QUEER WINDOW
/ films
BROTHER TO BROTHER
Directed by Rodney Evans
USA | 90 mins | 2004
Sun. April 10, 7.30 pm
Perry is an African American art student living in New York City, adrift and alienated: thrown out of his parents’ house for being gay, estranged from his homophobic African American classmates, indifferent to the mostly white art world, and annoyed by the objectification of his white sometimes lover. But when the seemingly insignificant old man in the neighborhood turns out to be Bruce Nugent—an active participant in the Harlem Renaissance—Perry rediscovers a world that offers a model of opposition, artistic practice, and community. Nugent regales Perry with tales of his collaborations with Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Wallace Thurman, taking him on a journey back through this era. Recreating a distant time with considerable freshness and vitality, celebrated director (and Brown alum) Evans negotiates a weighty agenda—addressing concerns personal, sexual, social, and historical—with a remarkable deftness and impact. This heartfelt paean to the Harlem Renaissance and lesson in intergenerational exchange is a deeply moving, exhilarating film. Winner of numerous awards (including Special Jury Prize, 2004 Sundance Film Festival; the Independent Feature Project's Gordon Parks Award; and feature and audience awards at the Philadelphia, Miami, San Francisco, NY NewFest, and LA OUTfest Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals).
Introduction and Q&A with special guest director Rodney Evans ’93
Mr. Evans will introduce his film Brother to Brother and participate in a question-and-answer
session with the audience after the screening.
D.E.B.S.
Directed by Angela Robinson
USA | 91 mins | 2004
Sat. April 9, 9.30 pm
Within the S.A.T. is a secret test designed to pinpoint female students who can lie, cheat, steal, and
kill—young women then recruited as agents for the elite espionage squad D.E.B.S. (Discipline.
Energy. Beauty. Strength). Meet Amy, Dominique, Max, and Janet, the thusly enlisted plaid-skirted
secret agents! When their arch-nemesis—the sinister master criminal babe, Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds—abducts Amy, is their crime-fighting cohort in peril, or is she pursuing a
liaison dangereuse with this femme fatale?! Can the D.E.B.S. save her in time?
Does she want them to? Brown alum Angela Robinson's hilarious debut feature.
Also included:
THE NIGHT LIFE (Dir. Gregory Duke, Canada, 8 mins, 2004).
Described as a “brain-eating, blood-sucking, spine-tingling laughathon,”
here’s a gay zombie vampire film noir musical comedy...need we say more?!
Winner in the in the animation category of the 2004 PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards.
DRAG KINGS ON TOUR
Directed by Sonia Slutsky
Canada/USA | 80 mins | 2004
Fri. April 8, 9.30 pm
With a special introduction and performance by Providence's own downtown diva, Miss Haley Star!
Bending a trajectory of gender across North America, the “Kingdom Come” tour, documented here, propelled a motor home full of drag kings who provided the most entertaining of challenges to conventional definitions of masculinity and femininity. In a strikingly varied program for a diverse range of clubs, conferences, and drinking halls, this company of six kings—Luster, Les Las Vegas, Johnny Kat, Christopher Noel, Pat Riarch, and Carlos Las Vegas—offers a politically charged burlesque with songs, spoken word, yuks, and general flirty play with the audiences. The Kings open all sorts of eyes, positing suggestions of regional tolerance, while coming upon family reunions—some loving, some fraught—of their own. The film soars on the seriousness and dedication with which these performers take their craft, on the ambition and aim of their spirited and generous gender play. Among other awards, this film has won awards at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and LA OUTfest 2004.
Also included:
LITTLE BLACK BOOT
(Dir. Colette Burson, USA, 15 mins, 2003). In a “boi”-sterous poke at
the Cinderella story—and featuring mockumentary queen Jane Lynch
(A Mighty Wind, Best In Show) as the evil step-mother—Cindy’s secret crush on the most popular girl in the school receives a boost when her fairy god-brother transforms her into the beau of the prom. Among other accolades, this recently won the Grand Prize at the 2004 PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards.
EMERGING QUEER:
SHORTS ABOUT AND/OR BY LGBTQ YOUTHS
Fri. April 8, 5.00 pm
To be introduced by
Beth Olsen, OUTspoken coordinator from Youth Pride Inc.
This beautiful and stimulating program of award-winning shorts about and/or made by LGBTQ youth explores the pain of young love, homophobia in the classroom, family indifference, and that chaotic teenage ritual—the prom; they also imagine escapes from that pain in the form of dreamt worlds of glitter, music, and acceptance, the inclusive communities of television fandom, and—of course—young love again. The diverse talent represented here ranges from acclaimed director Michael Apted (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, Nell), working in partnership with teenage film and video makers selected through the Scenarios USA “What's the Real Deal?” contest, to such up-and-coming directors as Brown's own Laura Rodriguez and Carolyn Caizzi!
