Just out., June 16, 2006, Page 49, Image 49

JUNE 16. 2006
jUStOUt 49
film
Short Supply
DVD collections free filmmakers from the constraints of full-length features
by Christopher McQuain
he short film is to the feature-length
bucolic Fishbelly White by Michael Burke (future
film what the short story is to the novel,
director of 2OO3’s The Mudge Boy), a sensitive
a truism home out by two recent omnibus
preadolescent rural boy befriends and flirts with a
DVD collections of short films with queer
hunky teen from the farm down the road. But
subject matter, Boys Life 5 and The
when his crush’s macho friends corner him, he
Ultimate Lesbian Short Film Festival. The absence
of
commits
a grotesque act of violence that is both a
the narrative constraints that most full-length films
parody and an indictment of masculinist gender
face, along with the narrowing of focus demanded
role enforcement.
by the form, has given these shorts the freedom to
The other two Boys Life 5 shorts are less inter­
be, at their best, elliptical, experimental and
esting. Adam Salky’s Dare centers on an unpopular
high sch<x)l outsider who almost gets it on with the
thought-provoking in a way most features cannot.
hottie playing Stanley in the school production of
That being said, the best entries on Boys Life 5
actually stretch the time limits of “short,” becoming A Streetcar Named Desire; in David Ottenhouse’s
something more like cinematic novellas. In the 45-
Late Summer, a successful photographer recalls the
minute Time Off, an Israeli production from 1990
vaguely erotic childhood summer he spent with his
gorgeous older cousin. Both of
by Eytan Fox (future director of
2OO2’s Yossi & Jagger), a young gay
these are “calling card” shorts—
résumé builders meant to get
Israeli soldier’s speculations about
their makers hired for other
his attractive commander’s sexual
orientation are, in a bittersweet
films.
They’re
watchable,
revelation, proved unmistakably
technically very proficient, con­
accurate. The film’s length allows
ventionally sentimental and
ultimately unmemorable.
an unusually broad scope for a
short: Along with the queer
For sheer quantity, there is
content, it also encompasses the
more to be had for one’s money
diverse personalities, beliefs and
on The Ultimate Lesbian Short
Film Festival, which offers 10
politics of the entire platoon. In
the beautifully yet deceptively
efforts by lesbian filmmakers.
T
There’s a higher ratio of quality, too:
Only the pretentious Goth-kid-isms of
Abigail Severance’s Saint Henry and the
underdone Ordinary People psychologiz­
ing of Michelle Ehlen’s Half Laughing are
entirely skippable. Otherwise, Chris J.
Russo’s A Woman Reported, which features Moira
Kelly as the victim of a senseless hate crime, is taut
and wrenching, while intermingled themes of
queerness and class are tackled by Silas Howard’s
Frozen Smile— shit-kicking, rocking lesbian with a
mullet defies her staid mother and venerates her
outlandish, trailer-dwelling grandmother as the
three remember the family’s late patriarch—and,
especially, by Barbara Green and Michelle
Boyaner’s Tina Paulina: Living on Hope Street, a 10-
minute interview with a middle-aged, homeless
Hollywood lesbian who, in her guilelessness and
eagerness to please, is as utterly endearing as her
circumstances are troubling. The even more trou­
bling issue of same-sex partner abuse is ably (if
somewhat Lifetime-esquely) broached by Roberta
Marie Munroe’s Dani & Alice, which co-stars
lesbian indie film stalwart Guinevere Turner (Go
Fish, American Psycho) as the concerned friend of
the victim.
Two of the shorts in particular are a cut above.
A mysterious fairy tale, Meredyth Wilsons’ The
Black Plum follows the
exploits of a tomboyish
young girl for whom a
tantalizing black plum
is a metaphor for free­
dom from restrictive
gender roles. The ghosts of a lesbian couple men­
tor the child as she comes to terms with her
uniqueness. Elizabeth McCarthy’s Everything
Good— in which Lila, an apparently married but
unsatisfied American, telephone orders a female
escort to her Amsterdam hotel room—has its flaws,
but Lea Tolub’s performance as Lila, which brave­
ly captures the awkwardness and emotion of over­
coming sexual inhibition, is excellent.
Though it’s worth questioning the gender
segregation implied (or reflected) by having separate
“boys” and “girls” compilations, each of these
collections highlights the diversity of stories and
viewpoints that constitute our rich and complex
queer community. Because no two films on either of
them come from exactly the same point of view or
deal with repetitively similar experiences or milieus,
either of these cornucopias of queer creativity is
likely to offer something for everyone. ©
C hristopher M c Q uain is a Seattle freelance
writer.
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