Entries tagged as film +Friday, July 25. 2008Comrades in New York We Chinese queers have reappropriated the term comrades, or tong-zhi (同志), to describe ourselves for almost 20 years. Literally, tong-zhi means "having the same will." It's used to describe not only homos, but also bisexuals and transgenders. It's more like the term LGBT, or in fact, "queer", which really embraces everyone who have the same intention and goal to reach equality for the LGBTs. Four Chinese queer films will be coming to New York later in September during the Chinese LGBT Film Festival, titled "Comrades," during which we can get a glimpse of the lives of queers through the lens of a bunch of Chinese filmmakers. It's worth mentioning that the first tong-zhi film festival in mainland China in 2001 was shut down by the Chinese National Security Agency. For more information, visit Asia Catalyst. Saturday, June 24. 2006IFC - Independent Film Cowardice
"In celebration of Gay Pride, IFC is airing back-to-back gay-themed films every Sunday night at 10 and premiering the new IFC Documentary, 'Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema' by acclaimed filmmakers, Lesli Klainberg and Lisa Ades, on Sunday July 16 at 10pm..." Yippee! the flicks they'll be airing will include: Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, Boys Don't Cry, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, High Art, and Love and Death on Long Island. Wow - look at IFC being all indie and taking such great risks! We should all be so happy and thankful that they're going to air movies about our lives...well, lives kind of like ours. And they're doing it iin the middle of the night on Sundays in July at 10 p.m., after Gay Pride month has passed in a time slot far, far away from primetime when everyone will already be in bed resting before facing another manic Monday. And the movies they're showing! I love our most mainstream gay movies, don't you? The ones that attempt to fit into traditional narrative form and feature movie stars. I hate those crappy actual independents with their incomprehensible plots, vulgar humor, and weirdo camera work. Oh, and IFC, if you've been too busy patting your own "progressive" back -- yes, I am being facetious, disingenuous, sarcastic, and just plain bitchy. Continue reading "IFC - Independent Film Cowardice" Friday, May 19. 2006Hot Celluloid!!! Summer blockbusters are kicking off to a yawn, and they don't look like they're gonna get much better. I'm holding out for Gore's docudrama, An Inconvenient Truth, and XMEN. For real film pleasure that will more than make up for the Hollywood's Crapfest 2006, check out NEWFEST's 18th annual New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Film Festival by going to Newfest.org. It's only in New York City, only from June 1st through the 11th, 2006. The festival opens with the movie based on the television series of the same name, Strangers With Candy, starring Amy Sedaris, the politically charged Stephen Colbert, and a bunch of recognizables: Allison Janney, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Kristen Johnston, Sir Ian Holm, Matthew Broderick, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Closing the festival will be 20 Centimeters, by Ramon Salazar, about a narcoleptic, pre-op MTF named Marieta. When Marieta falls asleep, she has show-stopping dreams swirling with choreography and music. More than just fluff, though, the film gives Marieta a big dilemma: to cut or not to cut. Sounds simple, but she's in love with a guy who likes chicks with dicks and going full female might mean more than just losing 20 centimeters of penile flesh. This raises lots of interesting questions, like: are one's genitals the source of one's happiness (and success) in love? I haven't seen the movie yet, but definitely will. The best this about this festival is that it is truly international. Most features are accompanied by a short, so you get plenty of perspectives on issues of gender, identity, sex(uality), on and on. Check it out. There's more to see than you could possibly have time for. Monday, January 23. 2006I've Got a SecretWednesday, January 18. 2006The Golden Globes: When I say "Brokeback," you say...
