OCTOBER
18-27, 2002

Introduction
Index of Films

10/18, Friday
10/19, Saturday
10/20, Sunday
10/21, Monday
10/22, Tuesday
10/23, Wednesday
10/24, Thursday
10/25, Friday
10/26, Saturday
10/27, Sunday

Print Version

CPArts

Queer Notions
Reel Affirmations Festival

20SUNDAY

Straight
There will probably be points during David Schmader's Straight that you think to yourself, My God, is he still talking? Though only 100 minutes long, Schmader's sorta stand-up film feels interminable, and if you drift off for a bit, don't worry: You won't miss any jokes more biting than the zinger that teenage homosexuals end up in drama club. Straight is based on Schmader's experiences undergoing various forms of "conversion therapy," and he yawningly relates his interactions with queer-curing psychologists and Christian groups. He touches on the hypocrisy of religion and the euphoria of coming out and, when he's getting really crazy, his deification of Cher. His moldy material aside, Schmader, who looks like a freshly retired altar boy, is just too apple-cheeked and forgive the term straight-laced to pull off this wannabe-out-there comedy routine.
—Tricia Olszewski
At noon at the DCJCC.

Daddy & Papa
This intimate, wide-ranging documentary goes deep into the issues surrounding gay parenthood. In heeding their biological clocks, Johnny Symons and his partner, William, take a plunge into fatherhood that wipes out their previous understanding of gay culture, rewrites their attitudes toward straight culture, and brings up complications about race and class they never thought would result from becoming daddies to angel-faced little Zachary. Symons documents his own experience, recounting his unease with the adoption process (which he calls "catalog shopping") and the fraught reality that, in their home city of San Francisco and other places, many white, well-off men are raising African-American children with few rules or precedents. No longer relevant in the singles haven of the Castro, Johnny and William take Zachary to Gay Day at the Great America amusement park where all the kids' rides are closed for the day and wonder how much their yearning for familial comfort is assimilationist buckling-under as they climb into their new Volvo station wagon. Symons interviews other parents, observing the effect of "divorce" on a well-adjusted 9-year-old girl and the bond between a single gay dad, his devoted child, and the boy's extensive fundamentalist-Christian former foster family, as well as the ramifications of various state laws grappling with questions of gay adoption. The film is a real heartwarmer, despite the poisonous strain of potential anti-adoption laws that hums underneath the images of happily blended families.
—Arion Berger
At 1 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre.

Bad Genres
Someone is killing the beautiful trannies of Brussels, and it's up to their spangled, high-heeled colleagues to stop him. The glamorous, watchful Bo (Robinson Stévenin), born Beaudoin, is doubly burdened with police interest in the drag-hooker killings as well as the law's keen attention to the peccadillos of her father, a VIP with unsavory sexual habits. Add to which her fascination with a thuggish young neighbor, Johnny (Stéphane Metz ger), a nasty piece of work with fingers in every available pie so long as it's illegal, unsavory, or violent. The long arm of Alfred Hitchcock informs this elegant, humorless thriller, if pointlessly. A leitmotif of voyeurism comes to nothing, but Bo's chic, ladylike look is vintage Hitchcock heroine. We never quite buy the eye-patch-wearing figure whom Bo keeps glimpsing before the murders, but the story is gripping enough, especially when suspicion lands on our leading lady's tasteful chestnut chignon.
—Arion Berger
At 2 p.m. at the DCJCC.

African Stories
This program presents two recent films from Africa. In Surrender, everyone speaks simply and directly, but Celine Gilbert's swift film, set on the sun-washed beaches of Zanzibar, is all nuance and undercurrent. Gilbert's tatami-level camera witnesses the passage into stultifying manhood of merchant's son Amri. He is forced to let go of his personal longings and conform to his Muslim community's demands when his father marries him off to a dull good girl to make a useful familial alliance. Meanwhile, Amri envies the freedom of his fisherman friend, Mahua, not understanding that, as the kept boy of an older man, Mahua must live within a different set of confines. In Simon & I, narrator Beverley Ditsie recounts her friendship with activist Simon Nkoli, who brought sexual politics into the arena of South African liberation, as well as her own burgeoning sense of outrage as an AIDS activist and lesbian filmmaker. European and American coming-out stories are fraught enough, but the ignorance, violence, and intolerance of apartheid-era South Africa is staggering. Despite all the respect she shows her limelight-hogging mentor and eventual media rival, Ditsie is the real heroine of Simon & I; this aware, confident young woman's self-examination is an awesome feat.
—Arion Berger
At 3 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre.

