36 jUSt OUt ’ november 4.2005
eating out
eating out
eating out
FILM
eating oi
......... ▼.........
The Secret is out
ristorant
? regional italian dinners.
italian
kitchen
DIY porn doc is one of several queer highlights
of Northwest fest
by
Sunday-Thursday 5:00-9:00pm 1230 nw hoyt I portland
Friday-Saturday 5:00-10:00pm
503-241 -8800
www.fratellicucina.com
he Northwest Film & Video
Festival, in its 32nd year, is
screening 50 films from nearly
300 entries. Three exception­
ally strong entries make this
fest worthy of queer attention,
though each of these films should be
of equal interest to hipper members
of our straight brethren.
The do-it-yourself d<x:umentary
Made in Secret: The East Van Pom
Collective (7 p.m. Nov. 9 at Guild
Theatre) opens with a hilarious man­
ifesto recited by a member of a Cana­
dian group of feminists, anarchists,
dykes and simpático straight boys.
Earnest youth try to be sexier than their inhibitions allow
Sick of seeing exploitative pom that
in Made in Secret.
doesn’t arouse them, they decide to
gers of drunken driving. But Schwartz is such a
become pomsters themselves, casting each
charismatic, endearing subject that all such
other in an erotic movie called BikeSexual
objections eventually fall away as we get to
intended to inject some fun—and “real sexi­
know him.
ness”—into the genre. The manifesto, recited
The film tracks his decline in every gnie-
by a girl named Monster, declares the collec­
some detail (including a spleen removal shown
tive’s “homemade grassroots pervert revolu­
in hkxxjy close-up) but balances those difficult
tion,” with “movies full of arty cuties making
images with a moving picture of his support
out and enjoying it.” Monster adds, helpfully,
system: lover George, devoted family, medical
that they’ll make a movie “so far from dumb
and caregiving professionals. News footage of
that I’ll sit on the wet spot after 1 come.”
appalling ex-Attomey General John Ashcroft
Amen, sister.
trying to overturn the law contrast with inti­
Secret is an irresistible look at the pleasures
mate scenes of Robert as he goes about his
and pitfalls of the creative process as it affects a
days, setting the date of his death and then
group of smart, cocky kids whose insecurities
threaten to deep-six the project. Their goal of a withdrawing it as some simple new pleasure
occurs—sometimes as simple as riding a bike
“pansexual romp” has some exciting payoffs
when he thought he couldn’t. Bring a few han­
here, not the least being a hot scene between
kies—make that a box—to this powerful film.
dyke JD Superstar and hetero girl Monster, and
David Vaisbord’s Drawing Out the Demons
a long, loving french kiss between two guys
(7 p.m. Nov. 11 at Guild Theatre) also docu­
who abandon their strict heterosexuality for a
ments a subject who is full of life but lives it on
larger goal: “to attack the pom hegemony!”
the edge. Canadian painter Attila, aka
Robert Lukács, gained notoriety from
the 1980s for a stunning series of epic
homoerotic portraits of skinheads,
working-class hutches and other repre­
sentatives of the hypermasculine queer
ideal. His work recast traditional sub­
jects like the Garden of Eden as queer
sex spaces with no Eve in sight. What
saved it from foolishness was his superb
draftsmanship, which made him seem
like a new “Old Master” despite the
raunchy subject matter.
We first see Attila here histrioni­
cally parading through a huge loft
Drawing Out the Demons ¡9 an intimate portrait of “crazy that he’s forced to leave. A major
diva, he puts everyone through hell,
genius" Attila.
demanding that moving men treat
Things come to a head after the film is fin­
even his packing materials as “art.” The film
ished and Monster wants to send it to a private
is a warts-and-all picture of this obviously
indie pom festival in Portland, of all places.
troubled genius who goes over the edge on
When one of the women, Nerdgirl, who wasn’t
crystal meth and somehow bounces back. He
even in BikeSexual, objects (in a marvelous
is a riveting, larger-than-life character, articu­
late even in his more demented momepts.
moment of self-delusion, she says she’ll feel
Demons superbly nails him in one of the most
“retroactively violated!”), cracks in the collec­
tive start to emerge, showing how far they are
incisive portraits of an artist—and a queer
indeed from their own ideal of sexual liberation. one at that—in the genre. jH
On a much grimmer note, and not an easy
The Northwest Film Center presents the 32nd
watch, is Tom D’Antoni’s Robert’s Story: Dying
with Dignity (7 p.m. Nov. 10 at Guild Theatre).
N orthwest F ilm & V ideo F estival through
At first glance, this unsparing portrait of AIDS
Nov. 12 at various venues. For a complete
victim Robert Schwartz looks like a manipula­
schedule visit www.nwfilm.org.
tive advocacy piece for Oregon’s assisted sui­
G ary M orris edits and publishes Bright Lights
cide law. That perception isn’t helped by the
director’s voiceover, which seems lifted from a
Film Journal, located online at
www.bnghtlightsfilm.com.
high school cautionary movie about the dan­
T
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