Films include:
LIPSTICK (Dir. Michael Apted, USA, 10 mins, 2003). What makes
this film so special is not that established filmmaker Michael Apted (Coal
Miner’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, Nell) directed it, but that it was written by a group of teenagers as part of the Scenarios USA “What’s the Real Deal?” contest. Scenarios USA is a non-profit organization that gets youth thinking about their choices around issues that shape their lives. This is a story about one girl’s courage to express who she is and her friends’ struggle to accept the difference.
FAIRIES (Dir. Thomas Gustafson, USA, 21 mins, 2004). In this delightful short, a boy facing homophobia from his classmates imagines a world of music, glitter, and acceptance. This musical-fantasy-come-true has won awards at, among others, the 2004 Syndey Mardi Gras Film Festival, the Out Far! 2004 Phoenix International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and the Florida Pixie Flix Fest.
SMALLTOWN BOYS (Dir. Matt Wolf, USA, 21 mins, 2003). The life and work of
AIDS activist/artist David Wojnarowicz is juxtaposed with the efforts of a young
fan to save the TV show My So-Called Life. Set in a period of intense cultural warfare and AIDS activism, this work of “cinema fals-ité” combines biographical fantasy and historical fiction to question the efficacy of contemporary modes of protest as a teenage lesbian fights to save a part of the world she cherishes.
STARRING BRIAN O’NEILL AS HIMSELF (Dir. Brian O’Neill, Canada, 7 mins, 2003). A painfully funny personal reflection on the filmmaker's childhood and teen years as a musical-loving showman, destined to be the next great entertainer! This “life of Brian” is a true story, captured on family camcorder footage, and winner of Best Documentary, 2004 Tambakos Video Competition.
CRUSH (Dir. Phillip Bartell, USA, 27 mins, 2000). 12-year-old Tina has a crush on 16-year-old Robbie...who has a special crush all of his own. Sweet, without being overly sentimental, funny without being overly broad, this charming short received (among other awards) the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
CAMOUFLAGE PINK (Dir. Laura Rodriguez & Carolyn Caizzi, USA, 16 mins, 2002). A tough, militant dyke denounces the prom as a "hetero institution" but secretly wants to go...in a pink dress and with the head cheerleader! A parody of dominant narrative movie-making practices and restrictive stereotypes of lesbian identity—and also a light-hearted romantic comedy.
GOLDFISH MEMORY
Directed by Liz Gill
Ireland | 85 mins | 2003
Sun. April 10, 5.00 pm
“You know goldfish have only a three-second memory. That means if it takes three seconds to
swim around the bowl, everything is new. Each time two goldfish meet, it’s like it’s
the first time.” Such is the serial ache for love that claims all the characters—lesbian,
bisexual, straight, gay—on winning display here, each of the charmingly vulnerable lot “fated
to repeatedly swim the same troublesome currents of pain and delight” in their pursuit of
a partner. Like Clara, who tires of the attention of her chronically romantic professor
Tom to date Isolde, who swims from one lover to the next, forever on the lookout for
someone better. Or Angie, who can’t decide how much of a family she wants with her new
girlfriend, until a drunken night of consolation with her gay roommate Red may force the issue.
Red meanwhile has a passion for David, a straight waiter, whose girlfriend Rosie, well,
you’ll see…. Goldfish Memory courses through contemporary Dublin to map a wittily
engaging geography of coupling, presenting a panorama of relationship-addled women and
men and the permutations of pairings that both contort and, ultimately, comfort them.
In addition to winning “Best Love Scene” from Girlfriends magazine, it has also won awards at LA OUTfest, the 2004 Turin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and Spain's Festival Internacional.
Also included:
HUMMER (Dir. Guinevere Turner, USA, 10 mins, 2004).
Guinevere Turner (Go Fish, American Psycho, The L Word) directed and
stars in this short about a woman obsessed with details (who nonetheless fails
to notice the obvious), her almost-perfect new girlfriend (who just keeps humming along),
and her dinner party friend (who thickens the plot!). Winner of awards at the 2004 Long Island Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and the 2004 Milano International Lesbian and Gay Film and Queer Culture Festival.
