ImageOut, Rochester’s
Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, celebrates ten years of grassroots
success this week with nine days of action-packed cinema unspooling at three theaters
in the downtown area. What follows is our take on some of this year’s features
and shorts programs. Be sure to consult the full ImageOut schedule, and check
out our interview with award-winning writer Sherman Alexie, whose new film, The Business of Fancydancing, will
screen as part of the festival the night of Sunday, October 6.
By Hook or
By Crook
Harry Hodges and Silas Howard, USA, 98 minutes
Friday, October 4, 7 p.m. Little Theatre
Winner of audience awards at LA Outfest and the SXSW Film
Festival, By Hook or By Crook is one
of the best independently financed bank-robbery flicks since Bottle Rocket, despite the complete
absence of any actual bank robberies. The film drops in on three wacky weeks in
the life of Shy (Silas Howard), who, as the film opens, is living in Hoxie,
Kansas — the epicenter of rural banality, especially when you’re a butch lesbian.
Days away
from losing her house to foreclosure, Shy becomes entranced by a bank robbery
depicted on the evening news. With dollar signs in her eyes, Shy heads for the
big city (San Francisco, natch), but can’t afford a gun to pull off any heists.
Eventually, Shy meets Valentine (Harriet Dodge), a fellow butch who has a
pretty bad case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, some mommy abandonment
issues, and a girly sidekick (Stanya Kahn) who is only slightly less crazy than
she is. Gritty adventures follow, making Crook kind of like a cross between a gay Thelma
and Louise and a gayer Midnight
Cowboy (Val is a dead ringer for Ratso Rizzo — or maybe Harmony Korine
— and Shy shares the wide-eyed innocence of Joe Buck — or perhaps Conan
O’Brien).
Shot using
handheld digital video, Crook does
limp a bit toward its finale, but the lively soundtrack (featuring the likes of
The Make Up, The Mono Men, Buffalo Daughter, and Blonde Redhead) and the cameo
by Joan Jett keep things from grinding to a halt. It’s extremely well-written,
with a couple of very thoughtful, perfectly executed montages. Some might gripe
about the portrayal of gender-benders as a mentally unstable lot, but hey,
anything is better than the watered-down drivel on Will & Grace every week, right?
Notorious
C.H.O.
Lorene Machado, USA, 95 minutes
Friday, October 4, 9:30 p.m. Little Theatre
Reviewing concert films is a tough prospect — either you
like the performance or you don’t. A director can do very little to liven
things up, other than showing the backstage antics that have practically become
a concert film cliché. I’m not the biggest fan of Margaret Cho’s standup
routines (it might be the extended funny-face freeze after every joke), but I
was pleased to discover that the content in Notorious
C.H.O. was much less dark than her previous theatrical effort, the gloomy I’m the One ThatI Want, which dealt with alcohol/drug addiction and the weight
issues revolving around her short-lived network sitcom.
Filmed
during a sold-out Seattle performance, Cho instead concentrates on various
reproductive organs and their secretions. And, of course, there’s plenty of
gay-oriented humor, including a very funny bit about the only gay bar in
Scotland, which is named after Bette Midler’s character in Beaches.
Unforgettable:
Our History-Makers
Total running time: 114 minutes
Saturday, October 5, 11 a.m. Little Theatre
Props all around to important groundbreakers Harry Hay and
Joan Nestle. The former, who celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year,
started the country’s first gay rights organization (the Mattachine Society)
back when McCarthy was rounding up Reds, while the latter formed both the Gay
Academic Union and the Lesbian Herstory Archives in the early ’70s.
The Unforgettable program includes an
hour-long documentary on each of the aforementioned dignitaries (Hand On the Pulse and Hope Along the Wind: The Life of Harry Hay),
as well as a neat, five-minute jobber called Cherries in the Snow, which shows women from different eras hanging
their undergarments on the same clothesline.
How to
Become a Lesbian in 6 Easy Steps
Total running time: 74 minutes
Saturday, October 5, 1:30 p.m. Dryden Theatre
Comedy is on the menu in this shorts program, which features
titles like C.L.I.T. and The 10 Rules (A Lesbian Survival Guide).
The multi-award-winning Interviews With
My Next Girlfriend is also on the slate, along with Size ‘Em Up, a very funny short about a top-heavy tomboy whose
mother (Julie Brown!) drags her to the store to buy her first bra. The overly
helpful employees (including Pearl from Diff’rent
Strokes) seem… well, a little overly helpful.
