Frameline 2010: Monday
Jun. 22nd, 2010 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nakedbeeVacations are awesome, aren't they? Mine started out fabulously with Con.Txt last weekend (more on that later, hopefully) and continued yesterday with the San Francisco LGBT film festival. I'm hoping to do at least a short review of all the films I see this week.
Monday's film reviews below the cut
Note: plot summaries and promotional images shamelessly lifted from Frameline. Click the image to go there for more info, including links to the official movie websites.
Dzi Croquettes
Performing troupes come and go but social justice with sequins never truly goes out of style. Dzi Croquettes tells the tale of the rise and fall of Brazil’s theater group that revolutionized queer performance art in the context of the political, social and cultural climate of Brazil in the 1970s. The group of thirteen stage performers embodied masculinity and femininity in ways that had never before been seen; they were not female impersonators yet refused to call themselves men, and this sexual ambiguity quickly earned the adoration of men and women, gay and straight.
Awesome! This was a fantastic documentary. I think one thing that was done really well was the extensive interviews with fans of the Croquettes as well as interviews with the artists and archival footage. Sometimes truly revolutionary art doesn't cross cultural and time barriers very well, but with person after person (actually, the fans were almost all women now that I think of it) talking about how seeing the show changed their life it was easier to understand the group's impact.
Swimming with Lesbians
Swimming with Lesbians explores an upstate New York community’s efforts to create an LGBT historic archive, led by the extraordinary Madeline Davis. Davis is more than the keeper of Buffalo’s archive. In addition to writing and recording the song “Stonewall Nation,” produced by the Mattachine Society, she was the first openly lesbian elected delegate to speak at the Democratic National Convention, she taught the first course on lesbianism ever offered at a major American university, and she co-authored a seminal history of blue collar lesbian life, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold.
Interesting content, mediocre documentary. Madeline Davis (as described in the bio above) seems really awesome. However, very little time is spent on any of those things, although I'm not really sure what the documentary did spend time on. Uncomfortable silences, maybe? Also, the swimming with lesbians thing is a total lie ... it's a great title and Madeline does own a pool, but there is no swimming (some floating, but only one person all alone for about 2 minutes out of the whole movie). I get the impression that the director was quite uncomfortable with the people he was interviewing at times. I must say that I prefer documentaries when the filmmaker is in love with the subjects. It wasn't awful, just seemed like it had unrealized potential. I'm glad I watched it and would recommend it, but it's a cautious recommendation.
Off World
Lucky, a young Toronto man adopted from the Philippines at an early age, returns to Smokey Mountain, a notorious Manila slum. Lucky is a shell of a man, empty, hoping to fill the void by finding his brother who was left behind. His only contact is a woman who introduces Lucky to his long lost sibling, Mamacita, an effeminate gay hustler who turns tricks to survive. Keeping his connection a secret, Lucky stays with his brother while wandering through the squalor of the 12-story pile of trash and garbage at the center of Smokey Mountain, only to sink deeper into his own desolation.
Beautiful use of color and light, the visual style was really really gorgeous but the plot was way too tragically angsty and had way too little dialogue for my tastes.
Riot Acts: Flaunting Gender Deviance in Music Performance
A “transfabulous rockumentary” featuring bands and artists like Trannysaurus Rex, Lipstick Conspiracy, Novice Theory, Coyote Grace, The DeGenerettes, and Systyr Act, the film showcases candid and poignant true-life stories of these talented musicians.
While much of mainstream culture has focused on the often painful “coming out” story or catalogued the many tragedies transpeople have endured, this film never really goes there, instead focusing on what matters most — the music. Should you sell CDs with your pre-transition voice? Are trans musicians inherently political? Should you “come out” on stage? What’s it like to be a high femme rocker with a deep voice?
Awesome! I am totally planning to rent this when it comes out on DVD and show it to people. Even sooner than that I'm going to look up all of these artists and check out their music. Geo Wyeth (Novice Theory) especially seems appealing (songs in a vaguely Broadway musical style, accompanied by an accordion and absolutely fantastic voice). Systyr Act and Basic Fix also seem really cool.
My Normal
A twentysomething lesbian dominatrix and her friends all work together in one fictitious upper-crust New York City dungeon as they struggle to make sense of their lives and manage relationships and career choices outside of the dungeon.
Fun, but more fluffy/superficial than I would have liked. The film certainly shone in some ways but also had some eye-rolly parts as well. Costuming was fantastic.
