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					Also this issue: Over The Edge Dangerous sex and second thoughts at the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. By Sam Adams -Sam Adams First Sight Larry Clark On Making "Images You Can't See Anywhere Else." -Sam Adams

July 10-16, 2003

cover story

Fest Shorts

Reviews for the first week.

Following are reviews for the first week of the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, July 10-16. Tickets, $8.50 ($7.50 for Philadelphia Film Society members), are available at the venue on the day of the show or in advance from all TLA Video locations; by phone at 215-733-0608, ext. 4; and online at www.phillyfests.org/piglff. (Online tickets must be purchased 36 hours in advance.) An asterisk (*) after a screening time indicates scheduled director or other guests. All times are p.m. Films recommended by CP critics are preceded by a .

Venue Codes:

PMT Prince Music Theater, 1412 Walnut St.

R5 Ritz Five, 214 Walnut St.

ISM Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Columbus Blvd.

BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE Bizarre doesn’t even begin to describe it. Originally titled The Childish Wife, the World-Weary Husband and the Taekwon Girl, this playful (albeit totally implausible) Korean film is something of a sci-fi soap opera, rocketing between present-day planet Earth and the year 2030. Eun-Hee (Kong Hyo-jin) is a detached housewife bored stiff by her comedian husband’s lame jokes and continual doting, so, like any good spouse, she sets out to find a lover. And who floats to the surface of the fishing barrel but old high-school sweetheart Keum-Sook (Cho Eun-ji), a gentle master of martial arts who gave Eun-Hee her first girl-on-girl goosebumps. Naturally, hubby is sick with jealousy and sets out to sabotage the affair by sleeping with the enemy. That someone gets knocked up, someone robs a blind woman and someone else masturbates with a melon is part and parcel of this zany but predictable package. --Ashlea Halpern (7/15, 9:30, R5; 7/19, 5:15, R5)

BULGARIAN LOVERS

A useful and curious fact if you’re propositioning a Bulgarian: They nod when they mean no and shake their heads when they mean yes. Wealthy Spaniard Daniel (Fernando Guillén Cuervo) gets the side-to-side from starving, hunky immigrant Kyril (Ditrán Biba), but he might be better off if that meant nyet. Daniel’s soon head over heels, but affianced Kyril uses him for money and influence while getting mixed up in unspecified shady dealings with Madrid’s Bulgarian mafia. Daniel is completely aware that his relationship is dysfunctional -- he breaks the fourth wall intermittently to share a rueful aside -- but it’s frustrating that not only doesn’t Kyril’s behavior bother him much, Daniel’s injudicious taste in boyfriends never really comes back to haunt him. The standard procedure here is to mine the seam of the consequences of bad romantic choices, but writer/director Eloy de la Iglesia opts largely for lightness over tragedy -- a welcome decision in theory, but in this case the lack of narrative tension puts the kibosh on any fun to be had with the vigorous sex or the comic scenes. --Ryan Godfrey (7/16, 9:30, R5; 7/17, 7:15, PMT)

THE GALLANT GIRLS

Hell hath no fury like a band of anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal "female knights." Former Gallant Girl Barbara Teufel’s German docudrama about the anarchist punk vanguard pummeling the streets (or at least strategizing to do so) of West Berlin’s Kruezberg district in the wake of the wall’s fall is slow to unravel and unlikely to attract any converts. Grainy protest-turned-riot footage and modern-day interviews with the fighters themselves are clipped of credibility by reenactments (bottoming out with the group decision to give lesbianism a go) better suited for an episode of Rescue 911. The plan? Reject all things bourgeois, suburban and constructed (love, heterosexuality, wage labor) and bully the men who invented said constructs until they crawl home "exhausted and demoralized." The result? A tiresome clusterfuck of radical ideas and half-baked executions that simply leaves viewers exhausted and demoralized. --A.H. (7/12, 12:15, R5)

