Director Elegance Bratton Put His Life into ‘The Inspection’
Elegance Bratton chronicles a gay Marine recruit's rough march through bootcamp in the autobiographical drama 'The Inspection.'
Inside a cramped Trenton, New Jersey apartment, an anxious mother and her queer son face off over his lack of direction. It’s a tense early turning point in writer-director Elegance Bratton’s acclaimed military drama The Inspection, starring Tony and Emmy nominee Jeremy Pope as Ellis French — gay, unhoused, and, in this scene, desperate to win his mother’s approval with a plan to re-direct his life by enlisting in the Marines.
But Ellis’ mother, Inez, portrayed with riveting, razor’s edge bitterness by Gabrielle Union, professes she’s done investing hope in him. “I made peace with losing you.”
The film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and just landed three Independent Spirit Award nominations, including Best First Feature, Best Lead Performance for Pope, and Best Supporting Performance for Union, is “100% autobiographical,” says Bratton.
“When we think about the fears, hopes, desires, and motivations of Ellis French, even if it’s a situation that I haven’t been in myself,” he says. “However, everything that happens between him and his mother is 100% true to my life.”
The Inspection reflects Bratton’s complicated life with candor, lending insight into setbacks like spending nights in a homeless shelter after his mother threw him out for being gay. Rejected by his birth family, teenage Bratton found new family within New York City’s queer house and ballroom culture, a milieu he documented with depth in the 2019 film Pier Kids.
Before he picked up a camera, though, Bratton enlisted and served in the Marines. Like many other recruits in the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell era, he confronted anti-gay harassment and abuse, even from superior officers — repped in the film by Bokeem Woodbine’s callous drill sergeant Laws.
Thankfully, Bratton also bonded with many of his fellow Marines, as depicted in the film partly via the touching rapport between Ellis and junior drill sergeant, Rosales, played by Looking‘s Raúl Castillo.
“I’m still very much close to my Marines that I served with,” Bratton says of his tight-knit crew. “We’ve been together for almost 15 years. We know everything in each other’s lives.”
Beyond his former jarhead comrades, Bratton also shares tight-knit bonds with his partner in life, art, and business, Chester Algernal Gordon. “My ‘thusband,'” Bratton clarifies with a smile. “Because they’re nonbinary.”
Bratton and Gordon’s Freedom Principle Productions was instrumental in bringing The Inspection to the screen. “We are committed to telling stories that spark a conversation between the left and the right in our society,” says the filmmaker. “We are open for business, and looking to take audiences where they could never go without us.”
The company has several projects brewing, including a documentary about the Harlem Hellfighters, a storied WWI Army National Guard regiment that consisted mostly of Black and Latino soldiers. Bratton and his cast might also find themselves in demand as The Inspection builds awards season buzz.
But sadly, Bratton’s mother won’t be here to partake in the film’s warm reception. “Unfortunately, my mother, she was killed three days after we got the movie greenlit,” says Bratton. “But this is why I’m so grateful to Gabrielle Union for taking on the part. She managed to bring my mother back to life.
“My mother was the first person who ever loved me completely. She’s also the first person to ever reject me holistically. You know, she was a complicated woman. And this film is really dedicated to the unbreakable bonds between mothers and sons. So, my gratitude to Gabrielle for providing me a chance to have closure that I would never have had if she didn’t graciously offer her talents to this film.”
The Inspection is playing in theaters nationwide.
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