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At the closing gala, Out On Screen revealed that the audience favourites for movies and shorts were Undertow (film) and Butch Tits (short).
Now, PressPlus1 has compiled a quick list of what the best documentaries, shorts and feature films were in the vaste festival line-up across all 11 days of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Curiously, the best features were either fag hag or lesbian oriented, and the shorts focused on gay men. For more in-depth coverage on these films and more, check out PressPlus1?s day-by-day coverage of the festival.
Best Shorts
Do Not Bend
Directed By: Pierre Bonhomme; Stars: Peter Keleghan, Anna Silk, Maggie Cassella
Why You Should See It: Preceding the showing of The Owls, Do Not Bend concerns a newlywed couple that even a suburban home can?t turn straight. Worth watching just to see that our neighbours aren?t as straight as we think they are!
Last Call
Directed By: Nick Corporon; Stars: Travis Dixon, David Devora, Jody Jaress
Why You Should See It: Jody Jaress as the bartender who runs a supernatural bar is superb, and the plot of living out three memories to decide whether or not to live again is compelling. Also, the memories are reached through liquor shots, which is a nice touch.
Disarm
Directed By: Nathan Keene; Stars: David Ryan Kinsman, Taris Tyler
Why You Should See It: It?s a frank discussion of masculinity and shows how two different generations of gay men interact when two men get together for a night of anonymous sex. It also talks about being vulnearable to hate, something men often do not want to admit.
Waiting 4 Goliath
Directed By: Cal Garingan; Stars: Rick Tae
Why You Should See It: Sweet, charming and heartfelt, and a cross-cultural romance to boot. For more reasons, check out day five and day nine coverage.
Ms.Thing
Directed By: Karen X Tulchinsky; Stars: A female version of the Thing from the Addams family
Why You Should See It: It?s a mockumercial that is actually funny! You?ll be laughing the whole eight minutes through and you might be enticed to order a ?helping? hand for your ?emotional needs? yourself.
Best Documentaries
Two Spirits
Directed By: Lydia Nibley
Why You Should See It: To find out what a two-spirit person is. One of the more comprehensive documentaries on the two-spirit community, it also deals with the tragic death of Fred Martinez, who was murdered because he would spend some days as a man and others as a woman.
Riot Acts: Flaunting Gender Deviance in Music Performance
Directed By: Madsen Minax
Why You Should See It: Works for both film and music buffs. You can learn about activism through trans and gay musicians while picking up some new tunes and bands to increase your music collection.
Yang + Yin: Gender In Chinese Cinema
Directed By: Stanley Kwan
Why You Should See It: Another film buff great. Learn about gender in historical Eastern cinema like Farewell My Concubine and Happy Together. The section about Yam Kim-Fai and Bak Sheut-Sin, a couple in real life is extremely compelling, as is the years that Bridget Lin did so many roles as men.
Best Feature Films
The People I?ve Slept With
Directed By: Quentin Lee; Stars: Karin Anna Cheung, Wilson Cruz, Archie Kao
Why You Should See It: You will actually laugh out loud many, many times. Lighthearted and silly, but one of the films that makes pregnancy hilarious for once. It?s like a better Knocked Up!
Why You Should See It: If you liked XXY, you will also like this follow up feature from Puenzo. Dark but also optimistic, it has two exceptional performances from the lead actresses and covers class relationships without making the upper half inherently evil.
Why You Should See It: Meta film that does not lose you or go out of it?s way to be artsy or pretentious. It is neither of those, as it is an intelligent, involved murder mystery with bits of documentary/reality tv show spliced into it. Having the murder victim commenting on scenes post-mortem is creepy as well.
Violet Tendencies
Directed By: Casper Andreas; Stars: Mindy Cohn, Kim Allen, Samuel Whitten
Why You Should See It: It has wacky characters that we actually enjoy to watch and are in fact, comedic. It has real characters that deal with real situations like deciding to adopt a child or not. Lastly, it is a great time of a film, and would make a great movie night alongside The People I?ve Slept With.
There were numerous other great films and shorts at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, and there will surely be more next year. Looking forward to it!
A whole year is a long time to eagerly wait for the 23rd Vancouver Queer Film Festival, yet unfortunately that is the truth as today was the last day of this year's installment of the festival. Only 364 more days to go!
The Butch Factor (Empire Granville)
Christopher Hines? The Butch Factor also screened earlier this week, and was received so well that today?s was an added screening; originally only Strella was playing on the 22nd. It is easy to see why The Butch Factor was a huge draw as it attempts to answers the question of what does it mean to be gay and be a man? The issue of masculinity is discussed by gay athletes, sissy boys, bears, a prison guard, a musician, a newly out rodeo rider, a minister in the Church of Satan and more, giving it the upper hand over other documentaries that only cover one or two sides of the issue.
Another welcome change is that there is not an inordinate amount of ?expert? opinion within the film to bog it down. Ninety percent of the interviews and conversations are with regular people living their lives out in their respective communities. Educated viewpoints are necessary indeed, but having the people who live the experience of masculinity each and every day in their own manner, and not what psychology dictates they do, is refreshing.
Some have dismissed the documentary as irrelevant in today?s progressive attitudes to masculinity and queer peoples, but that is not true. Questioning masculinity and reforming it for each person?s life is something that should be noticed in all political climates, and The Butch Factor is making that point by showing us how each man equips it in his own way.
The only complaint is that the one voice that is seldom heard is that of the sissy boys, the ones who border femininity and masculinity, as only two sissy boys are asked to provide their input. Still, it?s a documentary that goes past the theory and looks at real life and how masculinity functions inside it.
Strella (Empire Granville)
The choice film of the closing gala was Strella, an drama from Greece by director Panos Koutras. Yiorgos (Yannis Kokiasmenos) is released from his prison term after 15 years, and the first thing he wants to do is track down the son that he left behind. While staying at a hotel and setting up a new life, he meets pre-op transsexual prostitute named Strella (Mina Orfanou) and the pair fall in love.