GASOLINE

It might be possible to review Monica Lisa Stambrini’s dykes-on-the-run thriller without calling it "a lesbian Thelma & Louise," but there are only so many hours in the day, you know? When Lenni (Regina Orioli) gets a visit from her domineering mother, things turn ugly quick, especially when Lenni’s gas station-owning girlfriend tries to break up the fight by giving mom a sock to the jaw. A few seconds later, the young couple has a body to dispose of, and three of the most annoying characters in movie history to deal with: two guys, a girl and a Fiat who, apparently driven mad by the techno they incessantly blare, keep turning up throughout the film to terrorize both our heroines and us. Stambrini’s execution is fine, but the story is so worn out it stinks like a thrift-store loafer. --Sam Adams (7/12, 7:45, PMT; 7/13, 2:30, R5)

THE GIFT

"Inflammatory" probably isn’t a strong enough word for Louise Hogarth’s documentary. Those who don’t find it overblown and irresponsible will be shocked and sobered by the realities it depicts. The film’s ostensible subject are "bug-chasers," gay men who deliberately seek out "the gift" of HIV, whether out of the mistaken notion that a cure is just around the corner or the sense that they’d rather know they’re positive than keep wondering if they are. But The Gift’s true subject is the ineffectiveness of AIDS education, and the gulf between positive and negative gay men. In the effort to make it OK to be positive, Hogarth suggests, some advertisements have inadvertently glamorized the virus, and it’s clear from her interviews that stunning ignorance about HIV still persists, particularly among the young. Hogarth only tracked down two admitted bug-chasers (one of whom will accompany her to the screening), but also documents a more widespread tendency toward promoting unprotected sex through websites and parties. If the specifics of The Gift are bound to be debated, its call to re-evaluate the effectiveness (and potential side effects) of prevention and education programs should be heard loud and clear. --S.A. (7/15, 7:30, ISM*)

HOOKED

The potent nexus between Internet addiction and sexual addiction is the subject of Todd Ahlberg’s revealing documentary, which profiles dozens of men who’ve gotten hooked on online cruising: using chat rooms or websites to set up near-instantaneous and often anonymous sexual encounters (think of it as a gay bar with no small talk and cheaper drinks). Some of Ahlberg’s subjects are repentant, even recovering, while one blond man, lounging in his bathrobe, smiles like the cat who ate the canary and recalls how he once arranged seven separate encounters in a 24-hour period. Hooked reminds us, finally, that it’s possible for some things to be too efficient, especially where the Internet is concerned, and there’s something to be said for old-fashioned hit-or-miss. --S.A. (7/13, 9:45, ISM)

KEN PARK

Try not to thin Ken Park as a Larry Clark film, the latest from the directo Kids and the photographer of Teenage Lust, who, as critic Armond White memorably put it, “is more obsessed with teenage sex than actual teenagers.” Take it, instead, as a blunt, forceful statement on suburban disaffection and dislocation, and let it sink in slowly. Clark and co-director Ed Lachman (the cinematographer behind Far From Heaven and The Limey, to name but a few) shoot a digicam story with art-film gloss, following the lives of four teenagers in the placid wasteland of suburban California. Named for a teenager whose self-videotaped suicide opens the movie, Ken Park features a number of graphic sex scenes that make it all but unreleasable even on the art-house circuit, but they don’t feel gratuitous. As teenage Shawn (James Bullard) goes down on his girlfriend’s mother, she instructs him with a certain exasperated tenderness, even when he stops to ask her how he’s doing. (Even better is their pre-coital exchange, conducted while she’s emptying the laundry basket: “Can I eat you out?” “Not now, I’m folding.”) The movie’s gruesome literal-mindedness, particularly in a spectacularly ugly masturbation/strangulation scene, can be more grating than eye-opening, but Ken Park astonishes merely by not being as bad as it’d almost have to be. —S.A. (7/12, 9:45, R5)

