My luck at Frameline just never seems to end this year. I've laughed. I've cried. And now with the addition of The Adults in the Room, I've had to think. Hard. This is hands down the most creative, challenging, and fascinating film I've seen this year at Frameline -- and perhaps ever. I know, I know -- that's a bit of a strong statement, but it reflects my love for this film. It is nothing short of incredible.
To say that this film deals with controversial subject matter is an understatement. Sex between people classified as minors and those classified as adults is perhaps one of the most heavily policed sexual boundaries. Maybe only incest is regarded with more disdain. Young people are not supposed to be sexual, and when they are with their peers it causes anxiety. When they have sex with people older than them, it causes outright panic.
This film cannot be easily classified. It is part documentary, part feature. Part fiction, part true story. It takes everything you expect about a film and throws it out the window. As such, telling you about it here is something of a challenge. But here goes.
When director Andy Blubaugh was 15, he had an intimate relationship with the father of his classmate. In The Adults in the Room, we get to see Andy grappling with the memory of this relationship. We see him meeting with friends to discuss making the film, his conflicted emotions about the relationship, and his angst over how to represent his lover without painting him as either totally innocent or guilty, so to speak. We see him auditioning actors to play both his younger self and his older lover, and the real discomfort that these actors experience when they realize they're expected to make out on screen. We see him discussing the "character" Andy's motivations with friends and teachers. We even get to see Andy in the classroom, teaching students about film-making (which reads as documentary, but is actually reenacted for the film by volunteers).
Alongside these self-reflexive and incredibly insightful vignettes into the filmmaking process and into Andy's brain, we get pieces of the finished narrative product. The actor cast as the younger Andy was in fact 16, and does in fact make out with his costar. He's pretty incredible and does a great job of conveying conflicted youth on screen. As the director noted during the Q&A, there is a difference between a 20 year-old playing a teenager and an actual 16 year-old on screen. Teenage angst is just about impossible to recreate without seeming farcical or overplayed.
What I especially love about these feature segments is that, because of the inclusion of the documentary-esque portions, the reconstructed artificiality of this story becomes apparent. Often times we take more seriously stories that are based on true stories, but of course what we remember is not actually what happened. It is our reconstructed, reformulated memory of those events. Because we get to see real-life Andy typing and editing the script for the scenes in the feature segments, it becomes impossible for the viewer to consume the story as if it were actually "reality." This of course should not be a way of discrediting the representation of that reality. Indeed, reconstructed memories are how we make sense of our lives and create our identities. They form the foundation of the decisions we make today -- of who we are as people.
I can't also applaud more loudly Andy's carefulness in dealing with this subject matter. He never claims to have the answer, to exculpate his lover or intergenerational relationships generally. He has his experience, and he sticks to it. This is a difficult decision when dealing with an experience that is caught up in such a web of sticky political issues. Representing that experience without making dramatic claims about its political rights and wrongs is no easy task. Put another way, he sticks to what he knows best. What that allows as a viewer is to leave the film asking the political questions, which is exactly what I did. Because he did not give us easy answers, my friends and I were still talking about that film two hours later.
I could keep writing about all the things I loved about the film, but I'd wind up taking away the pleasure that you will undoubtedly have in watching it yourself. I desperately hope this film gets distributed. You need to see it. And I can't wait to see it again! You can follow the film's progress on their website.
I've had extremely good luck with movies this year. Donato's Brotherhood was no exception. Rare is the film that takes on the subjectivity of the hated so intently, exploring what is taboo and almost entirely unspeakable without apology. More specifically, this is a love story between two neo-Nazi radicals.
If you had to flinch a bit when reading that, you're not out of the norm. Characters such as these -- along with racists, homophobes, etc -- rarely are allowed sympathetic airtime on film. We prefer to see them get their due or repent and become rehabilitated. And in some ways, this film does wind up rehabilitating its characters, but not in the typical sense.
The story is quite wonderfully set-up and executed. Lars (exquisitely played by Thure Lindhardt who you may remember as the self-flagellating cult member in Angels & Demons) is forced out of the Danish army because his subordinates suspect he is gay. He is angry, dejected, and desperately seeking some kind of sociality. He unexpectedly finds himself at a recruitment meeting for a local neo-Nazi group held informally at a friend's apartment. Their issue of the day is of course immigration, and in particular those from the Middle East. A local refugee center is their target.
Lars doesn't sign up enthusiastically, but is rather courted by the group's local leader who sees in him a bright young spirit who could bring a discipline and intelligence to the group. A violent initiation leads him ever more into the hands of his comrades as he runs away from home and moves in with a prominent member, Jimmy, who is suspicious of the new recruit and the attention the leader gives him.
What follows is something in a study of deeply repressed homosexual desire and the violence of masculinity. It is quite wonderfully depicted here. It is indeed the love that dare not speak its name. Many times in the movie, I would find audience members laughing at parts that I found utterly sad. Like the moment Lars wakes up to find himself in bed with Jimmy. There is a terror in his eyes -- and panic. The audience laughs, but this is not a funny moment. He is of course scared of himself and what he has done, but also of what Jimmy might do to him if he wakes up.
I would also applaud the way in which the idiosyncrasies of neo-Nazi culture are explored here. Jimmy drinks organic beer because we have to be good to the environment -- protecting that which is natural is one the their central tenets. Set alongside the group's binge drinking and destructive practices, the irony is indeed exposed. Violence against gays is important, but terrorizing immigrants is the top priority. All of these ways expose their worldview and its contradictions.
Some of my friends felt like the film was bordering on "Nazi porn." I disagree. I think that's the easy and obvious way to write this film off. But if we want to work to dismantle hate ideologies, we desperately need to understand that its practitioners are actually human and find the humanity in them. That is in many circumstances an absolutely terrifying project -- but I think it's critical.
"THE LAST SUMMER OF LA BOYITA"
Director: Julia Solomonoff
Trevor's Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
Something incredible is happening in Argentina. At the 2008 Frameline Festival, I saw for the first time what has become one my favorite movies of all time -- XXY -- which deals beautifully with the issue of intersexuality and the medicalization of sex and genitals. Now we have another incredible entry treading similar territory, The Last Summer of La Boyita. While there are some important differences, it's quite incredible that one country has made what are perhaps the two most compelling feature films on this topic.
The story is a classic summer tale: a doctor takes his daughter Jorgelina to the countryside where she forms a flirtatious friendship with a boy named Mario. They ride horses together. She swims in the pool while he whittles wood into rough sculptures. She protects him from the aggressive older boys who make fun of him. Mario is gearing up to race so that he "can prove he is a man," as Jorgelina's father says. Adolescence awkwardness and anxiety are wonderfully captured here.
Jorgelina becomes increasingly curious as to why Mario refuses to come swimming with her. She's pretty savvy, and after noticing blood on his pants she searches for answers about boys' menstruation. When she finds no answers, she turns to her father.
