The sad thing about film festivals is that oftentimes it can be hard to find your favorite films after they’re over. To wrap up our look forward to Reeling 2009, we are going to wallow in self-pity and discuss some of the fantastic dramas being presented this year.
The Filipino film Boy splits its focus between the innocence of first love and the eroticism of desire. The Boy in this case is a thoughtful poet who, when he’s not using his allowance to buy exotic fish to fill his room, spends it at the local male dancer club. He meets Aries there, and as things progress toward New Year’s, The Boy decides to blow his load and take Aries home for the night. There are some very heartfelt and specific character interactions mixed with some standard cliches, especially in the portrayal of the transgender members of the club and shallowness in having such an uncomplicated relationship build. Madeleine Nicolas as Mother brings a lot of credence to her role of a scattershot near-divorcee who has a child with a secret and a husband with another family, and she affects some good performances from the younger cast. The movie is beautifully shot and attempts to overcome its flaws in story with symbolic imagery. (Boy screens at the Landmark Cinema Friday, November 6 at 7:15 PM).
Family is writer-director-actor Faith Trimel’s exploration of the many difficulties faced by women of color in coming out, from trying to keep a career in entertainment and athletics to remaining a vital part of one’s family and community. The lowered quality of certain production values actually highlights much of what is potent about the film, the double discrimination felt by black SGL women. Trimel stars as Felicia, a moderately successful actress who tries to keep her girlfriend in the closet–literally–when her traditional Jamaican mother comes to visit. Felicia’s long-suffering lover tells her they’re through, and Felicia is forced to realize she has to come out. But not without her friends. Felicia dares her five best friends to come out with her within 30 days. Melanie wants to get back the daughter she had been raising with another women who walked out on her, Tonya proposes to her white girlfriend only to be dropped in on with a surprise visit by her judgmental sister, Sabrina is a doctor whose strong ties to her faith keep her from even accepting herself, Idrice is a WNBA star who is worried her career outside the court will not take off if she’s out, and Monifa outs herself only to find that she may not be as over men as she thinks. These six women work together and separately to understand themselves, their lives and their relationships, some rebuilding and some breaking down. (Family screens at Columbia College’s Film Row Cinema on Saturday, November 14 at 2 PM).
Finally, Mein Freund Aus Faro (My Friend From Faro) features Melanie, a 22-year-old still figuring out her place in the world, even if she tries to be someone else in it. After hitting Jenny with her car, Melanie offers to take the teen and her friend to a club and is mistaken for a Portuguese boy (she calls herself Miguel) due to her close-cropped hair, small chest and masculine frame. Melanie and Jenny bond at the club, and Melanie begins hitting up the new guy at work, Nuno, to learn more about Portuguese culture. Meanwhile, Melanie’s brother and father are pressuring her about not having a boyfriend, so Melanie pays Nuno to stop by and pretend to be her new boyfriend, Miguel. In a not-so-subtle Shakepearean way, Melanie’s secret lives begin to converge, and when she finds out that Jenny is only 14, things really take a turn for the worse. The film features many grounded performances, particularly from such a young cast, and Melanie’s anguish over not having anything to identify herself as is heartrending. (Mein Freund Aus Faro screens at the Landmark Cinema on Sunday, November 8 at 7:15 PM).
The opening night of Reeling 28 will feature the filmThe Big Gay Musical at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, which promises to be an outrageous pastiche of musical tropes, camp and heartfelt reverence for one of queerdom’s favorite genre’s. Two other comedy films playing during the festival match the exuberance set forth by this first night.
The Baby Formula is a Canadian mockumentary by director Alison Reid (who also co-stars as the director of the documentary) that posits what would happen if two women decided to make their own biological baby. Lilith and Athena are a happily married Toronto couple who have found a way to have their own kids: genetic testing with stem cells in mice has proven effective in utilizing eggs from one female to create a zygote with an egg from another female. As the first human subject, Athena is excited to become a new mommy, focusing on her own burgeoning belly and needs, leading Lilith to make the decision to be impregnated in the same way without informing her partner. The two reconcile and begin planning for the birth of their daughters, but it’s none too easy with an overly religious mom on Athena’s side, two alcoholic gay fathers on Lilith’s, and a secret to keep about how these babies were conceived. The documentary style creates compellingly natural characters with very distinct personalities and great performances by leads Angela Vint and Megan Fahlenbock and Rosemary Dunsmore as Athena’s mother. The humor is laced in surprising ways, but there are startling moments of poignancy throughout and some tough issues about what it means to accept one’s role as a parent. (The Baby Formula screens at the Landmark Cinema on Friday, November 6 at 9:15 PM).
