Thursday, June 22, 2006

30th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, aka Frameline 30: Day 5

Yes, I am posting this a day late. I know. I'm just getting tired. Oh. And. Well. It turned out to be an unusually LATE night for me. After starting at the Dolby Labs at 9:30 a.m. for the Jewish Film Festival preview, I popped on over to the Castro to begin my day at THAT film festival.

"DYKETACTICS" (dir Barbara Hammer 1974 USA 4 min 16mm), "UNTITLED (DYKETACTICS REVISITED)" (dir Liz Rosenfeld 2005 USA 8 min video) and "LOVER OTHER" (dir Barbara Hammer 2006 USA 55 min video) made up this program that served as something of a tribute to Barbara Hammer. (She was unable to attend as she is dealing with ovarian cancer in her home on the east coast.) I can appreciate Ms. Hammer's work, as it serves an artistic purpose. I sort of compare her to being the lesbian version of Kenneth Anger. What that means, however, is that there are a lot of 'poetic' shots of breasts and vaginas. That is what "Dyketactics" (as well as the tribute-remake, "Untitled (Dyketactics Revisited)" are about. Lots of women, prancing about, buck naked. "Lover Other" was a different thing, altogether! It was a documentary about surrealist "sisters" Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, who lived on the Island of Jersey during the Nazi occupation. This is a collection of photographs of their work as well as commentaries from some of their neighbors. Cahun and Moore's photographs were actually quite striking! I found this to be possibly the most bearable Barbara Hammer film I've ever seen.



"MUXES: AUTHENTIC, INTREPID, SEEKERS OF DANGER" (dir Alejandra Islas 2005 Mexico 105 min video) is a documentary profiling the exceptionally large gay population of Juchitan, Mexico. It is in Spanish and is subtitled. I bring this up as nearly the entirety of the film is talking heads. LOTS of talking! LOTS AND LOTS of it! It was really working my nerves. There was very little footage of just the guys living their lives. Or so it felt. And even though at an hour and forty-five minutes, that seemed REALLY long! In fact, in the spirit of full disclosure, I walked out towards the end. I saw ninety minutes, but I just had no idea how much longer it was, and I just couldn't sit there any more. And it was 'happy hour.'

Yes, I need to interrupt this posting with the fact that I felt the need to dart out of the theater for happy hour. As some of you might know, happy hour can be a slippery slope for your devoted correspondent. I had three hours before having to be at the Roxie for my final flick of the day. That's a fairly long happy hour. Yes, indeedy!

"DEREK JARMAN: LIFE AS ART" (dir Andy Kimpton-Nye 2004 UK 60 min video) and "IMAGINING OCTOBER" (dir Derek Jarman 1984 UK 27 min 16mm) You see, the reason that the happy hour interruption is vital to this posting, is that I fell asleep no more than five minutes into the documentary and did not wake up until the audience applause at the end. I left before "Imagining October" started as I sort of saw no point in staying.

Plus, well, seeing as I had a good nap and seeing as it was Tuesday night, and seeing as it is 'gay week' and seeing as I was in a Festive Mood, I just had to, yes, HAD TO go to Trannyshack!! Chi Chi Larue was the Special Guest Emcee, and I could NOT pass up the opportunity to be chastised and harasseded by the self described "Sex Goddess of Porno"! I got home around... oh, I'd say... 1:30? Which is MY excuse for being a day late with this posting! And I'm sticking with it!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Is it BEDTIME!?!?!"
[Yes, Maxxxxx, it is. It is.]