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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1997)
j u s t o u t ▼ ju n o 6 , 1 9 9 7 ▼ 3 7 he event formerly known as the Or egon Gay and Lesbian Film Festival has a new name: Sensory Perceptions. It has a new attitude: An energetic and Don't look for Portland's queer film festival until fall, but step up now imaginative volunteer group of queer film lovers, supported by a “host committee” of for a few morsels to tide you over till then community celebrities, will be out in the streets ▼ and in the clubs to promote the festival and pump by Kelly M. Bryan up the volume. And it lays claim to a new calendar page: This year the festival moves from June to these days of mainstream product aplenty, small showing of Cheryl Dunye’s Watermelon Woman, of America. Work that comes from a frankly independent features, whose makers often have at which Dunye may well be in attendance. Come homo perspective. trouble scraping up funds for multiple prints, see the movie that kicked up yet another congres “It’s great that people go to see movies like sional Hurry over National Endowment for the comprise most festival fare, and Portland was Bound and Chasing Amy,” Duddleston says. ‘That Arts funding. missing out on some of the best work. helps people get comfortable with queer images. It seemed that change was in order. The lineup for the festival itself has yet to be But they’re not made by queer filmmakers. A film September, specifically Sept. 18-21. In the Aug. 2 , 1996, issue of Just Out, then ad inked in. Sensory Perceptions volunteers will like The Birdcage: I don’t consider that a queer scour the big festivals this summer for hot pros The venue, on the other hand, remains the rep and theater writer C. Jay Wilson Jr. wrote a film.” same. The festival will play out on the screen at guest editorial speculating on the fate of the pects, and have already begun screening potential Perhaps it’s one of the symptoms of broad- festival in the wake of poor turnout and AGLE’s Cinema 21, the straight-owned and emphatically films. Host committee members such as Thomas based acceptance: We are included more in Hol queer-positive establishment that inaugurated the abdication. He called for community action. The Lauderdale, Kristy Edmunds, Rupert Kinnard, lywood fare, and for many that may be enough, event in 1988. Reel Proud is what the festival was appeal inspired film editor Amy Duddleston, who Rose Bond and Scot Nakagawa will put in their that means we’ve made it. But we may lose called back then. It ran for seven days, bringing us placed a notice in the Announcements section of votes, and will act as community ambassadors to something if we believe that our multifaceted the paper looking for others who would rally to Parting Glances and Mala Noche. Attendance was round up the faithful come September. lives will ever be accurately reflected by the good, so the theater kept up the tradition, missing the cause. Their numbers swelled to around 12 And there’s the rub: Are people still interested? mainstream movie screen. We are a rebel culture only one year along the way. (Just Out was cospon open film buffs, who bring a variety of skills to the Are queer film festivals going the way of the and, no matter how much things loosen up, that sor of the festival for its first three years.) group. There are artists, activists, writers and, record player and the dial phone? Do we really will not change. It’s good to check in every now luckily, PR and fund-raising wizards. By 1996, Advocates for Gay and Lesbian need them anymore, now that you can see overt and then, to connect with our difference—to revel Duddleston says the group approached Ranieri Equality had held the cosponsor reins for three queer content in many a matinée at the Lloyd Mall? in and celebrate it. Isn’t that what Lesbian, Gay, years, and the event had had a name change. The about cosponsoring the festival: ‘Tom said, it’s “Gays and lesbians do have more recourse to Bisexual and Trans Pride is all about? length of the festival, which fluctuated over the all yours, as long as you make it interesting.” films of interest to them than they did 10 years years, was 10 days (in 1994 it ran almost two If the pre-festival buildup is any indication, ago,” Ranieri says. “Festivals may no longer be as months, albeit nonconsecutively). But for reasons interesting it will be. The kickoff fund- and com essential as they were. If we do everything right that perhaps only a psychic could decipher, festi munity awareness-raiser is the June 9 Queer Nite Is Calvin Klein’s influence seeping into and nobody shows up— we’re going to have to the queer cinema? His stamp is certainly val attendance was thinning—in fact, that year it at LaLuna, from which a portion of proceeds will look carefully at whether we’re filling a need.” emblazoned on these shorts. Well, three of dropped by about half. AGLE decided to bow out. benefit Sensory Perceptions. Festival organizers Doing everything right. That means proper them. Trevor, which earned a 1994 Academy will be on hand at LaLuna to sell tickets to the first Some people, Cinema 2 1 owner Tom Ranieri timing, getting the word out and programming an Award for best live-action short, is the only festival event, benefit showings on Friday, June among them, felt that the tradition of having the exciting roster of films, with an accent on the film in the grouping known as Boys Life 2 to 13, of Boys Life 2, a quartet of short takes on festival during or near Pride celebrations was latter. dare to portray an adolescent gay man as growing up gay. Then on June 2 1 at Portland actually a hindrance