Whether You Like It or Not: The Story of Hedwig
American director Laura Nix's film documents the rise of John Cameron Mitchell's bouffanted drag character from off-Broadway stage to the big screen.
At 4 p.m. at the DCJCC.

Bungee Jumping of Their Own
Although it takes them quite a while to connect, attractive Seoul college students In-woo (Byung-hun Lee) and Tae-hee (Eun-joo Lee) are clearly made for each other. On the night they finally sleep together, In-woo tells Tae-hee that if she dies he'll recognize her and love her reincarnation. Naturally, she's promptly hit by a truck, and In-woo has to wait 17 years to meet her again now in the form of Hyun-bin (Hyeon-soo Yeo), a male student in high school teacher In-woo's class. In-Woo is a little unnerved by this discovery, but he can't stay away from the boy who has the soul of his dead love, which leads first to rumors that teacher and student are gay and then to outright harassment. For those who believe in reincarnation, director Dai-Seung Kim's skillful and entertaining melodrama may be provocative. Of course, it can also be seen as a timidly roundabout way to approach same-sex love between teacher and student.
—Mark Jenkins
At 5 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre.

Dildo Diaries
You're in Austin, Texas, and you want to buy a dildo. And why not? Nothing else to do in the godforsaken place. So you wander into the Forbidden Fruit sex shop, and ask for the longest, hardest, purplest bad boy they have. Sorry, they inform, no dildos for sale but they do carry penis-shaped "educational models" and battery-operated "personal massagers." In this very funny 60-minute documentary about the overt backwardness of the Lone Star legislature, syndicated columnist Molly Ivins has a devilish time mocking the prudish penal code and those infamous obscenity laws. The state's confederacy of dunces has proclaimed that a "personal massager" can't look like a penis (no head, no veins, no balls), and that an "educational model" ("for people who need to be educated") can look just like a erect penis it just can't vibrate. Also, if you own five or fewer "educational models," you are considered a "hobbyist"; however, if you own six or more, you are...under arrest for "intention to distribute." It's a kick watching Ivins outwit her conservative foes, but it's a shame that filmmakers Laura Barton and Judy Wilder too quickly send her off topic and out of state to a sex-toy convention and factory. Dildo Diaries eventually turns into an extended episode of HBO's tired Real Sex, but this doc's first half is well worth catching. FYI: At Forbidden Fruit, it's perfectly legal to ask for a butt plug. "The anus is not a sexual orifice according to Texas law," Ivins informs. "You can put anything up your butt...as long as it isn't a penis."
—Sean Daly
At 6 p.m. at the DCJCC.

I Love You Baby
This film by Spanish directors Alfonso Albacete and David Menkes follows three young Madridians entangled in a love triangle: Marisol (Tiaré Scanda) loves Marcos (Jorge Sanz), and so does Danny (Santiago Magill). But can Marcos admit that he's in love with a man? And will he break Marisol's heart in the process?
At 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre.

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
The title of Canadian director Lee Gordon Demarbre's Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter pretty much says it all 85 minutes of Our Lord and Savior righteously beating the shit out of an army of unholy bloodsuckers. Sure, there's a barely discernible story line buried beneath the layers of gore something about the disappearance of the local lesbian community, vampires who walk freely in the daylight, and the Second Coming. But who needs story when you've got low-budget kung-fu action featuring punk-rock priests, a thrift-store-shopping Jesus, and a Mexican wrestling superstar vs. legions of vampire dykes? Drawing heavily from '70s exploitation films, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter's tongue-in-cheek take on biblical prophecy and contemporary sexual politics comes complete with swanky soundtrack and laughable dubbing. Add a musical number and a special appearance by God in the form of a cherry sundae and you've got something much better to do tonight than watch Buffy reruns.
—Matthew Borlik
At 8 p.m. at the DCJCC.

Best of the Fest
This program of 12 short films includes American director J.D. Disalvatore's Gay Propaganda: Reservoir Dogs, French director Daniel Wiroth's One Dance, One Song, and Australian director Mark Robinson's Sweet Thing.
At 9 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre.

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