A sudden wrench in the plans appears when their relationship is brought to light. A modern take on the Oedipus Rex storyline, you can see the twist coming before it happens, but rather than a shocking or tragic movie, this film does not go the way of a Shakespearean tragedy. That is part of the reason why Strella has screened well at festivals as it has an original ending that for once, does not makes us roll our eyes at the random death, overacting and bleak closing scenes. There is a scene with loud emotionally overwrought opera music though.
Some audience members grumbled that the ending would not reflect the harshness of real life. However, that is not true as we often forget how forgiving and loving humans and family can be, and that is what this movie is about, it's not a Greek tragedy.
Most of the cast are non-actors, including the two leads who both shine in their roles. For Orfanou, this is her first film and she delivers lines and coveys emotion with that of a steady theatre veteran. We see both the tough and vulnerable sides of Strella. Yannis Kokiasmenos gives Yiorgos a dangerous edge that combats his more caring, fatherly side, as we see he wants to forget the past. Minos Theoharis as Strella?s gay roommate Alex is also exemplary, though we wish that he had some more character development as there is room for it. Betty Vakalidou as Mary, a transsexual elder dying of cancer and mentor to Strella is another strong performer. Mary is one of the most fleshed out character even in the bit role, as she is both comedic, strong and tragic in her fight with death.
Slightly off-key are the short dream vignettes of rabid squirrels that Yiorgos has at different intervals. Essential to the film because they parlay the state of Yiorgos? mind and the situation of the relationship, it was ever so odd to exit the Vancouver Queer Film Festival with a CGI squirrel rocking out to hard rock as the credits rolled.
So thus we bid adieu to the Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2010. The good news is that there is next year to look forward to, and another whole slate of excellent features, short films and documentaries. Also, look for PressPlus1?s list of best films from the festival coming soon.
Day 10, and unfortunately our penultimate day of the festival! The subjects of today?s lineup are individuals or groups who don?t often get talked about, or if they are, it is in a negative sense. Other than that, each film was completely different than the other.
Other Nature (Empire Granville)
Let?s start off on the other side of the world in Nepal, a country where LGBT progressive laws are proposed and created, but not yet put into place. There are laws formulated to allow same sex marriage and/or adoption, and recognition of transgendered persons as a third gender on their identification documents. The latter has been put into place in small doses, as Other Nature notes that only three individuals have so far been able to claim such status.
A documentary of the political situation in Nepal, Other Nature follows political activists around the country as they revisit their pasts and look to create a future that implements those LGBT friendly laws. Spotlighted are Bhumika Shrestha, a MTF (male to female) Human Rights Officer of the Blue Diamond Society, Badri Pun, a human rights activist and volleyball player, Sunil Babu Pant, creator of the Blue Diamond Society and first openly gay politician in Nepal and a young lesbian couple who have runaway from their families in India.
Though there is a whole slate of information about a country we know next to nothing about, and some of the lessons can be attributed to our own laws for LGBT people, the film becomes more of a travelogue of Shrestha and Pun than a look in LGBT rights in Nepal. A large chunk of the film is the two wandering round the countryside, so much that some of the sequences could be cut from the movie completely.
Having said that, Nani Sahra Walker has effectively painted a picture of the political climate in Nepal; the canvas is incomplete though. Less time on the travelogue would have been a welcome change.
And The Rest Is Drag (Empire Granville)
I have been eagerly awaiting this showing and it did not disappoint. Ever since studying them in Gender Studies class (with Helen Leung from Day 7 coverage) I have been fascinated with drag kings. Drag kings are not exactly like their drag queen cousins. Drag queens are trying to replicate what they see as the ideal feminity in a performance, while drag kings could create any kind of gender performance on the stage. This is apparent as some drag king acts perform as young college students, gay leather daddies, or, in one instance, they dress up as drag queens.
Tagging along with Edmonton drag king troupe Alberta Beef are filmmakers Melisa Brittain, Shani Mootoo, and Danielle Peers. Brittain is also part of the troupe, and Mootoo has down some drag king activities herself. The 30- minute documentary tries and fails purposely in defining ?drag king,? as it chronicles the nightly shows and routines, and opens up a space to talk about drag kings in general.
Ask most of the participants in the film what a drag king is and they would not have a definite answer for you. There is a bit where a few citizens in the park were asked the same question and had no clear answers. And The Rest Is Drag is not here to outline what is and what is not a drag king; rather it is what a few drag kings do.
For example, you could jump to the conclusion that drag kings are lesbian and bisexual women exclusively. As is the case with drag queens, drag kings could be from any sexual identity. One of the Alberta Beef ladies is such a case. Noram is a straight married woman with a child on the way, yet still participates in the drag king shows that The Beef put on.
A quick look into the drag king subculture, And The Rest Is Drag comes in short at 30 minutes, but it is a period of time you will not be wanting back. Side note: Judith Halberstam shows up again, cementing her reputation as an able gender activist. Like I said before, she?s everywhere!
Violet Tendencies (Empire Granville)
We already saw an hilarious rom-com in The People I?ve Slept With earlier in the week, and that film remains one of the best of the festival to this point. Violet Tendencies does not quite reach the same quality as the former but nevertheless is an likable film about a fag hag in search of that mythical being known as the fag stag.
Violet (Mindy Cohn) is one of her kind; she is the only fag hag left unmarried in the city. Stuck in an endless pool of online dating, Violet instead turns her attention to finding her fag stag. A fag stag is a straight male who likes to hang out in gay spaces and make lots of gay friends. Violet has a problem though, does the fag stag even exist?
The above description is both the main plot and not the main plot. Violet does want to find a fag stag, but the whole search for one is not that involved in the film, nor do the characters consciously mention the fag stag more than once or twice. A more accurate summation of the film would be Violet sets out to find a romantic match, and if it is a fag stag then so much the better.
One of the best components of the film is the exploration of the relationships between Violet and her gay friends Zeus (Marcus Patrick), Markus (Casper Andreas), Darian (Adrian Armas), Luke (Jesse Archer) and Riley (Samuel Whitten). Then she meets Vern (Armand Anthony) a nice but normal guy who wants to take her away from the city. Violet has to decide for herself which to choose, her gaggle of gay boys or her boyfriend. There are also a couple interesting subplots including the romance between Markus and Riley and whether or not they should have children.
