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>> Director Kirby Dick's walk on the wild side by MATTHEW HAYS Filmmaker Kirby Dick laughs as I try to nail down the precise nature of his relationship to S/M sexuality. "I'm not really in the scene, per se," he insists. "I get involved in a light way." Like? "You know, spanking and stuff like that." Dick's feature documentary, Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, caused a sensation on the festival circuit this past season. A profile of the late S/M enthusiast and performance-artist Bob Flanagan, Sick is proving one of the most provocative and illuminating films of the year. Flanagan suffered from cystic fibrosis, a debilitating, progressive illness which shortens a person's life span considerably. Arguing he fought "illness with illness," Flanagan became intensely involved with the S/M community, performing at benefits, writing S/M-related poetry and doing all sorts of "sick" performance art with his dominatrix wife Sheree Rose.
Which posed a big part of the dilemma for Dick when he was making the film. Though already an experienced filmmaker (winning several awards for his 1986 feature-length doc on sex therapy, Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate), Dick found Sick's novel territory problematic. He was left with an amazing balancing act. On the one hand, he didn't want to appear to be exploiting his subjects, despite the fact the material he was dealing with was sensational and titillating; he wanted to avoid hagiography, despite the fact Flanagan was a close personal friend; and, he wanted to avoid seeming too voyeuristic, despite the fact Flanagan was an exhibitionist. Dick insists the film's central relationship, between Flanagan and his wife Sheree Rose, is a tender and loving one. People may flinch, however, when they witness scenes of Rose badgering her husband to "succumb" to S/M sex games when it is clear he has become seriously ill and is no longer interested. There's a terrible sense of their relationship buckling under the stress of the impending illness in these scenes. When does consensual S/M cross the line and become basic, dehumanizing cruelty? "She was very cool, really," persists Dick. "Bob fell in love with Sheree, with her desire and passion. That quality of Sheree is what made her such a passionate character. It's what makes her such a phenomenal top. That's the thing about S/M--the people are so open and warm."
Film being such an intensely identificatory medium, Dick wishes audiences would relax, enjoy it and not take what's happening onscreen quite so personally. "People have real difficulty with the scene in which Bob hammers a nail through his penis. It's not really that bad. It's not as difficult to watch as people suspect. Lots of things are difficult, for god's sake. It's difficult to get through traffic in rush hour, isn't it? "Put it in perspective." Sick opens this Friday, Nov. 14 at the Cinéma du Parc. See repertory listings for showtimes
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Life is sick
Not surprisingly, audiences have been divided in their reactions to Sick; Though it netted a Special Jury Prize at Sundance, there were multiple walkouts when I screened the film at the Toronto Fest last September. Audiences will have to agree, however, that they have never seen a film quite like Sick before.
Dick's close collaboration with Flanagan and Rose meant he also had access to tens of hours of their home-movie footage, something he uses to great effect in Sick. There are scenes shot in the couple's dungeon, where Rose ties up Flanagan and tattoos him, pierces parts of his body and rams large, blunt objects up his anus. There's even a sequence in which we see Flanagan's corpse being taken away, after he has finally succumbed to the illness.