Unfortunately because of its subject matter and setting, the automatic comparison is XXY, which is a masterpiece of a film. The Last Summer doesn't quite measure up: The acting and casting isn't as incredible, the story is slightly less exciting, the presentation less provocative. But it is a wonderful film, despite its occasional shortcomings. The breathtaking country setting make for stunning cinematography. And there are some very funny and incredibly endearing moments. It's a real gem of a film.
Check out the trailer -- and keep an eye out for it!
"WE WERE HERE: VOICES FROM THE AIDS YEARS IN SAN FRANCSICO"
Director: David Weissman and Bill Weber
Trevor's Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
I can recall sobbing uncontrollably exactly three times in my adult life. Last night was one of those times. I ventured out to the Castro theatre for the "sneak peek" screening of "We Were Here: Voices from the AIDS Years in San Francisco." I knew I was in for a tear-fest, but I had no idea just how incredibly moving and utterly devastating the film would be. Before the screening, both the filmmakers admitted not wanting to make this film -- how can you possible represent the horror of those years without doing some injustice, without leaving some story untold? The idea is daunting.
No documentary to my knowledge exists that chronicles these years so intently, most likely because these stories are so incredible painful to tell -- and just as painful to listen to and absorb. I can only imagine that this film's road to the screen is paved in rivers of tears. As someone who did not experience those years, these representations are my only access to the memory of an era that shaped my gay world. It's why I have the kind of sex I do. It's why I have so few gay mentors from that generation. It's why bathhouses closed and disco died. And it's probably why gay marriage is the 21st century gay raison d'être.
As such, I listen to these stories intently whenever I can, mostly in the form of movies -- Longtime Companion, It's My Party, Angels in America, Sadness, and the like. With the exception of William Yang's incredible Sadness, these representations are rarely retrospective. They are told from the battleground itself rather than the hill overlooking the cemetery years later. This kind of war analogy is invoked several times in the film: as one interviewee explains, AIDS was what World War II was to many Americans. But of course as a comparison it is somewhat limited in its utility. War involves a coordinated opponent that you can see or at least pinpoint on a map. AIDS turned gay men's own bodies against them, crippling the young and muscular as quickly as it did the old and infirm. And during the first years of the epidemic, they had absolutely no idea how it was transmitted or who might already be infected.
Five individuals -- four gay men and one woman -- narrate the film, each with a unique experience that adds a new facet to the incredibly rich and devastatingly moving story. A flower vendor remembers giving away flowers to neighbors who wanted to bury their friends with dignity but had no money to give. An artist chokes back tears as he relives his lover dying as he frantically drove him to the hospital -- and in a heartbreaking turn, losing a second lover to the disease a few years later. A volunteer at the AIDS ward in San Francisco's General Hospital remembers finding a way to be a part of a gay community in comforting those who were dying. Their stories are heart wrenching.
The film was screened to a sold out crowd at the Castro Theater. Many in the room had lived through those awful years -- some in San Francisco, others elsewhere. Sitting in that room full of so many sobbing, hurt, and mournful gay men was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. At one point early in the film, a series of self-portraits by the photographer John Davis flashed across the screen. The series, titled "FIERCE," shows the artist emaciated, his body decimated by his illness. His naked, pale figure is contorted, stretched into alarming positions. An IV line is implanted in his chest. The crowd was silent except for the wailing howl of one man towards the back who could no longer hold back his tears. Even now as I write this, I cannot help but bury my face in my hands and cry. I will never forget the sound of that man's anguish. It will haunt me for the rest of my life. (And I'm not the only one to have this experience at the premier, it seems.)
Davis' self-portraits are both grotesque and stunningly beautiful at the same time. After the film, the director noted that these photos documented the duality of the epidemic so beautifully that they helped him to conceive of the film. On the one hand, you have thousands of men dying -- leaving behind friends, lovers, tricks, clients, parents, children, and admirers. On the other, you have an outpouring of support from both gay men and those outside the community, helping to take care of those who were dying and to fight for the support HIV-positive people needed to survive. AIDS could have destroyed gay community. But it didn't. Gay men's resilience in the face of death itself is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
The moment the film ended and the credits began to roll, the floodgate of my emotions let loose. I bent over in my chair, put my head in my hands, and gasped for air in between sobs. The crowd rose to its feet for a standing ovation, but I could not get out of my chair. I stayed in my seat, bawling. Crying for all those men I never knew, who I wish desperately were here today. For all their sass, for all their sex, and for all their creativity that was snuffed out far before it's time. But they're not here. And that is one of the hardest parts about being a post-AIDS gay man for me. Missing what I did not know. Longing for what I cannot have.
Rare is the occasion for a transwoman character and a lesbian character to be seen romantically involved on screen. And for that, this movie brings us a new kind of story that is exciting and refreshing. The actor playing Madona is sadly not a transsexual -- as director Marcelo Laffitte reveals in an interview about the film's premier at Tribeca. But Cotrim does a great job bringing the quirky, eccentric Madona to life -- and does an especially good job when Madona goes in drag as a man to meet Elvis' parents. A male actor playing a transwoman playing a straight man. Incredible.
This film is something like a romantic comedy with a dash of drama thrown in, and should be regarded as such. It doesn't take itself too seriously, which is the film's best asset. The characters don't ponderously struggle with identity politics or over how they're going to have sex -- they just do it. This is what a lot of people -- trans, queer, and gay alike -- want out of LGBT cinema. Sure, we want to think critically about our lives and our politics, but sometimes we just want to munch on popcorn and see films that relate to our lives but that don't require too much thinking.
As I said, very charming. If the film makes a stop in your city, be sure to see it. No news on distribution yet, I think. Let's keep our fingers crossed!
This year will be my fifth Frameline Film Festival! I just can't believe it. In the previous years, I've seen dozens of amazing queer films that change my life on a regular basis. Seriously, many of them are incredible! Each year I try to best my previous year's record of number of screenings attended, and this year is no different -- I've schedule 17 screenings at Frameline34. Seriously! I'm that addicted. I send around my schedule of films to friends each year, poking them until they buy tickets and join me. I decided this year to post my selections here on this blog to encourage you to come out and see some great gay cinema. Hope to see you there! Check out my picks, after the jump!
"STRAIGHTLACED: HOW GENDER GOT US ALL TIED UP"
Director: Debra Chasnoff
Trevor's Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
I have a confession: I broke down crying in the middle of this screening. This wonderful new feature documentary from Academy Award winning director Debra Chasnoff (from It's Elementary fame) features a variety of youth's perspectives on the impact of gender roles on men, women, and everyone in between.
Radical / separatist feminists have for far too long refused to incorporate an analysis of men's lives into their analysis and politics. Men, they would say, are studied in every other department on campus. Why give their lives any more attention than it already has? I believe that their brand of feminism ultimately ended up becoming the butt of jokes because of this refusal -- because men were made out to be the enemy, and because a feminist analysis gave men few tools to understand how their own gender impeded their ability to live life fully. Old school feminism made it seem like it was always easy to be a man and always difficult to be a woman. This was never true.