For fans of early Peter Jackson, you may have found a good ringer in Kevin Hamedani’s ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction. Like all good horror, ZMD bills itself as “a political zomedy” and follows a few liberal-leaning protagonists in a small New England town that just happens to fall under attack by zombies. Frida Abbas has returned home after quitting Princeton, her excuse being to help her father run his restaurant, but all she encounters are neighbors mistaking her for every other identity but Iranian, which ends up even worse when a very Fox News-style channel purports that Muslim terrorists are behind the zombie outbreak. Tom has returned with his partner Lance to finally come out to his mother, only to find her already bitten and becoming zombie. They team up with Cheryl Banks, the ultra-liberal teacher who has put in her bid to run for mayor. Unfortunately, zombies alone aren’t their problem; the close-minded townspeople keep blaming and trying to get these “outsiders” to conform to conservative values. The one-liners are endless, the gore fantastic, and Frida’s theme song will stick with you for weeks. The film’s politics are evident throughout, but it slyly puts into context what it means to be a minority in America today. (ZMD screens at Columbia College’s Film Row Cinema on Friday, November 13 at 9 PM).
Our regular weekly news briefs are being replaced by a different look at the world around us: we’re anticipating the opening of the 28th Reeling Film Festival here in Chicago this Thursday, November 5 with a preview of some of the films that will be playing on screens throughout Chicago, from The Music Box to the Landmark to hosts Chicago Filmmakers. Cul de sac’s three-day pre-play begins with a nod to a handful of documentaries that will be screening this year.
City of Borders inundates us in the lives of Palestinian, Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli LGBTs and their struggles with acceptance, especially in proximity to the holy land of Jerusalem. Those taking part in the documentary have found their own having in Shushan, an LGBT bar owned and operated by the first openly gay Israeli council member Sa’ar Netanel. The engaging ensemble story features Palestinian Samira and Israeli Ravit, a lesbian couple who struggle not only with typical problems such as deciding to have children and how working together affects their relationship, but with the present feeling they are sleeping with the enemy; flamboyant Boody is a sometimes drag queen whose mother wants to marry him off to his cousin from America and who is constantly receiving death threats; and Adam and Amit are working to live in the settlement in which Adam grew up and rebuild after a hate crime in which Adam was stabbed during a Pride ceremony. The unquestioning acceptance shown between members of the Palestinian and Israeli LGBT community highlights the doubly compounded hatred they receive from the outside world as identifying as both queer and culturally other. (City of Borders screens at the Landmark Cinema on Tuesday, November 10 at 9 PM).
Two short documentaries focus on the strides made by the LGBT community in the U.S. Out in the Silence is filmmaker Joe Wilson’s response to growing up silently queer in small-town Pennsylvania. After running the announcement of his marriage to another man in his hometown paper and receiving an expected backlash, Wilson is sent a letter by a distraught mother whose son came out and is facing violence and discrimination at school. Wilson takes his camera to Oil Town, PA and connects with 16-year-old C.J., trying to provide him guidance about being out and revisiting his own fears from when he was a teenager. Wilson also interviews Rox and her partner Linda who are battling against zealous Focus on the Family radio host Diane to keep their business restoring an old theater afloat. Wilson captures a good deal of the socioeconomic factors that can lead to a community rejecting LGBT members or denying their existence outright. (Out in the Silence screens at Chicago Filmmakers on Friday, November 13 at 7 PM).