Along the way there are great performances from the whole cast. Drawing the most laughs are Cohn herself as the lovable but awkward, bumbly middle aged Violet, who is a mix of childlike innocence and bitter disappointment in love. Andrea Cirie as Donna, a co-worker who has the hots for Violet, and Kim Allen as Salome, another co-worker who ?coaches? Violet, are also two of the best in the movie.
It?s not the most in-depth or thoughtful movie you will find but if you just looking to have a good laugh this is the movie to get. On another tangent, original Village People member Randy Jones has a cameo.
There are only two days left of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, but some of the best movies are coming in the last few days. Good films were in an abundance on Day Nine, unfortunately it was the least attended day so far. A notice to pass on, all films remaining are showing at the Empire Granville 7 Cinemas, and two short films on Saturday August 21st are at Emily Carr University on Granville Island. Also, a second screening of The Butch Factor has been added on the Sunday at four at Empire Granville.
The Owls (Empire Granville)
The films at the VQFF have so far been shorts, documentaries or full length fictional narrative features. The Owls was a combination of the latter two in a spectacular piece of meta film.
What's first is a thriller turns more into an amalgamation of extra features, character and actor blending as well as the lines of reality presented on screen. Which action is the character and which action is the actor? It also leaves us with an ultimate question that I am personally still brewing over.
A group of four aging lesbians (hence the Older Wiser Lesbians acronym) murder a younger, wilder lesbian named Cricket (Deak Evgenikos) and then try to cover it up. It noticeably hurts them in differing manners; but M.J. (V.S. Brodie) is the most shaken as she constantly carries a gun and has become paranoid because of lingering visions of Cricket. She lives with Iris (Guinevere Turner), a more pernicious, cheating woman and their friends Lily (Lisa Gornick) and Carol (Cheryl Dunye, who also directed the film) are also a couple who are on the fringes of their relationship. A shady stranger enters the fray as Skye (Skyler Cooper) moves into Lily and Carol?s house, only noting that ?there?s still time.?
Now at this point you might think you know which character did what and why Skye has suddenly appeared, and you might be right on some counts, but you'd be wrong on the others. The Owls isn?t interested in giving straightforward answers. Instead, as each scene progresses we are treated to the inner workings of the characters as they divulge confessional-style in a separate frame what they really mean to say.
Mixed in are breaks where actors discuss their characters, or characters referring to each other by their real names. For instance Skye once says that she wished ?she could just push Cheryl down the hill,? when in context she is actually talking about Carol, Cheryl Dunye?s character. In turn, Cricket also speaks from the grave in these segments, a view that we don?t often get to see, coherently at least. It is a fascinating mixture of reality and fiction and it is easy to pick out which characters you relate to or wish to be alive at the end of the film. This is also in part to the strong cast, the best of which is V.S. Brodie as the slightly unstable MJ who is stuck in an endless cycle of uselessness.
As I mentioned earlier, The Owls ends on a question that each of us will answer depending on our own opinion of the characters, but to discuss it more here would ruin it. Go out and see The Owls with a couple of friends, I'm pretty sure that none of you will have the exact same thoughts on the ending.
If you are looking for a straightforward whodunit, there are many great films for that urge. The Owls is a more experimental look into the murder/thriller genre, but it does not go as far as to lose the audience in the experiment. It draws them in and sits them down in their seats instead.
On a side note, Judith ?Jack? Halberstam also pops up in the credits. The South Californian gender theorist always seems to be everywhere in queer culture these days.
Cross Cultural Romance (Empire Granville)
The second last collection of shorts at the festival (the last is From Coast To Coast Is Queer tommorow) were about romances between men and women in the Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern and African American communities who are often neglected on the silver screen in LGBT or straight movies. As before, each short will be described in a few sentences.
The Best Is Yet To Come (Director: Eunice Wu)
Wendy (Yan Cui) and Sam (Kate Jurkiewicz) are young lesbians who are just beginning to fall in love. Set during the Obama ? McCain election in the U.S., Wendy does not want to take the relationship public in fear of her parents, who are traditional Asians. Incredibly clichéd with long slow song sequences found in rom-coms, it is nonetheless a charming and touching short.
The Golden Pin (Director: Cuong Ngo)
Long (Kris Duangphung) is a young Vietnamese-Canadian who struggles between marrying Vanessa (Lily Nguyen) or following his heart with Ryan (Ben Bela Bohm). Some sagely advice from his mother Linh (Minh Ngoc Nyugen) helps him on his way towards his decision. Unlike the open ending of The Owls, the ending here is aggravating. The film ends without a conclusion or even a question to think about.
Belonging (Elizabeth Lazebnik)
A Jewish and Mexican lesbian family is profiled through a series of photos and images. A travelogue through family values of sorts, it is just long enough (6 minutes) to be interesting, and is extremely thoughtful. It also guesses what life will be like in the future of Canada for the family.
Waiting 4 Goliath (Cal Garingan)
See Day Five coverage, as this was also shown within the The Coast Is Queer shorts program. One thing to add here is that watching it a second time around make it even more enjoyable that the first.
Secret Admirer (Celeste Chan)
More of a music video, the filmmaker shows through her eyes what Delta drag king TuffNStuff means to her as a person and a lover. Sweet, short and with a pretty groovy soundtrack.
You Can?t Curry Love (Reid Waterer)
Vikas (Ashwin Gore) is a fast moving businessman who is working his way up the corporate ladder. When he is sent to India he meets hotel employee Sunil (Rakshak Sahni) and the two begin dating each other. Soon enough Vikas has to choose between his work or his lover Sunil. This is the romance that Plan B should have been. The two have a real relationship that is great to watch and we actually care about how things turn out. Also mentioned are the Hijiras, transgender eunichs who often are seen as good luck symbols in India. An added bonus is the fact that the short closes by making fun of one of the biggest Bollywood tropes out there, but you?ll have to find out by yourself what that is, it?s too hilarious to reveal here.
Other movies showing today were Watercolours, Plan B and My Normal. See Day Two coverage for a review of My Normal, and Day Seven for one of Plan B.
Tommorow: how to tell the difference between a fag hag and a fag stag?
