Frameline 2011: Tuesday
Jun. 22nd, 2011 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nakedbeeTook the opportunity to sleep in a little bit in the morning before heading out to the movies. Vacations can be pretty tiring!
Note: plot summaries and promotional images again shamelessly lifted from Frameline. Check out the festival website and/or websearch the film's titles for more info.
Kawa
Following the heartbreaking, sexually charged novel Nights in the Gardens of Spain by award-winning author Witi Ihimaera (Whale Rider), Kawa is the story of a family man coming out for the first time in the Maori world, where the ties that bind are tight and the responsibilities of family extend well beyond just one generation.
His marriage on the rocks, handsome Kawa lives out of a hotel, spending his days under fire at the office and his nights at a local steam room where he has anonymous sex with men. Annabelle, his wife, vaguely suspects the involvement of another woman but stifles the notion in an attempt to keep their family intact.
Feeling guilty and isolated from his children, Kawa puts on a brave face and returns to his family in time to visit his aging father and be passed the Kahu huruhuru (a feathered cloak), a symbol that the time has come for him to lead the family. Just as his family life reaches a shaky equilibrium, Kawa's elderly mother spots him bidding farewell to a former lover in secret, and her silent scorn prompts him to reveal his true identity to his family—and live with the fallout that follows.
This story thrives on the big screen thanks to breathtaking views of New Zealand's beautiful landscape, as the nuanced direction of Katie Wolfe deftly illuminates the loss and liberation that accompanies coming out with a family in tow.
This was a well-made movie, and I loved the gorgeous New Zealand scenery and the focus on Maori characters. The story seemed pretty dated, though, which made more sense once the writer admitted it was his own coming out story written mumblety-something years ago and now transposed to a present-day setting. I think an 80s setting would have made the film hang together better, but I can sympathize that it would strain the budget. Also, the filmmakers said the film was intended for mainstream audiences (I think in apology for it's conservative sensibility). Still, I really struggled to have sympathy for a man who's been cheating on his wife for almost all of their ~20 years of marriage. It sucks that the wife has a pretty homophobic reaction when she's told, but I don't care what gender you're cheating with, it's still totally cheating! Ah, well, I know that not everyone lives in the poly/bi paradise where there are more than just binary options. Also, kudos to the film for not flinching away from showing how incredibly hard it is for the kids to understand why their parents suddenly don't seem to love each other any more.
Three
If you let it, love can be as easy as one-two-three, as Tykwer proves in this atmospheric piece about bisexuality, love and longing in cosmopolitan Berlin. But none of the three knows what the other two are doing. Here infidelity is just what the love doctor ordered. Hesitant first approaches turn voracious, and the affairs pulse with sensuality, especially when Simon and Adam smolder on-screen. As each coupling’s relationship grows more satisfying physically and spiritually, the trio’s palpable chemistry drives the story to a dizzying climax. These spheres must collide eventually—right?
Boy, I'm really feeling the opposite of an old fuddy-duddy today. I don't even know what the word for that is. Anyway, this was a perfectly nice film that left me totally unimpressed. Again with the cheating! Sure, I loved that the het couple eventually figured out they were sleeping with the same guy and eventually decided to all sleep together! But that all happened in the last 5 minutes of the film! The whole rest of it was about the het couple cheating on each other and not talking! Boo! I was really looking forward to seeing them navigate a triad relationship, but that was just not what this film was about at all. On the bright side, the three main actors were cute and there were some bits about science that didn't make me cringe. Yay!
The Faux Real
Director Suzanne Hillinger follows three performers with one thing in common—they are all cisgender (that is, not transgender) women who perform as—and identify as—drag queens. Through interview segments and clips of their burlesque, drag, and comedy routines, solo performance legends The World Famous *BOB*, Dr. Lucky, and Raven Snook invite us to question performative femininity and the nature of drag.
Very cool! This short film was totally worth getting out of bed for. The Q&A afterwards was good, and I'd totally be up for more discussions that compare and contrast burlesque and drag … two traditions that started out in different places but have ended up with a lot of the same aesthetics. The thought I had after watching this and the next film was that drag was all about figuring out how to make the body you have look sexy … sometimes that meant crossing gender lines, sometimes it meant putting on fake eyelashes so that your extra-tall frame and extra-generous proportions made you look closer to the ideal rather than farther from it. Yay!
daKings
This documentary tracks the Norwegian drag king troupe of daKings through rehearsals, costume fittings, and very long—and sometimes tense—troupe meetings. For two years, the women of the troupe build their stage characters, hone the fine points of playing a man onstage, practice their dance moves and swaggers, and delight in custom-made suits.
Hmmph! The description of this movie is truthful, but the ratios are off. It felt like 9 parts tense troupe meetings and 1 part dance moves and delight. Oh well. There were some pretty good parts, but it was overshadowed for me by the feelings of doom and eventual break-up of the group.