Straightlaced presents a new kind of analysis of gender that drops the insistence that it is women who only matter when we talk about gender. In this fabulous piece, we hear from all kinds of young people with a variety of gender presentations -- and a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds (which, as we all know, work with gender to produce variations on similar themes). It takes young people's voices and experiences seriously, which is certainly where it draws its strength. It avoids jargon. It's matter of fact. And it's incredibly powerful.
As I mentioned at the start, I had a mini-breakdown halfway through the film when they tell the story of a flamboyant young boy who committed suicide. His friends and neighbors were interviewed while planting a memorial garden, and they had colorfully painted picnic tables with messages of tolerance and acceptance. When they panned to a table painted "Hate Free Zone" with a heart around it, the waterworks started coming. I couldn't hold back. The pain of growing up as a sissy boy in an intolerant culture flooded me with emotion. In different circumstances, would that have been my story?
The tears didn't stop there. Hearing so many young people speak openly and frankly about the way that gender restricts their actions, emotions, friendships, and sexualities kept my cheeks damp for most of the film. I can't recommend this film more -- particularly for educators who can use this film as a resource in the classroom. Once released on DVD, Groundspark (the film's producers) will I believe make available a set of classroom resources -- which would be a wonderful asset to educators.
This is 21st century feminism, folks. In fact, we need a new word for this kind of analysis. Feminism doesn't cut it. (Gender studies, perhaps, though it's a bit bland I think.) But whatever the terminology, this is the direction we need to moving in collectively as folks invested in reworking and expanding cultural constructions of gender and sexuality.
Another collection of shorts! This time, it's a collection of short films that all deal with trans issues. "Transtastic!" is an annual series -- last year, my friend Ethan debuted his film dealing with trans health care issues (see my review of the session here). This year, I signed up because I knew me and my friends would go. I didn't take care to look at the selection of shorts -- in hindsight, I should have. This was perhaps the worst collection of films -- barring one truly outstanding short -- I have seen in recent memory. There are some par-for-the-course pieces, but a number of *disastrous* films made for a pretty unhappy experience. I promised my friend Jackson I wouldn't give anything less than one star because the films all featured trannies. Keep that in mind! lol
This was a cute and colorful Brazillian film following the budding romance of a citybus fare collector and a tall, gangly hairdresser by the name of Antony. He invites her into the salon for a free haircut, and the rest, as they say, is history. It's charming, but the editing is a bit choppy and disjointed, creating a kind of jarring viewing experience. The color here is wonderful though, as is the celluloid deliciousness of the film (it was shot with 35mm). And Antony and Esperança are delightful and a treat to watch. It's a fun film, despite a few technical flaws.
Hands down, one of the worst and most trite films I've seen in my life. Seriously bad. I don't even know what to say. It had all the cliches you could possibly imagine in a film dealing with a transwoman. Every. Single. One. Lisa goes on a date with Jason. It goes well. He invites her to friend's birthday party. Friend freaks out when he finds out she's trans, and sexually harrasses her in the bathroom. She runs out (in slow motion, no less), and Jason runs after her. This film felt straight out of a 1985 PSA. Sigh.
"BIG DEAL"
Director: Hilary Goldberg
Trevor's Rating: 3 / 5 Stars
Katastrophe is a trans music rapper / artist here in the Bay Area who's well known around town for his hip-hop beats. "Big Deal" has a touch of electro-trip-hop thrown in for spunk, and the song is generally catchy. The video itself is cute, a retelling of Andy Warhol's attempted murder back in the 1960s, with Katastrophe playing Warhol with aplomb. It's cuteness comes complete with glitter blood. An extra half-star for that.
You can watch the whole thing here:
"BLINK"
Director: Silas Howard
Trevor's Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
Blink is a tension-filled short that gives us a glimpse into a first crush. It was definitely one of the more polished entries here in Transtastic!, and the efforts paid off. It was sexy, dark, and creepy. Sexual tension drips from the film, complete with a skinhead brother intensely greasing up and cleaning his gun. Amazing stuff. But despite it's high-quality production value, the story felt a bit underdeveloped. But for 11 minutes, I guess that's part of the package!
Hands down, the best documentary short I've seen in years. This film is so incredibly fabulous, I'm not even sure where to begin. Here we get a glimpse into the life of Kaden and his partner Monika. Kaden is struggling with trying to maintain a genderfuck presentation while also desiring to take testosterone. Monika wants a "normal" life in the suburbs. There's wonderful tensions and contradictions here, which is truly the best part. Too often we get an edited, "messaged" version of people's lives in documentaries without any of the doubts or anxieties that come with living a queer life. But these tensions are on full display here, and it's beautiful. This film would be a wonderful asset as an "educational" documentary for students RE: gender / trans issues, and I intend to get my hands on it for that reason. It's a real treat.
"L1FE" & "TELL ME THE..."
Directors: Aarin Burch ("L1fe"), Bobby Poirier ("Tell me the...")
Trevor's Rating: 1.5 / 5 Stars
Whoa! Backstreet's back, alright! Joshua Klipp is a trans performing artist who has singlehandedly resurrected 1990s boyband pop all by his lonesome. I mean, it's kind of amazing for the way he brashly goes for cheese without a hint of irony or embrassment. But there's got to be a limit! In any case, Klipp is a hottie and fun to look at. But I left my Backstreet Boys days behind me. Unfortunately for him, so did the rest of America.
Just watch for yourself:
"MICHELLE'S FIRST WEDDING IN A DRESS"
Director: Ann von Hagemann
Trevor's Rating: 1 / 5 Stars
Director Ann von Hagemann told the audience before the screening that she "just wanted everyone to see my wife the way I do!" Clearly, Ann loves her wife very much, and it shows here. But as a cinematic endeavor, the film is, well, kind of terrible. Not to mention the absolute horror of the cliched narratives that keep spewing from her wife's mouth (e.g "Most trans people aren't lucky and never find love") and the suckiness of her judgmental politics (e.g. "I'm so glad I'm not one of those spikey haired, freaky trannies"). Jesus. Well we see her, Ann! I'm just not sure we all share your love.
"TRANSPROOFED"
Director: Andrea James
Trevor's Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
I love Calpernia Addams, and she certainly shines here as the star of a movie about a transwoman anxious about going on a date with a straight man. She calls her friend and mentor to help her "transproof" her apartment, which ends up meaning removing all traces of color, happiness, and fun from the space. What's left after their frenzy is a drab, beige depressingness. This is a really cute film, and as I said I have a lot of love for Addams. But again I think we get a lackluster and perhaps a bit melodramatic ending here that just doesn't do the film justice.