A couple of days ago, I ended coverage by saying that hopefully there was some movies with happy endings coming up in the schedule. There was no such notion happening on Day 8, in which both views ended with high drama and death. That being said, there were by no means any bad films.
The Taqwacores (Cinemark Tinseltown)
There was no lack of interesting subject matter in either films today, and in particular The Taqwacores. More of a glimpse into a subculture than a feature film, The Taqwacores is a story concerning the underground Muslim punk rock scene in New York state. Our main character is Yusef (Bobby Naderi), a precocious mama?s boy who is trying to be an orthodox muslim while he attends university. But there's a fat chance of that coming true as he moves in with a wild bunch of Muslim punk rockers, all of varying faiths and beliefs. You fill all the required character archetypes in this gathering of misfits: there's Rabeya (Noureen DeWulf) the rebel who wears a burqa but does and says everything a woman wearing a burqa should not, Amazing Ayyub (Volkan Eryaman) who can only be described as the always shirtless guy, Umar (Nav Mann) the straight-edge practicing Muslim, Fasiq (Ian Tran) the oriental Muslim, Muzzamil (Tony Yalda) the queer one, and Jehangir (Dominic Rains), the makeshift glue of the pack. A side character and love interest for Yusef is Lynn (Anne Leighton), who is both Muslim and Christian.
The ensemble cast pulls off each of their assigned roles well and DeWulf and Rains deliver the best performances. You can see the validity and truth behind Rabeya?s often taboo opinions of the Muslim religion and it?s practices. DeWulf gives Rabeya power through her voice in movements, as we never see her face. Rains brings out the duality of Jehangir, as he just wants everyone to get along but often struggles with the reality of the world himself. Perhaps the most bland and one note of the characters is Yusef himself, even though he does enjoy more character development than Muzzamil.
One problem from the film is the many unresolved plot lines, as each character has their own dilemma to confront, yet only one or two of them are conquered. The character of Lynn is dropped completely from the film halfway through without explanation, and the abrupt, rushed ending is jarring. It has one of the most random, unforeseen deaths from this year?s festival. This mars The Taqwacores as you are still wondering why the character died before you can properly mourn them.
Having said that, the theme of religion is a strength of this film, as most of the characters get to lead their own mass, with Jehangir?s as the most heartfelt and Rabeya?s as the most powerful. Exploring both straight-edge, liberal and convert Muslims, it does not give you an answer to which is the best path. It merely gives you an argument for each.
Sea Purple (Viola Di Mare) (Granville 7 Cinemas)
This year?s Centerpiece Gala was Viola Di Mare, a historical lesbian film about Angela (Valeria Solarino) and Sara (Isabella Ragonese), two women in a small fishing/quarry village in Italy. Sara is safer because she belongs to a higher class than Angela, who is often beaten by her father Salvatore (Ennio Fantastichini) who wanted a son instead of a daughter, and faces intolerance from the community. Angela refuses to marry anybody but Sara so her mother Lucia (Giselda Volodi) comes up with a plan; change Angela into a man.
Deeply rooted in melodrama, the plot and action of Viola Di Mare, are like something exactly out of a harlequin romance novel. While it is a beautifully shot film, and the relationship between Sara and Angela is well developed and acted, you know exactly where the film is heading, and as such it ends pretty much as you expect it will. Based on a old legend told in 19th century Italy (when the film is set), it will either make you bawl your eyes out, or tire them from rolling them repeatedly. There is also little payoff during the course of the film, as most of the more hated characters are reprimanded or die off screen. Show us, don?t tell us!
It does explore gender more than some of the other films at the VQFF, as Solarino successfully convinces us that Angela/Angelo can survive living both as a man and as a woman. Is she stronger know that she has become a man, or is it because she has become a stronger woman? There are moments of strength and vulnearability in both Solarino?s character?s, as well as a slowly developing darker side to her male identity.
Viola Di Mare is a decent drama/romance that would be worth catching once. Owning it would be another story.
Other films showing today were Mr.Right and Undertow at Tinseltown, both shown early this week as well.
You often remember pioneers because they weren?t absolute activists in their actions and motions, they were solely being who and what they are, living their day to day life as they see fit. That is the case with Fred Martinez and Leslie Cheung. Martinez was a two spirit being from Cortez, Colorado who was murdered at 16 because he presented both a male and female side, sometimes in drag and others not. He openly lived as both gay and two-spirit, and was wrongly bludgeoned to death for it. Cheung was a Hong Kong actor who appeared in such films as Farewell My Concubine and Happy Together, both in which he played gay roles. Though not out until late in his career, he often played gay characters. He committed suicide in 2003 while suffering from depression. They are remembered in the films described below.
Plan B (Cinemark Tinseltown)
Before that somber note, there was first one of the worst films released last year. Plan B is one of those film school projects that you hear about that go horribly wrong. The pacing is so agonizing slow that it had the man beside me crying out ?somebody die, fall in love, just do SOMETHING!? The film techniques are half-baked, and the acting is horrid. It?s an hour and fourty minute long headache of people sitting on beds and staring at ceilings.
What semblance of a plot there is centres around Bruno (Manuel Vignau) and Pablo (Lucas Ferraro), two men who share a connection through the same girlfriend. Once Laura (Mercedes Quinteros) leaves Bruno for Pablo, Bruno hatches a revenge plan to get back at her?.by getting together with Pablo. This plan makes absolutely no sense, and it does not matter since the ?Plan B? is never that central of a plot point. The acting from Vignau and Ferraro is atrocious, because there is no spark of chemistry between the two leads as romantic partners. As friends they function perfectly well, but the erotic tension is so thin that you could cut it with a plastic spoon. As such, their romance is hardly believable and instead it runs much more into the realm of best friends rather than lovers.
This is not totally the actors' faults since they are not given much to work with the bare bones script and half-hearted character development. A film that concentrates mostly on two men for about 90 per cent of the time should have some decent character growth but no such development is apparent here. What?s more, the film is downright boring. It drags it?s tail along the ground, so much that about an hour of footage could be cut out without harm to the plot. This is because director Marco Berger spends an average of 10 seconds on each transition from scene to scene. Every ,and I mean every, scene has a transition that is a stock shot of the city. Or when a character exits a room to get something then return, we get to watch the whole thing unfold. This sounds like a minor deal, but it is instances such as when Bruno leaves to get a drink and Pablo sits there unmoving for 20 seconds that is constantly aggravating.
