Insider

SFIFF51: Johnny Symons and "Ask Not"

East Bay filmmaker Johnny Symons has a bone to pick with former President Bill Clinton. More precisely, with the policy familiarly known as "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" that prevents openly gay men and women from serving in the military. Since its adoption in 1993, more than 12,000 queer soldiers have been discharged, while the remaining 65,000 are compelled to keep their sexual identity a secret. Symons, who spotlighted the hurdles of gay and lesbian Americans in Daddy & Papa and Beyond Conception, explores this under-reported situation in the straight-shooting documentary Ask Not. The title is a play on Clinton’s ill-conceived compromise, of course, and on President Kennedy’s famous inaugural-speech challenge, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." The film introduces us to discharged soldiers Alex and Jarrod on a gutsy Call to Duty speaking tour, a soldier serving in Iraq and gays and lesbians sitting in at recruiting offices to protest the law that prevents them from enlisting. "Ask Not" has its world premiere April 26 at the Castro and May 5 at the Sundance Kabuki as part of the SFIFF51.

topics: bay area, directors, documentary, gay lesbian cinema, independent film, san francisco international film festival

more

Take Two

"Shelter"

I’ve no idea how many gay surfers there are—does anyone?—but for sure a whole lot of gay men have long fantasied about shootin’ the curl (ahem) with a surfie. What’s not to like? Laird Hamilton, for example, is a world-class sex object by any standard. Just ‘cuz he’s married with kids doesn’t mean a dude can’t dream.

While gay porn flicks have dubiously mined the surfer fantasy since their inception—at the least exploiting the stereotype of athletic California blonds—non-X-rated films have been much more hesitant. You sure didn’t see gay characters in Hollywood’s takes on surf culture (from Frankie & Annette to Point Break), nor in the never-ending documentaries that flowed from 1966 landmark The Endless Summer to the latest DIY effort at SF’s Red Vic Movie House.

topics: exhibitions, film festivals, gay lesbian cinema, independent film, reviews

more

Film '07 -- Bests and more from the Bay Area's scene-makers

The critics have spoken, and the American West is winning in many year-end polls. But a quick survey of Bay Area programmers, curators, distributors, and filmmakers reveals a much richer picture of 2007’s best movie events, from avant-garde showcases to locally programmed extravaganzas. SF360.org offered some of the Bay Area’s leading voices a chance to weigh in on their film favorites and disappointments for the year, as well as their hopes for the next. We present an edited selection of their comments here.

topics: argentine cinema, bay area, castro theatre, critics year end polls, digital filmmaking, film festivals, filmmakers, gay lesbian cinema, jewish cinema, midnight movies, queer cinema, roxie

more

Review: "Lover Other"

“Under the mask is another mask, I will never finish lifting all these faces,” wrote French Surrealist artist, lesbian, author and political agitator Claude Cahun. Masks appear frequently in the startling portraits she and her half-sister and lover Marcel Moore took of themselves and each other dressed in a variety of personas, costumes and genders.

Veteran lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer (“Nitrate Kisses”) knows better than to try and look behind the mask to find some “real” Cahun. (Editor’s note: The film plays Wed/27 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, courtesy SF Jewish Film Festival and SF Cinematheque.)

As the academic among the polyphony of narrating voices in Hammer’s Cahun documentary “Lover Other” states, as if reading a cue card, “Cahun’s work suggests that identity can only be performed; it cannot be revealed.” So Hammer gives us a play of images and quotations (the script incorporates Cahun’s writings, while Broadway actress Kathleen Chalfant and performance artist Marty Pottenger appear as the two women), that patch together Cahun and Moore’s life during wartime on their adoptive Isle of Jersey — focusing, in particular, on their acts of creative resistance to the occupying German forces that almost cost them their lives.

