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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.
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I FRI, OCTOBER 14
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I 7 p.m.: April’s Shower
I 9 p.m.: Adam & Steve
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I SAT, OCTOBER 15
I 2 p.m.: Life in a Box
I 4 p.m.: Loggerheads
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I 6 p.m.: Sevigne
I 8 p.m.: Guys and Balls
I 10 p.m.: Cycles of Pom
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I SUN, OCTOBER 16
I 2 p.m.: The Aggressives
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4 p.m.: Winter Passing
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I 6 p.m.: The Dying Gaul
I 8 p.m.: Margaret Cho: Assassin
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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.
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