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08/10/2007Content catches some off guard
A scene from "Eleven Men Out," which showed at last week's Traverse City Film Festival. The sexual content of the unrated film took some festival-goers by surprise. TRAVERSE CITY — Jill Beauchamp carefully scanned the films for the 2007 Traverse City Film Festival lineup as soon as organizers posted the list. Her 13-year-old son Miles had finally agreed to accompany her to one film. She ended up selecting "Eleven Men Out,” billed as a "quirky misfit-sports-team comedy.” "It said something about a soccer team, so I thought it was a soccer film ... my two sons play soccer pretty much year-round so I thought they'd enjoy it,” she said. But Beauchamp said the family viewed less soccer and more sex than she bargained for. The unrated film by Icelandic director Róbert I. Douglas was described in the festival program as a film "about a professional soccer team whose star player is banned from the league after telling a journalist that he is gay.” But Beauchamp, and other audience members, walked out after a scene when the main character's son walked in on him being intimate with his boyfriend. "That was the only film I chose for our whole family to go to,” Beauchamp said. "And if I'd been warned, I would have chosen something different.” Festival manager Deb Lake said that the festival tried to warn potential viewers of the film's adult content. "The film didn't come with a rating, but we really did think that by saying in the film description that it was a Scandinavian film about gay men, that we thought that would signal that it was a film for adults and not for children,” said Lake. While she did not see the film, festival founder Michael Moore had, Lake said. Lake added the film was deemed suitable for ages 14 and up when it was released two years ago in Iceland. Moore could not be reached for comment. But Beauchamp wasn't the only one who found the synopsis misleading. Jim Furstenberg, vice-president of the NorthStar soccer club, said he and several other coaches attended after reading the description. He said he expected an "overcome-all-odds type scenario” — and more soccer. "To be honest with you, after the first 45 minutes you know, (I was) somewhat intrigued by where it was going, but it really progressed downhill from there,” Furstenberg said. "When there was classic sex scenes we were out of there. We were one of the ones that walked out.” Beyond the sexual content, Furstenberg questioned the way the film portrayed soccer. "It ruined the essence of the sport,” he said. "It ruined the story that really could have been a great theme, but actually it was an insult to the sport and every coach and player out there.” Lake took exception to the suggestion there was "explicit sex” in the film, but said festival organizers empathized with families who brought children to "Eleven Men Out.” Next year organizers will try to have better guidelines for parents, she said. They may also expand the Web site to include a section that singles out films suitable for children. "We feel bad about it,” Lake said. "We're going to do it differently next year. We're sorry, but we did think that we were signaling in that description that it was a film for adults just because it was gay adult soccer players. I don't think the description made it sound like it was a movie for kids, but in any case, we're sorry about it, and all we can do is try to do better next year.”
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