Alia Shawkat co-wrote and stars in “Duck Butter," a movie about two women who spend 24 hours doing nothing but being with each other and having sex; San Francisco's Grace Cathedral holds a Beyoncé-themed service; YouTube struggles to clean up its act.
Beyoncé-themed mass draws hundreds of worshippers
Grace Cathedral in San Francisco set off a small media storm this week when they announced a Beyoncé-themed mass. They hope to get a new demographic involved in their message by using the pop star’s lyrics.
The Mass starts like any good show, with all the performers backstage. Priests donning white robes with purple scarves or black shirts with white collars. But this isn’t an ordinary mass at Grace Cathedral.
Tonight, they’re taking a risk and building the service around the music of pop icon Beyoncé Knowles.
It’s paying off. Hundreds of people are waiting outside. Reverend Jude Harmon looks out the window at a line looping back and forth through the courtyard.
“It honestly almost moves me to tears because these are people who have come here from all over the city — actually, all over the nation — for this event,” he says.
Reverend Harmon is the Director of Innovative Ministry at Grace Cathedral, located downtown, near Union Square. It’s Wednesday night, when the Cathedral’s Vine ministry holds service. The Vine is a response to the changing spiritual landscape of San Francisco. It’s a less traditional take on worship, offering casual weekday mass. They usually have about fifty people in the audience. Tonight, they’re expecting 1,000.
“We’re really thrilled we’re having this response,” Harmon says. “We didn't expect this. We thought it would be a small exploration as a community about what it means to lift up black female voices because traditionally the church hasn’t done a great job of that.”
The message tonight is inclusivity, even if that means breaking from tradition.
“We’re a new community, we’re forming our own values, we’re discovering our own voice.”
The inside of the cathedral does look like a concert hall. Purple lights illuminate the cavernous space and there’s a sense of excitement in the young crowd. Bright phone screens dot the pews as people snap selfies. Beyoncé’s music fills the room, but it’s Reverend Yolanda Norton who steals the show. She strides up to the altar in high heels and reminds people to be caught up in the message, rather than in Beyoncé herself. Then, she ignites the crowd with a sermon.
“I’ve been asked time and time again, ‘Why Beyoncé?’” Norton’s voice echoes through the stone walls. “Because she reminds us that sometimes you have to do your thing your way. You don’t do it on demand, you don’t do it for your oppressor, you don’t sing when they want you to sing, you sing when God tells you to sing! Never give them your song!”
Critics said the mass would be reduced to Beyoncé worship, but there’s no image of the pop star in the church. Her words are used to interpret an ancient message that often gets lost in bible readings: a message of bravery and love. Norton, a professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary, weaves the lyrics through her sermon, casting social and political struggles as a biblical struggle. The choir belts out Beyoncé’s hit single, “Freedom,” while the congregation prepares for communion.
In some ways, this mass is the same as all masses, the same structural bones filled with song and ceremony and the cries of impatient babies punctuating the readings. But the ages-old invocations are filled with new energy. Norton and Harmon are recasting the communion as a revolution against oppression.
For some, the mass carried a message of inclusion they had never heard before. Gary Bermudez works in San Francisco, but he’s a native of Costa Rica.
“For me, I had lots of emotions. I grew up being Catholic, but I am gay.” Bermudez says. Traditionally, the Church has not been open to all expressions of sexuality and love. “It changes all of the traditions and the vision that I have of being in church. I feel was accepted for the first time. Which is weird because I grew up in a Catholic community, but I never felt like I was accepted in it.”
After the mass, a dance party broke out in the aisle and front pews. Norton was exuberant.
“I feel amazing,” she yells over the music. “We had this wonderful service, black women were celebrated. We affirmed a whole lot of other people and I’m grateful god showed up in this space.”
Then, she led the remaining worshippers out of the church in a conga line.
Alia Shawkat talks 'Duck Butter,' lesbian films and Jeffrey Tambor
Alia Shawkat is at a point in her career where she wants to be telling stories from a personal place. Her new film "Duck Butter," which she co-wrote with director Miguel Arteta, is just such a story.
You know this is the first project that I wrote that came to fruition. It's taught me so many things. But a big one is how for me, I want to share my most personal feelings. I feel like that's how I'll make the best art. In this case there is a piece of me in it for sure.
"Duck Butter" is about two women (played by Shawkat and Laia Costa) who meet and quickly decide to embark on an experiment in which they stay awake for 24 hours getting to know one another. The only rule is that they have sex every hour. After its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Shawkat picked up a Best Actress award.