LIFETIME GUARANTEE:
PHRANC'S ADVENTURES IN PLASTIC
Directed by Lisa Udelson
USA | 58 mins | 2001
Sat. April 9, 3.00 pm
This award-winning documentary follows a year in the life of Phranc, the Jewish lesbian folk singer who reached notable fame in the 1980s, in her new escapades as a Tupperware saleswoman! The film displays Phranc's joy that comes with her new occupation as well as the success she finds in her unique sales approach. However, it also delves into the politics of being a butch lesbian in an industry among housewives and executives not accustomed to her lifestyle. Awards include: Audience Award, Documentary First Film, 2002 SXSW and OUTstanding Documentary Feature, LA OUTfest.
To be shown with FAMILY VALUES (Dir. Eva Saks, USA, 24 mins, 2001). This award-winner (from, among others, PlanetOut! and the Tribeca, Magnolia, and St. Louis International Film Festivals) introduces us to Becky and Donna, a nice lesbian couple with a home in the suburbs, who run a family business cleaning up murder scenes!
Also included:
AUDITION TAPE (Dir. Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Canada, 9 mins, 2003). What happens when a self-described “gay white male, 5'11", 155 lbs, 29, good singing voice and physical co-ordination” answers an ad for a performer in TATU, a Russian teen girl pop group? Nothing less than a hilarious, award-winning, insightful commentary on identity and culture.
WELL WELL WELL (Dir. Elisabeth Subrin, USA, 4 mins, 2002). An experimental video for electro-feminist-performance-artists Le Tigre, the early eighties’ MTV aesthetic of this piece unpacks a thoroughly current obsession: the hidden erotics of office supplies!
NICK NAME & THE NORMALS
Directed by Howard Skora
USA | 75 mins | 2003
Sat. April 9, 11.30 pm
A notorious gay punk singer with a difference, Nick Name (a.k.a. Kent James) is a shaven-headed muscle boy, an ex-Mormon, and an ex-Country and Western singer. Born into a strict religious family in Utah, he had completed a missionary stint in Argentina and even married before he came out, moved to San Francisco and adopted the revolutionary persona of Nick Name. Director Skora spent a year recording a concert tour around the western United States, capturing humor, scandal, and vitriol from fans and enemies alike. Testosterone charged and angry, spewing explicit lyrics (“I like to buck my boyfriend and I want to hear him squeal”), Nick Name is an unrepentant warrior prophesizing a liberation from gay conformity. This remarkable documentary is an up-close and dirty portrait of a talented, vulnerable, thoughtful original.
PROTEUS
Directed by John Greyson and Jack Lewis
Canada | 97 mins | 2003
Thurs. April 7, 7.00 pm
This new film by the amazing and versatile director John Greyson (Zero Patience, Lilies) is set in a South African penal colony in 1725. Based on real events, the story concerns Claas Blank, a quick-witted Khoe herder who is unjustly arrested and imprisoned for attempting to retrieve cattle taken by white colonizers. Sentenced to hard labor, Claas crosses paths with a Dutch sailor and an English botanist who enlists Claas’ help in cultivating the South African protea flower. Despite their vast cultural differences, Claas begins a tentative love affair with the sailor, setting in motion a tragic course of events. “Greyson’s latest offering is perhaps his most precisely crafted film to date. As beautiful and lush as the flower after which it is named, Proteus is an exquisite period piece that skillfully explores the intersections of sex, race and politics” (Toronto International Film Festival).
SUDDENLY (TAN DE REPENTE)
Directed by Diego Lerman
Argentina/Netherlands | 90 mins | 2003
Thurs. April 7, 9.00 pm
This Argentinean feature film is bathed in mystery and complex relationships as it follows
Marcia, a lingerie saleswoman in Buenos Aires, who is clearly stuck in a rut and
struggling to overcome a broken heart. She is suddenly confronted by “Lenin” and “Mao,” a sexy punk lesbian duo, who accost her and take her on a road trip in a stolen taxi (eventually ending up at Lenin’s aunt’s house by the sea)! Along the way, Marcia goes from hostage to complicit traveling companion. To further complicate matters, Mao and Marcia sleep together. Soon, the relationship between Marcia, Lenin, and Mao changes dramatically. Lenin’s unconventional Aunt Blanca and her two boarders also play an important role in the trio’s adventure. The rich black and white cinematography (often compared to Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) underscores the contrast between the urban and rural settings in the film. Mo Ratel from Variety calls it “a delightfully unpredictable sleeper...deadpan comic and whimsical tenderness.”
