Pictured Charlize Theron in Monster.If you're not addicted to Hollywood blockbusters (i.e., sequels and bad adaptations of comic books) you can do most of your moviegoing for the year in under two weeks at the Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 15-25, in Park City, Utah (festival.sundance.org).
Many major independent films have their American premieres at Sundance. Some already have distribution lined up while others are picked up at the festival. Because Sundance is gay-friendly (before 2002, when John Waters was on the jury, 1989 was the last year no queer films received awards there) most gay and lesbian films that will play in theaters later this year will debut at the festival.
Between the filmmakers themselves and scouts from distributors and other festivals, it would seem the small town hardly has room for 'civilians' who just love to watch movies, but a few of them always manage to attend.
In addition to the films there are parties, including the annual Queer Brunch on Jan. 18, Frameline reception Jan. 21 and the ongoing Queer Lounge space (www.queerlounge.org), a hospitality space and networking hub hosted by Out in Television & Film.
If you're not going to Sundance, here are some titles to watch for in news coverage of the festival and later, in
your local queer festival or at a theater near you. In some cases the extent of the queer content is unknown, and
we thank San Francisco publicist Corey Eubanks for alerting us to some films we might have missed.
Features:
Bright Young Things, directed by gay actor Stephen Fry, is a comedy involving London's posh
set, some of them gay, in the 1930s.
Brother to Brother, directed by Rodney Evans: A 'relic' of the Harlem
Renaissance mentors a gay African-American art student.
Carandiru, directed by Hector Babenco (Kiss of
the Spider Woman) is a surreal Brazilian Oz, based on real events, from the point of view of a prison doctor.
D.E.B.S. is Angela Robinson's full-length version of her short that's like a lesbian spoof of Charlie's
Angels.
The Dreamers: Bernardo Bertolucci's drama, set in Paris in 1968, involves an American youth
(Michael Pitt of Hedwig and the Angry Inch) with a French brother and sister in what the festival notes call a
'menage a trois.'
Eulogy, directed by Michael Clancy, is a comedy about a dysfunctional family getting
together for a funeral. Someone must be queer.
The Garden, a documentary by Ruthie Shatz and Adi
Barash, traces a year in the friendship of two young men in a Tel Aviv neighborhood that's a hangout for
hustlers and junkies.
Harry and Max: Gay director Christopher Munch (The Hours and Times) tells of two
brothers, 24 and 16, both members of boy bands, whose incestuous longings surface on a camping trip.
Home of Phobia, directed by Ryan Shiraki, is a satire about a freshman who can't get laid until he's mistaken
for gay on a PC college campus.
Raspberry Reich, by Canadian bad boy Bruce LaBruce, laughs at
German terrorist poseurs who are forced by their female leader to have sex with each other.
Saved! is
Brian Dannelly's comedy about a Baptist high school girl who gets pregnant trying to convert her gay
boyfriend.
Tarnation: Queer filmmaker Jonathan Caouette documents his life back to the age of 11,
growing up with a schizophrenic mother.
A Thousand Clouds of Peace, by Julián Hernández, is about a
young gay man looking for love on the streets of Mexico City.
Touch of Pink: Cary Grant's ghost coaches a
gay Muslim in London who's trying to resist maternal pressure to marry a woman in Ian Iqbal Rashid's
screwball comedy.
Gay director Alan Brown, whose short, O beautiful, is the highlight of Boys Life 4: Four
Play, debuts his first feature, Book of Love, and gay Michael Stipe produced Jim McKay's Everyday People; but
apparently neither film is gay.
Shorts:
bobbycrush (directed by Cam Archer), Hummer (Guinevere
Turner), Little Black Boot (Colette Burson), Phase 5 (Solomon Burbridge), Spokane (Larry Kennar), A Woman
Reported (Chris J. Russo).
Among queer prize-winners at previous Sundance festivals are: Die Mommie
Die! (2003), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Paragraph 175 (2000), High Art (1998), Licensed to Kill (1997),
The Celluloid Closet (1996), Trevor, Black Is ... Black Ain't, Ballot Measure #9 (all 1995), Coming Out Under
Fire (1994), Swoon, The Hours and Times (both 1992), Paris Is Burning, Poison (both 1991), Longtime
Companion (1990), Waiting for the Moon (1987), Desert Hearts (1986) and The Times of Harvey Milk
(1985).
Overlapping most of Sundance is Slamdance (www.slamdance.com), Jan. 17-24, also in Park City.
In its tenth year it may be said to be what Sundance was, a launching pad for independent filmmakers. Some
still go directly to Sundance, but Slamdance claims to have discovered people involved in one-fourth of this
year's Sundance offerings.
Slamdance 2004 includes Vladimir Vitkin's gender-bending amnesiac
romance X, Y and the queer shorts Habana Holiday (Yo Soy Malo) by Chris Maher; MalaQueerche: Queer Punk
Rock Show by Sarah Adorable and Devon Devine; and Stand By by Tony Osso.
After six years, the
third-ranked Park City festival, Nodance, which focuses on digital filmmaking, is sitting this one out but has
plans to resurface in Los Angeles later in the year.
To get a broader international perspective on queer
cinema the place to be is Berlin, Feb. 5-15, for the 54th Berlin International Film Festival (www.berlinale.de).
This one has such a strong queer presence they give 'Teddy' awards each year for the best gay feature, short
and documentary. Last year's winning feature was A Thousand Clouds of Peace.
Most of us are waiting for
the festival highlights to come to us but if you've got a travel line in your movie budget these festivals will give
you bragging rights for having seen the queer hits first.