This film is an attempt to mock the ways that cinema has treated trans subjects in often exploitative ways. We follow Kaleb -- who bears at times an eery resemblance to Perez Hilton -- who laments the various ways he's exploited in our culture. The film's funniest moment is probably him at the grocery store, complaining against the transgender harassment he finds evidenced by the "No Trans Fat" trend. Very cute. But the film never makes clear who the targets of the critique are. Trans people? Trans filmmakers? Non-trans filmmakers? Is the underlying claim that trans lives really aren't so hard at all? Or is the claim that trans hardships have simply been exaggerated for filmmakers gain? None of these questions are ever answered clearly, and that makes the film's message ambiguously dangerous. You could imagine some folks walking away thinking trans people's complaints are a wholesale joke. But I'm sure that's not what the filmmaker attempted.
This could have been the perfect easy, breezy summer gay flick! The setting was magnificent: Rural Germany, Brandenburg to be precise. But from the moment this film started I could tell it was going to be a disaster. Shoddy camerawork, generic autofocus, and pixellated images due to subpar equipment all work together to poison this film from ever excelling past the made-for-TV level. From the start, I kept screaming in my head to "BACK UP!" The shots were always so close-up and cramped, it made me uncomfortable in my seat. I guess this decision was the result of a crappy camera that couldn't get much detail from far-away, but it made for a very unpleasant viewing experience.
Light Gradient's story is a simple recipe that's been attempted dozens of times. The film chronicles the journeys of Johann and Robin as they travel the countryside together. I expected some awkward rolls in the hay, and they were certainly present. But mostly we got a weird contradiction between general freedom with full frontal male nudity while showering, but when the sex actually got started the camera panned over to farm animals. WTF? With a film so bad, a hot sex scene could have at least made it worth my time. Alas, there was to be no sexytime on film.
The boys -- played by Sebastian Schlecht (Johann) and Eric Golub (Robin) -- are cute, but in a generic kind of way. They never find their stride in front of the camera, and even when making out they lack any kind of screen presence. They seemed to be straight out of bad German porn -- you know, the kind with the dubbed moaning and generically cute boys. That's this pair. Perhaps it's the result of bad direction, but the two are the thespian equivalent of a painfully flat note.
But halfway or so through the film, they wander onto a farm in search of food. We're introduced to Henri, the young boy who lives on the farm. There's an incredibly contrived scene in which Henri -- a beautiful waif of a boy -- holds up Robin and Johann at gunpoint to prevent the two from running away. "Now," I thought, "we're going to see some action!" It was totally the plot of a thousand terrible gay porn flicks from Eastern Europe. "Oh, please! Don't make me do that!" Alas, my thirst for a threeway was never quenched.
But I must say here that Denis Alevi, who plays Henri, is truly beautiful. Unlike Schlecht and Golub, who never shined on camera, Alevi's face comes to life on screen. It's not that Schlect and Golub aren't sexy -- they're very much so -- but Alevi just translates on film. He's got the beautiful hair, the olive-toned skin, and the heart-shaped face that all work together to make him quite appealing. And while his first moments on film are a total disaster, he warms up quickly and finds his stride. I'm not saying his performance changed my life, but in relation to the rest of the film, he was a glimmer of hope.
All in all, I have to say this was a real lemon of a film. Which was disappointing, given the fact that a few reworked elements could have really changed its fate.
Continuing my Frameline coverage, I attended a series of shorts yesterday all hailing from Switzerland. Who knew such a small country could generate such a wonderful assortment of queer cinema? This is a fabulous grouping of films (with one glaring exception), with most of the films beautifully filmed and well constructed. The title was no mistake, this collection of shorts was a real treat!
14h05 is a powerful, very short (clocking in at 6 minutes) film that gives us a brief vignette into the anxieties of new parenthood for a gay couple, Alex and Julien, about to adopt a child. Julien is having doubts about his new role as daddy, but Alex does his best to quell his jitters as they head to the airport to pick up their baby. This film immediately raises questions about transnational adoption that are not explored, with a woman in traditional Indian garb deplaning to bring the couple their new child. I'm guessing they adopted an Indian baby because it's cheaper than adopting in Switzerland, but these intricacies are left untouched. The film left me feeling a bit uneasy because of the way these questions and problematics were left wholly unexplored, but for a six minute adventure it was a strong piece.
This short film (16 min.) packs a lot of punch! It has all the magic I've come to expect from European cinema, artfully taking time to indulge in the wonder of the world around us and the quirks that make life worth living. Here we find Simone stuck in an airport in Switzerland, trying to get on a flight to attend her father's funeral. Planes have been grounded because of the weather, so Simone desperately tries to find a way to get to the funeral. When she can't find a way out, she runs into a mysterious woman who may or may not be living at the airport. The woman says she's "waiting," but for what or whom we're not told. These women share a wonderous night together, finding magic in the nooks and crannies of the otherwise drab and sterile airport. It's a great film. Delicious, light, and endearing.
And the best part? You can watch the entire thing right now! Here:
"COMME UNE LETTRE A LA POSTE"
Director: Filippo Filliger
Trevor's Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
A real delight! Comme une lettre a la poste is a whimsical short that tells the story of a graduate student who suspects his academic adviser has been ripping off his own work. The only problem: he can't prove it and his professor has no interest in helping him graduate! Frustrated, Franco flips through his professor's briefcase where he finds the card of a local professional Dom. Upon revealing this newfound information to his co-workers, they scheme to gather evidence that the professor had indeed been paying visits to the local sex worker and use it to blackmail him into letting Franco graduate. The ensuing antics are totally endearing and manage to make S&M play humorous without mocking or demeaning its practitioners (a careful line, indeed). The title is a French expression, meaning to do something very easily, and indeed Franco winds up getting what he wants -- but not entirely the way he expected. If you can get your hands on it, you should!
"DANCING TO HAPPINESS"
Director: Barbara Seixwe
Trevor's Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
This is a nearly perfect short. It has everything you'd want. It's cute, never boring, and totally endearing. Anna is a cleaning lady at a high-power office suite. Helen (a *fierce* Marianne Hamre) is a high-power broker. Fate unites them for a salsa class, with Helen awkwardly and robotically moving through the steps, and Anna bringing a bit of zest and charm to the dancerfloor. They're an adorable matchup, and the film is oozing with feel-good-goodness.
A strange and somewhat dark drama brings to life the story of a mysterious lady, Lia, who keeps returning to a copy shop to inquire if she's missed any messages. Elena, the copy shop clerk, is bemused by Lia's bizarre antics, until she wakes up from the monotony of her job to find Lia robbing the place blind. A chase ensues, and while Elena manages to tackle Lia to the ground, they of course enjoy their bodies pressed against each other a bit too much for either of them to be upset. It's a charming, if at times strange film. I thought it got a bit sloppy towards the end, with a strange ending that didn't quite live up to the film's possibilities. But it's a nice entry, for sure.
This experimental short has graduate school psychobabble written all over it. A pelican flying over the horizon. Images of gurgling water interspersed with images of a nude woman. Spare me. Film critics might say that I just "don't get it," but for give more feeling like this film is a classic example of "postmodern" tripe. I give it exactly zero stars.
