These C*cksucking Tears – the film about a 45-year-old openly-gay country album

In an interview last year with Francis Lee, writer-director of the excellent God’s Own Country, I asked him for his thoughts on the current state of LGBT cinema. His reply: “I think this is a golden year.”

Lee was dead right. Alongside his critically-acclaimed romance drama, 2017 saw LGBT stories translate into recognised cinema greats. Moonlight claimed the Academy Award for Best Picture while two other releases that year, A Fantastic Woman and Call Me By Your Name, took home Oscars just a few weeks ago.

2017 was a superb year for LGBT short cinema, too. Show Me Shorts highlights three killer films you can watch right now. For this post, I’m passing the torch to a documentary that spotlights a different LGBT artist: gay country singer Patrick Haggerty.

The (amazing) title for the short These C*cksucking Tears comes from a song off of Haggerty’s 45-year-old country album Lavender Country. The film follows the singer as he comments on his creative drive, the album’s impact, the consequences that came with it, and the life he leads now.

Though he’s a poetic songwriter, Haggerty’s very direct on camera. From his Marxist perspectives to the “buckets of sex” he was getting, he speaks as candidly as any other ol’ countryman out there. He’s an absorbing character to spend time with and his messages don’t get more blunt or brilliant than: “There’s a lot of things wrong with the establishment and fuck you guys.”

The most heartfelt moment of the short comes near the end where Haggerty shares an anecdote about his father. In a documentary full of great lines and messages, it’s his pappy’s words that hit the hardest.

I vehemently recommend you block out 15 minutes to give this a watch.