Whole scenes could be omitted because they are basically the same shot for 45 seconds to a minute. One example of this is when Pablo and Bruno are sleeping in bed and the whole shot/scene consists of Bruno turning over once, in a minute and 24 seconds. Another example is Pablo just staring at the ceiling for a whole minute. There is no music at all in the film, which is a nice break in once sense, but also adds to the inaction and boredom. This film could have worked as a short film, but as an almost two hour feature, it is a waste of time and money. These characters are just not engaging enough to grasp our attention for that amount of time.
Two Spirits (Cinemark Tinseltown)
After that fiasco of a movie, Two Spirits was next on the Tinseltown screen. Though it was a documentary, it was immensely more engrossing that Plan B.
Two Spirits is a full length documentary about First Nations people living as two-spirited beings. It focuses on the aforementioned murder of Fred Martinez, as well as including many two-spirit voices from several First Nations communities.
The difference in two-spirit history and gay history is that two spirit (or nádleehí) was a clear role in historical Aboriginal society. Males and females would cross-dress and take on traditionally masculine or feminine roles for their life span. Males would become female and females would be male. They were respected and accepted in their community, not ?tolerated,? like many gays in the community are today. They were often the caretakers of the tribe, and would take in orphaned children. Most of the examples from the film come from the Navajo tribe, yet this was a practice across First Nations tribes. Some two spirit people identify only as two spirit and some identify as gay as well. However, the new generation is now losing that acceptance and that is one of the issues in the film.
Each story presented in Two-Spirits adds an important piece to the picture, and it is certainly a film worth recommending to watch the film, as entertainment and/or education. Two-spirit interviewees include historian Wesley K.Thomas, Richard LaFortune, L. Frank, Albert McLeod and more. The touching death of Fred Martinez is an unfortunate example of why we need to bring back that old respect of the nádleehí and the interview with Fred?s mother Pauline Mitchell will bring you to tears. An excellent addition to the festival programming, director Lydia Nibley has captured the spirit of the two-spirit community.
Archival Classic: Yang + Yin: Gender In Chinese Cinema (Vancity Theatre)
It?s quite a hoof to the Vancity Theatre from Tinseltown but once I got there it was worth it to see the 1996 documentary Yang + Yin: Gender In Chinese Cinema. Hosted by Simon Fraser University Gender Studies associate professor Helen Leung, the documentary is made by gay director Stanley Kwan, and is essentially viewed as his ?coming out? film. Interviewing industry professionals and actors, Kwan lays out the beginnings of queer cinema in China, profiling pioneers such as Bridget Lin (who often acted as a male or in drag for films) and Pak Suet-sin and Yam Kim-fai (who would play heterosexual couples on screen and were a lesbian couple in real life).
Professionals and actors in the film like Leslie Cheung (Farewell My Concubine, Happy Together), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), John Woo (Face/Off), Lung Ti, Hark Tsui, Kaige Chen (Farewell My Concubine), flesh out Kwan?s journey through old cinema and queer tensions and undercurrents within them. He explores sibling and father-son relationships, drag in opera and films and how the Chinese public engaged them. Facts such as that Chinese women flocked to Pak Suet-sin and Yam Kim-fai films and secretly wanted to marry Yam Kim-fai is just of the many tidbits you will garner from Yang + Yin. The last minutes when Kwan interviews his own mother are exceptional because she shows just how accepting you can be, and that you will also want to chase after Yam Kim-fai. ?If I hadn?t of had five children,? she laughs.
Cheung was remembered countrywide in China, and his relationship with his partner Daffy Tong Hok-Tak is recognized as a valid and loving one. Martinez was buried with two photos, one of his male side and the other of his female side. Hopefully their sacrifices were not in vain.
No documentaries in the works for day 8 tommorow, but some more exciting movies!
After a day of shorts, the order of Day 6 was documentaries focusing on the transgendered part of the LGBT moniker. The main points taken from these films were that the T is LGBT is actually an identity, and not a sexuality like the others, and that you don?t need to undergo a sex change to be transgendered.
We Are The Mods (Cinemark Tinseltown)
Festivities did start with a feature film about lesbianism and growing up in We Are The Mods. Sadie (Melia Renee) is on the verge of adulthood as she prepares to leave for university. She meets Nico (Mary Elise Hayden), a mod girl with an unfortunate foot ailment that makes her leg enlarged and scabbed. The two strike up an unlikely friendship, and the bulk of the film is merely about just that.
There isn?t much in the way of plot here so it has to be carried by the performances of the actors. Renee does a capable job playing Sadie, but it doesn?t seem like her character has redefined her boundaries once the film closes, which is supposed to be the ultimate pay-off of the feature. Nico is largely a one-note character, and her Milroy?s disease could be omitted from the film completely since it is not a major plot point. Some acting is downright wooden like Lance Drake as Nico?s boyfriend Treg, as he seems to always emote the same expression whether he's mad, sad, or content.
The setting is confusing as well. It is described as present day, but it looks and feels much more like a movie straight out of the 70s. This works for and against We Are The Mods. It establishes a sense of timelessness and a surreal feel, yet on the other hand, there are close to no signs that it takes place in our present day context. The more than open ending makes you wonder why you became interested in these characters or why you followed their relationships. You?ll be saying ?That?s it?? once the credits roll.
Diagnosing Difference (Cinemark Tinseltown)
Chronicling the history of Gender Identity Disorder is a tall task, and Diagnosing Difference does an remarkable job of it. With contributions from Susan Stryker, Ryka Aoki, Cecilia Chung, Adela Vasquez and more, we see the social dilemmas around branding a child with G.I.D.
Beyond being a engrossing documentary on a activist level, the film is also very entertaining. Candid interviews draw many laughs, including the one with Adela Vasquez, a San Francisco trans activist. She demonstrates to us that you can still be biologically male while being a trans woman. ?I love my body, and so do the boys.? She cheekily winks.