Originally, "Duck Butter" was supposed to be about a man and a woman. When Alia Shawkat came by The Frame studios, she discussed the decision to make the movie about a lesbian couple, why there aren't more lesbian films being made in the U.S. and how she thinks about representation and the stories she wants to tell.
Shawkat also talked about Jeffrey Tambor and the allegations against him. She has acted alongside him for many years as Maeby on “Arrested Development." Shawkat expressed frustration that her words on the issue had been misunderstood in past interviews.
Below are some highlights of Shawkat's conversation with The Frame's John Horn. To hear the full conversation, get the podcast on Apple podcasts.
Interview Highlights:
On the choice to make 'Duck Butter' about two women instead of a man and a woman:
As someone who's also bisexual, it's not like it's the craziest reference for me. But I think, yeah, I think at first it was like oh we're making a romantic story, and in order for it to reach a bunch of people this [having heterosexual protagonists] is how it would relate to people the most. But then, even for ourselves, we were able to check ourselves by being like – no, this is actually how we're going to tell the story more honestly.
On the lack of lesbian films in Hollywood:
I think that when sex doesn't have to do with men, a lot of men don't find interest in it. Because it doesn't relate to them. So, also the idea of lesbian sex is still in the group of male fantasies. Their idea of two women hooking up, instead of it actually being that these women only desire each other and they're not attracted to a man. I think that's still part of the issue in general. Things that don't involve a heterosexual male's point of view – they don't have interest in it if it doesn't have to do with them. And, also there just hasn't been a lot of opportunities because the voices of women obviously are becoming more at the forefront. And them telling their stories on film. I think it is changing, but it's hard to see that the needle is moving because of how much time needs to pass for the audience to actually shift. So when we get to the goal where a young man can watch this film and connect to it – of course I'll never really know if he's getting turned on and that's okay – but if he can understand and connect to a character about lesbians, then that's when you know it's shifting. The idea of our sexuality isn't so polarized anymore.
On how she wants to share personal stories and represent her unique perspective through her art:
There are things I want to write as being an Arab-American, about my family and the experience they've had as Muslims in America now. That's something I'm writing. It's like, there's a lot of artists now who are speaking out, instead of being like hey I'm just the clown, I'm just the person who's performing here. It's become so much more about sharing yourself personally and what you stand for as a representative and also as an actor. Which is also tricky. But in that, I've met a lot of amazing other actors who have these particular voices they want to represent. And now I get to collaborate with them.
On #MeToo and the Jeffrey Tambor allegations:
It's really tricky, especially now because I did "Arrested [Development]" and it's coming out. And Jeffrey's going to be a part of it. I said in an interview not that long ago that I support the voices of the victims. Which of course I do. And the person took the article and said Alia Shawkat stands against Jeffrey Tambor. And I thought that was so interesting because I was like wow, this person is just trying to get a bite, so they can get hits or whatever.
I'm here – I'm a woman who made a film about two women, and she couldn't care less about that. She just wanted to continuously drag this actor's name through the mud. And for me, I was like this is part of the problem. We need to start focusing on what has all this #MeToo and all these things. Obviously it's taking people who are taking advantage of others out of power. But also what about the reality – it's supposed to be helping women feel like they have more opportunities .
“Duck Butter” opens in Los Angeles and New York on April 27th.
Should YouTube be responsible for regulating content?
Chances are, you saw the shocking video posted last year by vlogger Logan Paul showing the body of a suicide victim in a forest by Mt. Fuji in Japan.
The video caused an uproar on social media and added to the growing scrutiny over YouTube’s role as a publisher of disturbing content.
Facebook and Twitter have made efforts to stem the flow of misinformation and abusive content. Google’s streaming video platform, however, has been slower to act. Bloomberg's
says:
There's a lot of news video on YouTube. It's a large and growing vertical for them, but it's not seen as being a place people go to for news. It's still seen as a place for ephemeral fun — sort of trivial — and so I don't think people take it quite as seriously... But I do think that as we look at how we should regulate something like Facebook, we'll have to have a similar conversation about YouTube because they have the same fundamental problem.
Shaw and Mark Bergen co-authored the recent article “YouTube’s Plan to Clean Up the Mess That Made It Rich.” The Frame's John Horn spoke with Shaw recently about the changing perception of YouTube.