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| Film Festival Probes Relationships, Sex, Drag, & Horror |
by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
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| Tess and Belle at the Rodeo in "Dead Boyz Don't Scream" |
| Photo provided by Film Festival |
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The sixth annual Fire Island Film and Video Festival, with events at the Community House and the Ice Palace, took place from September 12 to 16; was sponsored by the Arts Project of Cherry Grove, the Grove Hotel and the Long Island Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Inc. (LIGLFF); and included varied entries probing LGBT relationships and sex, drag, and, in films that were at once chilling and campy, horror. Films' creators and performers were present to introduce their work, offer commentary, answer questions, and/or perform. This article looks at but a small sampling of the many films offered.
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The festival opened with "The Godfather of Disco" (2007), directed by Gene Graham, and based on "My Life and the Paradise Garage: Keep on Dancin'," the autobiography (copyright 2000) of Mel Cheren, founder of the downtown Manhattan disco Paradise Garage, West End Records, and 24 Hours for Life Inc., which raised money for AIDS care and education & sponsored LIFEBeat, the music industry's AIDS awareness and research organization. The film looks at the history of disco, including the devastating losses that it sustained early in the AIDS crisis. Among those appearing in the film are AIDS activist Brent Nicholson Earle, DJ Junior Vasquez, and Randy Jones, the original cowboy of the Village People, who was present to introduce "The Godfather of Disco" and answer questions about both the film and the disco era.
Next on opening night came "Holding Trevor" (2007, New York premiere), directed and produced by Rosser Goodman and written, co-produced by and starring Brent Gorski. This soap opera, sometimes overwrought, sometimes elliptical, is set in Los Angeles. Those with holds on central figure Trevor Holden (Gorski) are Darrell (Christopher Wyllie), his drug addicted ex; Ephram Cohen (Eli Kransky), 'Dr. Dreamy,' his new boyfriend, who has serious plans in mind for them; Andie (Melissa Searing), his roommate, dealing with her own fears about HIV; and Jake (Jay Brannan), his singer friend, who can barely keep track of his own sex partners.
On the bill the second night was "Drag Show Video Vérité," composed of 32 clips of the New York drag scene, many of them historic, collected and compiled by drag historian and producer Joe E. Jeffreys, who was here to introduce it.
The showing was preceded by slides of Derrick Little's photos of the likes of Lady Bunny, Amanda Lepore, Miss Understood, Sweetie and Ru Paul, accompanied by a live piano performance by Jacqueline Jonée, playing her own scintillating arrangement of Gershwin ("The Man I Love," "Rhapsody in Blue," "Fascinating Rhythm," "Strike Up the Band"), Chopin, Rimsky-Korsakov ("Flight of the Bumblebee"), "Beer Barrel Polka," "Roll out the Barrel," "Twelfth Street Rag," "I Am What I Am," and "Over the Rainbow."
"Drag Show Video Vérité" itself is a long film, containing an embarrassment of riches. Edited by Seth S. Hauer, it moves jaggedly, jarringly from one clip to the next.
Here, Rollerena is seen skating on Christopher Street, in Battery Park, and in front of a police car, touching people with her magic wand. In between performances by the drag kings of Switch N'Play and magician Brandall comes Lady Bunny, at Wigstock, singing such raucous parodies as "And I am smelling you, you are not douching," "Don't let your son go down on me," and the Whitney Houston-inspired "I will always smoke you."
Celebrity tribute artists are the next focus, with Jimmy James, as Marilyn Monroe, singing "Stay Gold;" Jim Bailey, as Judy Garland, singing "You Made Me Love You," "For Me and My Gal," and "The Trolley Song;" and Charles Pierce, sharp and riotous, doing Bette Davis. Kiki and Herb performing "Sex Bomb" and "I Will Survive" at Carnegie Hall, with commentary from Mr. Murray Hill and Dirty Martini, and Charles Busch and company, in an over-the-top scene from "Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium," bracket efforts of "Strange Fruits," on public access television, from the Bronx.
The cross dressers, who were celebrated by Andy Warhol, are here. Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling, Agosto Machado, Mario Montez and Paul Ambrose rehearse the play "Vain Victory," in 1971, at La Mama, ETC, and Holly Woodlawn sings a suggestive number about a Tahitian princess and her papayas.
International Chrysis is caught in song and striptease. Street Transvestite Action Revolutionary Marsha P. Johnson reads a poem, "Soul," by Jimmy Camicia, in "The Heat," a Hot Peaches troupe show at Theatre for the New York. Drag king Macha does a wry routine as a soldier.
Pianist Jacqueline Jonée, in her show "Je M'Appelle Jacqueline," at Don't Tell Mama, sings and plays "Veronique," from Cy Coleman's "On the Twentieth Century;" Jacques Brel's "Carousel;" and the title song from Cole Porter's "Cancan." Jackie Beat sings a punk song, "Love Hurts." Charity, Cashetta, Rose Royalle, Gusty and Gassy Winds, and Sherry Vine appear with their starring colleague in the trailer from "Charmed Life," a movie about Sweetie (Daniel Booth).