Conversely, Switch: A Community in Transition, focuses much of its attention on the smaller community of family, both blood and chosen. Filmmaker Brooks Nelson’s transition from female-identifying to more masculine is the topic of conversation among his friends and his partner Jeannie’s family, and for good reason: Brooks has asked them to talk about it for the camera. Although it mostly focuses on dialogue and can be a little too intimate to connect to at times, this film is a great conversation starter on why we hold gender identity so close to us and having trouble identifying people gender-neutrally. Even Brooks and Jeannie’s friends, who are predominately butch lesbians, have some discomfort with Brooks’ transition, and a great dialogue about privilege unfolds over the shift in perception of Brooks as a white woman to Brooks as a white man and Brooks’ friend who transitioned from black woman to black man. The film does a great deal to show that people going through transition should not be characterized as “changing;” the perspectives of the people around them should be. (Switch screens at Chicago Filmmakers on Saturday, November 14).
Finally, Fig Trees uses mixed modes to tell the tale of AIDS activists Zackie Achmat of South Africa and Tim McCaskell of Canada. A blend of opera, parody, palindromes and live footage–not always successfully combined but often enthralling–showcases the symbolism of HIV both as a commodity and a commonality between people. You’ll probably never see a better Gertrude Stein impression, and the refreshing perspective that AIDS is something one learns to live beyond rather than learns to accept as a death sentence is especially resonant. (Fig Trees screens at the Landmark Cinema on Wednesday, November 11 at 9 PM).
Split Pillow’s third annual fundraiser is a spooky affair
by Kevin Sparrow
You couldn’t ask for a gloomier night to enter a haunted house than this past Thursday. After weathering bracing winds and a deluge that had been ongoing all day, we rode to the top of 400 East Randolph to be greeted with the ominous message, “You’ll have to go through the haunted house first to get to the party.” Passing through an opaque fog, glimpsing a sink full of blood, being offered organs by a mad surgeon, and observing Abe Lincoln in a screening room rather than the Ford Theater were just a sample of the tableaux we witnessed. The haunted house tour ended with a meet-and-greet with Dr. Spalanzani and his son, Olympio, characters from non-profit production company Split Pillow’s upcoming feature Eye of the Sandman. For $50-$60 a ticket to benefit the organization’s new season, guests were treated to a wonderful spectacle of spookiness, previews of Split Pillow’s films and programs, a silent auction, and some very interesting yet tasty hors d’ouvres:
Founded by Jason Stephens, Split Pillow has been a Chicago staple for eight years, growing from a production company promoting collaborative projects with local filmmakers to working with the community to perpetuate media literacy. Board president Andrea de Fraga explains, “This organization tries to get new filmmakers’… messages across, [so] a lot of other voices can be heard.” This commitment to diversity is evident in the films produced. “The fifth feature we did was with all-gay filmmakers in 2007,” creative director Jeff McHale says of the film soulMaid. “It’s hard because you don’t want to be a ‘gay’ organization, but… there are a lot of straight people who… are getting exposed to something they aren’t aware of.”
The feature presentations Split Pillow develops are typically collaborations between various directors and depict people from a wide range of backgrounds. The same is true of the innovative Chicago360 documentary project, now preparing for production on its fifth volume, Aliens in the City. When it comes to showcasing diversity, “[w]ith Chicago360, it’s great because you’re already getting a great mix of people… Chicago is a character front and center,” says McHale. The city’s own cultural diversity is pivotal in the individual short docs that are chosen for presentation in Chicago360, combining into a rich feature-length mosaic.
Additionally, Split Pillow works with the local community to promote media literacy and keep Chicago a vibrant locale for filmmaking. Marketing director Brooke Blocki describes her outreach in spreading the word of MediaStart!, SP’s educational program: “I contact folks in the non-profit industry, and some people I know in Chicago schools. I go to connections I know, trying help other non-profits.” “After School Matters hosted [a program] at Center on Halsted,” says McHale. “We went… and worked with youth there on a daily basis for six weeks. We were able to develop kids’ skills much better than in other programs. We’re trying to cultivate youth, and [then] with Chicago360, seeing what they turn into as adults. ”
Split Pillow is currently preparing for the screening of Eye of the Sandman at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Friday, November 20. Tickets are $10; a second screening will be held on Monday, November 23. The documentary feature Life as Lincoln is another project about which Blocki is especially excited. “It’s dear to my heart because, growing up in Illinois, I knew a lot of Lincoln impersonators. We can go to a lot of educational organizations–[such as] the Chicago History Museum. We’re celebrating Lincoln’s bicentennial.” Life as Lincoln will premiere on President’s Day 2010. If you are interested in learning more about Split Pillow or purchasing DVDs of their films, check out their contact information here.
