Bear Week Diaries

When one hears the word “Bear,” many different images come to mind, from majestic grizzlies to cuddly pandas to a Chicago football team and even a cartoon character named Yogi. But, for those in the LGBTQ+ community, the term “Bear” has a different meaning: it refers to a subculture of this diverse constituency made up primarily of big, burly, furry men known for their beards and bellies, masculine gents often compared to lumberjacks. And, despite their plentiful ranks, Bears are also largely unknown outside of the gay world (and often not especially well known inside it, either). However, their somewhat inconspicuous nature aside, Bears are famous for their well-attended unabashed social gatherings, weekend (or longer) celebrations (often called “runs”) characterized by prolific drinking, eating, dancing and erotic encounters. One of the most popular such assemblages is the annual summer congregation at Provincetown Bear Week on the tip of Massachusetts’s Cape Cod, a longtime sanctuary for those leading alternate lifestyles, including members of the gay community. And that event is now the subject of director Antongiulio Panizzi’s third feature outing, a chronicle of sorts of the weeklong pleasure-filled celebration. As a member of the Bear community myself, I’m gratified to see “my people” profiled on screen like this. However, at the same time, the end result here is somewhat disappointing. The main reason for this is the picture’s format – a hybrid documentary and narrative feature, a combination that, to be honest, is just downright … odd. That’s something I’d probably say about any film employing such a format, because it’s fundamentally difficult to determine how a vehicle like this should be taken. How much of it is a documentary? How much of it is fiction? And how are viewers supposed to determine the difference when it comes to assessing the content (and, even when it’s obvious, the distinction is frequently inherently awkward)? Indeed, is the material that appears to be documentary in nature true or made up? Is the narrative content genuine fiction or the result of a filmmaker who just happened to get lucky in fortuitously capturing a dramatic real life moment? Frankly, I don’t see the point behind making a movie like this – if you want to make a documentary, make a documentary; if you want to make a work of fiction, make a work of fiction; and, if you want to make a work of fiction in a documentary style, then go ahead and do so but make the intent clear to the audience up front. This kind of deliberate ambiguity makes no sense to me. Now, with that said, the film is also not without merit when it comes to depicting certain aspects of the Bear community, its values and its events. For instance, the picture is adept at explaining how the Bear community originally arose and the principles it embodies, such as celebrating body positivity and the capacity for not being afraid to be oneself. In addition, “Bear Week Diaries” does a fine job of depicting the joyous lust for life that many Bears heartily embrace in their celebration of unbridled hedonism and shared brotherhood. At the same time, it also doesn’t hesitate to point out the downside that can accompany such activities, especially those that can result in heartache and disappointment. But, these strengths aside, the film also tends to place too much emphasis on ancillary subjects that, while part and parcel of Bear gatherings, don’t necessarily account for as much attention and activity as they’re accorded here. In addition, the director does a woefully poor job in showing the community’s ethnic diversity, inaccurately portraying it as a nearly all-Caucasian fraternity, thereby reinforcing an unfair criticism often leveled against the Bear world. Sadly, like other film projects that have unsuccessfully attempted to capture Bear community life over the years, this one again comes up short, despite its effectiveness in illustrating some of the aforementioned aspects, qualities that have been ignored, downplayed or misrepresented in previous works. Nevertheless, in the meantime, I’m still waiting for a film that truly does justice to this subject matter, something that I hope eventually materializes – but that, regrettably, hasn’t shown up yet.