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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2003)
3 . 2003 65 films. 11 d a y s Continued from Page 31 their stories, the better idea we’ll have of the scope and diversity of the LGBT community. Also, we start to see the universality of the human condition. We start to see what makes us the same, not what makes us different." • For many queer Portland filmmakers, the path to documentarian is fairly rou tine. They earn their living in jobs that provide a steady paycheck, ongoing training and unlimited access to resources that allow them to master in by Marie Reischmam their spare time what they all truly love: independent film. Fearing he threatened to discredit rother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Brother Outsider recalls Bayard Rustin, a remarkable figure among For example, Storybam Media owner Rustin, a documentary by Nancy the entire movement, they the civil rights movement who was kept in the background because Valerie Garrison has been working in demanded that he he taken from Kates and Bennett Singer, is what of his sexuality television and filming documentaries the limelight— and, much to his all documentaries aspire to be. This since 1989. Though contracted by a county more of the multiplicity of stories that make up culmination of early civil rights film dismay, Martin Luther King Jr. did not protest. agency us a senior producer, she still is able to do the LG BTQ communities. It is my hope that Gabriel Mendoza, artistic director of the clips, oral recordings of Rustin s papers, excerpts what sparked her initial interest: dix:umenting the public’s fascination with reality television seventh annual Portland Lesbian «Sc Gay Film from assorted FBI files and a stunning array of family history and queer heritage, establishing a Festival, says he chose Brother Outsider because will translate over to interest in the more sub commentary on Rustin s character and commit sense of ancestry and venturing into social stantial insight and compelling reflections of “it brings to light a great man that has been ment from activists and politicos across the globe anthropology projects. An upcoming project overkxiked historically. Bayard Rustin was inte our lives that dixrumentaries present.” builds such momentum that you are left gawking involves a female, cross-dressing coal miner in A record eight documentaries will he screened gral to the civil rights movement in this coun that you never knew how much you never knew. Roslyn, Wash., who was discovered after getting at this year’s festival, including four famous les try. He worked with Martin Luther King, ' Rustin is best remembered as the organizer drunk and wandering into the wrong bathrixim. bian comics in Laughing Matters, Third World Mahatma Ghandi, and associated with Mal and executive director of the 1963 March on Garrison’s years as a filmmaker have given her realities for queers in Dangerous Living, everyday colm X and many social movements.. .and was Washington, one of the largest nonviolent access to police stations, crime scenes and many King’s right-hand man for several years. How moms turned activists in Ruthie and Connie, three protests ever held in the United States. Film training rooms. Her camera has opened dixirs and teen-age girls with cameras in Don't Worry, It'll ever, he was also openly gay and as such was fixitage follows him from city to city, march to given a voice to many people who are not always Probably Pass, the resonant history of women’s kept from the forefront.” protest, boycott to sit-in. music in Radical Harmonies, drag kings worldwide asked the most valuable questions, such as “What But Rustin had one arrest on his record that The festival’s executive director, John Cam can your dixumentarian do for you?’ pos, points to the increasing role of documen in Venus Biryz and controversial HIV-chasers in would forever he used to keep him down and taries in queer cinema. The Gift (see review on following page). Her perspective fits right in with this year’s out of the speaker’s spotlight. He had been dis Mendoza explains: “Each year we try to find festival. She says, “Media should he put in the covered with two men in the hack of a car and "Dixzumentaries have always been engross the best and most diverse programming. We hands of minority communities as an empower arrested on a sexual perversion charge. Despite ing introspections into humanity. With the ment tool. - j n years of fighting the gtxxl fight, Rustin had ready access to digital video, people who before ltxik for films that most people will enjoy, but become a weak link in the eyes of his own civil then we also kx>k for films that people might could not mount the means necessary to pull Editorial Assistant M arie F leischmann can be rights community and an easy target for the not have another chance to see or that might together a documentary can begin to tell their reached at rnarie@justout.com. outwardly homophobic political conservatives. stories," says Campos. “We will continue to see he more challenging...the more people that tell from outsider to insider Festival recognizes documentaries in the queer community B
