Limited runs and special events:
@ Women in the Director’s Chair, 941 W. Lawrence, 773-907-0610:: Annual Pride Screening features Chicago premieres such as Cristina Ibarra’s Dirty Laundry: A Homemade Telenovela (described as ‘a hilarious experimental narrative about a young Latina’s masturbatory adventures coinciding with her quinciñera,’ Guin Turner’s short Spare Me, Yvette Choi & Lynne Chang’s Barbara Walters Anne Heche interview parody Call Me Cwazy, Shari Frilot’s Strange & Charmed, Allison Sweeney’s So A Cow Walks Into A Barn and Erin Greenwell’s sweet teenage lesbian love story, 21. – June 14
@ Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312/846-2600: Ronit Bezalel, Sree Nallamothu and Laurie Little’s A Day On The Force, which chronicles the last home game of the professional women’s tackle football team, the Chicago Force. The film was made in conjunction with the Gene Siskel Film Center’s 72 Hour Feature Project. – June 20
In theaters:
Together—Farewell My Concubine director Chen Kaige’s latest film tells the story of sacrifices made by a father so that his son may study the violin in Beijing.
Capturing The Friedmans—Documentary about sexual scandal involving a father and his sons. (see Movie Maven review next week)
May—Contemporary re-telling of Frankenstein story with lesbian sub-plot.
On TV
Cinemax (www.Cinemax.com):
All About My Father—Documentary filmmaker Even Benestad says he feels ‘armed when carrying a camera,’ but his weapon of choice is a peaceful one as we see in his unflinching portrait of his cross-dressing father. Benestad documents how he sees his father’s world through a series of revealing interviews with the titular character Esben (also known as Esther Pirelli), his stepmother Elsa, and his sister. Esben, who has ‘always been good at being a man,’ talks about the first time he put on a dress (at age 8), when cross-dressing turned erotic for him, and how he sees his cross-dressing as simply another form of expression. The on-camera dialogues between father and son are particularly powerful, and the sequence in which Esben ‘dances’ with Esther, speaks louder than words. (B-) – June 11
Ruthie and Connie: Every Room In The House is a beautiful and touching documentary about two women who are celebrating 40 years of friendship and 25 years together as a couple. Both married with families when they first met as residents of the same housing complex in Brooklyn in the 1960s, Ruthie and Connie are fascinating people you will want to know more about even after the documentary ends. According to Connie, ‘What was a friendship in the kitchen, a friendship in the livingroom, became a love affair which included the bedroom.’ The documentary includes scenes from a reunion with the old neighbors from Brooklyn, a PFLAG meeting in Florida, an NYC Pride Parade, a ‘cousins luncheon,’ a S.A.G.E. (Senior Action in a Gay Environment) dance, and Ruthie and Connie’s historic and heated appearance on a Donahue show in 1988. Reminiscent of Ronit Bezalel’s When Shirley Met Florence, Ruthie and Connie are role models to look up to for anyone in a long-term relationship. (B+) – Jun. 25Sundance Channel (see www. Sundancechannel.com for schedule):
‘Out Loud: Gay Love Under Fire’ series: Aimee and Jaguar and Trembling Before G-d June 7; East Palace, West Palace and Lan Yu June 14; The Brandon Teena Story and Fire June 21; Herr Schmidt and Herr Friedrich and Princesa June 28.’Out Loud: Are You Musical?’ series: La Cage aux Folles – Jun. 6; The Music Lovers – Jun. 13; The Cockettes – Jun. 20; Up in Arms – Jun. 27.
By Hook or By Crook—Shy (Silas Howard, Flipper of Tribe 8 fame, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film), a handsome but aimless butch, who is about to lose her house to the bank, leaves Hoxie, Kan., for greener pastures in San Francisco. Shy, whose parents are both dead, describes herself as being like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, but with biceps and no dog. Once she arrives in the ‘Emerald City,’ with a suitcase and no money, she meets her scarecrow, a bearded butch named Valentine (director and co-producer Harry, a.k.a. Harriet, Dodge), whom she rescues from a mugger. While Shy and Val bond, Shy (as well as the viewer) soon realizes her new friend may, in fact, be lacking a brain. Since both can use the cash, Shy enlists Val in her robbery scheme, as well as a hilarious scam involving a power saw and an easily confused hardware store clerk. Val’s girlfriend Billie (Stanya Kahn) is part Tin Man and part Cowardly Lion, and the trio, whose greatest heist entails the use of Super Soaker squirt guns on a soda machine, soon becomes a family. Val wants more, and throughout the movie, she stops at payphones to call women with her birth-mother’s name, that she finds in the phonebook, in her quest for a reunion. Shy seduces Isabelle (Carina Gia), the ‘adoption agency lady’ she convinces to assist her in helping Val track down her mother, but not before Val is arrested and then sent to a mental hospital. Superbly acted, particularly by Ms. Dodge, this very independent film, whose message about life being a ‘long journey to recover the two or three simple and great images which first gained access to its heart,’ eventually comes through, by hook or by crook. (B) – Jun. 14, 20
Trembling Before G-d (New Yorker Films)—Sandi Simcha BuBowski’s documentary about the inner conflict of being gay or lesbian and trying to maintain one’s faith as an Orthodox or Hasidic Jew is especially compelling at this time in history with our heightened awareness about religious fanaticism. Many of the interviews in the documentary, filmed in Brooklyn, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and Jerusalem, are done in silhouette or with the faces of the subjects obscured. Among those who speak openly to the camera are an HIV+ man named Mark from London; a once-married lesbian from Brooklyn named Michelle; Brooklynite Israel, who has been with his lover Carl for 25 years; and Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi. The documentary opens with the forbidding quotes from Leviticus and the Shulchan Aruch (16th century authoritative code of Jewish law), but it closes with words of hope from a modern-day rabbi who said that ‘being gay is an assignment from God,’ and admonished the religious community not to demonize gay and lesbian Jews, but to love and help them. That, he said, is what Judaism is all about. (B) – Jun. 7, 11, 23, 29
E Minha Cara (That’s My Face)—Gay African-American filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris captures his personal journey of identity and spirituality on film in this journey of self-discovery. Harris, who grew up in the Bronx, got his love of photography and making movies from his grandfather, a man who had a dream of going to Africa, the ‘mythic homeland.’ Harris lived briefly in Tanzania with his mother, while she worked in Africa, and then returned to the U.S. in 1976. As an adult, on a ‘one-way track to medical school,’ Harris took a detour and went to Brazil, to ‘find what he was looking for,’ which included the ‘African face of Brazil.’ (B) – Jun. 9, 14, 17, 30
Lan Yu (Strand Releasing)—With the student protests in Tiananmen Square as the backdrop, Stanley Kwan’s complex and groundbreaking gay love story, Lan Yu, set in Beijing in the late 1980s is a welcome addition to the growing canon of gay cinema. Architecture student Lan Yu (Ye Liu) is in need of money having moved to the big city to go to college. He meets business man Chen Handong (Jun Hu), who offers him money in exchange for sex. Lan Yu and Handong meet up again while Lan Yu is on winter break, and they resume their relationship. While Handong struggles with his feelings for Lan Yu, he lavishes the man with gifts, including a car and a villa. Their relationship survives a few rough spots, including Handong’s infidelities and his marriage to a woman. When Handong finds himself in trouble because of shady business dealings, it is Lan Yu who comes to his rescue, selling the car and the house to raise funds. However, just as the couple is about to settle into a domestic life (accepted by friends and family), tragedy strikes. Disappointing end aside, Lan Yu is a revolutionary film. (B) – Jun. 14, 18, 24, 30.