Hammer’s occasional editing missteps make the film, at times, feel less like a collage and more like a PowerPoint presentation. Indeed, Cahun’s work trembles with an anxiety and instability that’s almost too punk for the film’s laconic pace. There are some unexpectedly affecting moments — mostly in the vague yet admiring recollections of former village neighbors, who recall their childhood encounters with the “off beat” French sisters they hardly knew, but were no doubt captivated by and saw as almost otherwordly heroines. Undoubtedly, Hammer sees them much in the same way. The footage she splices between the end credits of one of Cahun’s self-portraits being bid upon at an auction house, however, suggests somewhat woefully that Cahun’s importance as an aesthetic, sexual, and political radical will be eclipsed by the monetary value ascribed to her by an ever-rapacious art market.

topics: filmmakers, gay lesbian cinema, jewish cinema, reviews, yerba buena center for the arts

more

Frameline31

Once upon a time, the San Francisco International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Film Festival — back when it was just plain SF Gay Film Fest — had trouble coming up with even enough titles to fill out one whole weekend. Gay cinema was not exactly plentiful, from any nation; arthouse distributors (let alone Hollywood studios) were loath to let their few relevant titles suffer the taint of playing an explicitly gay event.

Now past its third-decade anniversary, SFILGBTFF — the producing organization keeps trying to change its public-recognition name to something more manageable, which this annum would be Frameline31 — now has filmmakers and distributors banging on its door. They know this is the oldest, largest, most important gay film (and video) fest in the universe. A movie that plays here is likely to travel the whole extensive latterday circuit of gay-skewed festivals worldwide. Then perhaps get picked up for DVD or even theatrical release.

Those concerns don’t mean a helluva lot to the festival’s core audience, which is simply hungry for gay images onscreen — though perhaps not so hungry as 31 years ago, when those images were rare and mostly negative. They’re also hungry for the community celebration that SFILGBTFF has become, almost as much as Gay Pride Day (the Fest’s traditional closing date) itself. And unlike the latter, Frameline’s annual 11-day program offers not just parade-grade toasts to a diverse self. Rather, it affords exposure for the work of myriad artists who question, prod at and reveal flaws in the LGBT universe, as well as pointing out its triumphant strengths and malevolent foes.

What can be said about Frameline31, beyond genuflecting to its extreme range of themes, styles and audiences? Nuthin’. But here goes.

I’ve heard nothing but good things about opening night selection “The Witnesses,” a French ensemble drama by André Téchiné (“Wild Reeds”) that precedes then encompasses the early AIDS years. I haven’t heard ditto about “But I’m a Cheerleader” director Jamie Babbit’s official closer “Itty Bitty Titty Committee.” But who knows — with a title like that, can it be a total wash?

In between, there’s a whole lotta entertainment to be had, of all stripes. Among the specific latter there are numerous films addressing gender change (including the celebrity profile “Alexis Arquette: She’s My Brother”), African American gay life “On the Downlow” (one relevant title along with “Blueprint”), adolescent comings-out (“The Curiosity of Chance,” “Glue”), sexual identity in conflict with religious (“Rock Haven,” “Born Again”), “alternative” family-making (“Tick Tock Lullaby,” “2 Mums and a Dad”), forgotten chapters in homo history (“The Fall of ’55,” “Black White + Gray”), the sporting life (roller derby doc “JAM”), the clubbing life (“Godfather of Disco,” “Motherfucker: A Movie”), and queer life where the livin’ ain’t easy (“Two Homelands: Cuba and the Night,” Taiwan in the lesbian drama “Spider Lilies”). Plus shorts programs covering all the above and more.

Picking probable highlights in the expansive catalog, advance buzz is excellent on Alexis Dos Santos’ Argentinean teen tale “Glue” and Leesong Hee-Il’s South Korean ditto “No Regret.” Reviewers elsewhere have already favored three titles from Spain: Emilio Martinez Lazaro’s bi musical comedy “The Two Sides of the Bed,” Daniel Sanchez Arevalo’s homo-sexy “DarkBlueAlmostBlack” and Chus Gutierrez’s ’80s proto-riot-grrl flashback “El Calentito.”

Among documentaries of local interest are the self-explanatory “Bears” (focusing on SF’s Mr. International Bear Contest) and “Trained in the Ways of Men,” about murdered East Bay trans youth Gwen Araujo. Both are empathetic, well-balanced portraits.

There are some movies to look forward just cuz, um, they found fun. “Starrbooty” is a camp superheroine adventure starring none other than RuPaul. Q. Allan Brocka’s “Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World” expands his career-launching 1999 animated short to caustic but no doubt still dolly-adorable feature length. Queer cinema veteran Pratibha Parmar’s latest is “Nina’s Heavenly Delights,” billed as a Scottish-Indian-romantic-comedy-cum-Bollywood-musical. Oh please: Another one?

