NOT A TAME LION
US, 2022, 119 minutes, colour.
Narrated by Kai Morgan.
Directed by Craig Bettendorf.
This is a documentary portrait of Yale scholar, John Boswell.
Boswell came from the American south, a military family which moved about, a mother who encouraged her children to explore the culture of the countries where they had been assigned. She had a talent for languages. And her son inherited this, fluent in 14 different languages associated with Biblical studies.
Boswell was familiar with the Bible but also moved into the area of Medieval Studies, producing a book on how children were abandoned in the Middle Ages. However, his research led him to investigate same-sex relationships throughout history, especially in the Middle Ages, and social attitudes and ecclesiastical attitudes towards homosexuality. He wrote four books and won awards.
This film has been made by long-time gay activist director, Craig Bettendorf, and narrated by actor, Kai Morgan who has worked in other Bettendorf films. The film was made and released almost 30 years after Boswell’s death.
As regards Boswell’s religious and faith stances, he was brought up as Episcopalian but studied theology and was influenced by Cardinal John Henry Newman and the theme of development of doctrine. He became a devout Catholic after studying the history of the church. He was a daily Massgoer.
But he was also gay, had argued philosophically and theologically for his stances on same sex equality, enabling him to be devoutly Catholic while disagreeing with Church teaching on homosexuality and living in a longtime partnership. Sadly, he died in 1994 of an aids -related illness.
John Boswell had a lively personality, attractive, drawing students to his lectures and to research. The director has interviewed three of his long-term friends and academic associates, reminiscing in great detail about John Boswell. And there is an interview with his sister, Patricia Boswell offering family insights, and British academic, Elizabeth Archibald, disciple, fellow student, writer on the Middle Ages and sexuality themes including incest.
John Boswell was a researcher, going to a great number of libraries, with access to many Vatican documents. He visited various monasteries, some hostility from the monks on Mount Athos because of his opinions on homosexuality, photographing pages of documents or getting his associates to do the filming, amassing a great deal of material on the issues. He was particularly interested in same-sex marriages, the status in the early church and Middle Ages, including the martyrdom of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, arguing for the acceptance of such arrangements, with blessings.
There are excerpts from John Boswell’s lectures throughout this documentary, lively presentations. His research was acclaimed and influential. However, there are a number of scholars who argued that he had not proven his theses, and some opposition from gay activists who differed in perspective on his stances.
This is a film about research in the 1980s and 1990s, a reminder of changing perspectives on sexuality in those decades, but introducing a range of research which demands serious consideration, both for and against.