Novela,
Novela
Liz Miller, USA, 70 minutes
Saturday, October 5, 3:30 p.m. Little Theatre
The next time you’re in Nicaragua and notice something
called Sexto Sentido (translation: The Sixth Sense) in the TV listings,
you’re going to be disappointed if you tune in expecting to find little Haley
Joel and his ghostly friends. Sentido is the only homegrown soap opera in Nicaragua, a nation completely enraptured
by this particular television format (the other soaps come courtesy of the same
wacky, Spanish-language channels we get through Time Warner).
Festival viewers will be treated to one of the show’s
episodes, along with a few pieces from later shows (so you’re not left
completely hanging, because that’s just cruel), and then a kind of
behind-the-scenes documentary that hammers home the importance of the stories,
which focus on a group of young adults from various economic backgrounds.
Sing-along
Grease
Randal Kleiser, USA, 110 minutes
Saturday, October 5, 7 p.m. Dryden Theatre
This ain’t your folks’ Grease.
Sure, it’s the same actors and the same story, but this souped-up special print
not only makes John Travolta look thin and Jeff Conaway look like he has a
career, it also includes the lyrics for the film’s numerous and hella-popular
songs. The aim is to have the audience sing along with the characters. I’m not
sure how strictly enforced the singing is, but if you have a tin ear, you can
probably get away with just mouthing the words.
As an added
bonus, a prize will be awarded to the audience member with the best costume. As
a super-special added bonus, director Randal Kleiser will be on hand to
introduce the film and field your questions afterward. Just don’t make fun of
his Honey, I Shrunk the Audience,
because, you know, he’ll frigging shrink you.
Kali’s
Vibe
Shari Carpenter, USA, 92 minutes
Saturday, October 5, 7:30 p.m. Little Theatre
Kali (Lizzy Cooper Davis)
is a state social worker who has been living with popular slam poet Crystal
(Phalana Tiller) for three years. We sense the growing distance between the two
(an overhead shot of their bed shows enough room to build an actual wall
between their bodies), but the relationship doesn’t come to a head until the
night Crystal doesn’t come home.
Kali kicks her out and then suffers through a lot of bad
blind dates before finding love in the most unexpected place — a hetero
single dad and full-time playa named Reese (Charles Malik Whitfield), who
recently started working with Kali. Oh, save your booing and hissing —
Crystal eventually returns, leaving Kali in quite the quandary. Director
Carpenter used to be Spike Lee’s script supervisor.
Oliver
Button Is a Star
John Scagliotti, USA, 84 minutes
Sunday, October 6, 11 a.m. Little Theatre
Revolving entirely around Tomie dePaola’s children’s book, Oliver Button Is a Sissy, this
interesting documentary shows a first-grade teacher reading the book to her
class while, simultaneously, the inspirational story about a boy who prefers
singing and dancing to sports is acted out on stage by the Twin Cities Gay
Men’s Choir. Dispersed throughout are interviews with four people (including
dePaola) who describe what the book meant to them when they were little (one is
an Arctic explorer named Ann Bancroft!). Producer Dan Hunt will be here to
introduce the show.
Swimming
Upstream: A Year In the Life of Karen and Jenny
Jennifer Freedman, USA, 74 minutes
Sunday, October 6, 1:30 p.m. Little Theatre
If you’re put off by Swimming
Upstream‘s opening scene, which includes a graphic description of
conception via turkey baster, you might want to hightail it outta there before
the nightmarish childbirth scene at the end. What happens in between is, as the
title suggests, a year in the life of parents-to-be Karen and Jenny, a couple
comprised of a football-watching butch who, as a youngster, was to Little
League what Jackie Robinson was to Major League Baseball; and a formerly
straight, blonde hairdresser with enormous lips.
Trouble is,
aside from the birth, nothing really happens. I thought the most effective
parts were those that had nothing to do with pregnancy or lesbianism (like the
scene where Karen and Jenny kid around as they fill out forms at the doctor’s
office). It’s great that their friends and family are so supportive, but the
lack of conflict makes for an uninteresting documentary.
This Is
NOT Only a Test
Total running time: 87 minutes
Sunday, October 6, 3:30 p.m. Little Theatre
AIDS is the topic of this program, which includes Testing, One… Two, a neat,
black-and-white short about a couple and a couple of tests (one is taking a big
college exam, the other is waiting for his HIV test results); and Our Brothers, Our Sons, a 25-minute
documentary that pits Baby Boomers against Gen-Xers in the age-old barebacking
debate.
