Two Spirits

Many Broken Hearts

By

Kimberly Deisler

Never underestimate the power of film, how it seeps into your soul without permission and takes up residence. I just finished watching Two Spirits, a Lydia Nibley film and now my heart is aching, pounding with the loss of a boy I’ve never met, but whose spirit will live inside me all the days of my life.

This is my love/hate relationship with the film festival. From one venue to the next, from one genre to the next, my emotions are given a run for their money as they ride the virtual Coney Island Cyclone rollercoaster and try desperately to recover. But this is one of those stories from which you never recover.

Two Spirits is the story of a young man named Fred Martinez that lovingly rests in the palms of the Navajo culture. A dynamic, caring kid, Fred’s sense of self waited for no one’s permission. Though he considered himself gay, but refused to be labeled, white people saw him as only gay. In a world where whites have had their fair share of homophobia, the Navajos and many other tribes revere such duality. Two spirit people were and are sought after by everyone for counsel, matchmaking and life lessons.

Fred’s story starts out like any kid. He’s born a boy and somewhere along the way, he recognizes he’s more than the sum or minus of his parts and grows comfortable in that skin. Unfortunately, others in his community failed to see the beauty of this boy, nor could they be comfortable and ultimately Fred and those who loved him suffered the consequences.

This powerful film delivers a heart wrenching climax despite the obvious direction you know the story will take. Its clear from the beginning he’s gone, its clear he was a beautiful boy, its clear his family and friends loved him and continue to do so. What isn’t clear is how anyone could hurt such a loving and tender soul.