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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 2004)
46 J“ * •Ht ’ October 15.2004 FILM Best of the fesl Portland’s queer film festival reflects evolving societal attitudes by 10% Off All Banners and Signs j p S 9220SWB atirBlvd «111 BVTOMORRW ™a s nd'0R 872,8 IDV TflUfiDDnU/ p^ and 0R 872,8 SIGNS » GfíAPHCS N ________ ATIONWIDE www.ilBMljytanmiuom Sates: Josft Wist ~ Call: (503) 577-4100 S pirits in the H ouse P hotographs by SUSAN L y n c h P aintings by PAMELA ALTREE P aintings by SUSAN TRUEBLOOD STUART O n d a A r t e L a t i n a 2215 A l b e r t a • 503.493.1909 o n d a g a l l e r y . c o m ne INDOOR HEATED POOL iIfie ‘DubCiri Mouse ‘A touch o f class on the Oregon Coast' Ocean Views • Bi|> Clean Rooms Room Phones • Kin^/Queen Beds Color T V • Fly Shop • Trips 1/2 PRICE OFFER 2 N ights or M ore O ctober 1 - M arch 15 I h YcYf't f inluhiy*) M arch 15 - J i n e ( f c W i :/>t S i i t i i r J d W 30 & H o tu Liy sf Call lor details 6s. availability (541) 5 4 7 -3 2 0 0 toll free: l-866-yuifuiís (922-4287) email: dublinhsQcasco.net u>eh: unvu'.tluhlinhouscmotel.ctnn Hwy 101 «Si 7th St - Yuchats, O R 97498 w w w .ncnm .ed u 503.552.1551 Imagine... Doctors that treat your whole person «The clin ics o f National College of Naturopathic Medicine H onoring the H ealing P an e r o f Nativ e G ary M orris C ulture hasn’t always been kind to queers, and why should we expect it to he? B<x)ks, movies, television, etc. only reflect societal attitudes. Homophobia has a gluttonous appetite, and movies, particu larly, fed it for decades with appalling images of killer dykes, suicidal trannies, arch sissies and, the perennial favorite, the “sad young man” a la Dorian Gray. By the early 1990s, with the advent of the New Queer Cinema (think Tixld Haynes’ Surcon oY Rose Troche’s Go Fish), all that changed. Now, 10 years hence, the shift is mostly complete, so much so that queers can now comfortably inhabit every imaginable kind of role and genre, from maniacs in gay slasher films to sexy revolutionaries to drag queen boxers from Thailand. Even old politi cally incorrect stereotypes like the sissy are no longer so threatening, and can now he re invented and played with. And just about every aspect of queer life is covered in the spate of d(x:umentaries that arrive every season. While these changes can he attributed in part to a society that’s finally growing up, some praise should go to the queer film festivals, which since the mid-1970s have bravely pre sented a wealth of alternative images to audi ences starved for them. The eighth annual Portland Lesbian &. Gay Film Festival, put on by Sensory Per ceptions, isn’t the biggest or most daring of its kind (that honor belongs to San Francisco), hut it’s an important venue that offers an encouraging snapshot of where the queer community is at this point in its history. This piece surveys some of the most worthy in a generally strong playlist. Controversy is inevitably a part of these fes tivals, and one of their lures, and Portland’s fest is no exception. This year’s edgiest film is sure ly Harry and M ax. This quietly subversive fea ture presents a takx) subject without a hint of sensationalism. Harry is 23, straight and a drifter on the downslope of success as a mem ber of a fading boy hand. His brother Max is 16, gay and a rising teen idol. The film opens with the two of them embarking on a road trip for some brotherly bonding that turns (Hit to be quite literal:' They find in each other what they fail to get from family, friends and lovers. What reads like an episode of The jerry Springer Show becomes a probing kxik at the far fringes of love, distinguished by an almost-documentary shooting style and nuanced acting. The film’s only weakness is an occasional drift toward psy chobabble as the two lead characters attempt to talk their way to enlightenment, hut this is minor carping given what director Christopher Münch, also responsible for the New Queer Cinema classic The Hours and Times, has achieved. More evidence of how far we’ve come since the days of “sad young men” can he found in Bruce La Bruce’s The R asp berry Reich. His prior films like Hustler White and Super 8-1/2 mixed cnide social satire with hardcore sex. With Raspberry he polishes the crude and, if anything, ratchets up the hardcore, to hilarious effect. The director finds his métier in this parcxJy of radical chic inspired by Germany’s notorious Bader- Meinhof gang. This “Reich,” unlike Hitler’s, is run by dominatrix/fag hag Gudrun, who con siders heterosexuality a social construct and a t(X)l of the oppressor. She forces her hand of sexy “straight" minions to “go gay” for the rev olution, which they do without so much as a peep. It’s certainly easier than being revolu tionaries. (In one memorable scene, a kidnap per accidentally handcuffs himself to his vic tim, at which point both climb wist fully into the tnink of a car.) The film’s barrage of onscreen text from famous Communists, post-dubbed dialogue that makes all the charac ters sound like idiots and the hoys’ inability to remember their radical politics when confronted by a naked hoy make it a fest must-see. La Bmce also provided the source material for John Palmer’s Canadian indie feature Sugar, though the grim reality of the film is far from the camp histrionics of The Raspberry Reich. Set in Toronto, Sugar is a strong cinéma vérité ltx>k at a kind of love affair between naive 18-year-old Cliff (Andre Noble) and sexy, drug-addled rent boy Butch (Brendan Fehr). Shot in a jumpy, jittery style, the film pitilessly records the ups and downs (mostly the latter) of what appears to he a doomed relationship. There are startling scenes throughout, including an under-the-table mutual mastur bation sequence while the boyz are eating their C om Flakes, and an array of creepy tableaux of the hoys’ role-playing with their tricks. Fehr, familiar from the television show Roswell, brings a James Deanish quality to his over-the-top role. In a weird life-imitates-art touch, Noble died last June after eating a poison plant. O f course, it’s not all doom and gloom this year. Plenty of films present the more “normal” queers that rmxJem viewers expect. One of the most successful is Inés Paris and Daniela Fejer- man’s intergenerational dyke comedy/drama My Mother Likes Women. This expertly acted film has been compared to fellow Spaniard Pedro Almixlóvar’s work, and no wonder— the “mother” of the title is the fabulous Rosa Maria Sarda from All About My Mother. But that’s not the only similarity. The film begins as a frothy farce, with Sofia’s three daughters scheming to separate their mother from the beautiful, much younger Czech woman she’s taken up with. But the farce turns increasingly grim as the girls’ plots backfire. The directors’ modulation of emotions and the actors’ ability to he funny and sad almost at the same time make this a g(xxJ choice. The fest’s international reach continues with what sounds like a curio, Ekachai Uekrongtham’s Beautiful Boxer. This lushly photographed hiopic is based on the true story of Thailand’s famous drag queen kickboxer, Nong Toom. The director cast a straight guy in the lead role, and it proved a wise choice. Asa- nee Suwan is simply wonderful, managing the almost impossible task of etching this unusual character without veering into camp caricatur ing. The film is epic, framed by an interview of The Numi Song