LATTER DAYS

Written and directed by the aptly named C. Jay Cox (who also wrote the screenplay for Sweet Home Alabama), Latter Days begins with a familiar romantic comedy trope: a bet. Christian, a pretty-boy waiter, brags to his co-workers that he will seduce the gaydar-triggering Mormon missionary who has just moved in down the street. The wager is $50, and to the set of would-be musicians and actors, Christian’s conquests are just an amusement to pass the time between auditions. But as the film evolves, Latter Days slowly sheds the waxy comedic coating to reveal a prickly, bitter center. Christian has the inevitable character transformation, but the results are far from obvious. Cox handles the shift of tone almost seamlessly, and there is a sense that the early lighthearted scenes of partying and witty banter are a distracting Hollywood ruse, while Cox slips in more significant and occasionally controversial themes. Opening night guests include director, producers and Jacqueline Bisset. --Elisa Ludwig (7/10, 7:30, PMT*; 7/12, 2:30, PMT*)

THE POLITICS OF FUR

Laura Nix’s debut film is a remake of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, and Nix has clearly studied the absurd yet emotionally claustrophobic tone of the original. Una is a talent agent and a diva, lounging around her California home with wheatgrass shakes and a baby tiger, all the while bossing around her hapless servant boy, Dick. But when B., an androgynous aspiring rock star, is delivered to her house, Una begins to lose her well-pampered shit. The sexual chemistry between the women is more convincing than the subsequent Single White Female lesbian psychodrama, as Una attempts to remake the stubbornly elusive B. in her image. In Petra, the interpersonal dynamics slowly build to a nightmarish pitch -- here they sort of leap to an unearned conclusion. Unfortunately, Nix’s film is the Una to Fassbinder’s B.: her homage is more stylish than substantive, with the true essence of the original film escaping her grasp. --E.L. (7/15, 7:30, PMT)

PROM FIGHT: THE MARC HALL STORY

Straightforward and crowd-pleasing, Larry Peloso’s documentary follows a Canadian teen whose decision to attend his Catholic high-school prom with his boyfriend made national headlines and triggered a landmark court case. Peloso makes light of the media frenzy by showing reporters snapping at the Halls’ front door, while none-too-subtly underlining his own privileged access. (It’s too bad Peloso didn’t cover the post-prom story as well, with Hall becoming a shirtless cover boy, taking to his newfound fame con gusto.) Perhaps the most interesting thing about Prom Fight is that the sides don’t break down the way you think they would: One of Hall’s biggest supporters is the Canadian Auto Workers union, and even the school-board president cries as she reads the decision barring him from attending the prom with his date. Prom Fight doesn’t reinvent the form, but its simple story is inspiring and heartfelt. --S.A. (7/12, 5:15, ISM)

RADICAL HARMONIES: THE STORY OF WOMEN'S MUSIC

Academy Award-nominated director Dee Mosbacher’s latest documentary is an overview of the women’s music movement, kicking off with performances by Fanny and The Chicago Women’s Liberation Rock Band and tail-ending with a glimpse at fem-rock’s current state, compliments of Ani DiFranco, k.d. lang, The Butchies and Indigo Girls. Through interviews, live performances and archival footage, grassroots greats such as Sweet Honey in the Rock, Holly Near, Meg Christian, Cris Williamson and Bernice Johnson Reagon trace the defeat and triumph of women struggling for a voice in a phallocentric industry. While the documentary overlooks early contributions from women (focusing almost exclusively on the 1970s-’80s), it pays homage to the fierce ladies of marginalized classes (lesbians, minorities, the handicapped, etc.) and those obscured by a different kind of curtain (the producers, sound technicians, promoters, distributors, etc.). It won’t bring home an Oscar (any retrospective of this ilk without mention of Kathleen Hanna couldn’t), but will surely find a stable market in women’s lib classes. --A.H. (7/16, 7:30, PMT)