I can personally vouch for the quality of several features seen at prior festivals or previewed on DVD. Cyrus Amini’s “25 Cent Preview” is a raw but poignant (and not unsexy) slice of life amongst lower Polk St. hustlers. Though not as memorable as his “Yossi and Jagger,” director Israeli director Eytan Fox’s latest, “The Bubble,” offers a potently political Romeo & Juliet update in the on/off love affair between two men — one a Jew ensconced in Tel Aviv’s über-liberal youth scene, the other a Palestinian who remains deeply tied to conservative family values.

I also quite enjoyed Ed Aldridge’s first feature “Tan Lines,” a quirky tale of youth set in a tiny Aussie surfing town. In thriller terrain, there are some real kicks to be had from the U.K. Sapphire-bloodsucking opus “Vampire Diary,” while the U.S. “You Belong to Me” spins a deftly creepy tale of a gay man who moves into an apartment building that select tenants never leave. (Alive, that is…heh heh heh.)

Possibly my favorite movie already seen at Frameline31 is Pete Jones’ “Outing Riley,” which is sorta the gay equivalent to Judd Aptow’s hit mainstream comedies “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” — in that it’s both raucously funny and utterly warmhearted.

Incredibly, “Riley” doesn’t seem to have a U.S. distributor yet. Despite the alleged mainstreaming of gay images via “The L Word,” “Brokeback Mountain,” et al., there will always be ones the mainstream ain’t ready for yet. They are the reason Frameline’s fest is just as much a must-see occasion as ever, even for jaded Gay Mecca residents. There is much here you might never get to see elsewhere. Or even if you can — supporting it here might turn into a big boost for its future prospects.

The SF International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Film Festival runs June 14-24. More info at Frameline.

topics: bay area, film festivals, gay lesbian cinema

more

Michael Lumpkin and Jennifer Morris on the big picture at Frameline

Frameline’s SF International LGBT Film Festival arrives in June every year with a surplus of films to please and displease its extremely involved San Francisco audiences, and that’s the way the festival likes it. With a pair of controversies bringing attention both welcome and unwelcome to the festival this year, artistic and programming directors Michael Lumpkin and Jennifer Morris have learned to appreciate that with community engagement comes the engagement of a community — and that the Bay Area’s revolutionizing forces consider this particular festival a target for ever more revolt is a testament to its continuing relevance. I spoke with Lumpkin and Morris about what to look forward to in Frameline31, as well as the challenges of programming a festival like this one.

SF360: I see the festival is 31 this year, and it amazes me to realize you’ve been with the festival for most of that time, Michael. What do you think is the single biggest change in the festival that you’ve seen in the past three decades?

Michael Lumpkin: I’ve been with the festival since number four — and when we started, there were not a lot of queer films, and there was very little access. Our festival was one of the few places you could go see these films, what few there were. Now, I think with LGBT media being much more accessible on TV, computer, DVD, and theaters, that it’s really changed. The amount of material and the access to that material has just grown so significantly — it’s a challenge to keep up with that, and keep the festival relevant in this media explosion age. I think all film festivals are dealing with that in general. And I think even more so for LGBT festivals.

SF360: When did the gay/lesbian festival circuit expand, and what distinguishes Frameline’s from the rest?

Jennifer Morris: We began in the mid ’70s, but really I don’t think it was until the early ’90s that there was an explosion of queer festivals, not only in the U.S., but also globally. It mirrored the numbers of LGBT films available, and the increasing access to the films. There were a lot of volunteer-run film festivals. There started to be more queer film distributors, who were more friendly to queer film festivals and allowing these films to screen. Also, the explosion of the Internet: before, trying to call or fax someone in Russia was very different. With the Internet, you shoot off an email, and all of the sudden someone in China is sending you off a film. It had a major impact for filmmakers finding festivals and the festival finding filmmakers. Part of this is sponsorship. It costs money to run a film festival — and now there’s more marketing money geared toward the LGBT community, allowing smaller festivals.

SF360: Has your budget expanded a lot over the past decades?