Ruthie
& Connie: Every Room In the House
Deborah Dickson, USA, 56 minutes
Sunday, October 6, 5:30 p.m.
Dryden Theatre
Unlike Swimming
Upstream’s Karen and Jenny, Ruthie and Connie are a charismatic pair who
would liven up the dullest documentary. Funnier than the characters in most
television sitcoms, the pair discuss their history (abandoning their husbands
to be with each other back in the late ’50s, in a conservative, Jewish enclave
of Brooklyn) as they sit around and kibitz with each other and their old
friends from the days when they played it straight. Is there shuffleboard? You
bet. Is “I Will Survive” played? You know it.
Whether
their stories are heartbreaking (like when they had to destroy their love
letters for fear of being caught) or romantic (like their first kiss), Ruthie
and Connie are always entertaining. They’re also groundbreakers, as evidenced
by the 1988 Donohue clips in which
they’re pitted against an extremely homophobic audience while they describe
their lawsuit, a legal battle that eventually helped New York City employees
obtain same-sex partner benefits.You’ll be able to shout stuff at them,
too, because both Ruthie and Connie will attend this screening.
The
Business of Fancydancing
Sherman Alexie, USA, 86 minutes
Sunday, October 6, 8 p.m. Dryden Theatre
Evan Adams (Smoke
Signals) plays Seymour Polatkin, a very popular, Seattle-based poet who is
kind of the Native American David Sedaris. That is, he’s gay and he often
writes humorous stories about his past. Unlike Sedaris, however, Seymour’s
stories are all set in the Spokane reservation he called home before ditching
it 10 years earlier for the big time. Now commanding $10,000 a pop on the
lecture circuit, Seymour is called back home for the funeral of his boyhood
friend, Mouse (Swil Kanim).
Despite his
celebrity status, Seymour is not welcomed back with open arms. Everyone back on
the rez couldn’t care less that their prodigal son is gay — they’re pissed
because he’s so condescending about reservation life in his poetry. They’re
also not thrilled about his appropriation of a number of first-person stories
that actually belong to Aristotle Joseph (Gene Tagaban), Seymour’s
co-valedictorian and former best friend. Aristotle tried to leave the rez for
college, but eventually slunk back for a life of huffing and drinking.
Even though
Seymour makes it clear he despised his life on the rez, it’s the only subject
that comes up in his work, and that central theme is interesting enough to
drive Fancydancing as a film. It’s
also aided by a blazing performance by Adams (he and co-star Michelle St. John
will be in attendance at this screening) and some nifty direction by writer
Sherman Alexie, who makes his debut behind the camera with this film. Fancydancing, which has won festival
audience awards from San Francisco to Philadelphia, also features a bunch of
Alexie’s powerful poetry (see our interview with Alexie on page XX).
Food Of
Love
Ventura Pons, USA, 112 minutes
Monday, October 7, 8 p.m. Little Theatre
When we first meet young
Paul (Kevin Bishop), the Juilliard-bound pianist is about to make his big stage
debut — as a page-turner for his idol, superstar Richard Kennington (Paul
Rhys). The two share a moment backstage after the show, but it’s abbreviated by
Paul’s suffocating mother, Pamela (the wonderful Juliet Stevenson).
The two get
a chance to hook up again several months later, in Barcelona, where Paul is
studying and Richard has just ended a grueling world tour. Not knowing her son
or his squeeze are gay, Pamela decides to put the moves on Richard after he
saves her from some street criminals. You would expect madcap hilarity to
ensue, but Love actually takes a
pretty serious swing toward the melodramatic in its second half, which depicts
Pamela coming to terms with her son’s sexuality.
Luster
Everett Lewis, USA, 90 minutes
Monday, October 7, 10:30 p.m. Dryden Theatre
One should ordinarily be very leery of a film with credits
that offer only first names, but everyone associated with Luster ought to be proud enough to have both of their names
attached to such a cool indie flick. The protagonist is Jackson (Justin
Herwick), a ‘zine-publishing, record-store employee who has a big crush on a
boy named Billy (Jonah Blechman). But Billy is involved with a rock star
(Willie Garson), who summons Jackson to write the lyrics for his new record.
