Category: Culture

VQFF Review: The Coast is Queer

I always look forward to The Coast is Queer, the VQFF’s showcase of local filmmakers. I was particularly impressed this year, though. I expected quality, but some of the offerings floored me.

I always look forward to The Coast is Queer, the VQFF’s showcase of local filmmakers. I was particularly impressed this year, though. I expected quality, but some of the offerings floored me.

Chainsaw Ballet

A funny and random little piece, with two girls in woodcutter plaid singing a pseudo-folk song while three husky bears dance with chainsaws.

Playing It Safe

This odd little short features a woman with a cardboard box around her head, meeting and falling for a woman who persuades her to take the box off. What’s interesting is that she was doodling on the SkyTrain, expressing herself artistically while still remaining anonymous. A metaphor for the internet, maybe? Cute and sweet, anyway.

Bill is a Photographer

I’ll be honest, this is not what I expected from Clark Nikolai. It’s much more serious and reflective, taking a step back to look at the craft of photography and filmmaking. It features a Vancouver photographer (Bill) who specialises in plant close-ups and studio photography. He talks about studying the lighting techniques used 70’s gay porn mags, and about creating his own porn featuring older bear guys. This film was tied to win The Coast is Queer Award.

The Bonus

In this fast-pace and hilarious piece by David C Jones, an employee in some nameless corporation accidentally locks himself out of the utility room where he was planning a date with his boyfriend. The other problem? He’s wearing assless chaps, and so has to dodge around his weekend-working boss, nabbing her set of keys and putting them back without being seen.

A Little Elbow Room

This is one thing I love about The Coast is Queer: how filmmakers turn their lens on the local community. Here we’re looking at The Elbow Room, run by the flamboyantly bitchy Patrick Savoie for decades. In between shots of Patrick abusing his customers (with love), he and his partner reminisce about the Elbow Room’s history, and their history together.

June

A creepy short film about a ghost haunting his widowed partner’s piano. I don’t know who’s in more pain here: the partner, still grieving; or the ghost trying vainly to play music.

Kimchi Fried Dumplings

A beautifully made and gripping slice-of-life family drama. There’s conflict, love, family responsibilities, hitting on hot firemen. Loads of characters but they’re all three-dimensional and given screen time to develop. Kudos to Jason Karman! This was my favourite short of the night.

Says Who?

An intriguing story of a young blind gay guy and and older straight guy awkwardly bonding. It turned out to be all in the mind of an artist who had seen them together on the bus and dreamed up the whole scenario.

Driving to You

A very short but shocking film of a homophobic mother and daughter getting in a car accident and the daughter being seriously injured, forcing her to reconcile with her daughter’s partner. Sort of.

Bill, Please!

How do you decide who pays the bill after a meal? Well, you could discuss it like grownups… or you could have an awesome martial arts fight with ninja and zombie minions! This film won Jessica Han the The Coast is Queer Award (tied with Clark Nikolai), the OUTtv Hot Pink Shorts Award, and the Gerry Brunet Memorial Award. Well done!

Tap Tap Tap

It’s still as fun the second time around!

VQFF Review: G.B.F.

G.B.F. is smart and hilarious fluff, gleefully playing with every gay and high school cliché out there, and then some. Three flavours of Alpha Bitch (four if you count Soledad)? All yours. Pop culture shoutouts left and right? You got it. Sexually repressed and/or closeted Mormons? That’s a check. It does get a little bit too earnest at times, when pleading for the end of labels and how we’re all human and blah blah blah; but aside from that the laughs never stop.

G.B.F. is smart and hilarious fluff, gleefully playing with every gay and high school cliché out there, and then some. Three flavours of Alpha Bitch (four if you count Soledad)? All yours. Pop culture shoutouts left and right? You got it. Sexually repressed and/or closeted Mormons? That’s a check. It does get a little bit too earnest at times, when pleading for the end of labels and how we’re all human and blah blah blah; but aside from that the laughs never stop.

