of all this suffering. However, it is only when he becomes aware of an exhibit being prepared at the Toronto Natural History Museum, one which singles him out yet again as the villain, that he becomes aware that the exhibit's curator is an unusual being in his own right. In fact, the show is being put together the famous nineteenth-century explorer of the upper Nile, Sir Richard Burton (John Robinson), inexplicably still living, working at the museum, and filled with misguided homophobia. Though no one else can see Zero, Burton can, and eventually the two become lovers and the ancient explorer comes to view "Patient Zero" as "the heroic slut who inspired safe sex." Musical numbers include a high-camp underwater ballet production of Tell Me The Story of My Life. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi