Frameline 34 (SF Intl. LGBT Film Festival) Shorts Programs Preview - Pt. 3, Transtastic!

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.

"Transtastic!" is a collection of short subjects featuring transexual themes and/or performers.

FAGETTE (Dir. Ali Cotterill, USA, 2008, 3 Mins.) It would be over simplified to describe this as "just" as music video of the song by Athens Boys Choir, but that is what it is. Entertaining and fun to watch play out on an "astro-turf Wonderland"!

Falling in Love... with Chris and Greg. Episode 3: "FOOD!" (dirs. Chris Vargas, Greg Youmans, USA, 2010, 25 Mins.) This latest installment from the webisodic "Falling Love... with Chris and Greg" continues the socio-sexual-political dialogue that dominates the style of the couple's earlier videos. It is quite fortunate that they are so appealing as characters, people and as a couple, as the dialogue can be exceptionally densely conveyed and, in this instance, at 25 minutes, nearly overwhelming.  In fact, a little bit of editing might benefit to tighten up and highlight their inherent humor.  (In fact, as H.P. Mendoza ("Colma,l the Musical") appears to be a technical collaborator, they might take advantage of his editing expertise!) 

REMEMBER ME IN RED (dir. Hector Ceballos, USA , 2010 , 16 min) Yes, dear readers, believe it or not, this little soap opera actually choked me up a bit! It is a relatively simple situation, but fraught with tension: the funeral of a transexual male-to-female, as planned by her birth family who refuse to acknowledge her transition, is attended by her chosen family who insist on honoring her as she was when she died. Though the film treads close to being telenovela, the film, the direction and cast maintain a dignity and sincerity that moved me.

And, repeating from the "Dyke Delights" program:

T4-2 (dirs. Shellie CItron, Allegra Hirschman, USA , 2009 , 4 min.) I simply love and adore this musical carousel of genders within "a picture-perfect heterosexual marriage".  The four performers, the direction, design and editing are executed with such joy, it is simply infections!  I've watched this over a half dozen times! A fabulous four minutes...!


Unavailable for preview:  Everyday to Stay (dir. Chase Ryan Joynt, Canada , 2010 , 21 min.) and Señorita (dir. Vincent Sandoval, Philippines , 2009 , 15 min.)

Maxxxxx says re T4-2: "Dooby doobie-dooo-ooo!"


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