Year in Pink: Out at The Movies Edition
December 29, 2007
This year, gay men and women moved me with their terrific work in front of and behind the camera, even if that work was simply telling their own stories. If anything, this top ten list is a celebration of the incredible diversity of talents, tastes and lives in our community.
1. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (dir. Tim Burton): Stephen Sondheim’s gorgeous music and lyrics unite with Burton’s beautiful imagery to tell a terrifying, bloody and emotionally wrenching tale.
2. I’m Not There (dir. Todd Haynes): The director of Far From Heaven, Velvet Goldmine and Poison twists the biopic genre inside out with his tribute to the chameleon-like Bob Dylan, played by six different actors. Cate Blanchett is the most memorable.
3. The Bible Tells Me So (dir. Daniel G. Karslake): Gay men and women share their stories about how Christianity and coming out impacted their relationships with family members. Some stories are heart-warming, others are painful, but all are authentic.
4. The Bubble (dir. Eytan Fox): An uncompromising look at complications that arise when an Israeli man and a Palestinian man fall in love in Tel Aviv. The film-maker behind Yossi & Jagger (2002) and Walk on Water (2004), Fox just gets better and better.
5. Small Town Gay Bar (dir. Malcolm Ingram): Ingram brings his camera home to visit gay bars in the Deep South. Living in places that are notoriously hostile towards homosexuality, these men and women share a sense of community lacking in big cities.
6. The Life of Reilly (dir. Frank L. Anderson, Barry Poltermann): Charles Nelson Reilly, veteran actor and fixture on game and talk shows in the 1970s and 80s, tells his life story with generous humor and undeniable sorrow. There is more to him than Match Game.
7. ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway (dir. Dori Berinstein): Four musicals (Avenue Q, Caroline or Change, Taboo, and Wicked ) vie for the Tony Award in the 2003-2004 Broadway season. If you didn’t know, many gays are involved in the theater world.
8. Hairspray (dir. Adam Shankman): John Waters is a friendly flasher in a film adapted from the musical adapted from his own 1988 film. Ostensibly about racial integration of television shows in the 1960s, the film is pure fun, notwithstanding John Travolta.
9. Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner (dir. Freida Lee Mock): A profile of the scribe behind Angels In America. It covers such milestones as his 2001 play, Homebody/Kabul, his marriage to Mark Harris, and his work for John Kerry’s campaign.
10. Gray Matters (dir. Sue Kramer): Flawed romantic comedy that is perhaps the antithesis of Go Fish (1994), but sweet and funny. Gray (Heather Graham) likes women but is a dork about finding love. Alan Cumming and Molly Shannon try to help her.
–R. Esquivel
I’d like to add Itty Bitty Titty Committee. Sure, it had it’s flaws (like being so 90′s while pretending it was 2007) but considering the low bar set for lesbian films, this one was pretty exciting.
huh? sweeney todd is a pink film that represents “outness”? what? other than stephen sondheim, i see neither the connection to your topic, nor why it tops your list…
Aggression coupled with anonymity should be saved for your craigslist personals ad.
–Stinky Pinky
Very happy to see the discussion sprekad by the inclusion of Israel Luna’s film Ticked off Trannies With Knives – seems it’s been worth it, just for that alone. Lisa, I beg to differ. This is about way more than Ticked Off Trannies. Let us put this in historical perspective. MQFF has always been rather blind where trans representation is concerned. The trans programming panel only happened, in fact, because so many frustrated Melbourne trans people bitched about MQFF\’s constant devaluing of trans films in private that one or two people decided to step up and change things from the inside of MQFF. Kudos to them. However, the trans panel appears to function as a tokenistic way to demonstrate that MQFF cares about trans representation. The existence of the trans panel appears to have had no effect on the way MQFF programs way less representations of transness than boring, homonormative gay coming out stories. At this year\’s festival, like every other festival in recent memory, many people will miss out on seeing trans-themed screenings because MQFF doesn\’t bother to put them in the larger cinema. This is not just about bums on seats . The trans and allied community DOES turn up every year, and we have to compete with each other for tickets to the few films shown. This is the history that informs the current controversy. Additionally, your comment that you\’re very happy to see discussion happen is clearly disingenuous. The only discussion happening right now is about how MQFF sucks. It\’s not about the content of Ticked Off Trannies With Knives (which is why your snarky comment that this is just internet gossip by people who haven\’t seen the film makes no sense). If your intention was to facilitate community discussion, you would have screened the film with a community panel inclusive of the trans people who might feel angry about this film as has been done elsewhere, and at MQFF for other controversial programming choices. But trans people evidently matter so little to MQFF that you thought it would be fine and dandy to stir up some controversy and get more people along to the film. After all, that\’s what matters, isn\’t it? Bums on seats at the expense of alienating the Melbourne trans communities or having any shred of political integrity. What a pity.