Hijras, a transgender subgroup of Bangladesh, are MTF or intersex people who face discrimination on a daily basis. Although recently granted the right to vote, less than one year ago, Hijras are persecuted and have no real protection from the law. A documentary film titled Evergreen is currently seeking funding to begin film a feature that will provide their story to a world audience. Read more about the project here, or write to evergreenproject[dot]info[at]gmail[dot]com. And please watch the demo trailer below:
A question frequently posited to gay men by straight men is, “How do you know you’re gay if you’ve never slept with a woman?” This question can easily be turned back around, leaving many heterosexual men fumbling to assert their masculinity by citing male-female sex as the accepted norm. The forthcoming film Humpday turns the question on its head to ask if two heterosexual men can have sex and remain straight. Truthfully, Humpday–and director Lynn Shelton–is more concerned with gender roles and earnest human interaction than homoeroticism, and this is an asset to the movie.
Ben and Andrew are life-long friends from two different walks of life. Ben (Mark Duplass) is settled into married life, working as a transportation specialist in Seattle and scheduling time with his wife Anna (Alycia Delmore) to conceive a baby when Andrew shows up in the middle of the night, an eccentric lone wolf who has aspirations of being an artist, but who has not yet completed any project. Ben tries to reacquaint himself with Andrew but becomes ingratiated into Andrew’s lackadaisical, impromptu lifestyle, sacrificing a dinner with Anna meant to acclimate her to Andrew. The two men are introduced to Seattle’s Humpfest (an actual film festival) that hands out awards for artistic achievement in amateur pornography. Their ideas expand until they decide that two straight men having sex on film would be most likely to win an award, and that they should be those two men. After he and Andrew try to push off their talk as drunken rambling the next day and challenge each other on their reasons for doing so, Ben becomes obsessed with the idea, desiring to help his friend finish a project, to reject some of his married life and to answer a few secret questions of his own. When Anna learns the news after her first in-depth conversation with Andrew, she is none too happy, but she realizes it is probably better to find out if her husband would rather be having sex with men before they have a child together. The outcome of Ben and Andrew’s meeting at a hotel room to shoot the porno takes up the last third of the film.
Director Lynn Shelton spoke after a preview screening held at Chicago’s AMC River East theater. She explained that the nuanced performances of all the actors (including Shelton in a supporting role) was arrived at by utilizing improvisation and a looser outline for each scene rather than a full script. The film benefits from this both by providing credible performances that feel more documentarian than comedic and by leaving the third act open-ended enough to be surprising and moving. Humpday is hilarious, uncomfortable and genuine, three things missing from many comedies today, and while it is not directly about homosexuality, its depiction of gender roles and masculinity are of especial note to queer audiences. Humpday will arrive in limited release on July 10.
Film collective Split Pillow has spent the last four years crafting patchwork documentaries for their Chicago360 series. The current volume, Play, takes five different subjects from five different filmmakers and explores their relationship to the Windy City. Even adults need time to unwind, and Play provides insight into the various ways grown-ups deal with playtime in Chicago. From board-game playing, speed-dating nerds to adult cheerleaders to the daily bike ride, Chicagoans enjoy a variety of events in their off-hours.
Many of the shorts are conscious of the queer community in Chicago and include their perspective. Members of the queer board-game players group discuss their experience, even one lesbian who ended up dating a man after a combined group met up, while the cheerleading group Chicago Spirit Brigade discuss the misconceived perception that being a male cheerleader automatically means a person is gay.
If you’re looking for your own good time, try gleaning some ideas from this excellent look at what makes Chicago fun. Chicago360-v.4: Play premiered at the venerable Music Box Theatre last Wednesday, but there are still two opportunities to catch a screening: Saturday, May 30 the film will play at the Viaduct Theatre (3111 N. Western Ave.) at 7 PM and Sunday, May 31 it will screen at The Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia Ave.) at 4 PM. Ticket prices are $7 and can be found at the Split Pillow website.