Now we head up to the city for another day of movies! Yippee!
Monday's film reviews below the cut
Note: plot summaries and promotional images shamelessly lifted from Frameline. Click the image to go there for more info, including links to the official movie websites.
Dzi Croquettes
Performing troupes come and go but social justice with sequins never truly goes out of style. Dzi Croquettes tells the tale of the rise and fall of Brazil’s theater group that revolutionized queer performance art in the context of the political, social and cultural climate of Brazil in the 1970s. The group of thirteen stage performers embodied masculinity and femininity in ways that had never before been seen; they were not female impersonators yet refused to call themselves men, and this sexual ambiguity quickly earned the adoration of men and women, gay and straight.
Awesome! This was a fantastic documentary. I think one thing that was done really well was the extensive interviews with fans of the Croquettes as well as interviews with the artists and archival footage. Sometimes truly revolutionary art doesn't cross cultural and time barriers very well, but with person after person (actually, the fans were almost all women now that I think of it) talking about how seeing the show changed their life it was easier to understand the group's impact.
Swimming with Lesbians
Swimming with Lesbians explores an upstate New York community’s efforts to create an LGBT historic archive, led by the extraordinary Madeline Davis. Davis is more than the keeper of Buffalo’s archive. In addition to writing and recording the song “Stonewall Nation,” produced by the Mattachine Society, she was the first openly lesbian elected delegate to speak at the Democratic National Convention, she taught the first course on lesbianism ever offered at a major American university, and she co-authored a seminal history of blue collar lesbian life, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold.
Interesting content, mediocre documentary. Madeline Davis (as described in the bio above) seems really awesome. However, very little time is spent on any of those things, although I'm not really sure what the documentary did spend time on. Uncomfortable silences, maybe? Also, the swimming with lesbians thing is a total lie ... it's a great title and Madeline does own a pool, but there is no swimming (some floating, but only one person all alone for about 2 minutes out of the whole movie). I get the impression that the director was quite uncomfortable with the people he was interviewing at times. I must say that I prefer documentaries when the filmmaker is in love with the subjects. It wasn't awful, just seemed like it had unrealized potential. I'm glad I watched it and would recommend it, but it's a cautious recommendation.
Off World
Lucky, a young Toronto man adopted from the Philippines at an early age, returns to Smokey Mountain, a notorious Manila slum. Lucky is a shell of a man, empty, hoping to fill the void by finding his brother who was left behind. His only contact is a woman who introduces Lucky to his long lost sibling, Mamacita, an effeminate gay hustler who turns tricks to survive. Keeping his connection a secret, Lucky stays with his brother while wandering through the squalor of the 12-story pile of trash and garbage at the center of Smokey Mountain, only to sink deeper into his own desolation.
Beautiful use of color and light, the visual style was really really gorgeous but the plot was way too tragically angsty and had way too little dialogue for my tastes.
Riot Acts: Flaunting Gender Deviance in Music Performance
A “transfabulous rockumentary” featuring bands and artists like Trannysaurus Rex, Lipstick Conspiracy, Novice Theory, Coyote Grace, The DeGenerettes, and Systyr Act, the film showcases candid and poignant true-life stories of these talented musicians.
While much of mainstream culture has focused on the often painful “coming out” story or catalogued the many tragedies transpeople have endured, this film never really goes there, instead focusing on what matters most — the music. Should you sell CDs with your pre-transition voice? Are trans musicians inherently political? Should you “come out” on stage? What’s it like to be a high femme rocker with a deep voice?
Awesome! I am totally planning to rent this when it comes out on DVD and show it to people. Even sooner than that I'm going to look up all of these artists and check out their music. Geo Wyeth (Novice Theory) especially seems appealing (songs in a vaguely Broadway musical style, accompanied by an accordion and absolutely fantastic voice). Systyr Act and Basic Fix also seem really cool.
My Normal
A twentysomething lesbian dominatrix and her friends all work together in one fictitious upper-crust New York City dungeon as they struggle to make sense of their lives and manage relationships and career choices outside of the dungeon.
Fun, but more fluffy/superficial than I would have liked. The film certainly shone in some ways but also had some eye-rolly parts as well. Costuming was fantastic.
Now we head up to the city for another day of movies! Yippee!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-22 07:00 pm (UTC)Again, thanks so much! Looked up Novice Theory and you're totally right - Geo Wyeth is amazing.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-23 09:58 am (UTC)