- Filmmaker Bobby Roth embarks on a thought-provoking journey seeking candid answers to questions on masculinity, femininity, and whether we have the power to change.
- After the birth of his grandson, Bobby Roth undertakes a cinematic investigation as to what constitutes being a "good man" in today's world. This voyage of discovery leads him to interview more than fifty of his friends, both men and women who he considers to be "good people," about their views on everything from how they were parented to their thoughts on feminism, change, and regrets they might have. Their answers both surprises and enlighten both the viewers and Bobby, himself.
- GOOD MEN is about an immensely important subject that has yet to be explored in depth, cinematically, from a personal perspective: the struggle of men to "do the right thing" in a wounded patriarchy. I want to examine and celebrate men who support women, men who identify as feminists and are for a just and equitable world.
Growing up in a pre-feminist world, I struggled to make sense of the gender roles of the time and the division of labor and psyche in my own home. All my life I was exposed to this conflict and was often supported by "Good men," as well as "Good women." I have lived my life wondering why things are as they are and how I became who I am.
What is "the good" is the topic and question of this documentary film, broken into thirteen recognizable chapters of my personal investigation, reasoning that if I want to learn about "men," others might share my interest.
I began with a short chapter merely posing this question to many of my good friends, men and women. What is WHAT IS A GOOD MAN?
This was followed by my very personal questioning of how my "good friends" regarded their FATHERS, followed by similar questions of how they regarded their MOTHERS, and then how they regarded their PARENTS, in general. My friends surprised me every step of the way. I was compelled to ask questions of how their characters were formed. Was it NATURE or NURTURE?
In turn I felt I had to ask what they saw the differences between themselves as men, and ultimately what were THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN & WOMEN? I again was struck by our differences... our uniqueness. I was moved to ask about SEXUALITY & LOVE. I was once again surprised by the answers, and this raised a very serious question about the natures of men and women. How aware was I about what it meant to be a woman and how it felt to live like a woman? This led to a tiny investigative chapter of how unaware men were of the sexual abuse of women and their AWARENESS of how women live.
The dawning awareness led to WHAT IS FEMINISM? Many of my "good men" were stumped, but they all had strong supportive reactions to this movement. I had to ask how they chose their PROFESSION? What flowed easily was a chapter discussing the nature and possibility of changing oneself. CHANGE became the penultimate chapter of the movie.
I then asked each of them if they were twenty again today, knowing what they know now, how would they live their lives? Though all of my interviewees acknowledged making mistakes, nearly all of them felt these mistakes were crucial in their becoming who they became... who they are today.
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