Brian Broome’s award-winning debut memoir, “Punch Me Up To The Gods,” covers a lot of ground, from the challenges he confronted rising up Black and homosexual in small-town Ohio to his struggles with habit and restoration as an grownup in Pittsburgh.
One thing past the scope of that critically acclaimed 2021 guide was the relationships Broome has constructed with a community of fellow Black artists and writers in Pittsburgh. Audiences can study extra in “Introducing Brian Broome,” a feature-length documentary by regionally based mostly filmmaker Chris Ivey that makes its Pittsburgh premiere Sat., Might 21, on the Harris Theater.
“It’s identical to catching that second, you recognize, proper earlier than he’s on the brink of grow to be huge,” stated Ivey.
In October, “Punch Me Up To The Gods” won the prestigious Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction. Beginning simply earlier than the guide dropped the earlier Might, Ivey started to seize Broome’s candid conversations with the likes of “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker” memoirist and Washington Post columnist Damon Young; Deesha Philyaw, writer of the award-winning story collection “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies”; artist and performer Vanessa German; Pittsburgh Submit-Gazette columnist Tony Norman; poet and “World of Wakanda” comics author Yona Harvey; and CityLab journalist Brentin Mock.
“I like they’re all so shut, you recognize,” stated Ivey, himself a buddy of Broome’s, who continuously works abroad. “For me, it’s like you will have all of the outsiders that by no means actually obtained actual Pittsburgh help of their work, and it’s identical to they’re all f—ing blowing up on the similar time.”
The movie is commonly poignant, insightful, or uproariously humorous, as the buddies swap tales and observations. In a single scene, Broome joins Younger on an outside basketball court docket to debate sports activities and masculinity. Speaking with Mock, he relates among the challenges of being a homosexual Black man. “I all the time felt, like, ‘I’ve to make these individuals snug.’ I’ve to make white individuals snug by being much less masculine. Proper? I’ve to show that I’m a kitty cat to them, that I’m not a risk,” says Broome within the movie. “However I’ve to make Black individuals snug by being extra masculine. I can’t be sissified round Black individuals.”
But it surely’s difficult, Broome explains. Whereas he not considers Black individuals extra homophobic as a bunch than whites, he tells Mock, “when black persons are homophobic, it feels completely different to me. It’s extra hurtful to me as a result of I care about what Black individuals take into consideration me.”
Two scenes with German are particularly highly effective. In a single, she and Broome talk about colorism — the penchant, even amongst some Black individuals, to worth lighter-toned pores and skin. The dialog builds off an episode in Broome’s childhood when a younger Black lady informed him he was too darkish. In one other scene, Broome and German inform the wrenching story of the time police cruelly harassed them throughout an outside photoshoot close to German’s dwelling in Homewood.
Different conversations characteristic Broome swapping anecdotes with Michael Massie, an outdated buddy from his hard-partying days. There are additionally a few dramatic recreations, together with one about an edgy sexual encounter and one other evoking a romantic fling Broome had in Paris.
Ivey is understood for documentary tasks, together with his epic “East of Liberty” sequence, exploring gentrification in East Liberty. “Introducing Brian Broome” has performed on the Montreal Impartial Movie Pageant, WorldFest Houston Worldwide Movie Pageant and the LGBTQ Unbordered Worldwide Movie Pageant, with upcoming screenings on the San Francisco Black Movie Pageant and the Septimius Awards in Amsterdam.
Ivey stated he wished to indicate a face of the town not usually represented within the media. “In Pittsburgh, it’s actually laborious for black individuals to get together with one another, by way of like inventive and rising,” he stated. “It’s all the time this aggressive b—s–. Just about in our group, we simply all simply do our personal factor, and simply maintain doing our factor.”
“Introducing Brian Broome” screens at 8 p.m. Sat., Might 21. More information is here.
