Tonight Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, the insanely funny film by Madeline Olnek, will be showing at MOMA as part of a series: Films Not Playing At A Theater Near You.
And too bad that it's not playing near you wherever you are, since when I first saw this film at NewFest this last summer I found myself laughing at odd moments for weeks afterwards.
The showing on Saturday night sold out. So if you want tickets for tonight's showing, act now as we say in the ad biz.
What more could I possibly want from a movie poster? Making the Boys, the documentary about the making of The Boys In The Band - the play, the movie, and the way it both was groundbreaking and backwards looking at the same time simply by being staged just as the new era of gay rights was getting started is the subject of this amazing film. At the Quad this week.
Last
night the New York LGBT Film Festival opened with Contracorriente, a
beautifully made Peruvian film that captured the struggle for love and
integrity faced by a fisherman in a small village when he is caught between the
wife he loves and the man he loves (and won’t admit he loves).
It
was a good film to open with, since it was high quality in every way — which is
why it won the Audience Award at Sundance. It clearly moved the audience at the
SVA Theater last night, since the sniffles were audible towards the film’s end.
There was a hushed feeling afterwards: it wasn’t a downer, it was the quiet of
respect for a film that could move everyone in a way that didn’t feel
manipulative, but a reflection of the real complicated and messy issues people
deal with in love.
The
director was there to answer questions, and he was as charming as the film was.
Afterwards, there was an opening night party at the Chelsea Art Museum that was
fueled by Belvedere Vodka. I didn’t leave till 1am, and would have stayed later
but for a client briefing this morning at 9:30.
Tonight?
Beautiful Darling and Leo’s Room. See you there.
Today is the final day of The Artist is Present at MOMA. Yesterday I went with my friend Frank and arrived just moments before, as it turned out, our friend Jensen was to take his seat before the Artist. It felt like a moment of grace to be able to bear witness to him as he was received and totally seen, completely taken in, by Marina Abramovic in the performance piece that seemed to me to be more an encounter with holiness.
The charged square space filled with the emptiness of presence gave it a sense of the Holy of Holies. In her white dress, Abramovic seemed like the Shekhina herself. Or Quan Yin, Kannon, Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion, bearing all the pain and heart of all those who entered her space.
And all this before I went upstairs to discover her other pieces. From the Memento Mori of the model below the skeleton, to passing between the Scylla and Charybdis of the two models in the doorway, to the crucifixion without nails that is Luminosity, it was an experience of the museum as a cathedral, a meditation space to participate in, rather than simply consume.
The press and discussions that I had heard all dwelled on the titillation of the event. Or perhaps I just did not bother to read deeper into the articles I saw. Because there have been few shows more powerful. And I am only sorry today is the last day, and that I didn't take advantage of the time earlier to enter that charged space myself and sit before the artist.
My friend Jensen, in the photo above, entered the space at 2:40 on Sunday afternoon. He had joined to line to do this at 1:30am the night before. He was in that seat for less than 15 minutes, but watching him go through all the emotions that arose it was clear each second there was experienced with the complete naked intimacy.
And all I can think of are the words of the Kadosh prayer:
Holy. Holy. Holy. All of creation is filled with the glory and presence of the Divine. (And in this case, the Divine Feminine)
The
LGBT Film Festival in New York has a program of shorts under the theme Singing,
Dancing, Waiting. Who loves short shorts? I certainly do. Especially if there’s
a film about cute go-go boys.
Okay,
so this fun little film is about the heavy subjects of body image, body fascism
and fantasy
in the gay male community. Except that it’s sweet, funny and filled
with self knowledge and compassion. Not to mention hot go go dancing boys: See the trailer below.
Another
film on the program is one I wrote about last year: EZ Heeb, from Ali Coterill,
star and director of Fagette, which I loved when it screened at NewFest a
couple of years back. It's pure queer Jewish fun. Buddhist I don't know. But queer Jewish? Yup.
There
aren’t a lot of places you can see films like this with an appreciative
audience, and a chance to meet the filmmakers, who are often there. Ali Coterill will be that's for sure.
The Singing, Dancing, Waiting program plays on Sunday June 5th at 2:30pm. You can buy your tickets at the LGBT Community Center on 13th Street, at the SVA Theater on 23rd Street, or online at NewFest.org.
A picturesque Peruvian fishing village. Turquoise waters and white beaches. Sexy
men. And one of them, a local married fisherman, Miguel, has been having a
secret affair with a wealthy gay photographer and artist, Santiago, who lives
in a vacation beach house ostracized by the working class conservative community.
It’s hard to keep a secret in a small town like
this, where prying eyes and gossip are help keep people in line with the local
traditions.
