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Copyright 1997 The Chronicle Publishing Co.  

The San Francisco Chronicle

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APRIL 6, 1997, SUNDAY, SUNDAY EDITION

Correction Appended

SECTION: SUNDAY DATEBOOK; Pg. 38

LENGTH: 1195 words

HEADLINE: In the Minds of Murderers

Arthur Dong's chilling documentary examines men who kill gays

BYLINE: David Tuller, Chronicle Staff Writer

BODY:

    Arthur Dong has never forgotten that evening 20 years ago. At the corner of Noe and 19th streets, four youths chased after and pelted him and a friend with eggs while yelling anti- gay epithets. Dong and his friend escaped by flagging down a passing car, but shortly afterward the attackers beat up another man -- a priest -- around the corner.

The experience stayed with Dong as he built a career making television and feature documentaries on issues of social justice, earning an Oscar nomination (for ''Sewing Woman,'' a portrait of his mother) and an Emmy nomination (for ''Coming Out Under Fire,'' about gays and lesbians who served during World War II) along the way.

But ever since that night, Dong says, he has thought and read about anti-gay violence and its causes. Now he has transformed those ruminations into ''Licensed to Kill,'' a chilling film that explores the minds of men whose anti-gay feelings led them to commit murder.

''I always knew I wanted to do a film about this,'' Dong said. ''It was just a question of deciding from what angle, what kind of story to tell.''

The film, which opens Friday for a seven-day run at the Castro Theatre and plays April 29 at the UC Theatre in Berkeley, has already received significant acclaim. It won two awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival and was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as ''powerful'' and ''unnervingly candid.''

Anti-gay violence has received widespread attention in recent years. In more than a dozen cities around the country, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, advocacy groups for victims of verbal harassment and physical violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered individuals have been compiling statistics. Nationally, the number of reported incidents rose 6 percent in 1996, from 2,395 in 1995 to 2,529. The Bay Area had a 3 percent decline, from 426 to 415.

Lester Olmstead-Rose, executive director of Community United Against Violence, the agency that collects the Bay Area statistics, said that the numbers of reported cases represent only a fraction of the actual incidents of anti-gay violence. ''People are still being bashed at unacceptably high levels,'' he said.

According to figures collected in recent years by CUAV and other groups, more than 200 gay men have been murder victims -- a statistic that horrified Dong. He wrote to 25 convicted murderers, and 15 said they would be willing to participate in his film.

Dong interviewed nine of them and included six of those men in the final film. A seventh murderer in the film did not speak to the filmmaker, but Dong included parts of the man's videotaped police interrogation in which he details the murder.

Dong found a variety of circumstances in the cases. William Cross said he had been molested as a youngster and went into a blind rage when an acquaintance propositioned him. Corey Burley said he robbed homosexuals for sport and shot one when egged on by a friend.

Although Army Sergeant Kenneth French did not seek out gay men to kill, he said he murdered four during a rampage in a restaurant when he was angered by President Clinton's effort to allow gays to serve openly in the military. And Jay Johnson said that his disgust with his own homosexuality led him to kill two men in gay cruising areas.

SOME REMORSE

Some expressed remorse for their actions or acknowledged that, even if they didn't like gay men, killing them was wrong. But not Jeffrey Swinford, a young man serving 20 years in Arkansas for second-degree murder and robbery.

''I don't have any opinion whatsoever for homosexuals, except they ought to all be taken care of,'' he told Dong, implying that all gays should be killed. ''I thought about it (the murder), you know, a little bit after it happened. I don't want to sound like it wasn't a big deal, you know, but just one less problem the world had to mess with.''

All of the interviews are presented without comment by either the filmmaker or outraged gay activists. What counterpoints the killers' statements are the bloody photos of the dead men and news reports of the crimes.

In an interview recently in the basement office of the Sunset District house he shares with his partner of 18 years, Dong discussed the genesis of the film, what it was like to meet murderers of gay men and the reaction of some gay activists to his project.

''I really wanted to understand these men and their lives and why they did what they did,'' said Dong, 43, a native of San Francisco. ''While we were researching, some people said to us, 'Why are you giving these people the light of day? You really should be focusing on the victims. They're the ones that need help.'

''It would be easier to see these men as monsters, to lock them up and throw away the keys,'' he added. ''But I think that's too easy and denies what we should be exploring. In order to understand this problem and conquer it, we need to talk to the perpetrators.''

How did Dong feel calmly interviewing men who had murdered others like himself?

''As a filmmaker I was really excited because after 20 years it was finally the moment for me to do this film,'' he said. ''Personally, it was like coming face-to-face with my attackers. You would have thought I would have been nervous and afraid, but I wasn't. I had worked through all those feelings already.''

Gregory Herek, a research psychologist at the University of California at Davis who has studied the causes of anti-gay violence, said Dong's film sheds much-needed light on the social, religious and cultural factors that contribute to the widespread dislike of gays and lesbians. While some gays contend that intense homophobia almost always stems from people's fear of their own homoerotic impulses, Herek said that approach is overly simplistic.

OTHER FACTORS

In some cases, he said, anti-gay feelings do arise from insecurity about one's own sexual orientation. But he contended that other factors are often much more significant.

''You see all kinds of different motivations out there,'' Herek said. ''You do see the person who actually had sex with an individual and then seems to go nuts and bash them. Then you see the people who talk about God, and you sense that in their own way they were trying to act out what they thought was justified. And those who attack gay people because the culture has defined gays as good targets.

''That's why this film is really important. It lets us hear the voices of the people who perpetrate these crimes and lets us into their thinking and why they thought what they did was an acceptable thing.''

'LICENSED TO KILL'

The movie opens Friday at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco and plays April 29 at the UC Theatre in Berkeley.

A story in Sunday's Datebook about Arthur Dong's documentary on men who kill gay men, ''Licensed to Kill,'' omitted the opening night benefit screening. The screening is at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Castro Theater. Tickets for the event, a benefit for Frameline, Film Art Foundation and Community United Against Violence, are $ 10 for the screening alone and $ 25 for the film and a 6:30 p.m. reception. Call (415) 552-3456.

 

 

CORRECTION-DATE: APRIL 9, 1997, WEDNESDAY, FINAL EDITION

CORRECTION:

   

GRAPHIC: PHOTO (2),(1-2) Filmmaker Arthur Dong (left) interviewed nine men, including the four in these mug shots, who had been convicted of murdering gays , Brant Ward, The Chronicle

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: April 7, 1997 April 29, 1997