Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1996)
j u s t o u t ▼ ju n o 7 . 1 9 9 0 ▼ 31 F amily V iewing This year the Oregon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival brings the whole queer bunch together T The Oregon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival runs June 21-30 at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st. Tickets fo r the benefit opening night are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, or $15 for both movies (in advance). Regular shows are $5.50 general admission . by Kelly M. Bryan Jewish lesbians gather with friends and fam ily fo r their son's bris in Everything’s Relative s the song says, we are family, no? And as with all families, though we love one another, some of us have our differences. We may only get to gether once a year, but there’s a bond that keeps us close. In the spirit of unity and increased under standing, the organizers of the 1996 Oregon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival have done their best to bring the whole bunch of us together for a big A ¡nenia reunion— down to the weird cousin or two that many might wish to keep locked in an attic somewhere (Cruising, Who Killed Teddy Bear?). It’s a laudable effort: There’s something for al most everyone. A number of the festival offerings have the ambivalent allure of home movies. Sure, some of the production values are shaky; sure, you may need to restrain the periodic urge to cover the projector lens with your hand to fend off mortal embarrassment—but many of these films will make you laugh, cry, reminisce, envision the future. You may see a younger version of yourself that you nearly forgot—or a side of yourself that you’ve never recognized. Facing one’s vulner abilities can be a good thing. Refreshing. Healing and all that. Included in this year’s festival of recent queer cinem a is a sam pling of some o f the groundbreakers and “cult classics” that came before. Inspired in part by the release of The Celluloid Closet, the mini-retrospective is meant to provide those who’ve never seen the films, or those who’d like another look, with a chance to see them on the big screen. A few of these titles may meet with surprise or dismay, but festival organizers insist that they are our history and should not be dismissed unseen. It’s your money, you make the call. Also, three filmmakers will present their work at festival screenings: John G. Young, director of Parallel Sons’, Sharon Pol lack, director of Everything Relative4, and Dou glas Langway, director of Raising Heroes. The Schedule S t o n e w a l l • 7 p m J u n e 21 Adroitly presented as one drag queen’s ver sion of the Stonewall legend, the film sidesteps controversy regarding what motivated who to throw what at whom and dives into a tightly scripted, engagingly acted, entirely pleasing boy- meets-fabulousness story that rivals Hollywood for romance. LaMiranda (Guillermo Diaz), a worldweary Puerto Rican “DQ,” bails out and takes home from jail the fresh-from-the-com-belt idealist Matty Dean (Frederick Weller), and the ensuing story converges with others into the mythic/historic events that transpired one hot June night in 1969 in the streets of Greenwich Village. The Gay Liberation Movement’s more sedate beginnings, in groups like the Mattachine Soci ety, are sketched as a preface to the stirrings of more militant struggles, and some sly comparison is made of the ways that different race/class groups rebel. In one scene, the intricate mating rituals of ’60s-era Fire Island, designed to remain one step ahead of the law, hints at the ludicrous constraints on same-sex love that were common practice of the day. Based on the book by Martin Duberman. (U.K./U.S., 1995, dir. Nigel Finch) Patton) and her terse troubled butch paramour F r e s h K i l l • 9:30 p m J u n e 23 A witty whirl of one-liners and seeming non (Boa) decide to tie the knot, which somehow spurs two of their friends into a battle of good and sequiturs, this film may sweep you out of your evil— it’s hard to tell which is which— that is seat or lull you into an image-bathed stupor. But played out on a metaphysical plane. The contest there’s a point to this picture, and Jessica threatens to wreak havoc on the wedding prepara Hagedom’s cagey script, Vernon Reid’s score tions (this could be a queer retelling of A Midsum and winning performances by the principals—as mer Night's Dream) and coincides with