An unusual vignette of Republican Presidential candidate Rudolf Giuliani finds the former New York City Mayor, shopping in drag and sampling a perfume, as the salesman puts the make on him. Scenes from Harlem Gay Balls, featuring drag and other elaborate costume, follow. The video of Kevin Aviance song "Freak It" boasts psychedelic-style images. Noche appears at length, doing "Too Darned Hot," from "Kiss Me, Kate," and drag king Shelly Mars graphically portrays a rather disgusting sexist, homophobic drunk. A look at drag during an LGBT Pride March is next. For the finale, Ethyl Eichelberger, singing and playing accordion, plays Greek mythological figure "Klytemnestra."
September 14 brought four hours of ghoulish, campy fun at the 'Horror Fest Double Feature,' with some erotica and gallons of blood, and surprising plot twists and resolutions.
"Gay Zombie" (2007) is a short directed by Michael Simon and set in West Hollywood. The gay zombie is seen with his therapist, at a gay bar, getting a makeover by his new gay friends, and at yoga in this comic thriller with political overtones. In scenes that evoke the early AIDS crisis, those around the zombie fear exposure to infected blood and galvanize into a lynch mob.
In "Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror" (2007 New York premiere), a feature film directed by Jaymes Thompson, suspicious and ominous events occur at the gay Sahara Bed and Breakfast Inn, run by a nightmare mother (Mari Marks, who was present) and the daughter under her thumb (Georgia Jean), in a remote locale. The dramatis personae includes a Mr. Leather (Vinny Markus) and his drag queen significant other (Michael Soldier); a lesbian folk singer and her not-so-devoted partner (Hilary Schwartz and Allie Rivenbark); lipstick lesbians (Shannon Lee and Denise Heller); a 'sweater queen,' his handsome boyfriend, and their woman friend (Derek Long, Robert Borzych and Lisa Block-Wieser); and a john and hustler (Jim Polyvka and James Tolins), the last pair having little interaction with the others. Campy allusions to "Psycho," "Mommie Dearest," "Love Story" and "Rosemary's Baby" abound; partners are swapped; and rightwing, religious fanaticism is the enemy. Thompson's earlier humorous short, "Fruitcake," with Schwartz, from the cast of "Bed and Breakfast," was shown here in 2004.
"In the Place of the Dead" (2006, United States premiere), directed by Keith Claxton, is a joint United Kingdom-Morocco production, set in Marrackech. A British gay man, his wife, and the Moroccan hustler, whom he craves, conjure a powerful djinn, or demon, which thrives on sexual energy. The film ends abruptly.
In "Dead Boyz Don't Scream" (2006, New York premiere), directed by Marc Saltarelli and set in California, Tess runs a model agency, or "boy bimbo" business, as her disapproving forest ranger lover, Belle Van Dyke, puts it. When some of the models participate in a gangbang that leaves a woman, with an unusual past, injured and a man fallen, or pushed, off a balcony to his death, Tess sends her charges out of town to the Malibu Dry Gulch Ranch to recover by participating in Roz's erotic, "Brokeback Mountain"-inspired photo shoot, in which they are joined by a pair of very blond refugees from, apparently, "The Sound of Music." The guys are hot, nude, and prime targets for a psychotic killer. Reid Hutchins, who plays Joey, who works for Tess, was present.
The closing night feature, "A Four Letter Word" (2007), was directed by Casper Andreas (2007) and was written by and stars Jesse Archer, as Luke. Archer was present to introduce this sequel to his and Andreas' "Slutty Summer," shown here in 2004. The 'four letter word' in question is "love" in this film, shot in New York City and looking at complications in several relationships, gay and hetero. Flamboyant Luke, who works in a sex shop and is a confirmed "slut," is accused by "exclusive top," Stephen (Charlie David) of being a "gay cliché," a stereotype. Luke finds himself falling for Stephen, but, prodded by his co-worker, Zeke (Cory Grant), feels obliged to question everything Stephen has said about himself. When, at Zeke's urging, Luke goes to a sexual compulsives meeting at the LGBT Community Center, he turns everyone on with his narrative of an encounter in the Meat Rack, causing the members of the cult-like group to turn on him. Restaurant owner Marilyn (Virginia Bryan), anticipating her marriage to stoic Bart (John Kaisner), and Peter (Steven Goldsmith), who works for her and is establishing ground rules for his interracial relationship with Derek (J.R. Rolley), are both control freaks. Trisha (Allison Lane), Marilyn's AA sponsor, throws her, and her elaborate wedding plans, a curve when she gives her a passionate kiss on the mouth. A highlight is a campy bridal shower that Peter and Derek give for Marilyn, with her friends, including Luke, in drag and appearances by television personality Clover Honey and dancer and singer Edie.
Other programs, not considered here in this report, focused on short romantic comedies and dramas, music videos, and erotica.
LIGLFF's next effort is its annual festival at the Cinema Arts Centre, 425 Park Avenue in Huntington, from November 9 through 15.
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