Saturday, June 12, 2010

Frameline 34 (SF Intl. LGBT Film Festival) Shorts Programs Preview - Pt. 2, Worldly Affairs

This year’s internationally renowned showcase for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) cinema runs June 17-27, with San Francisco screenings at the historic Castro Theatre (429 Castro Street), Roxie Theater (3117 16th Street) and the Victoria Theatre (2961 16th Street), and in Berkeley at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood (2966 College Avenue).Tickets for Frameline34 are on sale  through  www.frameline.org.

"Worldly Affairs" is the annual collection of international short subjects, and as usual, this year's collection is superlative.

Transatlantic (dir. David Quantic, Germany, 2009, 13 min.) This is a fascinating and beautifully edited story of  "two couples on opposite sides of the Atlantic share a mysterious connection." Though I was a bit confused at moments, the pacing and its resolution, I was swept away as if in the dreams of its characters.  It's a lovely 13 minutes.

The Armoire (dir. Jamie Travis, Canada 2009, 22 min) The richly deserved winner of the Golden Gate Award for Narrative Short at the San Francisco International Film Festival earlier this year, Jamie Travis concludes his Edward Gorey-esque trilogy of  "Saddest Children In The World" (which includes The Saddest Boy in the World (which I LOVED at Frameline, 2007), and Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner, which I've also seen and spooks me out!) with this story of a missing child and how his friend, Aaron (remarkably acted by William Cuddy), remembers their last day together.  Travis' production design continues to be enchanting, while his script is ultimately the most disturbing of his trilogy!  I look forward to seeing them gathered together as a single DVD! PLEASE!!

Lines (dir. Carlos Muñoz Vazquez, Mexico , 2010 , 11 min.) This is a bittersweet story of a pair of guys who explore their connection through their different tastes in music, after having hooked up at a club. Vazquez has briefly, yet succinctly detailed a relationship from it's humble and exciting beginning to the banality of its resolution. To a certain extent, the film itself is as difficult as the relationship it portrays, but that's a good thing...



Just Friends? (dir. KIM-JHO Gwang-soo, Korea , 2009 , 29 min.) This is a surprisingly effect love story of two young men who have to deal with the obstacles of the Korean army and their families in order to be together. They guys are quite sweet together and display a true affection and chemistry.  It is bookended with a couple trippy musical credit sequences, too.


Unavailable for preview: Inflatable Swamp (dir. William Feroldi, UK , 2009 , 13 min.) and Swing (dir. Leon Cheo, Singapore , 2009 , 6 min.)

Maxxxxx says re THE ARMOIRE: "Sweet, sweet eye juice!"

You can contact Maxxxxx or myself here: JayCBird@AOL.COM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

the armoire seems homophobic in the same way 60's movies about this subject seemed.

Jay, aka The Angry Little Man said...

Hm. Personally, I did not find it homophobic as much as a more creepy and effective portrait of a homicidal little monster, not unlike THE BAD SEED. If anything, his use of the armoire itself, could be seen as an allegory to the harm and destruction of what staying in the closet can wreak, in shot and designed in a style reminiscent of 60's melodrama.

Jamie Travis' work has a creepy stillness that leaves his work open to poetic (if not near Rorschach levels) of interpretation. I think to be able to view his trilagy as a whole (as it HAS been released on DVD) could be quite an experience!

Anonymous said...

people do say if you see the others you will like his work more. this one left me a little cold.

Jay, aka The Angry Little Man said...

Well, Jamie Travis is sort of a deconstrunctionalist of Douglas Sirk's style, but featuring adolescents, which I guess is part of his point, too. The two earlier pieces of his are even more quiet and depressing, though not as macabre as THE ARMOIRE.

I don't sort of think it's the kind of stuff that can grow on you. You're either going to love him or not. Here is a link to a DVD of his previous pieces: http://tiny.cc/1d5hh

Michael Guillen said...

Again, thanks for this survey. I regret missing this program.