a bizarre well as a stream of cameos (Ron Vawter, Karen electrical anomaly that imperils all of San Fran Finlay)—make it worthwhile to stay and stay cisco. attentive. The fact that I had met one of the actors Shareen (Sarita Choudhury, Mississippi Masala) picks up garbage for a living, and Claire (known as “Scrumbly”) in his bathrobe (him, not (Erin McMurtry) works at Naga Saki, a stylin’ me) in a house on Uranus Street in that city did New York City sushi bar that serves “yamakazoo,” little to warm me to this hodgepodge of wacky (raw fish lips), the hot new food craze. The pair aimless hijinks— but an early shot of Fanci’s pink vinyl boots marching in superimposed fashion : are raising their daughter with the help of an from Marin County over the bay and the Golden i extended family from the restaurant, Johnny Gate did bring much cheer to my heart. (U.S., | (Abraham Lim) and Miguel (José Zuniga). 1995, dir. Charles Herman-Wurmfeld) Fresh Kills, at Staten Island, is the world’s largest dump (true fact). Claire’s mother, Mimi (Laurie Carlos), outlines its horrors on her cable A L it a n y fo r S u r v iv a l : T h e L if e a n d TV show, but the plug is pulled when she gets too W o r k o f A u d r e L o r d e • 5 p m J u n e 23 close to the truth and starts pointing the finger at More a keepsake for familiar fans, this docu GX, a power company that is diversifying into cat mentary places layers of interview— with Lorde, food. The trouble is, cats are disappearing and Adrienne Rich, Jewelle Gomez, Sapphire, Essex people are starting to glow intermittently green. Hemphill and others— alongside wisps of poems, Intercut with these urban woes are snippets of life footage of literary events and political rebellions, on Orchid Island in the Pacific Ocean, where and fragments of popular songs to create an im inhabitants make a living as the guardians of pression of what fueled Lorde’s fire. An early Taiwan’s nuclear waste (another true fact). inspiration was a teacher named Mrs. Baker, who Space does not allow a full description of the read her a story of a bear who eats his family, one Rubik’s Cube-like complexity of this film’s plot by one, beginning with his parents. This story, lines. But tune in and you’ll see sensuous acts of Lorde says, sold her for life on the value of love performed on the accordion, hear lines like reading. “It’s only weird because we’re wired,” and be Griffin juxtaposes the momentous and the won over by the film’s “rainbow coup d ’etat.” mundane aspects of Lorde’s life, thereby fleshing (U.S./U.K., 1994, dir. Shu Lea Cheang) out the legend. Filmed over several years, by its end the film show s Lorde ravaged but T h e M i d w i f e ' s T a l e • 7 p m J u n e 25 unvanquished by breast cancer, living with her A charming if chaste fantasy: A lesbian mother partner in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her message of tells her daughter this bedtime tale of knights and survival and unflinching personal struggle to “knightesses,” where a brave and fair noblewoman embrace one’s whole self remains strong, even as (Stacey Havener)— untamed and uninspired by her voice weakens. marriage to a decent-enough oppressor—is smit The uninitiated will be frustrated by the lack of ten by a chestnut-tressed herbali st/midwife (Gayle indentifying titles for interviewees, which is a Cohen). The tale is complicated by the evildoings major oversight. This version is 30 minutes longer of a conniving curate and a doddering physician, than the one set to air on P.O.V. (U.S., 1995, dir. who conspire to imprison and excute the midwife Ada Gay Griffin) Continued on page 33 G e t O v e r I t • 3:30 p m J un e 22; 9 p m J un e 26 At one point, the main character of this film, Steven (Troy Morgan), mutters, “I feel like I’m in a Greg Araki movie.” Welcome to the gloom generation. Like Steven, Get Over It looks great. It has that blasé-chic, black-and-white, art/film school aesthetic down by law. And it sounds great: Sparsely inflected off-kilter guitar chords and plinky banjo form a fitting backdrop to the time- lessly hip and angst-ridden tale of Love Gone Wrong. Unfortunately, like its hero, this film has trouble getting real. (U.S., 1995, dir. Nick Katsapetses) F a n c i ' s P e r s u a s i o n • 5:15 p m J une 22; 7 p m J un e 24 A film for the young, the pierced and the forgiving. A fey femme clotheshorse (Jessica Gabriel Mick (left) and Laurence Mason in Parallel Sons