Life with Movies and Maxxxxx

Frameline33: San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, the world’s premiere showcase for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender cinema, runs June 18-28, 2009, with screenings in San Francisco at the historic Castro Theatre, Roxie Theater and the Victoria Theatre, and in Berkeley at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood. Tickets are available via the website 24 hours a day, via fax, or in person at the Frameline Festival Box Office Counter.

Films in this program of short subjects are listed in order as presented via screener and subject to change. It screens once: Saturday, June 20, 1:15 PM
Roxie Film Center. This is a collection of four literal and impressionistic biographies, about historical homosexual figures in entertainment, science, art and politics, and includes:

UNCLE DENIS? (dir. Adrian Goycoolea, UK, 2009, 18 min.) Director Adrian Goycoolea, a great-nephew of "the great flamboyante" Quentin Crisp, seems to be working through some family guilt about ignoring Mr. Crisp. There is a LOT of home movie and video footage, which is rare and appreciated! The director's mother bears a striking resemblance to Quentin. Perhaps the most interesting reactions come from the two surviving sisters, as well as the family's shock about Quentin's dabbling as a male prostitute. Though there is some trivial interest here, it sort of pales in comparison to Quentin's autobiographical material. Ah well...

DECODING ALAN TURING (dir. Christopher Racster, UK, 2008, 17 min.) A fairly dry documentary that "uncovers Alan Turing, British WWII hero at the center of US/UK Intelligence, now hailed as the father of the modern computer." It gets a bit overly involved with the actual theory of computing, for my taste, but there are significant clips of ENIGMA and the Derek Jakobi film BREAKING THE CODE, in which to expand upon an apparently, fairly private person. It does attempt a bit philosophizing about decrypting Turing's life compared to decrypting secret codes. There is also some extended discussion of his suicide in 1954 (by eating a cynanide laced apple), which spawns the urban legend that the Apple Computer logo is a nod to his genius.

GENERAL IDEA: ART, AIDS AND THE FIN de SIECLE (dir. Annette Mangaard, Canada, 2008 ,48 min.) When I first moved to San Francisco in 1993, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (which was still in the Civic Center location then), hosted General Idea's installation THE FIN de SIECLE, which blew me away!! I can not believe it has taken this long for a documentary of the artistic collective from Canada, whose most recognized work was for AMFAR and the AIDS insignia, which was an homage (or "apolitical rip-off") of Robert Indiana’s LOVE. Their work straddled the line of pop-art and political commentary, yet contained a certain self aware humor about they were doing, without losing the importance about why. There is an extensive collection of video work in the documentary, as well as an attempt at presenting their collection of self portraits, though nothing compares to having walked into that room which contained the actual THE FIN de SIECLE (installation version) of discarded white walls, surrounding the three white seals... It is sad to know that two of the three who made up the collective have since died.

575 CASTRO ST. (dir. Jenni Olson, USA, 2008, 7 min.) This is an impressionistic portrait of Harvey Milk, using basically still cinematography of the recreated Castro camera store (used during Gus Van Sant’s MILK), as director Jenni Olson allows shadows to pass through the frame, while Harvey Milk’s original recording to be played in the event of his assassination is heard underneath it. Though I can not say I have been one of Olson's biggest fans (her THE JOY OF LIFE drove me nuts!), I found this to be subtly haunting...

Maxxxxx says
re GENERAL IDEA: ART, AIDS AND THE FIN de SIECLE: "Sweet, sweet eye juice!"