Shy nerd Tanner is always first in line to get all the latest gadgets, but has no intention of being the first kid to come out at his high school. But then his rather more flamboyant friend Brent learns about the latest hot accessory: the Gay Best Friend, which no cool girl should be without! One thing leads to another, as they do in comedies like this, and Brent’s plan to leap out of the closet and be the most in-demand G.B.F. ever backfires spectacularly with Tanner getting outed to the whole school.

It’s rough at first being the only out gay kid in school: not only do jocks want to beat him up, but the Gay-Straight Alliance’s obnoxious president wants him to join her group and give her life meaning. But when the school’s three head girls start hanging out with him and protecting him from the jocks, Tanner realises it’s not so bad.

You know how the rest goes, right? Popularity—not to mention the promise of a hot British date for prom—starts getting to Tanner’s head and he forgets his old friends, Brent is bitter and lonely and forced to watch Brokeback Mountain with his aggressively gay-friendly mom (and may I say that Megan Mullally is as awesome as ever), the head bitches and their allies square off for a massive war centered on the prom, Brent plots to ruin Tanner’s evening by dumping glitter on him, Carrie-style, but of course he decides against it at the last second and the two reconcile.

I absolutely loved this film. It’s hilarious, excellently paced, nicely acted (again, props to Megan Mullally), and did I mention hilarious? Absolutely everything is played for laughs, even things that really shouldn’t be (high school closets, the need for GSAs) and you know what? That’s exactly what I needed. As much as I love the dramas and documentaries, this movie was a breath of fresh, sassy air.

VQFF Review: Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish

This film, inspired by Nobel Prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore’s 1892 play Chitrangada, is a quiet and moving meditation on gender, identity and transformation. The late Rituparno Ghosh directs and acts with an understated but confident intensity, creating an incredibly compelling tale.

This film, inspired by Nobel Prize-winner Rabindranath Tagore’s 1892 play Chitrangada, is a quiet and moving meditation on gender, identity and transformation. The late Rituparno Ghosh directs and acts with an understated but confident intensity, creating an incredibly compelling tale.

Director Rudra Chatterjee (played by Ghosh) is putting together a production of Chitrangada. In the play (itelf inspired from a tale in the Mahabharata), princess Chitrangada is the heir to the kingdom of Manipura, raised as a man and a warrior due to a prophecy that her father would only raise sons. She meets the great hero Arjuna and falls in love with him. But, feeling he could not love her as she is, she asks the God of Love to transform her into a beautiful feminine woman. He does so, and Arjuna falls in love with her. However, Chitrangada is unhappy since in this new form she is failing as her kingdom’s protector, and moreover she wishes Arjuna to know her real self. So she reveals the truth to Arjuna; he loves her even more as an equal, they marry and have a son who eventually reigns over Manipura.

Early in the production, Rudra falls for his troupe’s new drummer Partho, an unpredictable heroin addict who takes pleasure in taking Rudra’s ego down a peg. I cringed a lot during their early interactions, because Partho was kind of a jerkass and I couldn’t see why the sophisticated, dignified Rudra would have anything to do with him. True, he was trying (eventually, successfully) to get clean, but still.

Eventually, they talk about having children. Partho wants them, and Rudra wants to be with Partho, so he proposes becoming a woman. Same-sex couples can’t adopt in India, so this seems like the logical choice. Partho doesn’t think so, but Rudra is determined. He moves out of his parents’ place, to spare them the shame, and is fast-tracked through the gender reassignment process.

But things don’t go well. Rudra and Partho break up, and Rudra’s mood worsens. He starts suffering from insomnia, and due to the surgery has trouble practicing his old dance moves. It doesn’t escape his notice that his life is paralleling Chitrangada’s story, with the surgeon standing in for the God of Love, and Partho for Arjuna. And himself as the aristocratic warrior who chose to become someone else, out of love.

At the very last minute, with the help of his counselor, Rudra decides not to go through with the final surgery (genital reconstruction?) and asks the doctor to reverse the whole process. He would rather be a passionate, creative director and dancer, reconciled with his parents, than a beautiful woman with unknown gifts and without a family.