Then there is an accident, and the Santiago is
caught in an undertow and drowns. No one knows what has happened, since he was
on his own at the
time. But he comes to Miguel, his married lover as a ghost
only Miguel can see.
Finally Miguel can openly love Santiago, because
no one can see him. He can walk down the street holding the hand of his wife —
and the ghost of the man he loved.
However, Santiago has a final request to make of
Miguel that will touch the lives of everyone in the village. And Miguel must
face the truth, and the choice that true love places before everyone.
This is a mysteriously eerie yet beautifully
realized film, filled with transcendently joyous love scenes on the beach and
the claustrophobic fear and narrowness of small town life. It’s about a love that lasts beyond
death. It is a beautiful elegy that restores the living with a full sense of
the preciousness of love.
Winner of the Sundance World Cinema Award, The
Undertow will be the opening film at NewFest on Thursday, June 3rd
at 8pm at the SVA theater on West 23rd Street in Chelsea. Admission
includes the opening night after party.
Remember Mindy Cohn from The Facts of Life?
Well, director Casper Andreas did, and gave her a part that she goes to town
with in Violet Tendencies.
Cohn plays, to use the language of the film, “the
oldest living fag hag.” Which means she has sacrificed her own love life to
live through the loves and lives of her younger gay friends. She doesn’t seem
to mind until she finds herself as the last fag hag standing when another
female friend of the friends of Dorothy gets married.
What happens next? Well amidst the swirl of
Chelsea boys who haven’t grown up and don’t seem like they will ever reach
emotional maturity, Cohn’s character Violet starts seriously looking for love
in other places. Problem is, she has so much fun with the gay boys that the
straight men pale in comparison.
Sounds serious huh? All I can tell you is I sat
with a group of gay men watching this film and we all literally screamed with
laughter. And occasional horror at how politically incorrect it truly is —
think South Park meets Chelsea.
There will be moments that make you cringe with
embarrassment that you are actually laughing at this, but laugh you will. Out
loud. The dialog is sharp and the cast is pure pro. You’ll recognize soap stars
Marcus Patrick and Samuel Whitten among others. Mindy Cohn gets to be center
stage and matches comic timing and delivery without holding back on the central
emotional isolation she feels. She may be neurotic, but she is a fully
developed character: I wish I could say the same for any of the gay men in this
film. They are horrifically shallow. But if I think about the film as a live
action cartoon in the mold of Family Guy, well then, it’s brilliant.
It’s the closing night film at NewFest 2010 this
year, and there will be a party after the screening with much of the cast since
this is a pure New York City production. It promises to be a wild night, so get your tickets for Violet Tendencies here; don’t
miss it.
The Topp Twins were interviewed this week in the Toronto Star, where their brand of sketch comedy was compared to Carol Burnett's comedy. Well, if Carol Burnett were channeling Murray Hill and Lily Tomlin perhaps.
...the movie... shows how the Topp Twins have been agents of political change in their homeland, campaigning against nuclear power and for Maori land rights, gay and lesbian rights and demanding the 1981 tour of New Zealand by the South African football club the Springboks, be halted
....“It’s so subversive when you think about it,” says singer Billy Bragg in the film of the twins’ cross-cultural appeal. “Of all the forms, to choose county and western (music) is the most redneck, the most gender-specific of all popular culture. To use that as a way of pushing forward gay rights, it’s so subversive.”
Seeing Taylor Mac is a spiritual experience of deep joy. He is enchanting and erudite at the same time. I'm not going to write about the experience of this concert because I was fortunate enough to be there with Frank Grimaldi, whose writes about concerts he attends on his blog, Concert Log. As an out and proud singer/songwriter who knows his stuff, he will capture it better than I could. What I will say is that as a fan of both David Bowie and Tiny Tim, the evening was profoundly beautiful, and very seriously silly. He read a Shakespeare sonnet and an excerpt from Lady Chatterly's Lover. And it all made supreme sense.
I came late to Taylor Mac, who has been on the downtown scene for at least a decade, but I saw The Lily's Revenge last November, and it is one of the top five theatrical experiences of my life. It's no surprise he won an Obie Award this week. After tonight, well, I'll go see him do anything, anywhere.
This heart-throb's new films is called Heartbeats, and it's a situation many of us recall from our youth: falling in love with a guy who is unattainable. The wrinkle here is that his friend, a young woman, is also in love with the unattainable guy. He's beautiful and beyond both their reach. It seems.
Who's going to win? I have no idea — but I certainly hope all three of these movies will be at NewFest, NYC's lgbt film festival next year. Meanwhile, there's more than 100 films from 20 countries that you can see from June 3rd to 13th. Like Dolan's much lauded film from last year at Cannes. It's at NewFest 2010. Get your tickets now.
