Frameline 33 (SF LGBT Film Festival, 2009) - Dyke Delights

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.

The films in this program of short subjects are comedies about, by, for lesbians. (Duh!! "Dyke Delights"!?) It screens once: Saturday, June 27, 3:30 PM, at the Castro Theatre. The program is listed in order as presented via screener and subject to change and includes:

LES LAPINES (The Girl Bunnies) (dir. Francoise Doherty, Canada, 2008, 4 min.) A brief and a bit roughly executed animation of two female bunnies in love and the "different" family they form. Though the animation may be crude by PIXAR standards, it is still a strangely hypnotic, if not psychedelic, experience... oh yessss... bunnieeeees...

TOOLS 4 FOOLS (dir. Kate A. Brandt, USA, 2009, 8 min.) Comedienne, Julie Goldman drives the piece with some great energy and fabulous pacing as an infomercial salesperson of everyone's 1AM nightmares! She's selling something you might need at 1AM, too. hee hee hee...

LEW LO FROM THE BLOCK (dir. Brynn Gelbard, USA, 2009, 4 min.) Coming from the creators of last year's hoot LEZBRO DON'T CHA KNOW, is a music video worthy of Dr. Demento!! Simply: it's a "musical parody about how a Jewish American Princess from Long Island turned into a big ol’ faux queen in SF." I loved it!


TROPHY (dir. Karla DiBenedetto, USA, 2008, 11 min.) The program takes a bit of a dip with this slight script involving daughter and soon-to-be-stepmom. The cast is more than capable, but they are a bit stranded by a predictable script. However, the production is professionally executed.

THE 6 MONTH RULE (Linda Andersson, USA, 2008, 12 min.) A second entry from Linda Andersson, whose WHEN THE TIME'S RIGHT screened earlier. Here, she has gathered another capable cast as a group of friends gathered for one of those parties where one too many past relationships come colliding. In other words, it's a cocktail party farce, and it works fairly well, though timing can always be tighter in these kind of things.

A DAY AT THE BEACH (dir. Veronique Courtois, USA, 2008, 3 min.) In this traditionally animated little flick "Brad and Sally" share a special vacation on a beach! I am ALWAYS a fan of independent animation of this type! Courtois shows pace and good technique. She can stretch herself in script and not be quite as literal, but still, that's just a quibble and I HOPE she is working on something for next year, too!

QUEERER THAN THOU (Dir. Ramses Rodstein, USA, 2008, 8 min.) "The labels of sex and who wears them best..." Yes, well, though it has a clever idea, and the subtitled labels are fun, PAUSING for them kills the pace. No, no no! The climactic test of who is the queerest lacks energy for what it must be. In the end, I am afraid that it comes off pretty lame. I'm sorry guys...

NUMEROLOGY (dir. Paula Durette, USA, 2009, 3 min.) I do not know how to begin to describe this DELIGHTFUL short animation that "unveils the mysteries of lesbians through the occult arts"! The fact that I find it so visually specific as to defy sufficient literal description just thrills me to no end! THAT is what great animation can be all about. Brava, Ms. Durette!


SISTA CHRONICLES (dirs. LC Bruce, EJ Wood, USA, 2008, 17 min.) Well, where else would you see ANOTHER dildo retrieval comedy?! Unfortunately, this one is dreadfully paced. It actually begins with the foursome (who appear quite mismatched, even beyond SEX AND THE CITY-esque stereotypes) are playing... dominoes?! Then a series of flashbacks and flash forwards become excuses for extended skits, featuring characters we don't really know. One top of that, the sound design is poor enough to make it difficult to understand. As it progresses, I began to think that some of the characters were played against type, in a "Young Ones" way. Unfortunately, it attempts that kind of farce, too, but the cast simply doesn't have the timing and the editing doesn't have the pacing to support that kind of outrageousness. Then there is the climax which is just sort of ... wrong, but in a funny way, had the rest of the production been up to par. It is simply too slow and too long, even at seventeen minutes.

BUTTERY TOP (dirs. Catherine Crouch, Kelly Hayes, USA, 2009, 4 min.) This is a clever little big involving the baggage we all bring into a dating situation. A quick, wittily executed, single joke, performed against the Blue Danube, and over a loaf of bread.



BERATED WOMAN (dir. Anya Meksin, USA , 2008 , 15 min.) You know, this is really a twisted little story, if you think about it too much. And you should! A Jewish woman discovers her latent lesbianism in her attraction to a classically Aryan "urban supermom". The pacing is great, particularly when the two women have their master shots, which Patrice Keitt and Tori Davis handle wonderfully. The motivation for the climax seems a bit forced, but that's a quibble by the end. The photography is in clever shadows and reflections, and Meksin's pacing of the "bookend scenes" is particularly subtle and effective, and she allows herself a bittersweet tale, without becoming maudlin or farcical.

Maxxxxx says
re NUMEROLOGY: "Sweet sweet eye juice!"