Also thrown into the mix are Jackson’s handsome cousin (b. Wyatt) from Iowa;
his straight boss (Shane Powers), who seems to like Jackson a little too much;
a stalker (Sean Thibodeau) who is too vanilla for Jackson’s tastes; and a pair
of scuffling lesbians.
The subject
matter and record-store setting make Luster seem like a toned-down Gregg Araki trying to remake an LA-based High Fidelity. It’s being shown with a
short called The Moment After, an
appropriately dark look at committing suicide on one’s birthday.
Tom
Mike Hoolboom, Canada, 75 minutes
Tuesday, October 8, 6 p.m. Cinema Theater
If, God forbid, P. Diddy ever made a movie about one of his
heroes, the concept would probably sound a lot like Mike Hoolboom’s Tom, a dazzling experimental picture
that pays tribute to underground artist and filmmaker Tom Chamont. Like his
Puffiness, Hoolboom doesn’t actually pick up his camera and shoot any new film
— he instead appropriates chunks from Chamont’s extraordinarily large
catalogue and, unlike Puffy, turns it into something new, exciting, and
spellbinding. It’s the kind of film that grabs you, sucks you in, and
practically hypnotizes you as your jaw gets closer and closer to your lap. I’m
not sure what any of it is supposed to mean (especially the jarring finale that
features famous Manhattan landmarks blowing up), but I don’t care.
No More
Drama
Total running time: 96 minutes
Tuesday, October 8, 6 p.m. Little Theatre
This comedic program features two of my favorite festival
shorts. Lez Be Friends is a very
funny look at a straight filmmaker named Lily (Patricia Welbourne), who decides
to make a feature called Dike about
her best friend’s (Tanya Pillay) recent trip out of the closet. When everyone
who sees the film assumes she’s gay, Lily finds herself typecast as a lesbian.
And there’s music by cub! Shut Up, White
Boy shows an asshole white boy with Asian tastes getting some comeuppance
when he takes his latest Filipino girlfriend to a Vietnamese restaurant, where
the kitchen help is apparently mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
It’s shot on 16mm black-and-white film, and it looks lovely.
Prom
Fight: The Marc Hall Story
Larry Pelesco, Canada, 62 minutes
Wednesday, October 9, 4 p.m. Little Theatre
Prom Fight is making
its US debut right here in little ol’ Rochester, mostly because it’s too new to
have been shown anywhere else. Depicting events that occurred less than five
months ago, the documentary shows the plight of Oshawa, Ontario, student Marc
Hall, who tries to attend his senior prom with his boyfriend, Jean-Paul. His
Catholic school immediately puts the kibosh on the idea, and appeals are
quickly made to the district school board and, eventually, the courts. Of
course, if Marc was devious about the whole thing and said his date was going
to be “Jean,” nobody would have been the wiser until the night of the
prom (see how honesty gets you exactly nowhere these days?).
While the
story is somewhat interesting, the real drawing card here is the tall, gangly,
blue-haired Marc, who reluctantly found himself the center of a media whirlwind
at an awkward age in which most kids would just as soon hide from microphones
and lights. He doesn’t want to be Rosa Parks — he just wants to go to his
damn prom.
Days
Laura Muscardin, Italy, 80 minutes
Wednesday, October 9, 10 p.m. Little Theatre
Thirty-five-year-old
Claudio (Thomas Trabacchi) enjoys strong bonds with his mother, his sister, and
his boyfriend, Dario, but his most important relationship is with routine. From
his boring, repetitive job at the bank, to his exercise schedule, to the regimented
program of pill-taking and doctor visits the HIV-positive Claudio must subject
himself to, his days are carefully planned out weeks in advance.
On the eve
of Claudio’s move to Milan with HIV-negative Dario, Claudio meets and has a
fling with a waiter named Andrea (Davide Bechini). As though such affairs were
Lays potato chips, Claudio can’t stop at just one and reunites with Andrea for
another tryst. Their second meeting — the film’s centerpiece — occurs sans
condom, and Claudio’s life is turned upside-down. Loose ends are tied up way
too neatly at the film’s conclusion, but Laura Muscardin’s direction,
especially where she chooses to shoot some things out of focus (like Claudio,
the audience is looking for clarity in his decision-making process), shows
great promise.