Generally, speaking. To preface, I actually liked Brokeback Mountain a whole lot, a lot more than I thought I would (as you can read here). But when all the awards hype was starting - Golden Globe this! Oscar that! - I had some misgivings about the "favor" straight Hollywood was doing for queers (as you can read here). So while I am, on the one hand, happy as a pig in shit scoping out all the farmyard cocks at the four Globes Brokeback took home, I'm also a little peeved by the conspiracy of silence that seemed to envelope the Beverly Hilton. Was it completely and utterly impossible for a single person in that room to talk directly about Brokeback Mountain and use the word "gay?" The film was called everything from universal to controversial to a Western - all of which it of course is. But it is also gay. Not exclusively gay, not even primarily gay necessarily, but gay nonetheless. And considering the amount of straight animal husbandry shown in the montage clips and the amount of queer shenanigans that were well...not, the word, the subject, the very issues the movie was supposed to be bringing down were being held up onstage by Ang Lee, Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry, Gustavo Santaolalla, Bernie Taupin, and Steve Carrell's wife Nancy (just kidding). Continue reading "The Golden Globes: When I say "Brokeback," you say..." Wednesday, January 11. 2006Brokeback Women We tend to talk mostly about MEN on Big Queer, so here’s an effort to break that…Not a lot of attention has been given to the WOMEN of Brokeback Mountain. Granted, the movie’s about the relationship between Jack and Ennis, but what strikes me about the lack of attention on the women is that so much of the talk about the men has to do with masculinity. You know, people (myself included) talk about how Ennis (Heath Ledger) represses his emotions to the point of living this double life, and they throw around words like manhood, masculinity, etc. But they don’t consider the other, crucial component to this—womanhood. Continue reading "Brokeback Women" Wednesday, December 28. 2005'TransAmerica': some thoughts from a trans American "TransAmerica" is a road movie with a twist, a kind of psycho-sexual picaresque about sexuality and gender identity in the early twenty-first century United States.I must admit I was a bit skeptical of the idea of a female playing a transsexual woman, particularly Felicity Huffman, who I think is a very good actor, but when I heard she was playing the lead role, I wondered if they picked her because of the "Desperate Housewives" fame -- and oddly enough, her character in the film is named 'Bree' (though not surnamed 'Vandekamp'), even though of course she plays Lynette in "Housewives". But I was really impressed by this film, written and directed by Duncan Tucker. Huffman is really convincing (if that's the right word here) as a male-to-female transsexual (MTF TS). My only reservation is that the film is a little too 'medical model of transsexuality' for me -- with an implicit GID (Gender Identity Disorder) pathologizing of the "I feel like a woman trapped in a man's body" kind. Having said that, "TransAmerica" is, in my view, one of the best feature films I've seen with a transgender theme; perhaps not quite as powerful as "Boys Don't Cry", but unlike that film, the central character is not a victim, but rather an ordinary transgendered woman feeling her way toward self-empowerment. Continue reading "'TransAmerica': some thoughts from a trans American" Tuesday, November 22. 2005The New Old New Queer Cinema With Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin making it onto DVD, I've been revisiting the filmmaker that was dubbed a leading voice in '90's New Queer Cinema.My first Araki experience was sitting all by my lonesome at the Quad Cinemas watching Totally Fucked Up - a movie I was seeing just because James Duval was totally hot. Needless to say I was a fan from shot one and after his 1997 film Nowhere I became a rabid Araki fanatic. Beyond his ability to create fantastic worlds on shoestring budgets, the polymorphous sexuality of his characters, his subversion of traditional mores/genres/expectations, and casting magic that should put Big Hollywood starfuckers to shame, his films consistently kick ass! As I've been re-experiencing his work, though, I have to say: it really puts the current crop of queer filmmakers to shame. Araki's knowledge of film history and the ambition he shows in his work (in terms of both subject matter and technique) far surpass any directors producing narrative queer cinema. What kind of kick in the pants do these people need? Tuesday, September 28. 2004A Dirty Shame I saw the new John Waters movie A Dirty Shame on Saturday and was a little disappointed by it. It was all great until about its mid-point after which it lost considerable steam. I learned new words though for pussy such as cooter but hey I don't want to give it all away you go and check it out for yourself. The bears were hilarious! Loved the bears. |
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IFC is having a little Gay Pride Celebration! Aren't we grateful? Here's an exceprt from their press release:
What do you say? Apparently, nothing specific. Just a lot of highly general things about generalness being generally heart-warming and universal for the general population in a kind of general way.
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