Four minutes long, this is quite a short short! It attempts to tell the story of a young twink who takes piano lessons from an older man, and it ends up with a series of fantasies of the two fucking. But despite the potential for sexy deliciousness, it just didn't reel me in.
"VANDALEN"
Directors: Simon Steuri
Trevor's Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
Vandals is a dark but beautifully and carefully shot story of Sebastian and Johannes, two incredibly sexy young graffiti artists who are embroiled in a lusty affair. Tension sparks when one wants more than the other thinks he's ready to offer -- namely, a public recognition of their secret romance. It's a truly wonderful film, managing just the right amount of attention to detail without coming across as artificial or trite. If you can get your paws on this film, you really should. If you speak Swiss/German, you can find a trailer for the film here.
Here I go! I'm kicking off my film reviews of the 33rd Annual Frameline Film Festival here in sunny San Francisco! For my first film, I attended a screening of a set of shorts from filmmakers across the world. Topically, they're a very interesting and compelling grouping, though from a cinematography point of view the films were at times lackluster. But I'm glad I attended! You'll see why...
"BUSTED"
Director: Poh Si Teng
Trevor's Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
Busted (or, Pecah Lobang) documents the experiences of mak nyah (male to female transgender) women living in Malaysia, and their troubles with Shariah law that forbids crossdressing. Curiously, they allowed sex change operations for many years in the 70s and 80s, but the Islamic Council issued a fatwa in 1983 outlawing the procedures, putting an end to the surgeries and also making it impossible for trans people in Malaysia to change their gender on their Identity Cards. This of course poses all sorts of problems for transfolks, most notably securing reliable employment. The film hits on a number of issues, and is useful for folks who are interested in trans legal issues, Malaysia, or Islam. In particular, the film raises very interesting questions about the varying ways that Shariah gets enforced in different countries -- sex change operations are perfectly legal in Iran (see my review of last year's Be Like Others). But while the film was politically poignant, I was left with questions. Most notably, are there transgender men in Malaysia? Is their plight similar or different? It wasn't clear. But on the whole, this film was a gem for the way it documents the stories of unheard voices.
Krudas is a colorful documentary featuring a Cuban lesbian hip-hop duo, who also happen to be lovers. It's a fascinating topic, ripe for analysis for the ways that the group eloquently attack patriarchal and homophobic assumptions about what it means to be a hip-hop artist, what it means to be a Cuban, and what it means to be a woman. Unfortunately, I didn't think the filmmaker did the pair justice. The film lacks a coherent storyline, and wanders aimlessly from person to person without really developing any particular idea to fruition. Instead, you get a random array of complicated ideas that makes for a very frustrating watch. I wanted this film to be so good! But it wasn't. It's a great topic, and the artists deserve praise. But the film feels sloppy and almost incoherent. Nevertheless, Frameline picked up the film for distribution, and you can purchase it here.
"QUEER SARAJEVO FESTIVAL 2008"
Directors: Cazim Dervisevic, Masa Hilcisin
Trevor's Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
This short film is a compelling take on Sarajevo activists' efforts to jumpstart a queer film festival in a country (Bosnia and Herzegovina) not known for being particularly queer-friendly. I was struck immediately by the radical rhetoric of the activists organizing the festival -- the festival's website claims the event is a "multimedia, five-day event intended to disrupt, redefine, transgress, fulfill and affirm sex, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identities, gender identities, gender expression, and all other concepts the meaning of which is assumed and accepted as absolute truth." Organizers planned for the festival to take place during Ramadan, which caused quite a controversy among religious conservatives who are shown spouting homophobic vile throughout the film. The festival appeared to be getting off to a fabulous start, with 400 or so people attending the art show that kicked things off. But slowly a protesting crowd begins to gather outside the venue, and they grow increasingly violent and angry. (I think they were shown shouting something like, "FAGGOTS DIE! WE WILL FUCK YOUR MOTHERS' CUNTS.") Eventually all hell breaks loose, with the protesters beating film festival attendees and the police doing little to protect them. One of the guest judges, Andrejs Visockis, was attacked and nearly blinded by the mob (find his account of the night on his blog, here). It's a fabulous window into a homophobic culture that may seem distant or altogether archaic to American viewers, but it's a healthy reminder that violent homophobia is not a thing of the past. The film at times strays, indulging in tangents that weaken its narrative construction. But its story is incredibly compelling, and a must-see for anyone invested in global human rights for queers. You can read about the festival on the organizers' website here.
"WELCOME TO MY QUEER BOOKSTORE"
Director: Larry Tung
Trevor's Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars
I LOVED this movie! What a divine and fabulous short film. It's a simple idea: Make a short film about the power of the one and only queer bookstore in the Chinese-speaking world, and document its sociological impact in a Taiwanese community where there are few resources for queers. It's a simple idea with a huge payoff. The hero of this film is Gin Gin's Bookstore's owner, "JJ" Lai Jeng-Jer, who was sued by conservatives for distribution of "obscene" material. Taiwanese activists used the lawsuit to their advantage, putting together a fundraiser that raised more than twice the money needed to pay the fines levied against the bookstore. Throughout the film, JJ gleefully walks through his store, telling viewers about the significance of all the various items he carries in his store. I have to say, I was so thrilled when JJ picked up a prostate massager and sung its glories for giving users new ways to experience anal pleasure. He's amazing. But the waterworks really flowed when he stood beside a section of sports bras, eloquently speaking about how important sports bras are for butch lesbians in Taiwan who use them to bind their breasts. These weren't just goods for sale, these were politics for JJ. God bless him. And God bless this film!
Today I fly to San Francisco for PRIDE! I can't effing wait. My schedule is packed with 11 delicious Frameline films; Juanita More's annual PRIDE party; and a host of wonderful dates with some fabulous friends. I can't wait to see all my friends in the Gay Bay!
Blogging while I'm gone will largely be slow from me -- minus film reviews for those Frameline movies. I'm going to do my best to review all 11 of them here. Hopefully Scott, Daniel, Rostom, and Jackson will have a few things to say while I'm gone. Though I'm staying with Jackson in SF, so he'll have his hands full with my antics!
Anywho. Hope your week is as amazing as I know mine will be.
Every year, I hit up San Francisco's annual LGBT film festival for an outrageous number of delicious queer films. I think my record was something like 14 films last year. This year, sadly, I arrive in SF halfway through the festival, but have managed to still schedule 11 films for my festival. You can see the titles above. After the jump, find the full details of each film. If you're in SF, you really must go see a film. Really. It's a wonderful event that is not to be missed. Here's the link to the festival site.
Find the details on my selections, after the jump...