RISE ABOVE: THE TRIBE 8 DOCUMENTARY

"Penises are OK, so long as they’re detachable -- and every penis is," cackles Lynn Breedlove, the sexily androgynous leader of queercore pioneers Tribe 8, in this rough and sweaty tour diary from debut filmmaker Tracy Flannigan. Formed by Breedlove and guitarist Silas "Flipper" Howard (of By Hook Or By Crook and S.F.-based Bearded Lady Cabaret fame), this pack of balls-to-the-wall dykes turns the table on the machoistic power dynamic (groupies, groupies, groupies!) so rampant in rock ’n’ roll. Footage from Tribe 8’s scandalous live shows --topless shakin’, dildo-suckin’, mock-castratin’ -- are deftly spliced with sobering backstage snippets and interviews with Tribe 8 mothers and ex-girlfriends. Themes of drug addiction, racism, oppression and violence temper the trivial tone of this cunt-happy circus, but overall, it’s a ride well worth taking. --A.H. (7/16, 9:45, ISM; 7/19, 12:15, PMT)

TASTY BITS

The production values of writer/director Sasha Valenti’s debut are sub-Mexican soap opera, and the plot machinations are nearly as poorly illuminated. When Julia (Julia Muranova) is not hosting a sex-talk radio show, she is actively fantasizing about banging strippers and other women who happen to traipse into her life. She meets Tanya (Tatiana Alyokhina) at a party, daydreams about semi-hot sex with her, then manages to take her home for some capitalistic wish fulfillment. Between the real and imagined sex scenes and some turgid political theory disguised as comedy, there’s a muddled story about scamming some corrupt government officials and saving the radio station from shutting down. At some point, for some reason, it becomes necessary to sneak into the Kremlin. It’s easier to do than you’d think it would be, and it looks surprisingly like a Russian radio station on the inside. --R.G. (7/11, 9:45, ISM)

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

It’s been six years since P.J. Hogan’s crowd-pleasing My Best Friend’s Wedding. Those of you awaiting his follow-up with bated breath can officially un-bate: It’s here, it’s queer and it’s a fair amount of fun. Is it worth the extended wait? Well, hopefully you’ve been doing other things since 1997. For his part during that time, housewife-swoon-inducing crooner Victor Fox (Jonathan Pryce) was doing a cute thing named Dirk (Rupert Everett), but now Victor is dead, and his blue-blood sisters are desperate to keep his non-hetero life a secret. On the same day that Victor is murdered, his No. 1 Fan, Grace (Kathy Bates), finds out that her husband wants a divorce, and the two traumas lead her to the U.K. and into a hard-won friendship with wary Dirk. Pryce is miscast as the velvet-piped heartthrob, and the third-act MacGuffin of hunting down Victor’s killer is just stupid, but it’s easy to overlook the flaws in such a well-acted, amiable feel-gooder loaded with nifty musical cues. Any film featuring Julie Andrews quelling anxious mobs with "Getting to Know You" is worth at least a little unconditional love. --R.G. (7/15, 9:45, PMT; 7/20, 7:00, PMT)

YOSSI & JAGGER

Jagger, a charming young Israeli soldier, has fallen in love with his butch commander, Yossi, while their unit is stationed on the Lebanese border and preparing for an ambush. Yossi returns Jagger’s affections but insists on keeping their affair private. Eytan Fox’s film nicely examines the experience of Israel’s young and often ambivalent soldiers, as well as the intertwined homoeroticism and homophobia in the barracks, all the while managing to not be an "issue" film, even though it was originally made for television. Instead, Yossi & Jagger is a rare species: A story of early love that neither condescends to nor glorifies youth. The cloistered conditions of their romance make Yossi and Jagger a tragic couple from the start and Fox rightfully resists overplaying them, coaxing convincing and subtle performances from his actors. When Yossi says sarcastically, "This isn’t a Hollywood film," he is right: These characters are far too nuanced for the multiplex. --E.L. (7/12, 5:15, PMT; 7/13, 9:30, PMT)

A WORLD OF LOVE

Recounting the life of the young Pier Paolo Pasolini, Aurelio Grimaldi’s film revels in the kind of bourgeois tastefulness Pasolini did his best to demolish. As Pasolini, removed from his teaching post and run out of town after being arrested on indecency charges, Arturo Paglia’s quiet intensity is just right, but Grimaldi’s languorous, dispassionate black-and-white quickly becomes stultifying, passionless. Even Pasolini fans might want to think twice, and it’s doubtful anyone else will give it a passing thought. --S.A. (7/16, 7:15, R5)