Also included:
THE DRIVE NORTH (Dir. Tess Ernst, USA, 13 mins, 2003). Two friends bicker their way up
the east coast in a discomforting transition to adulthood. Told through still images, animation, and super
8, with an experimental score made by the filmmaker, this award-winning film subverts the typical coming-of-age
tale with humor and understated social commentary.
SUGAR
Directed by John Palmer
Canada | 78 mins | 2004
Fri. April 8, 7.30 pm
Based on the short stories of Bruce LaBruce, this is a provocative and gritty—but also
tender and funny—coming-of-age story. With a remarkable lack of clichés, the film
follows the relationship between Cliff, a restless suburban teen on the eve of his 18th
birthday, and Butch, a street hustler who will change his life forever. Instead of the
typical queer love story, Cliff loses his virginity to satiate the visual fetish of one of
Butch’s customers—the first in a series of hopeless bids for Butch’s love. The cruel
realities of illness and loss intrude on the lovers’ fragile attempts at reunion, and the
ambivalent ending will stay with you long after the film is over. Brendan Fehr (of
Roswell fame) gives a smoldering performance as the troubled hustler boyfriend; the
acting is universally wonderful. “Sugar is full of comic shocks to the system, and even as
it swerves into the territory of tragedy, it does so with a caustic, deliberate refusal to
submerge itself there” (San Francisco Bay Guardian).
Also included:
MY GERMAN BOYFRIEND (Dir. Wayne Yung, Canada/Germany, 19 mins, 2004). A gay Chinese-Canadian man encounters ethnic stereotypes as he seeks his ideal boyfriend in Berlin. A comedy about mistaken cultural identities, a diary of immigrant isolation, and a love letter to a boyfriend who might have been.
TRANSITIONS AND INTERSECTIONS:
GENDER BENT SHORTS
Sat. April 9, 5.00 pm
This program of award-winning shorts—from the sublime to the politically energized, the tragic to the absurd—meditates on various issues related to transgendered, transsexual, transvestite, intersexed, and/or other “gender outlaw” identities. Forms range from animation to experimental to narrative to documentary in order to explore growing up differently gendered, pain and prejudice, personal journeys, gender reassignment, and plastic surgery; more playful fare celebrates the absurd splendor of playing with one’s physical, sexual, and—in the case of award-winning Transanimals—even species identifications!
Films include:
XX TO XY, FIGHTING TO BE JAKE (Dir. Emily Atef, Germany, 20mins. 2003). This documentary uses interviews, music, and animation to paint an intimate portrait of Jake, a transman who relates his journey with eloquence and honesty. An award winner at the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
TREMBLEMENT DE CHAIR (Dir. Mirha-Soleil Ross & Mark Karbusicky, Canada, 4 mins, 2001). This lovely experimental video presents a poetic exploration of the beauty, perils, and power of sexuality in a transsexual woman's body.
TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBERANCE (Dir. Dion Manley & Jed Bell, USA, 15 mins, 2002). An elegy and a political statement, this video documents San Francisco’s fourth annual Transgender Day of Remembrance—a candlelight march and vigil paying tribute to murdered transgender victims worldwide.
INTERSEX EXPOSITION: FULL MONTY (Dir. Shorona se Mbessakwini, Australia, 7 mins, 2002). Jewish Australian “genderpirate” Sharona has nothing to hide when appearing at a lesbian strip club in Sydney, baring all, and coming out as Intersex. A document of a powerful performance art piece utilizing spoken word.
DRIVE THRU (Dir. Jed Bell, USA, 4mins, 2003). What to order at a trans take-out window? “Willie’s” serves up super-sized surgery and hormones, giving “have it your way” new meaning! All the items on the menu may seem hard to swallow...but don’t let the light-heartedness fool you; this animated short gives an accurate run-down of medical services and their costs for FTM guys.
BLUE HAVEN (Dir. Julian Cautherley, USA, 17 mins. 2001). Two skateboarders and $40,000. One Blue Haven swimming pool. A love story you’d never expect! Officially selected at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and the Deauville Festival of American Film, and award-winner at the Aspen Shortsfest and the Worldfest Houston.
THE AROUSING ADVENTURES OF SAILOR BOY (Dir. Jenny Bisch, Canada, 9 mins, 2002).
A day in the life of Sailor Boy as he searches for the perfect date...the hermaphrodite
of his dreams. Playfully mixing film and video, b/w and color, recorded and animated
material, and hand-scratching and painting on film, it has been described as a
“stunning” piece of “gutter glamour...a must-see” (Jon Davis, Xtra!).