Okay -- so apologies for having to post Perez's video, but a trailer has yet to be posted! And I'm not surprised, how to market a sequel of a flick in which only one of the four actors playing the main characters returns? If you saw the original Another Gay Movie (2006), you'll remember it's nasty / sloppy / assholeriffic sense of humor -- which is back in full blast in this follow-up. Sadly, though, what made the first movie shine was the original cast, particularly Michael Carbonaro playing Andy -- what a cutie! But the film opens with Nico (played again by the wonderful Jonah Blechman) waking up from a bad dream (the original film) to find his mother comforting him -- while making a quip about how some nasty agents won't let their talent appear in two gay movies in a row (lest audiences think the actors are -- gasp! -- actually gay!). It's cute.
But the film takes a nose dive pretty quickly. The casting here is pretty awful, which is a real disappointment as their timing and queer sensibilities are crucial to pulling off the slapstick script. After seeing a short featuring Aaron Michael Davies earlier in the festival ("Lloyd Neck"), I was excited to see if Davies could pull a feature length gaytastic film off. But despite his pretty face, he mostly just looks uncomfortable most of the time, clearly not prepared for the film in which he was cast.
The script was clearly written with the original actors in mind. Jake Mosser, who plays Andy this time around, attempts to pull off the goofy-cute lines that made Carbonaro's performance so incredible in the last film -- but Mosser has none of the perverse boyish charm necessary for the task. The same is true for the forgettable Jimmy Clabots playing Jarod. He's a pretty muscle boy, but clearly not an actor.
When Stephens realized that 75% of the original cast wasn't returning, he should have scrapped the project and written an entirely different movie. It would have been SO easy! In the last film, the boys were graduating high school and off to college for new adventures. The film could have easily picked up with Nico and his new group of college friends -- done and done! Instead, Stephens cast a few pretty faces and tried to squeeze them into characters built by other actors. The result is just a disaster.
And I just have to say, Perez Hilton is a blogger -- not an actor. Though he's credited with a "special appearance," he keeps popping up throughout the film in all his painful glory. He has no on-screen sensibility or comic timing. A cameo could have been funny, but plugging him into at least five scenes was an unfortunate decision. Future gay filmmakers of America, I beg of you: make cameos short and sweet, and don't hire Perez Hilton.
Okay, so with the bad news out of the way, let me just talk a bit about the glory that is Jonah Blechman. In the first film, I have to admit, some of his homages to black and white film divas fell awkwardly flat -- but this time around, he's perfected the concept. In what has to be the best scene in the movie, Nico has a tap-dancing dream sequence in which he sings of the glories of watersports, complete with a yellow umbrella. It's a deliciously perverse nod to "Singing in the Rain," and it works. It's funny. It's queer. It's kind of revolting. Which is exactly the recipe that drives the humor behind this series.
I went into this film expecting it to be pretty bad. But I wasn't prepared for just how bad it was at times. There are a few gems to be found. Twink pornstar Brent Corrigan, playing a merman who appears to Nico several times in the film, is just a little box of cuteness! You just want to squeeze him! And Amanda Lepore does a fabulous turn as a cunty stewardess on "Trans America" airlines. But cameos should add sparkle to a film, not provide its most memorable moments. Despite a few laughs, this film just plain sucked.
Okay, so I know giving it 4.75 stars is kind of ridiculous. This film was really pretty amazing! The movie opens with a husband (Ramiro), wife (Erika), and son (Alvaro) coming to visit another couple -- a scientist and conservationist who studies turtles (Kraken), his wife (Suli), and their daughter, Alex, in Uruguay. The relationship between these folks isn't made entirely clear, but we learn very quickly that Ramiro is a surgeon, and that Alex isn't your average young girl.
Indeed, we find out that Alex is intersex, and the family is struggling as she rebels against her medical interventions to prevent her body from "masculinizing" -- that is, to prevent her from growing facial hair and other secondary sex characteristics. Unbeknownst to her husband Kraken, Suri has invited the couple down to talk to Alex about the potential surgical interventions she could have to remove her penis.
Well, drama of course ensues. Alex and Alvaro flirt from the start, in a kind of love-hate, caustic way. It's cute teenage confusion and angst in full bloom, and both actors do a tremendous job. To the audience in the Castro theatre's surprise, when they finally end up making out and getting naked, Alex flips Alvaro over and fucks him. Holy canoli! I have to say, whenever I see people just "stick it in" in movies without lube or prep, I chuckle. Please! As if it were so easy. But in any case, the scene is hot -- until Alex's father walks in and catches his daughter fucking a boy. Talk about a mindbender.
This film is touching and beautifully done. The acting is superb. The cinematography is fabulous. It's a real gem. I deduct 1/4 of a star mostly because I was a bit put off by the overt political jockeying done to make the surgeon look like a demon. It's a bit over the top. In a beautifully acted scene with his son (played by a wonderfully talented Martín Piroyansky), Alvaro tearfully asks his father if he thinks he has any talent. His father replies, simply, "No." Alavro goes on, asking if "One day you think I could" - but his father cuts him off, saying "No, No. I don't." This just after his son tells his dad "I would kill to have your talent." I mean, really! It was awful, and clearly included in the story to paint the father as malicious and callous as possible. I wasn't impressed.
Again, my friends were upset by the brief inclusion of a scene in which a group of boys sexually harass and almost rape Alex. My friend Jackson was particularly peeved, complaining that it seemed like any film made about genderqueer folks was seemingly obliged to include the sexual violence trope. And it certainly is a trope that filmmakers can use to pull at certain strings, and to tap into a dominant cultural narrative on what it means to be gendered or sexed differently.
We got into a lengthy heated conversation about the politics of representation, and more generally the problems that come when you make a political argument from a victimized position. By simply representing or claiming that victimhood, you are in a way reinscribing that violence and making it difficult for people in your social group to become anything other than victims. This is an age old question when it comes to identity politics (see Wendy Brown's dense essay on this, "Wounded Attachments"), and I'm not sure there's a good answer. I complained similarly about last year's Frameline flick, "Holding Trevor," which featured a woman contracting HIV after one sexual encounter after a party. Highly improbable. Possible? Sure. Probable? No.
What is the solution to this problem? One the one hand, tropes and common narratives exist because they reflect many of our experiences. On the other hand, they limit the stories that are culturally legible, obscuring experiences that do not fit this mold. In the end, I felt like "XXY" made some daring moves in its storyline (Alvaro not only lets Alex fuck him, but he enjoys it and wants more!). I don't particularly blame the director for including the violent scene, but I understand Jackson's frustrations.
In any case, I can't recommend this film enough. It's beautiful. Make it a point to go out and see it!
Phew. What an emotional screening. This film was super intense. The film documents men and women who are seeking sex reassignment surgery in Iran, a country where homosexuality is punishable by death, but that legally sanctions SRS under Islamic law. There are a number of characters here, among them a trans-woman named Vida who basically plays "trans-mom" to a number of people considering having the surgery. She counsels them, and even agrees to allow one of them to stay at her house while she recuperates from the surgery. She scolds trans-women who dress in anything but the acceptable hijab, encouraging them to lead a life as a "normal" woman in Iran would -- lest they give her people "a bad name."
