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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2005)
.. _ evaporate when these eloquent, unapologetic women tell their tales. Their insights are often hilariously raw and decidedly un-PC. Beautiful, slight Octavia says, “1 don’t want a skinny girl cuz they can’t keep me warm. I don’t want a fat chick ’cuz there’s too much to push around.” The film shows them with their girlfriends, at home, on the street and at a “hall,” where they compete for prizes and status. Some have been in the closet, some not. Some were accepted hy their families, others were thrown out of the house. All the ones interviewed here identify as female, not male. All share a common humani ty and a desire for much more than visibility. They want to be superstars, and they are. The “Aggressives” pull their superstardom out of themselves. In the 1970s, pom star and “sex personality” Peter Berlin did the same thing. Berlin starred in two pom features, Knights in Black Leather and That Boy. But his influence was vastly larger as his iconic image—Dutch boy haircut, leather cap, huge hard-on unmistakable through white sailor pants—wafted through gay culture. No one seemed to know anything about him at the time. He was seen mostly walking the streets of San Francisco, stopping to pose, luring a trick into an alley and then disappointing him by vanishing, or perched silently in a tree at the city’s famous cruising spot Land’s End. “That boy” becomes That Man: Peter Berlin in Jim Tushinski’s superb documentary. The former cipher tells pretty much all about himself, emerging as a striking, self-aware personality as magnetic as the character he consciously creat ed. Among the interviewees who help paint this memorable portrait are John Waters, who calls him “Dinah Shore with a hard-on," and pom legend Jack Wrangler, who calls him “a sculpture.” Berlin’s “living art” consisted of sim ply appearing in public in his mysterious sexual guise. The film shows him as a prescient per formance artist who predated the personality- out-of-thin-air that would become a major obsession of today’s culture (think Paris Hilton). The fact that behind the image he is, in fact, a sensitive, funny, self-deprecating and brilliant man is one of the many surprises at this year’s excellent film festival. JH The ninth annual PORTLAND LESBIAN & G ay F ilm F estival runs Oct. 14 to 20 at Cinema 21,616 N.W. 21st Ave., and Oct. 22 and 23 at Hollywood Theatre, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd. For more information visit www. sensory perceptions. org. G ary M orris is a Portland free-lance writer who spends his spare time helping troubled heterosexuals change their orientation. They can be helped. r I I I I I I I I I I t I I I I I I I i I I I I I I I Cycles of Pom screens 10 p.m. Oct. 15 at I I Cinema 21. I I I I I t I I I I I I I FRI, OCTOBER 14 I I 7 p.m.: April’s Shower I 9 p.m.: Adam & Steve I I I SAT, OCTOBER 15 I 2 p.m.: Life in a Box I 4 p.m.: Loggerheads I I 6 p.m.: Sevigne I 8 p.m.: Guys and Balls I 10 p.m.: Cycles of Pom I I I SUN, OCTOBER 16 I 2 p.m.: The Aggressives Í 4 p.m.: Winter Passing I I 6 p.m.: The Dying Gaul I 8 p.m.: Margaret Cho: Assassin I October 7.20Û5 » Just out 29 ■W Cinema 21 I MON, OCTOBER 17 1 7 p.m.: El Favor | 9 p.m.: Sara Silverman: Jesus Is Magic I TUE, OCTOBER 18 | 7 p.m.: Girl’s Shorts I 9 p.m.: Côte d’Azur WED, OCTOBER 19 7 p.m.: Where the Truth Lies 9 p.m.: Dorian Blues THU, OCTOBER 20 7 p.m.: Transamerica 9 p.m.: Night Watch Hollywood Theatre SAT, OCTOBER 22 2 p.m.: Both 4 p m.: That Man. Peter Berlin SUN, OCTOBER 23 2 p.m.: Never Been Thawed 4 p.m.: Boy’s Shorts Special Events FRI, OCTOBER 14, 8:30 p.m. VIP Reception Vitis Enoteca, 535 N.W. 16th Ave. SAT, OCTOBER 15, 9:30 p.m. Guys and Balls Party Adidas, 1039 N.W. Couch St. SAT, OCTOBER 22, 8 p.m. Closing Night Party That Man: Peter Berlin solves the mystery of an | Crush, 1400 S.E. Morrison St. iconic "sex personality" from the 1970s. ____ ___ OK HSS v<»o <»•»> HSS5 I \\ l(»O swSS f.:r a -» ! > a • » Jx J.K’4 v f '
