Limited runs and
special events:
@ BuddY, 1542 N. Milwaukee, 773/862-1011 – 4th Annual Chicago Anarchist Film Festival May 1-4
@ Film Studies Center @ U of C/Cobb Hall, 5811 S. Ellis, 773/702-8596 - Contemporary Italian Film Series Apr. 24-26; Five Girls May 1; My Song Goes Forth May 5; Queerly Chinese Cinema May 8-10
@ SAIC Queer Film and Video Festival (all programs are free except for the last one) – various locations (see below), 312/443-3703:
Take Me Home, International Shorts Competition program (School Auditorium, 280 South Columbus Drive, 2nd floor) – The Moment After, Even Lovers Have Still Lives, The Show Squishing Food Project, Itchy Love, Stanley Beloved, Try to Answer an Easy Question, Annie Complex – Apr. 23
Oriental Diva program (School Auditorium, 280 South Columbus Drive, 2nd floor) ID, Love Is, 17, Angels Wake Up, Na – Apr. 24
Poem, Symphony, Shadows and Rainbow program (School Auditorium, 280 South Columbus Drive, 2nd floor) Travel, After Raining, Voice of the Sunflower – Apr. 24
Korean New Queer Cinema program (3 of the works during this presentation do not have English subtitles) (112 S. Michigan Ave., Room 1307) – Being Normal, Tampon Manual, Between, Uncle 'Bar' at barbershop - May 1
Screening of Blackstar: Autobiography of a Friend (112 S. Michigan Ave., Room 1307) – May 1
Screening of Fight Back, Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP (112 S. Michigan Ave, Room 1307) – May 1
Screening of Ho Yok ('Let's Love Hong Kong') (University of Chicago, CobbHall, Film Studies Center Auditorium, 5811 S. Ellis Ave., Room 307) – May 8
Best of the Fest program (Gerber/Hart Library, 1127 W. Granville Ave.) – Chicago premiere of I Am Not What You Want – May 10 ($2 donation to Hart/Gerber Library)
In Theaters:
The Lawless Heart: The Lawless Heart is a Rashomon-meets-Go-style British film that was co-written and co-directed by Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger.
This touching and powerful motion picture tells the story, from different perspectives, of what happens to Nick (Tom Hollander, who previously played gay in Rose Troche's Bedrooms and Hallways), the surviving male life-partner of Stuart (David Coffey), after Stuart's death by drowning.
The story begins, in each telling, with Stuart's funeral. As the sad story unfolds, we learn that Stuart didn't leave a will, and while his sister Judy (Ellie Haddington) believes that Nick is the rightful heir, her husband Dan (Bill Nighy), doesn't share her feelings. The remaining residents of the seaside town, including the flaky Charlie (Sukie Smith), Dan's friend Tim (Douglas Henshall), and the philosophical florist Corinne (Clementine Celarie), all cross paths and intermingle their lives, further complicating matters.
Under Hunter and Hunsinger's careful direction, the cast brings the pair's genuinely heartfelt words and characters to life, getting to the heart of the matter at its own sweet pace. (B+)