The story was told in a somewhat non-linear format, with generous use of flashbacks to switch between the present time (Rudra alone in the hospital) and the past (Rudra with Partho) not to mention short snippets of the Chitrangada play-within-a-movie. I admit, it made some parts of the story a little hard to follow—especially the scenes with the mysterious photographer posing as a hospital counselor. He was the one who made Rudra reconsider his choices, but I don’t remember when and how they first met. I’m sure a lot of the symbolism—the house on the beach, for one—went over my head, and that’s not even counting any additional references to Chitrangada which I only know from its Wikipedia entry. This is a movie with layers, and I’ll want to watch it again for a fuller understanding.

If I were to pick a message for this movie, what would it be? What I’m getting is that changing yourself (in whatever capacity, up to and including surgery) can be a great thing, but it has to be for the right reasons, and you must remain true to your dreams and your passions. In the end, maybe the best thing you can wish for is to be yourself, to be the best self you can be, and that is the only way to happiness. Trite and clichéd? Maybe, but it works for me. And it’s something I need to be reminded of every once in a while, though my dreams of transformation involve superhero tights rather than princess dresses.

VQFF Review: Meet the Glamcocks

This film, directed by Vincent Rommelaere, takes a look at Camp Glamcock, a gay camp at Burning Man founded just a few years ago. Filmed in 2012, it’s very engaging and tons of fun, with some impressive visuals—the Arizona desert, insane Burning Man art pieces, and the Glamcock camp structure itself—and, naturally, a lot of hot guys.

This film, directed by Vincent Rommelaere, takes a look at Camp Glamcock, a gay camp at Burning Man founded just a few years ago. Filmed in 2012, it’s very engaging and tons of fun, with some impressive visuals—the Arizona desert, insane Burning Man art pieces, and the Glamcock camp structure itself—and, naturally, a lot of hot guys.

Thing is, though, once you scratch the surface, I got to wondering what it is that makes the Glamcocks special, and… coming up dry. Is it more than just a week-long gay-club-slash-camping-trip? I really couldn’t tell. So I think it’d be interesting to compare and contrast the Glamcocks with the Beavers, because there are some very important differences.

  • Camp Glamcock started with a few friends, who brought in more of their friends. There was no more purpose to it than that, unlike the Beavers who are intentionally creating a safe space for queer women. I don’t think the Glamcocks provide any service to the larger community except for killer parties and drag shows. If they do help out nearby Camp Beaverton in any way the movie doesn’t mention it.
  • Likewise, the idea of a physical safe space is apparently not even on the radar. The Glamcocks’ structure is completely open, even the shower, with only one covered section on the second floor, presumably the sleeping area. All the better to host dance parties!
  • Physically, the Glamcocks are incredibly homogeneous. They seem to be all 20- or 30-something fit, smooth, muscly guys, all white except for one black guy. The interview segments only featured one older gentleman with grey hair, and one somewhat skinnier guy—who still fit the mold pretty well. Where are the bears? Where are the femme guys? Where are the trans guys? Mind you, I have heard that Glamcock is only one of several gay camps at Burning Man, which include a camp for bears, and one for gay Asians. So there’s that.

One thing that this film does, though, is spend more time outside of the camp and look at the rest of Burning Man. And though Camp Glamcock is not an especially spiritual place, a couple interviews with individual Glamcocks did resonate with me. One spoke of walking out in the desert one time, alone, and just being there. No checking Facebook, no talking, no plans, just being in the moment. I loved that, and I’m wondering how many people set out for Burning Man with this kind of thing in mind, but get distracted by all the insanity surrounding them.

Another bit I loved was the visit to the Temple. Not only is it a gorgeous piece of architecture, but it exists only for the greater community, providing people with a quiet space for reflection and spiritual expression. Atheist as I am, I understand that’s a valid need, and if I ever go to Burning Man I’ll be sure to visit it. People leave messages for absent friends, prayers to the universe, fears they need to leave behind, burdens they need to drop. And it all goes up in flames at the end of the week.