TRANSANIMALS (Dir. Amy Hill, Rachel Antel, & Rebecca Weiner, USA, 18 mins, 2001). What if Spot wants to trade in that rawhide bone for a fuzzy ball of yarn? What if Mittens can no longer feign interest in that scratching post? What kind of “petting” is right? This fun mockumentary metaphorically explores the very real and serious issues faced by those transitioning and their partners, friends, and communities.
TROPICAL MALADY (SUD PRALAD)
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
France/Thailand | 118 mins | 2004
Sat. April 9, 7.00 pm
“Something magical is in the air,” writes director Apichatpong in describing the fable-like atmosphere of his latest challenging and hypnotic film. The romantic idyll between country lad Tong and Keng, a young soldier, is interrupted by the disappearance of a villager and the onset of attacks on the village’s cattle by a wild beast. The soldier goes into the heart of the jungle, alone, to hunt it down. Such a summary does scant justice to a film whose hallucinatory style and mythic suggestion seem “interested in developing a new film language,” so celebrates J. Hoberman in The Village Voice. Writes the director: “I realized that through cinema I could express something that I cannot possibly through other means. Tropical Malady is a channel to present my attachments to untouched landscapes and mysteries. It is a memoir of love and darkness.” Among its awards: Special Jury Award, Cannes Film Festival, 2004, and Grand Prize at Tokyo FILMeX 2004.
TYING THE KNOT
Directed by Jim de Seve
USA | 80 mins | 2003
Sun. April 10, 1.00 pm
To be introduced by Jenn Steinfeld, Co-chair, Marriage Equality RI.
There are 1,049 federal rights and protections afforded to those legally married—1,049 rights therefore denied to same-sex couples. The skillfully thorough Tying the Knot explores the ramifications of this discrimination through two deeply felt case histories: a Tampa police officer denied the pension of her partner, a decorated police officer killed in the line of duty; and a widowed Oklahoma farmer evicted from the land he and his lover worked. Director De Seve contextualizes these struggles, legally and historically, with a discussion of the flux of the definition of marriage; with chronicles of the pursuit of union, in various countries and modes; and with a comparison to overturned state laws against mixed race marriages. A vigorous intervention in the ever-shifting legal struggles for these unjustly denied rights.
A multiple award winner (including from the Frameline International, Montreal World Film, Tampa Gay and Lesbian, and San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film festivals).
Also included:
HOWDY PARTNER (Dir. Christie E. Herring, USA, 4 mins, 2003). “Partner,” “girlfriend,” “husband,” “wife?” A spirited visual meditation on how one slippery word may mean more—and less—than we think.
TIL DEATH DO US PART (Dir. Candace Sepulis, Canada, 2 mins, 2002). When you're goin' to the chapel, you better run, and run fast! A stylized 1920s romp through the streets of Guelph spoofing the institution of marriage.
HOLY MATRIMONY BILLY (Dir. Mark Kenneth Woods, Canada, 4 mins, 2004). In this clever satire (referencing McCarthy-era propaganda films), Billy dreams of marrying George W. Bush. Other folks seem to think that marriage is a right exclusive to heterosexuals...but Billy knows better.
TEXAS BULLSH!T (Dir. Renee Sotile & Mary Jo Godges, USA, 3 mins, 2004). A glimpse at an impromptu protest, filmed on the streets of West Hollywood directly following Bush's 2004 State of the Union address calling for a new constitutional amendment.
WILD SIDE
Directed by Sebastien Lifshitz
France | 93 mins | 2004
Sun. April 10, 3.00 pm
From the director of Come Undone, which showed to great acclaim at the Providence
French Film Festival in 2002, another sumptuously melancholy and erotic fugue on love, family,
and other fragile connections. Wild Side shares the tender balance struck by three
outsiders, each eking out a living in Paris—Stephanie, a transsexual prostitute; Jamel, an
Arab immigrant also working the streets; and Mikhail, a deserter from the Russian army, living
hand-to-mouth in a country where he doesn’t even know the language. Each in exile from the
dominant everyday, the three cohere in a loving and sexual union—call it a marriage, call it
a family. Summoned by the illness of Stephanie’s mother, the trio repair to the countryside,
and the movie settles into its own atemporal reverie, director Lifshitz easing along a series
of vignettes that unveil the familial scars that inform the bonds they have forged with each
other. As photographed by celebrated cinematographer Agnes Godard, Wild Side arrives with an uncommon beauty, “suggesting the possibility of a different kind of union and, perhaps, a different direction for LGBTQ film” (Carl Bogner, Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival). Among its awards: Teddy Award for Best Gay Film, 2004 Berlin
International Film Festival; OUTstanding International Narrative Feature, LA OUTfest 2004.
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