Lumpkin: I think our fastest growth was definitely in the late ’90s. We’ve got a lot of different measures that you can look at: attendance, sponsorship, membership. And I’m sure it’s true of lots of businesses and organizations and film festivals — our curves mirror the dot com boom and the dot com crash in terms of the wealth or availability of disposable revunue, whether from individuals or companies.

SF360: Festivals in general seem to offer an alternate form of distribution right now.

Morris: Especially now with the mini majors, there’s hardly room down at the art theater multiplex for films to screen, especially international films, so film festivals have certainly become an alternate form of distribution — we’re in every major city.

Lumpkin: It’s true in general, even more with queer films. The circuit is so large, it presents the option of becoming theatrical exhibition — an opportunity for filmmakers to make money, which does go against the traditional function of festivals, which is to bring films in, to create bzz with audiences and press, so that distribution can then be secured and then go into the community phase. Now except for the most upper tier film festivals, that’s not the case.

Morris: There are about 60 LGBT film festivals in the U.S. alone, and 100 worldwide.

SF360: Are any of those worldwide LGBT film festivals in unlikely places?

Morris: They keep struggling in Korea. They get shut down; it happened once or twice. Even in China — they also got shut down. Other places that have festivals are Latvia, Philippines, Eastern Europe, South Africa….

SF360: Have you gone to some of these?

Lumpkin: With a very limited travel budget, we have to go to find films for our festival — we’re on the front edge — most of the other festival are showing things we’ve already screened. The times I have been able to attend other festivals, it’s really great to go to see how other communities are organizing and how they’re doing things.

SF360: What I find unique about SF’s Frameline Festival, both within this city and in the world context, is the engagement with the community — the ownership the community here feels for this festival — to the extent that anger and activism surround some of the programming choices every year.

Lumpkin: I think it’s true, and I’ve been struck by that when I go to openings of other festivals and see the difference. We’re very fortunate to have that kind of connection with our audience and the community — and, at times, that can present challenges. You need that community support to be able to do the kind of festival we do at the level we do it, but you also have to respond to the community and listen to the community and make sure that it’s working for them. They’re ultimately the ones who are making the festival what it is. So much of what makes our festival what it is is the audience — how they interact, how they support us, how they interact with the filmmakers.

SF360: So let’s get to that activism. One protest this year involved the programming of ‘The Gendercator,’ which you’ve withdrawn. Another involved the Festival’s use of the Israeli consulate to help bring filmmakers here. ‘The Gendercator’ — which I haven’t seen it — seems like a film that might have initiated conversation….

Morris: We’ve shown films in the past that deal with difficult topics — ‘The Gift’(bare-backing), and there was the infamous lesbian riot in the mid ’80s. The perception was there weren’t a lot of lesbian films screening in the film festival — the reality was there weren’t a lot of films made in the mid-‘80s by lesbians. One film screened made by a lesbian included gay men and straight people; it was called ‘Ten Cents a Dance,’ from Canada.

Lumpkin: Lesbians were talking, straights were having phone sex, and gay men having sex in a toilet.

Morris: They weren’t ready for that coming from a lesbian filmmaker, and they got up and said ‘No!’ They wanted the film turned off. It was a great moment, because it was a moment where the festival listened to the community, opened up, and changed some of the things that were happening in the festival. They brought on women programmers….

Lumpkin: The organization realized that we had been operating more from a passive position of — there aren’t many lesbian films, we’ll just show what there is. We came out of that realizing we have to be more proactive about supporting lesbian films and lesbian filmmakers, and doing something more to change that instead of just throwing up our hands. That was a significant point for the organization, realizing we have to change the way we do this. We can influence this, we can change the situation.

SF360: That’s what’s fascinating about the festival. It’s actively changed what’s on the screen. Do see other trends in queer filmmaking you feel you can take some credit for?

Lumpkin: Early on, I saw it happen locally with our festival, and it started happening on a larger scale: Just the simple fact that there were lines of people waiting to get into the Castro Theater to see queer films locally made theater bookers, owners, and distributors, the people deciding what was on movie screens, book them — that’s what talks to the business. They see it at a festival like ours, they’re going to want to book films. Our first year at the Castro theater, right after that there was a noticeable interest: ‘Ooh, gay films.’