Several of the trans-women admit that they would not undergo the surgery unless it was required under Islamic law. Without the operation, they would be legally considered men, and thus criminally engaging in homosexuality. There is so much here. The filmmaker follows up with one woman a year after she has the operation to find out that she has been totally cut off from her family. She now has to work as a sex worker in Tehran, saying that she's in the "business." In a heartbreaking scene, she tells the filmmaker that she has "killed" her ability to love, saying that if someone says to her "I love you," she asks if they have any money.
The other primary interviewee who is followed pre and post-surgery, Anahita, faces very different complications. In the beginning of the film, we meet her boyfriend, Ali, who seems to be very encouraging of her operation. He's a svelte, fashionable hairstylist, and would "read" as gay to Western eyes. He says before the operation that he could not be with her if she chose not to have it, because it would be a sin. Yet, in the follow up interview a year later, he has grown distant and called off their engagement -- though they continued to date. My friends and I talked at length about this couple, and we were torn as to how to understand the situation. We all wanted to read it as Ali was "gay" (that is to say, he liked boys) but knew that under Islamic law leading a gay life would be impossible -- thus dating and marrying trans-woman would be the closest way to legally conduct himself.
In the end, we agreed that we could not make any assumptions about these people's "true" desires or intentions, but that we agreed that -- in general -- it seemed clear that homosexuals were forced into SRS under Iran's regime. The doctor in the film who performs the surgeries claims that he believed homosexuals would run away scared after he described the surgery to potential patients, and that only "true" transgender people would still be interested after his grisly depiction of things. But this is clearly false -- if you are faced with a choice between constantly living in fear of being executed by the state, or undergoing SRS, many people will probably choose the latter.
This was a very short, three minute whimsical film out of London featuring a performance art piece with two female-bodied performers -- chests bound by a kind of black duct tape -- dancing to a song by bending back and forth. It read to me as a celebration of the ability to move our bodies freely and whimsically, without care. It was good natured fun.
"THE BOND"
Director: Michael T. Connell
Trevor's Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
What a charming little film! Basically, this short six minute piece features a father's reminiscing about his daughter's transition from male to female. I think his frank and honest commentary may have made some trans folks in the audience uncomfortable -- he talked a bit about mourning the loss of his son -- but I appreciated his candid disclosure. Before she transitioned, she served in the army, married, and had two kids! Oy vey! It was lovely to have the father and daughter both at the screening (and at the trans-filled afterparty). Very cute!
"DONNY AND GINGER"
Director: Jon Bush
Trevor's Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
Trailer for HBO SHOUT Short Film Contest:
My friends hated this movie. I wasn't quite as offended as they were by its somewhat cliche story, but I'm getting ahead of myself. This film won HBO's LGBT "SHOUT" short film competition, giving director Jon Bush $15,000 to produce the flick (see trailer above). So in comparison to many of the other low-fi films included in this collection, it was fairly polished and professional looking. My friends took issue with the 10 minute movie's plot, which opens with a transgender sex worker asking a cop for a ride. There's clearly more to this relationship than meets the eye, as the burly male cop winds up taking the woman to breakfast. It turns out that the cop is the woman's father, and bitter estranged family dialogue ensues. My friends were upset that the only film directed by a non-trans person in this collection of shorts about trans people was the most stereotypical of the batch. It's a fair criticism. But taken out of the context of this screening, I think the film is fairly solid, if perhaps a bit stale.
"FELICIA"
Director: Tim O'Hara
Trevor's Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars
What a charmer! This film was a delight. In eight minutes, it opened up a window into the life of Felicia Elizondo, a transgender woman facing the reality of aging alone. The film opens with her talking about her pets, a 17 year-old dog, a 18 month year old dog, and a 9 year-old cockatoo. Every morning when she wakes up, she makes sure to give the older dog and the cockatoo a good shake "to make sure they're still alive." Funny stuff. Felicia's been HIV-positive for many years, and has lost many of her friends to the disease. But she still has a group of friends that she makes sure to keep in touch with regularly, calling them every day or every other day. She's a gem, and I loved hearing her story. I'm glad this film was made.
71 year-old Vicki Marlane is the oldest living, continuously performing drag performer in the world. She performs to this day over at Aunt Charlie's Lounge here in San Francisco, every Friday and Saturday night. I've actually seen Vicki perform before, and she's a real treat. This nine minute short documentary was BRILLIANT. I loved every second of it. Vicki is a trip and a half, hamming it up for the camera at every turn. She used to perform in carnival acts in the 1950s, sometimes filling in as "two of the four legs of the four-legged woman." She has many on stage stories to tell, many involving her "usual cocktail" of a stiff drink and sleeping pills. But hands down my favorite part had to be when she reveals her make-up secret: applying two pieces of clear tape to her forehead to stretch away a few years. Wow. Despite living with HIV for many years, Vicki still has the spirit of a 22 year old on stage. That resilient spirit shines here in this fabulous film. Get your hands on it if you can.
"THE ROLE I WAS BORN TO PLAY"
Director: Lukas Blakk
Trevor's Rating: 2.5 / 5 Stars
This short film wasn't short enough. Using nine minutes of clips from the movies She's the Man, Boy's Don't Cry, and Just One of the Guys, Blakk attempts to piece together a kind of personal gender monologue -- but the film is just a mess. Boy's Don't Cry is nothing light to throw around, and one scene flashes the movie's most violent scene, interspersed with a kind of inner monologue about why the narrator never hooks up with people he's not out to as trans. Using clips from other movies in this way is an interesting idea -- certainly many of us look to cinematic portraits of queer life to help us understand our lives and worlds -- but it's not executed particularly well at any point.
"THORN IN YOUR SIDE"
Director: Dean Hamer
Trevor's Rating: 3 / 5 Stars
I understood this making of this film to be almost about producing a historical record of a small piece of the transgender movement here in San Francisco, the Trans March. And basically, that's what you get here -- a glimpse at the March's activities and spirit. It's innocuous, very cute.
Okay, I'm a bit biased. Ethan Suniewick, the film's creator and primary director, is one of my best pals here in the city (my BFF Jackson is also featured here). Like Johanna's film that I blogged about yesterday, Ethan worked on this film over his second year at SF State for his Masters thesis project. But his film really is fabulously important. What I love about Ethan's film is that it has an applied practical purpose -- it's a short, 18 minute training video for health care providers. How cool is that? There's no jargon here, just real stories about trans people's experiences with providers, and suggestions for how providers can take steps to improve their trans-competency. One of the most troubling stories, for instance, comes from a transgender woman who works in a clinic in the city who went to the ER with a fever and bronchitis. Despite this, she found herself being hoisted into stirrups under a spotlight while a group of doctors looked at her vagina. Enraging! But the film is quite touching. Very smart, straight the point. Bravo, Ethan! We're so proud!