Dylan Scholinkski had great screen prescence with his insider viewpoint on the mental institutions that treat children saddled with G.I.D., a process he went through as a young woman. It drove him to depression and suicide attempts, more evidence that the G.I.D. should be struck from the books.
All contributors deliver their arguments in a compelling and believable manner, and this continued into the discussion panel after the documentary. Director Annalise Ophelian (who is also a clinical psychologist), Ori Garcia (of the SHARP access program), Doctor Maria Townsend and activist Devon McFarlane answered questions and gave some suggestions on how to strip the G.I.D. from the American Psychiatric Association system. Townsend stressed that medical professionals need to be allies instead of experts and McFarlane had a clever little saying to match the G.I.D: "We're in a Gender Perception Dysphoria."
Riot Acts: Flaunting Gender Deviance in Music Performance (Cinemark Tinseltown)
The trans trend was also apparent in Riot Acts, as most of the musicians interviewed were transsexual or transvestites who were spreading their activism through music. The documentary combines snippets of music with in-depth, challenging interviews that contradict and support each other. The fact that there are so many opinions and sides presented is one of the strengths of the film.
Among the musicians that catch your eye are Kelly Moe, Rahne Alexander, Ryka Aoki (making her second appearance of the night), Venus Demars, Adhamh Roland and Geo Wyeth. I found myself drawn to Wyeth the most, as he sells both his music as a woman and a man, which created an cross section and also a convergence between his past and present fans. His music was also the most beautiful of the collection.
Demars was the only metal inclusion, and broke from the rest of the pack because she was one of the few that made a point of performing outside LGBT crowds in straight rock bars. Wyeth was also one of these, as he is ?stealth? is his performances. Conversely, Demars stressed that she always trys to say a little something to the crowd about trans activism.
Moe introduced one of the major issues trans musicians face when transitioning; will their voices change so much they can no longer sing? Wyeth and Moe demonstrate that their voices can be amazing in both cases, and that you can create new boundaries for your voices to operate within. Moe, who used to be a soprano is now a soft and smooth acoustic rock artist. Wyeth?s voice has become younger, as opposed to the high jazz voice that he had as a woman.
If you are a film buff or a music freak, this film is for you to enjoy. You can also take the film home with you by looking up the many artists featured in it, as each one has their own brand of music. Comparing musicians pre- and post-transition is one of the best parts of this process.
The film was followed by a live show by Nicky Click and CJ and The Dolls at Lick on Abbott street.
Films also showing today were Violet Tendencies (also showing on Saturday, August 21st) and All Boys, both at Vancity Theatre.
Today went a little differently from the film showings before, as each movie I saw was either a short or a documentary. As such, I will not be rating them out of five; this article will be a discussion of them instead.
For the day I hunkered down at the Cinemark Tinseltown theatre and absorbed all sorts of LGBT information from all generations.
Queer Prom (Cinemark Tinseltown)
Originally airing on OutTV, we follow the formation and running of the third annual Queer Prom, held by Gab Youth Services in Vancouver. Seen mostly through interviews with the youth staff and volunteers, as well as footage of the meetings and actual event, the documentary was a welcome sight. This is because so many high school proms don?t allow for LGBT individuals to bring their dates or lovers because they aren?t of the opposite sex. The Queer Prom is a space that allows for that and it was compelling to see the planning behind the function.
The viewpoint from the actual students who attend and organize the prom was refreshing because the view wasn't limited to things as seen through the eyes of the senior organizers who run the Centre that Gab meets at. They are actually only given a small role in the film, and it is the youth that tell us the story.
The organization was not without some drama though, and these scenarios had the audience laughing while holding their guts, as most of the drama seemed to revolve around Taylor (who was in charge of decorations). Knowing a few of the people involved in the Queer Prom and the film, I am extremely proud to see that their hard work went to a good cause.
Youth films from CampOut were also shown, including one about a young kid coming out as straight to his two dads (Spence Makes Sense), which is a subject that is often dodged in queer films.
Queer History Project
A darling of the Out On Screen team staging the Festival, the Queer History Project gathers local and international artists to create films that they feel represent LGBT life. Contributors this year included David C Jones (Producer of OutTV), Gwen Haworth (Director of She?s A Boy I Knew), Byron Chief Moon, Debra O, and Joe Average and Jamie Griffiths.
Moon submitted a retrospective interpretive dance piece from 2006, which showcased just how different dance can be from different Aboriginal cultures. Jones? short piece was a history of drag queens in Vancouver and Haworth chronicled the activist history of transsexuals, Debra O highlighted urban gardening and Average and Griffiths collaborated on a photography and video piece about living with AIDS.
Each short film is a distinct piece of Vancouver?s history, and the audience is encouraged to track them down to educate and inform themselves. Besides that, they were also entertaining and in some cases, especially harrowing, as is the case of the Average/Griffiths film. A panel featuring the film creators (excluding Moon) ran after the films were shown, and the panelists spoke about trying to insert their work into school curriculums so as to further educate future generations.
The Coast Is Queer
A collection of shorts made by B.C. filmmakers, The Coast is Queer was 15 films of all shapes and sizes. Most directors were in attendance, and they traveled to the after party at Lotus afterwards. I will sum them up each in a couple of sentences and because there are so many films, most were under five minutes
Butch Tits (Directed by Jen Crothers): It made full frontal nudity hilarious and in doing so, showed us the pride and attitude that butches carry.
The Original Movie (Directed by Kathryn Jean): It was an interesting concept at first, as animation told a silent story of the first film. The gimmick wore out fast though, and three minutes seemed way too long.
The Heist (Andrew Jack): A dance piece about a costumed gang stealing a fabulous shoe. It was Funny, cute and colourful, with some awesome dance moves.
Her Sugar Is (Dana Claxton): An unmemorable piece that was uncomfortable as well as long.
Stay (Aaron Chan): A heartwarming chat between boyfriends, one out and one in the closet. Sitting beside the director Chan, he was noticeably nervous. He shouldn?t have been: it was a charming, heartfelt film about making decisions about coming out.
Online (Dayton): Does watching men fap off while someone drones out a boring monotone monologue sound interesting to you? This film felt like it was 20 minutes long with it?s four minute run time.