So those parts were good. Overall, though… Meet the Glamcocks was a very well-done film, and I did enjoy it very much, but thinking back on it I feel its focus was narrow. I would have loved to see other Burning Man gay camps (which I only learned about two days later), and see how—or whether—they interact with other queer camps like Beaverton.

VQFF Review: Camp Beaverton

This film by Ana Grillo and Beth Nelsen is one of two documentaries shot at last year’s Burning Man and featured at the Queer Film Festival. Camp Beaverton, a.k.a the Home for Wayward Girls, is an all-women, trans-inclusive, sex-positive camp founded a few years ago by—somewhat ironically—a straight couple, who realised there was a need for queer women to connect.

This film by Ana Grillo and Beth Nelsen is one of two documentaries shot at last year’s Burning Man and featured at the Queer Film Festival. Camp Beaverton, a.k.a the Home for Wayward Girls, is an all-women, trans-inclusive, sex-positive camp founded a few years ago by—somewhat ironically—a straight couple, who realised there was a need for queer women to connect. From the interviews it looks like Beaverton definitely serves its purpose, and more.

The directors (who occasionally turn the camera on themselves) are frank in admitting that they didn’t know too much about the camp coming in, expecting mostly a lot of sex and drugs. And yes, there’s a fair bit of hooking up, even if you don’t count the “Strapon-athon” and other semi-private sex events, but there’s a lot more to it than that. The camp serves the community by giving workshops on safe sex and communication skills (which I believe welcome men as well); the women there are a very diverse and welcoming group who respect each other’s identities and experiences, always mindful of boundaries and consent; they have built a space where any woman can feel safe to relax and unwind, one that successfully combines sexuality with a sense of the sacred. It’s a little lesbian-feminist utopia right there in the Arizona desert, and when it ends every year, participants can bring a little of it back home with them.

I’ve never been to Burning Man, let alone Camp Beaverton, but I think I got a small taste of what it would be like. For one thing, the documentary gave me a great feel for the place, both emotionally and in the nitty-gritty details. For another, I was one of maybe 5 men in the entire audience. I’ve hardly ever been in a mostly-female space before. It’s a different atmosphere, and I liked it. I think more men, queer and straight, should experience that once in a while.

VQFF Review: Bawdy Body Shorts

This show featured a bunch of sexy, weird, or funny shorts. Sometimes all three at the same time! This is a fine counterpoint to Lot in Sodom, and I can’t help wondering what people will think at VQFF’s 125th anniversary when they watch these shorts again.

This show featured a bunch of sexy, weird, or funny shorts. Sometimes all three at the same time! This is a fine counterpoint to Lot in Sodom, and I can’t help wondering what people will think at VQFF’s 125th anniversary when they watch these shorts again…

In Bang Bang, Mihee Nathalie Lemoine recounts her abuse at the hands of a racist teacher. Short, raw and personal.

In the deliriously WTF MeTube a chubby man sings from Carmen’s Habanera aria, while his kitchen turns into into a dance club populated by elderly S/M musicians in latex and ball gags. Hella catchy, though not really sexy unless you’re into that.

In Interchangeable, two women have an awkward moment when they realise they’re both wearing strapons. Equally awkward psychoanalysis and hugging ensue.

In Gingers several redheaded men talk about being ginger, the misconceptions and fetishes, letting the camera explore their bodies. Very fun, and very hot.

In What Makes Us Queer several women talk about what it means to be queer, and how it’s about far more than just sex.

In Law and Order two elderly German gentlemen talk, argue and engage in BDSM play. These two are absolutely adorable, and it’s clear they’ve grown old together and are just totally comfortable with each other. The sex play is not meant to be sexy to the viewers, it’s just… there, just a thing they like to do, another part of their life together.

In Audrey’s Beard, a butch dyke celebrates her facial hair.

Mates and Anchor Anatomic are simple straight-up hot, plotless sex. The former, directed by the same guy who did Gingers (and I think I recognise some of the same actors), is about a few UK lads hooking up after a soccer/football game. In Anchor Anatomic two twinks—one with an anchor tattoo, one with an anatomically correct heart tattoo—go at it every which way.