Gypsy 83
Todd Stephens, USA, 94 minutes
Thursday, October 10, 4 p.m. Little Theatre
Nine days after her new sitcom (Less Than Perfect) debuts on ABC, Sara Rue will display the acting
chops that landed her a big network gig. She plays the titular Gypsy, a
voluptuous 25-year-old who works at a Sandusky Foto-Hut. Don’t worry — Gypsy
doesn’t get obsessed with any of her customers, because she’s already
infatuated with Stevie Nicks. Her best friend is a gay goth named Clive (Kett
Turton), who looks more like Robert Smith than Robert Smith has in years (and
John Doe plays Gypsy’s dad!).
When they
learn there’s a “Night of a Thousand Stevies” event scheduled in New
York City, the dynamic duo hit the road and share experiences with a has-been
lounge singer (Karen Black), an Amish boy (Anson Scoville), and a sexually
confused frat brother (Paulo Costanzo) while, of course, learning a thing or
two about themselves, as well. Gypsy starts off strongly but becomes a bit overly morose. Still, director Todd
Stephens, an LA Outfest winner for Edge
of Seventeen (Turton won this year for his performance in this film), is a
filmmaker to watch in the future.
Fish and
Elephant
Li Yu, China, 106 minutes
Thursday, October 10, 6 p.m. Cinema Theatre
Reportedly mainland China’s first motion picture about
lesbians, Fish and Elephant, which has
already won awards from two of the world’s biggest film festivals (Berlin and
Venice), is about two single women in Beijing who find what they’re looking for
in each other. Xiao Qun is the elephant keeper at the zoo, and Xiao Ling makes
clothing which she then sells at an indoor market.
Two things
happen to jeopardize their burgeoning relationship: the arrival of Qun’s
overbearing mother, who insists on setting her daughter up on a bunch of blind
dates with unsavory men; and the return of Qun’s ex-lover, Jun Jun, who is
being chased by the cops because she killed her sadistic father. The highlights
here are the blind dates — not because they’re particularly exciting, but
because the guys we see were recruited by phony personal ads director Yu placed
in an attempt to elicit authentic, believable dialogue.
Animate My
Shorts!
Total running time: 89 minutes
Thursday, October 10, 6 p.m. Little Theatre
Although there aren’t any gay LEGO guys this year,
ImageOut’s animated shorts program still has plenty to offer, including films
called Boobie Girl, An Officer and a Yentlman, and Jan-Michael Vincent Is My Muse. Other
highlights include Dresscode, which
features a women’s bathroom symbol come to life; and two shorts (Hi Honey, I’m Homo! and Keep Up With Medicine) that mold various
images from life in the ’50s into something fun.
A Family
Affair
Helen Lesnick, USA, 107 minutes
Thursday, October 10, 8:15 p.m. Cinema Theatre
For the first 45 minutes or so, A Family Affair seemed like it was going to be My Big Fat Jewish Lesbian Wedding. Rachel Rosen (Lesnick) gets
tired of her on-again/off-again relationship with the vampy Reggie (Michelle
Green) and moves to Southern California to be closer to her extremely
supportive PFLAG-member Jewish parents. Mom fixes Rachel up on a series of awful
blind dates (dubbed “Looking for Miss Rightowitz”), which is how she
meets and falls for the pretty Christine (Erica Shaffer). Cue montage of their
first happy year together, which is around the same time Rachel gets freaked
out because Christine starts calling her mom “Mom” and talking about
converting to Judaism.
From there,
things take a very odd dramatic turn that doesn’t work well at all. On top of
that, Affair is chock-full of moments
where Lesnick breaks the fourth wall and pretty much does a stand-up routine
right into the camera. It’s funny once in a while, but gets extremely grating.
Karmen Geï
Joseph Gaï Ramaka, Senegal, 86 minutes
Friday, October 11, 5:30 p.m. Cinema Theatre
Loosely based on Prosper Mérimée’s Carmen, this interesting and thoroughly unfaithful version stars
Djeïnaba Diop Gaï in the title role as a Carmen who hits from both sides of the
plate. Reportedly the first musical made in sub-Saharan Africa, Karmen Geï is as frustratingly erratic
as it is pretty. This time, our protagonist seduces a corrections officer to
escape from prison (she’s a smuggler), but not before grabbing a hostage, with
whom she begins an interesting relationship. She wears fantastic outfits and
bursts into song with virtually no warning whatsoever, but this Carmen is
strong enough to entertain through the rest of this mess.