Frolic (Clark Nikolai): A DIY film of a nude swim in the mountain forest. Amusing, but in the end, we don?t really see the point.
Sleep Tight (Lisa G): Remember, bed bugs are evil. A lesbian couple (the director and her girlfriend) re-jig their house to rid it of the bed bugs that invaded it. Hilarious, real, and essential for all new and old home buyers.
Waiting 4 Goliath (Cal Garingan): An man meets with an ex-lover in a café and recount their relationship while one waits for his internet date. A sweet cross cultural romance between an Asian and South Asian man, you will smile after you see it. One of the best in the collection.
Super Queer (Sakino Sepulveda): Definitely the funniest, a man (the Director Sakino) transforms into Super Queer to fend off some attackers. Will have you in stitches at the absurdity and camp!
The Last Mittens of Winter (Terry Hanes): Another film that did not seem to have a point. A man looks for his mittens, then finds them. Still lost on what it was supposed to be.
Ms.Thing (Karen X Tulchinksky): Alright, the funniest is a tie between this and Super Queer. An informercial for lesbians looking for some ?relief,? you will never look at the hand from the Addams Family in the same way. It?s a million times funnier that all those SNL infomercial skits.
Horsey (Bren Ryder): Another self explanatory sex/nudity film. Seriously, there is a way to make nude films without making the audience cringe while watching them. Or get bored. On a side note, seeing the director of programming (Amber Dawn) who introduces the movies having sex seems rather creepy.
A Bigger Splash (Martin Borden): A used condom finds some friends for a Fantasia-like dance number. Silly but still infinitely comical and a fitting close to The Coast Is Queer programming.
Also showing today were Parents Reborn, and The Taqwacores (also being presented on Thursday the 19th). Both films were at The Vancity Theatre at 1181 Seymour Street.
Day 6?s focus is going to documentaries centering around transgendered people?.and rock musicians!
An Untold History: DePICKted by New Calgary Filmmaker
By Ben Tsui
Benjamin Ross Hayden is nestled in his editing gallows as he adds the final touches to screener copies of his debut short film, Pick. Numerous international film festivals are considering his ?shot-on-film? experimental project. His genre-bending style mixes early cinema form with experimental animation, Victorian erotica, Eisensteinian montage, and Guy Maddin ideals, while paying homage to a lesser-known historical event in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
He lifts a glass of gin with lime droplets, reminiscent of the developer acid used when processing Pick.
Press+1 [Ben Tsui]: Congratulations on being chosen by the 11th Annual Calgary International Film Festival for the Best of Alberta showcase.
Benjamin Ross Hayden: Words cannot express my excitement for being officially selected at Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF), and Sydney Underground Film Festival in Australia (SUFF). I felt overwhelmed when I heard the news. I just wanted people to explore a chapter in Calgary?s history, and being selected for the Best of Alberta is simply an honor.
P+1: What is Pick about?
BRH:Pick is highly interpretive. There are three layers; first is that the audience can interpret it however they want, it is open-ended. Second, the mise-en-scene, (everything in front of the camera that is visually shown), is primarily the interaction between the Damsel and the Voyeur, who are ghostly entities trapped in a purgatorial existence. Lastly is the re-appropriation of the historical moment in Calgary in 1916 at the Riverside Hotel.
P+1: Your film sounds like an onion. BRH: Onions add extra flavor, and I did feel like crying sometimes.
P+1: Tell me more about the history of the Riverside Hotel.
BRH: In 1916, a riot began across the Bow River from what is now Downtown Calgary. Over 1500 rioters - mostly soldiers ? looted, broke windows, and set fires around the Riverside Hotel. The justification was that the hotel was ?owned by a German?. The city was on the verge of mob rule. Mayor M.C. Costello appealed on the front page of The Calgary Herald telling people to stay off the streets.
P+1: Your perspective in representing this incident (on celluloid film) is eclectic. Tell me more about your filmmaking process.
BRH: I shot on film because I believe that only what you know deserves being documented using film is out of respect for the concept being captured. I chose black and white because I wanted the texture of the film itself to emulate the period. The frantic texture of the film ?glitches? expresses the chaotic nether regions of purgatory. The transitions nonlinear, lack chronology, just as purgatory. The scratches give tactility, and each frame is distinct since processing was an effort of calculated randomness.
P+1: You animated the credits by hand-scratching film stock. What led you to embark on this tedious manual technique?
BRH: Studying experimental film at the University of Calgary transformed my belief that the devil is in the details, and anything worth showing should have a level of effort behind the work, it shows. I care about my cast and crew enough to scratch each of their full names onto hundreds of frames the size of a nickel.
P+1: Tell me about your cast of two.
BRH: Carisa Hendrix embodies The Damsel; this fire-breathing, glass-walking, sideshow darling who was eating glass for breakfast when other kids got cereal. She will soon be in Cirque du Soleil in America. Nick Ward embodies The Voyeur; also a talented artist and pyro-chemist, he was cast on account of his colonial facial hair. They are both non-actors, I prefer to cast on a whim.
P+1: How neo-realistic of you. As a filmmaker, what did you learn through the entire process?
BRH: Every opportunity you are bestowed is an opportunity to take or leave. It could be meeting a talented person who is willing to work with you. It could be a random factor or occurrence that may define your film.
P+1: What will be Benjamin Ross Hayden?s next film?
BRH: Mystical Cyborg Women, enough said.
He laughs, finishes his gin, and turns back to packing Pick for other film festivals. Pick is in consideration at 7 other film festivals and is entered in over 22 festivals worldwide.
The Canadian premier of Pick will be screening at the closing gala of the Calgary International Film Festival on October 4th, 2010.
Let us congratulate Benjamin Ross Hayden and his small creative team, until now nestled underground (perhaps in a boudoir), are now breaking above ground, at a film event near you!
Day 4 of the VQFF brought some good news, as they have already reached and surpassed their fundraising goal for the whole festival, and thus proving why it is the second largest film festival in Vancouver. To accompany that there were three good films, from all sides of the planet.