My reviews were pretty grumpy, but overall I'm really quite happy to have seen these films. All were enjoyable and worth seeing, even if none of them make my "watch over and over and over" list.
Note: plot summaries and promotional images again shamelessly lifted from Frameline. Check out the festival website and/or websearch the film's titles for more info.
Kawa
Following the heartbreaking, sexually charged novel Nights in the Gardens of Spain by award-winning author Witi Ihimaera (Whale Rider), Kawa is the story of a family man coming out for the first time in the Maori world, where the ties that bind are tight and the responsibilities of family extend well beyond just one generation.
His marriage on the rocks, handsome Kawa lives out of a hotel, spending his days under fire at the office and his nights at a local steam room where he has anonymous sex with men. Annabelle, his wife, vaguely suspects the involvement of another woman but stifles the notion in an attempt to keep their family intact.
Feeling guilty and isolated from his children, Kawa puts on a brave face and returns to his family in time to visit his aging father and be passed the Kahu huruhuru (a feathered cloak), a symbol that the time has come for him to lead the family. Just as his family life reaches a shaky equilibrium, Kawa's elderly mother spots him bidding farewell to a former lover in secret, and her silent scorn prompts him to reveal his true identity to his family—and live with the fallout that follows.
This story thrives on the big screen thanks to breathtaking views of New Zealand's beautiful landscape, as the nuanced direction of Katie Wolfe deftly illuminates the loss and liberation that accompanies coming out with a family in tow.
This was a well-made movie, and I loved the gorgeous New Zealand scenery and the focus on Maori characters. The story seemed pretty dated, though, which made more sense once the writer admitted it was his own coming out story written mumblety-something years ago and now transposed to a present-day setting. I think an 80s setting would have made the film hang together better, but I can sympathize that it would strain the budget. Also, the filmmakers said the film was intended for mainstream audiences (I think in apology for it's conservative sensibility). Still, I really struggled to have sympathy for a man who's been cheating on his wife for almost all of their ~20 years of marriage. It sucks that the wife has a pretty homophobic reaction when she's told, but I don't care what gender you're cheating with, it's still totally cheating! Ah, well, I know that not everyone lives in the poly/bi paradise where there are more than just binary options. Also, kudos to the film for not flinching away from showing how incredibly hard it is for the kids to understand why their parents suddenly don't seem to love each other any more.
Three
If you let it, love can be as easy as one-two-three, as Tykwer proves in this atmospheric piece about bisexuality, love and longing in cosmopolitan Berlin. But none of the three knows what the other two are doing. Here infidelity is just what the love doctor ordered. Hesitant first approaches turn voracious, and the affairs pulse with sensuality, especially when Simon and Adam smolder on-screen. As each coupling’s relationship grows more satisfying physically and spiritually, the trio’s palpable chemistry drives the story to a dizzying climax. These spheres must collide eventually—right?
Boy, I'm really feeling the opposite of an old fuddy-duddy today. I don't even know what the word for that is. Anyway, this was a perfectly nice film that left me totally unimpressed. Again with the cheating! Sure, I loved that the het couple eventually figured out they were sleeping with the same guy and eventually decided to all sleep together! But that all happened in the last 5 minutes of the film! The whole rest of it was about the het couple cheating on each other and not talking! Boo! I was really looking forward to seeing them navigate a triad relationship, but that was just not what this film was about at all. On the bright side, the three main actors were cute and there were some bits about science that didn't make me cringe. Yay!
The Faux Real
Director Suzanne Hillinger follows three performers with one thing in common—they are all cisgender (that is, not transgender) women who perform as—and identify as—drag queens. Through interview segments and clips of their burlesque, drag, and comedy routines, solo performance legends The World Famous *BOB*, Dr. Lucky, and Raven Snook invite us to question performative femininity and the nature of drag.
Very cool! This short film was totally worth getting out of bed for. The Q&A afterwards was good, and I'd totally be up for more discussions that compare and contrast burlesque and drag … two traditions that started out in different places but have ended up with a lot of the same aesthetics. The thought I had after watching this and the next film was that drag was all about figuring out how to make the body you have look sexy … sometimes that meant crossing gender lines, sometimes it meant putting on fake eyelashes so that your extra-tall frame and extra-generous proportions made you look closer to the ideal rather than farther from it. Yay!
daKings
This documentary tracks the Norwegian drag king troupe of daKings through rehearsals, costume fittings, and very long—and sometimes tense—troupe meetings. For two years, the women of the troupe build their stage characters, hone the fine points of playing a man onstage, practice their dance moves and swaggers, and delight in custom-made suits.
Hmmph! The description of this movie is truthful, but the ratios are off. It felt like 9 parts tense troupe meetings and 1 part dance moves and delight. Oh well. There were some pretty good parts, but it was overshadowed for me by the feelings of doom and eventual break-up of the group.
My reviews were pretty grumpy, but overall I'm really quite happy to have seen these films. All were enjoyable and worth seeing, even if none of them make my "watch over and over and over" list.