The
Cockettes
Bill Weber and David Weissman, USA, 100 minutes
Friday, October 11, 7:30 p.m. Cinema Theatre
In true VH-1 Behind
the Music fashion, The Cockettes traces the rise and fall of the legendary San Francisco gender-bending
performance group. Well, they should have been legendary, anyway. The
documentary opens just as the Cockettes (named after the Rockettes) arrive in
1971 New York amid a whirlwind of critical acclaim and enough cult buzz to
choke a horse (attendees included the likes of Andy Warhol and Angela
Lansbury).
But that’s almost the end of the story. We quickly flash
back to the late ’60s genesis of the group, which began performing in between
campy midnight movies at the Palace Theatre to enthused patrons. As the months
passed, their productions evolved from wacky clothing, nudity, off-key singing,
and bad dancing to scripted, extravagant numbers that featured wacky clothing,
nudity, off-key singing, and bad dancing. Or, as early supporter John Waters
put it, “Hippie acid-freak drag queens — complete sexual anarchy.”
Call them the godfathers of Hedwig or the Mothers of Invention without the
musical ability — just as long as you acknowledge this as one fantastic (and
educational) documentary.
For more of Jon’s movie ramblings, visit his site, Planet
Sick-Boy (www.sick-boy.com).
Sherman Alexie dishes on directing and being a straight
Einstein
by Jon Popick
In 1998, Sherman Alexie’s story, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,was turned into Smoke
Signals, a picture that took the Sundance Film Festival by storm. It won
two top awards and landed a lucrative distribution deal — a major
accomplishment for the first movie ever produced, directed, and written
exclusively by Native Americans.
The
following year, The New Yorker tagged
Alexie one of the top 20 writers for the 21st Century. Already a celebrated
author and filmmaker, Alexie also began an incredible run of four straight wins
at the World Poetry Bout Championships. His streak finally ended this year,
when he retired and gave somebody else a chance to win.
Alexie’s
latest cinematic offering — The
Business of Fancydancing — is about a successful Native American writer
named Seymour who returns to his reservation for a funeral. It screens Sunday,
October 6, as part of the ImageOut Festival.
City:Where did the story for Fancydancing come from?
Alexie: It’s
semi-autobiographical. The lead character [Seymour] is sort of a combination of
Evan Adams (the lead actor) and I. Evan grew up on a reservation and was very
successful in the art world, as well as being a doctor — he’s actually in his
residency right now. He’s gay, I’m straight, so we combined stories, in a
sense. It’s a mix of us and, of course, a whole lot of fantasy and stuff. If
Evan and I had a baby, it would be Seymour
City: You didn’t
direct Smoke Signals, so why
did you end up in the director’s chair this time?
Alexie: I didn’t
want to work with another director.
City:Were you disappointed with it?
Alexie: No, I
just don’t like directors [laughs]. I really like Smoke Signals. I think it’s a good movie. Chris Eyre, the director,
was a nice guy. I didn’t have serious issues with him at all — it was other
people’s reactions.
People are
lazy about films; they assume the director does it all. For Smoke Signals, I wrote the screenplay
— it’s based on my book, based on a trip I actually took. I co-wrote five of
the songs; I was in the editing room the whole time; it was filmed on my
reservation; my cousins and family were all extras. Then people ask me, “How
much were you involved?”
City:How was it to direct?
Alexie: It was
fun. I was the least experienced person on the set, so it was great to be able
to ask for help and not feel some arrogant need to try to dominate. I listened
to people’s ideas. A lot of it is me, but a lot is other people, too. In real
life, I’m not very good at listening. I think I was a better person on set than
I am in the rest of my life, which I think is the reverse of most directors.
City: Does it
bother you that the film is kind of being pigeonholed as a “gay”
film?
Alexie: It’s
been great. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a screening and somebody said I was
taking advantage of the gay audience and targeting them economically. I just
started laughing and said, “Yeah, that’s a really wise move — make a
movie about a gay man and make millions of dollars!”
City: There’s a
short film called Lez Be Friends playing at the festival here, where a straight filmmaker makes a movie about
her best friend coming out of the closet. After she screens it, everyone assumes
she’s gay. Are you running into a lot of that?
Alexie: Oh,
yeah, it’s great. I’ve never been hit on by women in this way. I’ve never felt
more attractive than when I’m at these gay festivals. Then, when they find out
I’m not gay, they’re mad and want me to be gay.
City: Is it any
different receiving criticism about your films than it is receiving criticism
about your books?