to its success. As Pride “A festival shouldn’t be mandatory or like anything but a chiseled, cooler-than-thou Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride, the festivities have blossomed to two or more days of taking medicine—it should be appealing,” Ranieri Adonis. But don’t hate them because they’re Sensory Perceptions committee will march in the dances, parties and events galore, the vying for says. beautiful—these little films are not as light parade and have a booth at the Pride Festival queer attention has become fierce. Plus, as any And the Sensory Perceptions crew aims to weight as they might seem. Portlander knows, the beckoning, balmy days and grounds afterward. There, for a nominal fee, you deliver on that count. nights of June are just too few and too precious to can have a Polaroid snapped of yourself with your That’s why a September run is such an im The four views that make up this scrap spend indoors in the dark. But another kind of favorite Hollywood closet case (or rather, a card provement they say, and they point out that, along book of queer youth are well-matched and competition makes that month less than ideal: board facsimi le thereof). Choose from Tom Cruise, with the feel-good films and big-name vehicles, well-ordered. Must Be the Music leads off mid-June is when cities like Boston and San John Travolta, Jodie Foster and more. Another festivals are natural venues for the sort of work with pulsating dance club rhythms and a Francisco hold their queer film festivals. Even in warm-up event is slated for Aug. 22: a benefit bevy of very pretty young L.A. boys looking that just wouldn’t play in the 12-plex at the Mall for love and sex; maybe actually in that ,»***■ order. Nunzio 's Second Cousin follows with a* # * a tale of a would-be gay-basher whose ac I ■ 40 # : ' % tions bring consequences he could never have imagined: Vincent D’Onofrio and Eileen Brennan star in this gritty comedy that will keep you off balance until the final punch line. Next up is Alkalai, Iowa—a breath of fresh farm air tinged with musty family secrets that shows off striking film- making technique and fine performances. Trevor is deservedly last because, while per haps not really best, it is heartfelt, uplifting and sends you out of the theater shaki ng your groove-thang. Brett Barsky is remarkable as one who learns the hard way that this world is not yet ready for a 13-year-old boy who wants to go as Diana Ross for Halloween. All of these shorts offer a fresh perspec tive: from the gay utopia of Los Angeles, where the straight boy is the odd man out, to the yearning of a future farmer of America Travis Sher(left) in Nickolas Perry’s Must Be the Music Brett Barsky stars in Peggy Rajski’s Trevor stuck in the bean field on the Fourth of July to find other men like himself. There is goes through all of her albums, it seems, in less mainstream Hollywood films, including a couple humus here to feed your head, heart and than 20 minutes. with Jodie Foster (Little Man Tate, Home fo r the hormones. Peggy Rajski may be the last person you “The emotion of the story in Trevor touched Holidays). Kelly M. Bryan would expect to have directed the Academy on a lot of things in me. The time of my life when “We expanded the story for the screen. It I was young and felt alone and like nobody obviously was going to be a little different with Award-winning live-action short film Trevor. Boys Life 2 opens June 13 and plays Rajski says she is “not gay, at least not yet,” and understood things that were going on in my a real 13-year-old boy playing the lead role fo r one week at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st her film is about a 13-year-old boy who is head,” says Rajski. instead of a 33-year-old. Ave. Shows are nightly at 7, 8:45 and having trouble dealing with the fact that he is TTie film was not written by Rajski, it was “I got a letter from a man in L.A. whose 16- 10:15 pm, with weekend matinées at 1:45, found by her. “Trevor was part of a one-man year-old cousin killed himself playing an end 3:15 and 5 pm. Advance sales fo r the gay- show that James Lecesne had written. It was less loop of his favorite songs (as Trevor tries to Boy’s Life 2, sequel to the popular 1995 Friday night shows, from Gai-Pied, Jelly package of shorts, has been making its way entitled Dear Diary. It had me laughing and do in the film]. He wrote that he thought if his Bean and Queer Nite at LaLuna on June 9, slowly around the country since March. Trevor, crying equally as hard. I came out of it feeling as cousin had seen Trevor he may have changed his go in part to Sensory Perceptions: The the last of four segments, has been receiving the if it was one of the best pieces l had ever seen. My mind and realized that he was not alone. That Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. business partner Randy Stone was with me, and letter broke my heart, but at the same time was most praise and applause. Tickets are $6, and will also be available What else would one expect from a film that we decided that we needed to make a movie one of the highest compliments. Now if we at the theater, but only advance sales could just get the film into every school.” deals with gay issues in such a touching and based on that 10-minute segment.” benefit the festival. Rajski had not planned on directing the film; comedic way? The title character, Trevor, is first Call the Sensory Perceptions hot line at Tim Nasson seen dancing to the tunes of Diana Ross, and her forte is producing. She has produced many 242-0818for info or to volunteer for events. T S ee Y ou in S eptember inema Boys! Boys! Boys! 4* * * ' Trevor’s Diary
