Fridae

The most wonderful and amazing film to open this week
is Murderball, a terrific Oscar-nominated documentary
about quadriplegic men who have limited mobility in
all their four limbs due to accidents or illnesses.
Despite their enormous handicap, they still aspire to
sporting glory by playing full-contact rugby in
wheelchairs for the US Paralympics rugby team.

Director Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro track
the lives of these sportsmen for more than three
years, between the 2002 World Championships in Sweden
and the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. They examined
everything — from the men's personalities to their
relationships and even their sex lives.

Amazingly, the picture that emerges is not a
depressing or sentimental one. Rather, it is an
arousing and inspiring portrait of strength and
determination. How these men try to lead normal,
active lives despite the discrimination and
marginalization they continuously face holds important
lesson for us LGBTs.

We queers may feel that being gay, bisexual or
transsexual is tough, but our problems will seem small
compared to what these quadriplegics go through.
Indeed, it is these quadriplegics — and not Superman
or X-Men — who are the real superheroes of our screen
right now.

Watch Murderball and be amazed.