Alexie: When I
talk about movies in the book world, I always tell this story: When I’m among
other writers, I’m always, by far, the least educated and the least well-read
person. In a room full of movie people, I’m Einstein.
City: How do
you feel about the sport mascot debate?
Alexie: They’re
certainly racist, but more than that, they’re blasphemous. Those songs and
feathers and drums and dancing — that’s Indian religion. Seeing somebody
dressed as an Indian, in an Indian headdress, running across the floor at a
football stadium is akin to somebody dressed up as a Jesuit tossing communion
wafers into the crowd.
City: Did it bother
you when everyone fell all over Denzel and Halle after last year’s Oscars, when
Native American actors still have so far to go?
Alexie: It
doesn’t bother me. I’m happy for them, but I think it’s interesting they won
their Oscars for playing roles that are pretty clichéd — the single black
mother at the sexual mercy of a white man and the psychopathic rogue cop.
City: So what’s
up next?
Alexie: I’m
working on a book of short stories and a biography of Jimi Hendrix. I don’t get
to make another movie until the accounts for this one are balanced out. I’m the
second-largest financer of the film. I’m too old to have this much credit-card
debt.
The schedule
Friday, October 4
Little Theatre
By Hook or
By Crook, 7 p.m. $8
Notorious
C.H.O., 9:30 p.m. $8
Saturday, October 5
Little Theatre
Unforgettable:
Our History-Makers (documentary program), 11 a.m. $5
How To
Become a Lesbian In 6 Easy Steps (shorts program), 1:30 p.m. $5
Novela,
Novela, 3:30 p.m. $5
American
Mullet,5:30 p.m. $7
Kali’s
Vibe, 7:30 p.m. $7
Sugar
Sweet, 10 p.m. $7
Dryden Theatre
Sing-along
Grease, 7 p.m. $10
Lan Yu, 10:30
p.m. $7
Sunday, October 6
Little Theatre
Oliver
Button Is a Star, 11 a.m. $5
Swimming
Upstream: A Year In the Life of Karen and Jenny, 1:30
p.m. $5
This Is
NOT Only a Test (shorts program), 3:30 p.m. $5
TransVerses (shorts
program), 5:30 p.m. $7
Girl King, 8 p.m.
$7
Webcam
Boys, 10:30 p.m. $7
Dryden Theatre
Ruthie
& Connie: Every Room In the House, 5:30 p.m. $8
The
Business of Fancydancing, 8 p.m. $8
Monday, October 7
Little Theatre
Speak Up (documentary
shorts program), 4 p.m. $5
21, 6 p.m.
$7
Food Of
Love, 8 p.m. $7
Luster, 10:30
p.m. $7
Cinema Theater
Thelma, 6 p.m.
$7
Treading
Water, 8 p.m. $7
Tuesday, October 8
Little Theatre
After
School Special (shorts program), 4 p.m. $5
No More
Drama (shorts program), 6 p.m. $7
Momento
Mori, 8 p.m. $7
Trouble In
Boys’ Town, 10:15 p.m. $7
Cinema Theater
Tom, 6 p.m.
$7
The Trip, 8 p.m.
$7
Wednesday, October 9
Little Theatre
Prom
Fight: The Marc Hall Story, 4 p.m. $5
Guardian
Of the Frontier, 6 p.m. $7
Venus Boyz, 8 p.m.
$7
Days, 10 p.m.
$7
Dryden Theatre
Victim, 6:30
p.m. $7
Some Of My
Best Friends Are…, 8:30 p.m. $7
Thursday, October 10
Little Theatre
Gypsy 83, 4 p.m.
$5
Animate My
Shorts! (shorts program), 6 p.m. $7
Daddy and
Papa, 8 p.m. $7
And Now
For Something Completely Different… (shorts program), 10:15 p.m. $7
Cinema Theater
Fish and
Elephant, 6 p.m. $7
A Family
Affair, 8:15 p.m. $7
Friday, October 11
Cinema Theater
Karmen Geï, 5:30
p.m. $7
The
Cockettes, 7:30 p.m. $7
Km. O, 9:30
p.m. $7
When Boys
Fly, 11:30 p.m. $7
Saturday, October 12
Dryden Theatre
All the
Queen’s Men, 8 p.m. (with reception) $25
Film Festival Passbooks
available for $195. For more information on the festival, ticket availability,
or prices, call ImageOut (271-2640), or visit www.imageout.org.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2002.
