who plays his boyfriend in the film, will be at
the screening September 29 to discuss the film
including the sure-to-be-asked question of
what differentiates graphic sex in art films from
plain, old-fashioned porn.
Other festival highlights include opening and
closing films Gayby and Cloudburst. It’s un-
usual for the event to open with a comedy, pre-
ferring heady dramas or documentaries such
as last year’s critically acclaimed We Were Here
directed by local David Weissman. But this
year switches it up with a flick that may actu-
ally be more familiar to Portland thirty-some-
things than a national LGBT audience. Gayby
follows two childhood friends, both of whom
are single, one of whom is gay, who decide to
follow through with a youthful promise to have
a child together … the old-fashioned way. It
explores the intersections of family, friendship,
sex and co-parenting in a way that is sincere
and relatable.
Cloudburst, starring the exceptional Olympia
Dukakis, should also be a gem. Though the
film is not about gay marriage per se, it brings
this current political issue into a very personal
realm of two elderly women desperate to stay
together, humanizing a normally polarizing
topic. Stella and Dot have been together for
three decades, but as they begin to become un-
able to care for themselves their homophobic
grandchildren try to break them apart, so they
escape their nursing home for the marriage
promised-land of Canada.
Through all the changes, in both name and
culture, PLGFF has endeavored to represent
a wide swath of our community and has in-
cluded trans subject matter almost every year.
This year Trans aims to combine the verity
of documentary with the emotion of fiction,
making it especially accessible to a mainstream
audience. “you run the risk of falling into the
‘talking head’ trap,” says director Chris Arnold,
“and because [trans] stories have such a power-
ful emotional quotient, I find myself turning to
other storytelling tools of narrative features ...
like music.”
Queer film, like queer politics and society,
has come a long way since PLGFF’s beginning
nearly two decades ago, and this year’s fest is a
good example of how we have moved on from
the campy and flip gay romps of the 90s to rich
and exciting features that would do well in any
fest. Silly “gay flicks” may be a thing of the past
but salient and meaningful queer film convoca-
tion is alive and well. g
The film festival runs September 28 to
October 6. See plgff.org and check out full re-
views of selected films at JustOut.com.
October 2012
JustOut.com
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