In Intersexed, a woman argues with herself after sex. It’s way funnier than it sounds.

In Beast a man explores his lover’s body with his hand. Very cute and sexy.

In Tap Tap Tap a certain US Senator’s wide-stance toilet misadventure is reimagined as an old-school cabaret song and dance number. He still gets arrested at the end, though.

VQFF Review: Lot in Sodom & Vintage Queer Porn

Now this was a rare treat! The Queer Film Festival somehow got their hands on a few vintage silent porn shorts from the 20’s and 30’s, providing a fascinating look at what people found arousing and / or funny back in the day! Add to that some excellent live musical accompaniment by contemporary ensemble Diving for Rocks, and I enjoyed a fantastic evening that tickled my funny bone, perked up my inner history nerd, and… honestly, didn’t really get me hot. But that’s okay. Well done, and I hope there’s more where that came from!

Now this was a rare treat! The Queer Film Festival somehow got their hands on a few vintage silent porn shorts from the 20’s and 30’s, providing a fascinating look at what people found arousing and / or funny back in the day! Add to that some excellent live musical accompaniment by contemporary ensemble Diving for Rocks, and I enjoyed a fantastic evening that tickled my funny bone, perked up my inner history nerd, and… honestly, didn’t really get me hot, but that’s okay. Well done, and I hope there’s more where that came from!

What’s the World Coming To?

We start off with a 1926 farce about changing gender roles. Not pornographic at all, but it does provide some delightfully old-fashioned laughs.

In the next 100 years, the opening reel tells us—so, pretty much now—men will become a lot more like women, women a lot more like men, and marriage will be a quaint old custom observed by very few. Naturally, we start of with a 21st century wedding! The blushing groom looks mincing but radiant in his frilly suit and ridiculous giant hat, ready to be given away by his weeping father. The bride is dressed very plainly, with short hair and minimal makeup, and a rather severe suit and skirt. There’s a bit of slapstick when the bride loses the wedding ring in the groom’s giant poofy sleeves, and while looking for it rips off almost half his suit.

More slapstick follows when, after the honeymoon, the poor househusband suspects his domineering (of course) wife of cheating on him. Chasing a mouse that ran up his trousers, fun with guns (a very long gun wielded by the wife, and don’t think I didn’t pick up on that visual!) and to cap it all off, the groom getting a blueberry pie dropped from a passing blimp right in the face. Because whatever century this is you’ll always have pies in the face, and everyone knows blimps are the only way to travel in the future.

I have to admit, I’m a sucker for retro future history, whether from Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Fritz Lang, or whoever made this little gem. Sure, the issues are played for cheap laughs, but it’s the context that makes it interesting: the movie dates from the height of the Roaring Twenties, a time when society was rapidly changing and a lot of traditions (including about gender roles and marriage) really were being threatened. Whether or not the public really believed men’s and women’s roles would be inverted in generations to come, it was part of the zeitgeist, enough that you could make a whole short reel laughing about it.

Exclusive Sailor

A captain’s secretary and a sailor have a little fun in the captain’s cabin in this 1924 film. They’re discovered by the captain, who joins in. The secretary gets fucked by both men, and the sailor sucks the captain and gets fucked by him. This was all very explicit, with nothing left to the imagination. I’d seen a few gay shorts from around that era (or a little more recent) and there was never any explicit sex or even full frontal nudity. But here? Everybody was letting it all hang out.

PS: Except, not quite. I don’t know what I should read into this, but the men all kept their shirts on. Why? Were male chests more risque than female ones? Did they want the viewers to focus on the women (which raises the question of who was this film’s audience)? Or maybe they wanted to keep the visual cues for the men’s roles (in this case, their uniforms)? Intriguing questions.

PPS: Because speaking of roles, the sex was not equal. Sure, as the title cards explain, the sailor got fucked as revenge and to restore honour, because he was messing around in his captain’s bed. But due to the participants’ relative statuses, the fucking couldn’t have gone any other way. As the ranking officer, the captain was the alpha male and it was his prerogative to fuck all the holes available. The sailor got to fuck the secretary but he couldn’t have turned around and fucked his captain.