Early spring is a great time for anticipation; awaiting warm weather (still sorely lacking in Chicago), spring cleaning (especially that one room you always ignore–you know the one) and the upcoming blockbuster movie season. And although we are eagerly anticipating the hotness that will be J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, finding out what made Christian Bale so angry in Terminator: Salvation and massive amounts of Hugh Jackman’s body in Wolverine (Editor’s Note: We at Cul de sac are giant nerds, if you couldn’t tell), we would like to draw your attention to some of the more queer offerings slated to arrive this year.
Based on a novel that tells the true life story, I Love You, Phillip Morris recently played in this year’s Sundance. However, its racy material has kept it from getting a release date yet and may make it a straight-to-DVD release. Wait… racy material. We can’t wait for this to come to DVD.
3) The World Unseen
This film recently played at Chicago’s Reeling, and was just released on April 3rd in the UK (hence the UK trailer). This beautifully shot film stars Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth, and a loose companion comedy piece by the same director–Shamim Sarif–titled I Can’t Think Straight is available on DVD.
4) Bruno
And finally, here comes Bruno. The red-band trailer is NSFW and is pretty indescribable. After watching it, begin preparations for July 10th.
The Academy Award nominations were announced on Thursday, January 22, and Gus Van Sant’s Milk delivered with eight nominations, trailing in third place behind The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’s thirteen nominations and Slumdog Millionaire’s ten nominations. In addition to Best Picture, director Van Sant, actors Sean Penn and Josh Brolin, and writer Dustin Lance Black are all being recognized for their work.
This ties the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain’s record 8 nominations for an LGBT-themed film, and it almost mimics that film in categories nominated. Though a busy year for director Van Sant—he released his excellent Paranoid Park in March 2008—Milk’s supreme achievements and historic impact should prove a profound reward.
Milk is still playing in theaters across the U.S., so try to see it before the February 22nd airing of the Academy Awards on ABC.
Due to increasing advancements in technology and the popularity of the internet, we live our lives in the open more than we used to. OMG/HaHaHa ties together vlogging, digital video and personal stories to create an emotionally revelatory work about today’s youth and the meaning of family. Director Morgan Jon Fox discusses his vision with Cul de sac Magazine in a recent interview:
CM: The actors come across as very natural; in fact, the film has a documentary feel. What was the workshop process like in order to present character in the way the film does?
MJF: The way I look at creating films at this level, with not much money involved, stripped down and bare, is that I really want to maximize what resources I do have. To me, since I’m making films that aren’t trying to emulate what processes that usually cost lots of money, i.e. special effects over load, big production design, etc…. what matters most to me before all things is that the acting must, absolutely MUST be authentic and come across as naturalistic as possible. I was heavily inspired by the Dogme95 filmmakers Lars Von Trier (Dancer In The Dark, The Idiots) and Thomas Vinterberg (Celebration). [T]hey were previously more traditional or even studio-centric filmmakers who made a pact to create films that were centered more around the actor and strong, organic performances. The way we created OMG was this way from the start.
CM: What was the development process in the script stage of OMG/HaHaHa?
MJF: [M]e and my assistant director, John Tom Roemer, wrote scene ideas back and forth via email. He was a freshman in film school in NYC at the School of Visual Arts. Being from Memphis, he would come back and forth for his breaks and we’d work more on the script and we’d have auditions. We eventually developed a 40-page outline that was mostly a blue print. There were some scenes that had dialogue scripted, but mostly, it was detailed descriptions of scenes. From there, we created even more detailed descriptions for each character…this is a process I value highly…In some cases, a character who may even only be in one scene may have had a 5 page character description that was given to the actor who was cast for the role. Once we assembled the entire cast, we decided that everyone who was cast would have to agree to not know what the story was about, or whom was cast in any particular role, unless they were supposed to have had a history with this person. So, if two characters were supposed to know each other, then of course we’d introduce them, and we’d hold several workshop sessions with improv and basic character building techniques often guided by the Meisner Technique. That’s an acting technique a long-time collaborator, and in the case of this film, actress, Amber O’Daniels introduced me to. Amber played Autumn, the girl who was pregnant. She taught me everything I know about Meisner…. it’s a technique that’s very simple and practical, yet intense and rooted in finding one’s emotional core. So, we’d workshop with everyone separately, and make sure any characters who were supposed to have relationships would have ample time to dig into their character, so that when the time came, basically whatever they did on screen would be from the place of an understanding their character possessed. For characters who weren’t supposed to know each other, we’d make sure they weren’t introduced to each other until the very moment, on screen, that they were supposed to meet. This also applied to the entire outline of the story. No one was allowed to see what the fate of their character would be, or what they were going to face. This was a part of our plan to keep things real and not have the actors get too caught up in pre-determining their outcome, unless this also was a trait of the character’s personality.