This film was cute, if a bit silly. A transgender puppet living in the 2040's reminisces about life back in the early 2000's, before he moved back to "the land" to take over his family's farm. The agro-politics here are just a bit outrageous, but hey, it's always good to think about what we want our future to look like. So I appreciate this film's commitment to imagining it, however whimsically.
"CTHULHU"
Director: Daniel Gildark
Trevor's Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
Trailer:
Cthulhu, I've learned after coming home from this bizarre feature length movie (90 minutes), is apparently a mythical creature dreamed up in the works of science fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft. I wasn't expecting the movie I sat down to watch, the description in the film festival info guide was mysterious -- perhaps because the movie was a bit of a mess. I think I actually probably bought tickets because Tori Spelling was in the cast (yes, I'm that gay). Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3/4 of this film. It was thrilling (though it lagged in parts), and it wasn't afraid to make a few non-cheesy jokes along the way. Apparently this is Daniel Gildark's first feature film, which is impressive considering the talent he's pulled together here. The cinematography and color is really tremendous, as is the makeup and general "look" of the film. The story is that of an acclaimed historian, Russ, (played by Jason Cottle) who returns home to his estranged family when his mother dies. The father's a religious nut who laments his son's homosexuality, but luckily we're didn't suffer through too many awkward family dinners. He reconnects with a hunky (straight) childhood flame whose recently divorced and happy to hop into bed again.
Things begin to get wacky around town as Russ unravels the mystery of his father's religious cult that worships the sea. And about 2/3 of the way in, things get a little too wonky for my tastes. I like that the director knows the scare value of that which we do not see; so much of today's horror films rub the blood and guts in our face, but Gildark leaves some things here to our imagination. This includes a rather terrifying scene where Russ is left slowly meandering through a cavernous basement with nothing but a disposable camera's flash to intermittently light the way. The audience takes Russ' point of view, and most of the sequence is him breathing in darkness, with the sound of the flash charging and bursting into quick flashes of creepy dungeon-like surroundings. Eek!
The director and producer took the stage before it all began, and informed us that we were the "lucky" last audience to ever see the original cut of the film before it gets released in theaters in August. The joke's on us though, as they both believed the edited cut will be tighter and generally better. I have a feeling the gay sex scene will hit the cutting room floor, but I wouldn't be too upset if it came along with some of the meandering madness -- and perhaps a revised ending. In general, this was an *incredible* first stab at film-making for Director Daniel Gildark. Even Tori Spelling does a stellar job here (yes, and it's not even because she's Tori Spelling and I'm a homosexual). The cast is terrific. It's a beautiful and terrifying film. Bravo!
"A COMPLICATED QUEERNESS: LIVING FEMME IN A DYKE COMMUNITY"
Director: Johanna Buchignani, Emily Hillman
Trevor's Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
Okay, so admittedly I'm a bit biased with this flick -- this was my friend Johanna's (who attended SF State with me in the Human Sexuality Studies MA program) Masters thesis project. I've also seen the film before, since she screened it when we graduated. With that out of the way, this film raises some very poignant questions about gender, sexuality, and "lived" feminist politics (that is to say, the politics that play out in a politicized, queer community). I'm particularly interested in the very queer complications that arise in traditionally lesbian, women's communities when many of the community members transition to become men. This short film -- 17 minutes -- aims to tackle questions of a slightly different ilk: what's it like for dykes who like to dye their hair, put on makeup, and paint their nails (not to reduce femininity to superficiality, but of course these are some of the ways that many women "perform" femme). Here in San Francisco, however, those two questions are deeply intertwined. Hence why there is a significant chunk of time in the film paid to the inclusion of transmen in communities of female-bodied people. When she screened the film at our graduation, I was somewhat put off by the segment on transmen, which begins with a picture of a syringe and then a transman injecting testosterone. I think this tends to biomedicalize their identities and also seems to allude to a kind of artificial-ness. These qualms aside, Johanna is brilliant, and she's raised some important questions here. I hope she continues to explore them, in film or in writing.
"WORKING ON IT"
Director: Sabina Baumann, Karin Michalski
Trevor's Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars
This relatively short documentary (50 minutes) is obviously German -- and I'm not just referring here to the subtitles. The few pieces of German queer cinema that I've been exposed to have often tended to push the boundaries of genre, and are generally interested in exposing the film's artificialness. Last year at Frameline for instance, I saw a German flick in which the main characters paused the film and edited the storyline by deleting objects or even people on screen. This documentary shared an urge to remind viewers that what we were seeing was indeed a construction of a filmmaker, in this case by showing the participants (not sure what to call them, they were far more than just interviewees) setting up viewing areas where participants watched taped footage of other participants. How meta! This is all of course connected to the film's subject matter, which is an exploration of participant's stories and theories on how gender and sexuality are constantly constructed and renegotiated. It's very theory-heavy, without being particularly laborious. In one scene, a participant tries to explain her idea of sexual-labor using a lot of jargon that was even harder to understand in the translated subtitles. The person sitting next to her asked if that made sense, and the filmmaker replies "No, not at all." Chuckle. It also felt dated -- a kind of queer theory-driven extravaganza that would have made more sense in the late 1990's. It culminates in a kind of music video / art performance that, while vaguely interesting, didn't seem to move any of their arguments about gender / sexuality forward. I'll be frank: I wanted to hate this film. It rubs up against a kind of narcissistic psychobabble that spewed forth in the name of "queer theory," which many people mistook for an opportunity to self-indulge their egos. In short, I give "Working On It" 3.5 stars for its creative spirit, not for its insight.
"THE GAY BED AND BREAKFAST OF TERROR"
Director: Jaymes Thompson
Trevor's Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
Trailer:
My friends and I had been excited about this screening for weeks -- a slasher flick with drag queens? Rock! So we were particularly randy tonight by the time the reel started rolling. We arrived at the Castro theatre a full hour ahead of time -- we were first in line! One of the film's stars, local drag sensation Precious Moments, rolled up in a black limo, attempting to stir up applause from generally confused passersby. Priceless.
I liked a lot about this film. There was camp. There was good bloody gore. There was even a bit of anti-Bush politics thrown in for good measure. We learn for instance that, after being gang banged by 100 Republicans, the crazy innkeeper Helen (played by a deliciously creepy Mari Marks) gives birth to a homicidal, worm-like quasi-human child. That's pretty fucking amazing. But I felt that there was a bit too much back story at times -- it had a tendency to get a bit tedious. And -- although I'll refrain from blowing the movie's ending -- I thought it was pretty lackluster. It seemed as though they kind of just threw the last 20 minutes together without much thought, which is a shame because the rest of the film is generally good popcorn-munchin' entertainment. In any case, the film's been picked up for DVD release -- so do make a point to check it out!
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Pam's House Blend
She's a fabulous North Carolinian blogging about politics, LGBT and women's rights, the influence of the far Right, and race relations. What more can I say?