Buried Treasure

In this 1925 animated film, we follow the misadventures of Eveready Harton, a guy with a humorously gigantic dick. As you’d expect, the animation quality’s not that great, but it’s a lot of silly fun. Not really queer, though, except for the part where Eveready accidentally butt-fucks a guy while aiming for the lady this guy was fucking.

A Late Visitor

This is the kind of physique short which I’ve seen before, with no sex and no full frontal nudity; the actors wear those little flesh-coloured banana hammock contraptions to just hide the genitals.

A young man living by himself in an apartment makes a late-night date with a friend. No, don’t worry, they’re just friends, and it’s totally not that kind of date! They’re just stripping down for a bit of wrestling, weight lifting and taking a bath together. See? Totally innocent! And it stayed totally innocent when the landlord came in (to see what all the noise was about, I guess), found the visitor hiding under the bed and spanked both men with a hairbrush.

The film quality was very good, which suggests it’s more recent, and raises the question: why is it less explicit than other films a decade older? But they may have been meant for different audiences. Late Visitor and movies like it might have been intended for more public venues, and therefore more vulnerable to censorship.

Context is everything, isn’t it? Who was watching these shows, and where, and when? That’s what I’d love to know more about.

PS: about the landlord. I have the feeling his appearance (dark hair, goatee) is supposed to represent a particular ethnicity (Jewish or Eastern European, maybe?). I wonder how many other jokes and shoutouts are going over my head.

Le ménage moderne du Madame Butterfly

Check it out, we’ve got bisexual porn fanfic! Yes, before Harry/Ron, before Kirk/Spock, it looks like porn writers used opera as their source material. But hey, why not? Inspiration’s where you find it, after all. And now I’m imagining whole fields of research studying porn spinoffs of popular culture. Or is that already a thing? It totally should be.

So, Madame Butterfly. If you’re familiar with the opera (or if you’re like me and had to look the plot up on Wikipedia), you know that it starts with Pinkerton, a US naval officer, marrying a young Japanese girl (Butterfly), then going away for three years. What happened in those three years? Well, if you believe this 1920 French film, Butterfly missed her husband terribly, but was comforted by her maid. And by “comfort” I mean “cunnilingus”. Fun fact: at first I thought Butterfly was played by a guy in drag, which would make the scene not just queer, but genderqueer. Then she opened her robe and I was like NOPE, that’s a lady!

Pinkerton, while at sea, gets seduced by his manservant, who’d wanted him for a long time. There’s a bit of sucking and fucking, all one-way (Pinkerton, as the higher-status male, only gets sucked and does all the fucking).

They go back to Japan, and Pinkerton has a threesome with the two Japanese girls, with his manservant watching and jerking off. This may be one of the oldest money shots in the history of cinema.

PS: The men still don’t take their shirts off.

PPS: This film has a page on Wikipedia, which describes a longer story with one more character. So the version we watched was incomplete?

Lot in Sodom

Oh boy, this is a weird one! I’d probably need to watch it a couple more times to really unpack it, but here goes:

Briefly, this 1933 film is a retelling of the story of Lot in Sodom: meeting the angel—just one in this film—confronting the mob, escaping, and Sodom’s destruction. The people of Sodom are all beautiful smooth shirtless young men, who spend much of their time wrestling with each other and lounging around, while Lot looks like a stereotypical Jew, with a large nose, dark hair and a beard (extremely fake hair and beard, by the way, it looked more like cheap wool). The angel is equally beautiful, but tends to cover up with a black cloak. This didn’t stop him from being lusted after by the scary, predatory-looking Sodomites.

The mob scene was interesting; since I guess they couldn’t afford that many actors, so they used double and triple exposures to simulate a crowd. It looked very surreal. Man, people back in the day really had to work to suspend their disbelief, didn’t they? But that’s probably not fair, I bet this technique was pretty experimental back then. A similar effect was used to show Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt: in addition to the expected fade-in, we saw a several small transparent salt pillars swirling around her, foreshadowing the transformation.