Usually, we’d show up for each shoot day with the actors and then explain to them what was going to go down… of course, we’d give them the info that was pertinent, such as, if they were supposed to be working in a clinic, we made sure they had their costumes, etc, and they knew what their job was and all that, but they wouldn’t know who was showing up to their clinic that day, or what was going on in their life… So, questions that would be asked, or info[rmation] that would be revealed would come across for the first time. After we’d do the first take, we’d give direction and end up shooting each scene anywhere from 3 to 5 times…never more than that…I’m big on that…I refuse to wear down an actor; it’s my opinion that if it’s not working after 5 takes, then you move forward and come back to that moment with different plans. It’s super important for me to make sure everyone is comfortable, and in a space where they feel safe, and at ease when we’re working. All the preparation is important for me, because when we get to the set, I want to be able to let the actors shine, and in that sense, we kind of are just there to then document what they’re doing. I don’t think I’ve ever given an actor staging cues…The last thing I want an actor worrying about while they’re performing is where to stand, or where they cannot walk or something as futile as that.
CM: The film utilizes current phenomena, such as MySpace and vlogging, to create an interesting visual palette. Is that specific to this film, or does this DIY style seem to be increasing in popularity in the film world?
MJF: I see more and more references to MySpace and YouTube in film, but not necessarily utilizing the actual formats such as webcams to tell the stories. This isn’t that original, of course; it’s more just a modern day adaptation of what films like Reality Bites did when they started using video cameras that were turned on actors by the characters as a part of their narrative. For me, it wasn’t really a creative choice, or a ploy, so much as it just made sense. This character lives through a different world view…he made it through j[unio]r high and high school by connecting and making friends and getting popular via his MySpace page and LiveJournal posts. So, it didn’t even cross my mind to film him filming himself while he was making his vlogs… people are so used to watching poor-quality video on YouTube anyways, so I figured it just made sense.
CM: Did you have other filmic influences in making OMG/HaHaHa?
MJF: [In addition to the Dogme95 films there are] many others: Harmony Korine’s Gummo and Julien Donkey Boy, as well as Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Last Days), and a newer filmmaker whose work I’m completely in awe of, Cam Archer, who made one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen, titled Wild Tigers I Have Known.
CM: Can you describe some of the benefits of working in the Memphis film scene?
MJF: I was born and raised in Memphis. It’s my home and I love it. The community of artists, and just people in general here that I’ve come to know, they’re my family by all means. There’s not a big queer community here, which to me is rather nice because instead of being separated into a specific community, I’m simply a part of a larger more diverse community of people that I work with in every way…and the whole being a homo thing has never been an issue. I feel very very fortunate to know all the incredibly talented and sincere people I work with here. It’s also very helpful that the city is extremely accessible, in that it’s very easy to shoot here without the hassle of worrying about permits and all that. There’s a lot of locally owned businesses here who are more than willing to help and allow us to use their facilities to shoot.
CM: How is the film being distributed after the festival circuit?
MJF: We are fortunate enough to have gotten a distribution deal through Water Bearer Films. They will be distributing the film sometime next year.
CM: What are some future projects you are working on?
I’m finishing up a documentary I’ve [been] working on for two years that follows a story that unfolded in Memphis in 2005 where a 16-year-old teenager was forced into an Evangelical Christian program that pledges to turn gay people straight. It should be completed in February.
The extended trailer for Fox’s upcoming documentary is below.
