There has been a considerable amount of attention garnered by David Thorpe's documentary Do I Sound Gay?, which investigates the properties of voices and language across the sexuality spectrum and features our own Ron Smyth along with a number of prominent LGBT celebrities (Dan Savage, David Sedaris, Margaret Cho, etc.). The film was premièred at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7th with both Thorpe and Savage in person to lead a discussion. In attendance were a number of linguists from the U of T and York. Do I Sound Gay? ended up being named the runner-up for the People's Choice Award in the documentary category.
More recently, on November 13 Do I Sound Gay? was the opening presentation at the fifth annual New York Documentary Film Festival. CBS reviewer David Edelstein mentioned it among his favourite films of the festival, and the film was also discussed in Maclean's magazine. Once the film has secured a distribution deal, it will be for sale (on DVD and via streaming), in cinemas, on television, and on Netflix.
Ron and the film are also discussed in the forthcoming book Real Men Don't Sing: Crooning and American Culture, 1925-1934 (Duke University Press), by Allison McCracken of DePaul University. Ron contributed information for Allison's final chapter, in which she examines the history of how crooners fell out of favour in the US because their voices were too gay-sounding.
Congratulations to Ron for all of the publicity!
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