Also, it’s possible I missed some of the intertitles, but I don’t remember Lot offering his daughter (again, just one in this film) to the mob.

Speaking of effects, though, Sodom’s destruction was pretty neat. It was clearly only a model, but a decent-looking one; something passed by at the very top of the screen (it kind of looked like a sword, and if that was the intent, kudos), dripping sparks and burning oil, reducing the model to cinders in moments.

There’s more to this film, though. Interspersed through the action near the end were several odd Bible verses, plus some imagery that had nothing to do with the story of Sodom. For instance, quoting from Solomon’s Song of Songs (“Place me like a seal over your heart”, Song of Songs 8:6, and a few other verses from the same book), plus one Latin line: “Mulier templum est” (“Woman is a temple”, thank you high school Latin classes), paired with an image of a small marble shrine, disturbingly superimposed on an image of a snake. So, a snake entering the temple that is a woman? Do I want to touch this metaphor with a ten-foot pole?

So here’s the question: what was this movie’s purpose? The only one I can think of is as a Bible-based lecture on the evils of homosexuality, paired with a lesson on how the love of a woman is so much more awesome than gay sex. But honestly, I have no idea. For all I know it might have been a huge satire of Biblical fundamentalism. Or, this imagery might have just been a normal part of everyday background homophobia. I need to judge the movie as a product of its time.

PS: this film is in the public domain, and available as a torrent That version has a musical score and a bit of voice synching!

VQFF Review: Queens: Destiny of Dance

Okay, so I just got my Bollywood cherry popped! Sure, I’ve seen bits of various movies, and a few individual dance numbers here and there, but never a whole movie, beginning to end. This was a great movie, every bit as catchy, gorgeous and deliciously over-the-top as I expected.

Okay, so I just got my Bollywood cherry popped! Sure, I’ve seen bits of various movies, and a few individual dance numbers here and there, but never a whole movie, beginning to end. This was a great movie, every bit as catchy, gorgeous and deliciously over-the-top as I expected.

This is a tale of jealousy and vengeance from beyond the grave. In Guru Amma’s ‘Kingdom of Queens’, Mukta is the best dancer and the favourite of Amma. She and the other girls earn their keep by dancing and singing at weddings, births and other ceremonies, entertaining the outside world that rejected them. But one day Nandini, a teenage girl with a mysterious past, shows up out the blue. Angelically beautiful, with a gentle heart, Nandini is a phenomenal dancer, outshining Mukta on her very first tryout. Worse, she is unconditionally adored by Amma and the other hijras. They all want to dance like her (and not like Mukta), ignore their duties, give her little gifts, and Amma herself gives her a pair of jewelled anklets, gorgeous even by this movie’s standards. In anger, Mukta sets fire to her hijra outfit and storms out wearing her old teenage boy clothes (which miraculously still fit her after 15 years).

After wandering around a bit and almost visiting her family (Mukta’s mother still misses her son terribly, but her father will not even look at her), she returns to Guru Amma, somewhat humbled but still not ready to love Nandini. She concocts a scheme to make Nandini leave the Kingdom by setting her up with a talent agent she met in her wandering, who’s always looking for good dancers. If Nandini does well she’ll be an international star, and peace will return to Amma’s kingdom. Win-win!

Unfortunately the talent agent is a sleaze, and after Mukta leaves he tries to put the moves on Nandini. She resists, they fight, and she accidentally dies. For the next couple days Mukta—already guilty for deceiving Nandini—is haunted by visions of Nandini’s lovely anklets (which is a lot creepier than it sounds, and the SFX were pretty good), until Nandini’s bloodstained shawl is discovered, followed by Nandini’s body. Mukta, now out of her mind with grief and guilt, publicly confesses, and is confronted with the ghost of Nandini which no one else can see. Nandini forces her to dance, all up and down the courtyard, over and over, even as Mukta begs for mercy. Then Guru Amma—who somehow had figured out that Nandini is her niece, though I forget how exactly—also begs for forgiveness, and Nandini lets go. Mukta falls down dead, and the Kingdom now has two sisters to grieve for.