Off World (Cinemark Tinseltown)
Immensely depressing and drearily lit, Off World tells the story of Lucky (Mark Abaya), an Canadian adoptee returning to his homeland in the Philippines and the notorious slums of Smokey Mountain. He discovers he has a gay genderqueer brother (Lao Rodriguez) and searches for his mother in the slums. Director Mateo Guez gives us little dialogue and stark character development and instead fills the film with long scenes of Lucky wandering aimlessly in the slums, while profiling the abject poverty of it all.
At first, this technique is haunting and tugs at your strings, but it gets jaded very fast. This is because Guez never shows us the lighter side, and always makes all his characters downtrodden and overly emotional. Yes, the slums are horrible, and the people that live in them are trapped in an endless circle of poverty and hopelessness. But Lucky has seen both sides of the coin, and has lived in a place where he can thrive and escape. Life is not always black and bleak, there are some happy moments and none of them are apparent here.
Also, there is a lot of recycled footage of Lucky traveling down the street while ranting about street items and slum conditions. I should say show us, don?t tell us, but the movie has down this too much already.
The movie is not a whole waste of time though, as it is an explorative look into the Smokey Mountain slums and the psyche of a man who has returned to his past. It won?t make you feel anything for the characters or the poor souls in the slums though. Off World is also showing on Saturday the 21st of August.
Bloomington (Granville 7 Cinemas)
For the Director?s Spotlight of the Festival, the film Bloomington was screened as Director Fernanda Cardoso (a film editor from CSI) and star Sarah Stouffer were present for a Q&A after the screening.
Bloomington follows former child star Jackie (Stoffur) as she heads off to college to start a new life. She meets psychology professor Catherine (Allison McAtee) and the two start a relationship that eventually evolves into love. A rock in the road comes when Jackie has the chance to star in the feature film of her old show, Neptune 96, and whether she'll decide to stay at college or return to acting.
The feature is, on the whole, extremely cute, and you are certainly enthralled by Jackie and Catherine, as Stoffur and McAtee bring out all the character traits. The two actresses take them from being cardboard cutouts and making them real people. Where the movie falters is in the third act, where Stoffur?s character looses much of the charm she previously had and we are actually pulling for them to break up rather than remain together. There are also a lot of loose knots to tie up, which leave the ending quite messy. But it could be said that it does paint a more realistic picture of life (though at one point Jackie pilots a plane in heels), so this is not that much of a deterrence. This is a capable first foray into directing from Cardoso, and hopefully the first of many.
The question and answer afterwards revealed that Bloomington too had an alternate ending, one that set back some characters to where they started the film. In restrospect, the ending that was decided upon was a better choice, since it does make the relationship between Jackie and Catherine legitimate.
On a side note, Stoffur had one of the best answers to the question: ?did you have any previous experience to built on for this movie?? Stoffur?s answer: ?If you?re referring to the fact that I was home schooled, then yes.?
The Fish Child (Granville 7 Cinemas)
Once again the best movie of the day was the 9:30 showing with Lucia Puenzo?s The Fish Child. Puenzo is the director of one of my favorite LGBT movie?s XXY, so I was looking forward to this screening the whole week. Though not as good as XXY, The Fish Child (El Nino Pez), was still an highly entertaining and enjoyable movie.
Lala (Ines Efron, the lead from XXY) and Ailin (Mariela Vitale) are in love and are planning to run away to Paraguay together. There?s two hitches though: Lala is the daughter of a judge and Ailin is the household?s servant. In addition, Lala?s father turns up dead the day that the girls plan to leave, and Lala is nowhere to be found. Ailin is then blamed for the death and Lala then has to find a way to save her.
Efron gives Lala a playful naivete and childlike imagination, while Vitale?s Ailin sees the harsh reality for what it is. It fIeshes out the pair and makes them a perfect match. The love between them is sincere and genuine, and that is what the movie leaves us with when the credits roll. Also beautiful is the look of the film, as it is both realistic and surreal in the same moments, while not being pretentious about it. The best example of this is when Lala stays in Ailin?s childhood home, which seems just detached from reality and buried in the past. It feels like a dream, but it is made clear that it is all too real.
The conclusion is also satisfying, even though it isn?t the Hollywood one that we all want. Sometimes, not everything needs to be tied up in a neat bow. (Though Bloomington would have been better if there was a tad more resolution).
The only downside was that Puenzo wasn?t in house, because it would have been lovely to ask her some questions about El Nino Pez.
And now on to day 5, and hopefully some more movies with happy endings?
Other movies showing today were The Owls (also showing Friday, August 20th), Mr. Right (also showing Thurs, August 19th) and the Butch Factor (also showing Sunday, August 22nd).
Written By Alexander Hutt ? Vancouver 
Do Not Bend
Two Spirits 
verge of adulthood as she prepares to leave for university. She meets Nico (Mary Elise Hayden), a mod girl with an unfortunate foot ailment that makes her leg enlarged and scabbed. The two strike up an unlikely friendship, and the bulk of the film is merely about just that. 
of it. With contributions from Susan Stryker, Ryka Aoki, Cecilia Chung, Adela Vasquez and more, we see the social dilemmas around branding a child with G.I.D. 
transvestites who were spreading their activism through music. The documentary combines snippets of music with in-depth, challenging interviews that contradict and support each other. The fact that there are so many opinions and sides presented is one of the strengths of the film. 
Services in Vancouver. Seen mostly through interviews with the youth staff and volunteers, as well as footage of the meetings and actual event, the documentary was a welcome sight. This is because so many high school proms don?t allow for LGBT individuals to bring their dates or lovers because they aren?t of the opposite sex. The Queer Prom is a space that allows for that and it was compelling to see the planning behind the function.
artists to create films that they feel represent LGBT life. Contributors this year included David C Jones (Producer of OutTV), Gwen Haworth (Director of She?s A Boy I Knew
directors were in attendance, and they traveled to the after party at Lotus afterwards. 
Benjamin Ross Hayden: Words cannot express my excitement for being officially selected at Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF), and Sydney Underground Film Festival in Australia (SUFF). I felt overwhelmed when I heard the news. I just wanted people to explore a chapter in Calgary?s history, and being selected for the Best of Alberta is simply an honor.