SF360: Jennifer, I remember you just as much as a DJ as a film festival curator. What was the most surprising element to film festival programming once you got deeply behind the scenes.

Morris: (I’m still a DJ!) The community — one of the most interesting things about programming the festival — yes, you love film and you are a curator — but you also see a community and what the needs are in that community, and see that it’s really important that the stories of the real people of our community get out there and are seen. Seeing the impact of screening those kinds of films have on the audience, and how important those kind of films are for the audience. Realizing the importance of representation for everyone in the community, not just the gay white male romantic comedy, but docs by people of color, docs looking at issues for the transgender community. All these films are very important. The other side of programming — the artistic side of great films, is important — but so are the messages that are in those films.

SF360: You both mentioned a few names in the film festival press conference, but what are you most excited by in this year’s festival?

Lumpkin: One thing for me this year is the number of premieres, North American and world premiers of significant films, which we’ve never had like this. We’re not one of those festivals that demand the premiere to show it. We don’t approach it that way at all. It’s not a priority, but the fact that we do have a significant number premieres, I think, is a signal of the importance of our festival, that distributors view us as a place to launch their films.

Morris: Filmmakers want this to be the place where they premiere their film, too. One of the films I saw that I was most excited about was our opening night film, ‘The Witnesses.’

Lumpkin: Any film of that stature, the North American premiere of that film is a significant thing.

Morris: Closing night’s film, ‘Itty Bitty Titty Committee’ is perfect for San Francisco, a revolutionary film from Jamie Babbitt that’s also very fun, exciting. RuPaul’s going to be here for a screening of ‘Starrbooty’ on Pink Saturday, which is sure to offend everyone.

Lumpkin: It’s a take off on the ’70s, blaxploitation. It’s crazy— it showed at New Festival. People loved it — we’re hoping for a raucous post-screening with RuPaul….

One film I’m happy we’re showing is ‘Rock Haven,’ a gay feature made locally, and we don’t get a lot of those, where you can have the world premiere here as well. I’m just really proud that that’s part of the festival.

SF360: How much is queer cinema expanding internationally?

Morris: Every year, we get so many films from Asia, and we’re screening an amazing first feature from Korea, ‘No Regret.’ We’ve got two films from Taiwan, ‘Spider Lilies,’ an amazing feature by Zero Chou. There’s also ‘Eternal Summer,’ ‘Love Man Love Woman,’ a doc from Vietnam. We even have a doc from the Czech Republic about the first gay wedding that happened there. The grooms will be here. One of whom is a huge gigantic musical theater star. Pavel Vitek — we’ve characterized him as the Hugh Jackman of the Czech Republic. When the big shows roll through, ‘Les Miz,’ ‘Phantom,’ he stars. He’s one of their first big celebrities.

There’s some interesting people coming. We’re showing a doc, ‘The Godfather of Disco,’ on Mel Cheren, who pretty much created the first 12-inch record ever. Founded West End records. Mink Stole is coming.

SF360: What’s the emotional trajectory of settling an issue like ‘The Gendercator’ this year?

Morris: It was hard.

Lumpkin: ‘The Gendercator’ incident — it was probably one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make. It was also the largest community response we’ve ever received for any film — and this before the film has ever screened.

Morris: It’s a dark science fiction film about one woman’s anxiety around an issue. Not a lot of people had seen the film, and she posted a director’s statement on her web site, and the director’s statement was viewed by many as transphobic. We got this huge response — we reached out to the leaders in the transgender community to find out from them how they felt about the film, how they felt about our situation.

Lumpkin: I think us quickly talking to the community, through leaders, is one of the things that allowed us to make the best decision on this. These kinds of controversies often remind you how important Frameline and the Festival is to the community. So when we’re in that position around a controversy, like we did with ‘The Gendercator,’ we want to resolve the problem, do the right thing. Within those discussions, our long history of working with all parts and aspects of the LGBT community and engaging people and working with organizations for years, when these things come along, we were fortunate enough to have them with us to help us make the right decision. If we hadn’t been able to engage them in the middle of trying to figure this out, I don’t know that we would have made the right decision, or the best decision. The community really cares. It’s their festival. It’s in moments like these that that really becomes evident, and it’s that actual thing that really helps Frameline work.

topics: film festivals, gay lesbian cinema, q&a

more