So… that was fun! This was way different from anything I’ve seen before, and I can’t compare it to any other Bollywood movie, so all I know is that I loved it! It had energy, amazing visuals, a compelling story, and some beautiful dance numbers. Not as many as I expected, though, so that was a bit of a disappointment.

One audience member who does know her Bollywood didn’t think much of it, though. It was deadly earnest and depressing, similar to old-timey Hollywood gay movies, where the gay characters are all destined to die in the end. Here, the Queens are destined only to dance and entertain, facilitating other people’s love but never enjoying it themselves. Which as I understand it is how they’re traditionally supposed to live their lives. But aren’t traditions meant to be broken? If you’re going to have the characters demand respect from bigots and even fight back against bashers, you might as well go all the way and fight against repressive traditions as well.

Which is fair enough, and leaves me a bit conflicted about the movie. But only a bit. Most of me is in it for the dance.

VQFF Review: Mama Rainbow

Both heartwarming and sobering at the same time, this pair of films looks at the challenges faced by Chinese GLBT people and the brave people who are slowly changing things.

Lala Road: In this short (10 min) film, several lesbian teens and young adults tell us about their difficulties coming out and dealing with their families (“lala” is slang for lesbian). They face intense pressure to get married and have babies, while their parents face shame (if people ever found out) and misconceptions about homosexuality. Many of these kids have only two options: get married or leave China. Living abroad they’ll be free to love who they wish to love, and let their parents keep on believing they have a straight child.

Mama Rainbow: these interviews with gay and lesbian kids and the awesome mothers who love and support them. They spoke very candidly about their previous doubts and misconceptions (it’s just a phase / it’s just a Western fad / it can be cured), the coming-out stories—from both sides—and their continuing work supporting Chinese PFLAG chapters and other local queer organisations. It’s beautiful, often sweetly funny, and will definitely give you warm fuzzies.

The films were followed by a Q&A with a couple members of PFLAG Vancouver. One of the questions asked was: where are the fathers? The situation’s actually pretty similar in Canada and the US, where fathers in PFLAG are rare. Mothers (I guess, in any culture) can handle and express emotions better, and tend to be more outspoken allies.

Also, interesting fact: PFLAG is in the process of opening a new chapter in Abbotsford. They pointed out that once that’s up and running they’ll probably be facing issues not too different from what we saw in Mama Rainbow: societal shame for everyone concerned, fighting against rigid traditions, and the difficulties of living openly gay out in the Fraser Valley, leading kids to just pack up and leave.

VQFF: Who Are We, Cinema?

I love it when the Queer Film Festival pushes the envelope. A couple years ago, we were treated to  Reflection / Refraction, taken up by the Queer Arts Festival this year. Last night things got really meta when eight filmmakers and creators (mostly local) got up for eight Pechakucha-style presentations on queer cinema and how it represents and affects queer lives.

I love it when the Queer Film Festival pushes the envelope. A couple years ago, we were treated to  Reflection / Refraction, taken up by the Queer Arts Festival this year. Last night things got really meta when eight filmmakers and creators (mostly local) got up for eight Pechakucha-style presentations on queer cinema and how it represents and affects queer lives.

From Adam Goldman (creator of The Outs) and Isolde N. Baron going over the  movies and TV shows that molded them into the fabulous queens they are today, to Aerlyn Weisman discussing some of the lesbian / bi leading ladies of Hollywood’s Golden Age, to Gwen Haworth showing how representations of trans people have been changing over the years, to Emma Kivisild a.k.a. Lizard Jones of the Kiss and Tell collective and Peggy Thompson talking about how their respective film and art projects have affected their lives, there was an awesome diversity of people and perspectives.

And the reminder that yes, movies matter. They shape culture and individual minds, but likewise film is not a static medium; even Hollywood evolves, and individual filmmakers can make a difference. We are all shaping our culture, influencing other tender young minds. Where will we be in a generation? If these speakers are any indication, it should be pretty kickass.