This week, one of Seattle’s alt-weeklies ran a story about Reddit community dwama. Seattle Weekly devoted a full page to an “investigative” story about why Seattle has two sub communities on Reddit: r/Seattle and r/SeattleWA. The story really wasn’t anything interesting. The original Moderator of Seattle handed over functionality to another moderator who went a little power-hun…see? You’re already sighing and wondering what this has to do with today’s movie.
Fursonas is a navel gazing documentary about the furry community that was made for somebody. But, I’m not exactly sure who this is for. The title Fursonas makes this sound like it would be Furry 101, answering questions like: What is a furry? Are furry suits important? What does being a furry mean? What happens at a furry convention? How much does a fursuit cost? What do you mean you want to be an anthropomorphic animal? But, eventually Fursonas gets stuck up its own ass with trying to untangle furry community in-drama that few people outside of the community actually care about. At the film festival screening I attended, there were surprisingly few people in the audience, especially considering that there is a healthily sized furry community in Seattle.
Director Daniel Rodriguez starts off in a pleasantly informative way that interviewed random members of the furry community, some of whom became internet famous for their various dealings in the public. He interviews the guy who tried to change his name to Boomer the Dog. He also gets the furries who ended up on a national talk show and were overly frank in their discussions about fursex. Much of this is intercut with Dr. Robert Conway (aka Uncle Kage), the lead figure of Anthrocon, some major furry convention in PA.
For awhile, Fursonas is like some big happy It Gets Better video where people are celebrating their freak flag, and explaining their personality and why they do what they do. It does act like Furry 101 for a bit. We get a furry dancing because that’s his persona (as well as his real life personality). We get run downs of equipment, including custom made fake animal dicks courtesy of Bad Dragon. Uncle Kage drills down the furry essentials and says they’re different for everybody. And, if Fursonas had stuck with Furry 101 or even went into Furry 102, this movie would be a pure delight. Unfortunately, Rodriguez’ goal isn’t to educate the wider audience; it’s to roll around in the in-group muck that every community participates in.
11 years ago, Seattle’s Pride Parade moved out of Capitol Hill (FKA: The Gayborhood) and into a bigger and longer route downtown. The festival was just getting too big for the relatively small neighborhood. But, people were unhappy with taking the gay pride out of the gayborhood where all the gay people owned businesses that benefited from the increased patronage. So, in 2006, there were two competing groups putting on two competing festivals – one downtown and one up in the ‘hood (technically, this is only about 2 miles away, but these miles are all uphill/downhill). This was an untenable situation and split the community. Eventually, Pride events simmered to being in Capitol Hill on Saturday and Downtown on Sunday. Until this year where the bigger downtown organization decided to have a second march on Saturday and…it’s all drama. Any non-locals who aren’t involved with the community probably skimmed this paragraph and have no idea what the hell I’m talking about.
This is where Fursonas eventually leads. There’s some sort of online community and people are either in or they’re out. Some people get bitchy at the drops of names, and some leaders condemn other furries because of their actions. Some furries rejected Boomer the Dog for taking things too far and making them look like an embarrassment. Maybe Uncle Kage had something to do with it. But, maybe all these in-group cliques are wrong for creating a society that recreated the same outcasting they were experiencing from the larger society.
So, here’s the problem. Without being a furry, Daniel Rodriguez wouldn’t have access to the people he has, nor would he have the knowledge to parse most of this. But, by being a furry, he is far too insular, making a hybrid of a Furry 101 course and an Intro to Internet Drama course. There are so many aspects of furrydom that are left unexplored, like how there are whole lists of animals and what each animal represents as a personality. Or, the pleasures of making a fursuit. Or, the origins of the community.
On the one hand, documenting internet drama could be a hilarious undertaking (remember the commenter wars between AVC and The Dissolve?). On the other, its a good reminder that internet drama is completely and utterly useless and mindnumbing (remember the commenter wars between AVC and The Dissolve?). This is also, largely, one of those talking head docs where nothing much visually appealing happens. It’s marginally entertaining but it’s also a 101 of what not to do when making a documentary.
My favorite realization of Fursonas? That the guy who makes animal dicks is one of the least dickish people in the movie.
