Butch.org

2012 Queer Park City Preview

2012-01-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

Going to the Sundance Film Festival next week? Or just want a sneak peek at a few top films coming up in 2012? Please take a look at my Queer Park City preview on The Bilerico Project — you could also read it on QMovieBlog.com or AfterEllen.com if you are so inclined. That picture above is from Mosquita y Mari (premiering in the NEXT section at Sundance).

On Art: Jeff Brouws/Ed Ruscha

2011-12-09T11:23:00.001-08:00

"The beauty of Ruscha's work is that it appears authorless, effortless,totally objective, artfully artless, which I think gives it a universalappeal, as if his voice and vision are ours, as if he's saying: you could dothis too.Twentysix Gasoline Stations led me down the typographical path; it made mewant to photographically collect "types" of things as a way ofsystematically surveying the unique qualities of similar objects, a way toremind myself that everything in the world is interesting, mystifying,individual, and worthy of our attention, no matter how banal or ordinary."

Jeff Brouws on Ed Ruscha's Twentysix Gasoline Stations (in Readymades, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2003)

Pictured above:Edward Ruscha, Phillips 66, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1962, from Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1963. Gelatin silver print, 4 11/16 × 4 11/16 in. (11.9 × 11.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from The Leonard and Evelyn Lauder Foundation, and Diane and Thomas Tuft 2004.467© Ed Ruscha

Parting Glances: VIP Q Movie Pick for World AIDS Day

2011-12-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

Please read my posting on Bilerico.com today which includes reflections on Parting Glances from Matthew Rettenmund, Will Clark, Bruce Vilanch, Alec Mapa, Dan Butler and Tom Bezucha. Here's the intro:

As World AIDS Day approaches on December 1st it's a fitting moment to share the half-dozen VIP Q Movie Pickers who have named Bill Sherwood's legendary 1986 HIV/AIDS drama, Parting Glances as their number one favorite LGBT film (alongside Desert Hearts and But I'm a Cheerleader this film has been the most popular selection amongst our dozens of celebrity movie lovers).

And here's the rest:Parting Glances: VIP Q Movie Pick for World AIDS Day

Hear Harvey: Post-November 27 Action Item

2011-11-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, November 27th marked the anniversary of the death of gay civil rights movement leader Harvey Milk (he was assassinated on November 27, 1978). His legacy carries on in innumerable ways today. Visit the Milk Foundation website to find out more. And if you have time, please take seven minutes to watch my little short film, 575 Castro St. which includes some of Harvey's tremendously inspiring reflections on the gay movement.

Tomboy: Must-See Queer Film of the Year

2011-11-22T23:50:00.001-08:00

This terrific movie opened last week in New York City (at Film Forum). It opens this Wednesday (November 23rd) in San Francisco at the Landmark Embarcadero and on Friday (November 25th) in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Encino and Berkeley. I'm telling you: this is the must-see queer film of the year (though I confess that I have a conflict of interest since I work for Wolfe and we will be doing the North American DVD release of the film — but regardless of that, I seriously LOVE this movie). Here's what I wrote about it this past summer (before we acquired it):

Lesbian film fans will want to be sure to get festival tickets for this latest feature drama from WATER LILIES director Celine Sciamma! Currently playing on the film festival circuit and expected to be released theatrically in the U.S. this fall, TOMBOY tells the story of a 10-year-old girl (played by the amazing Zoe Heran) who moves to a new neighborhood and decides to pass as a boy. Winner of the prestigious Teddy Award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival (where it played as the opening night film for the festival’s Panorama section), TOMBOY has been wildly successful in its French theatrical release and has been getting rave reviews everywhere. Mike Goodridge of Screen Daily calls it a “small French gem,” Paul Heath of The Hollywood News calls it “a charm… my favorite film of the year so far” while Jordan Mintzer in The Hollywood Reporter glowingly commends director Sciamma for her, “tender and realistic eye” and describes the film as “reminiscent of such landmark adolescent movies as Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows.”

For more info plus upcoming dates in other cities please visit TomboyMovie.com. Get out to see it in a theater if you can. And then look for it on DVD from Wolfe next summer. In fact you can even go ahead and click HERE to add it to your Netflix queue right now!

Happy, Happy — Must-See Movie

2011-09-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

I got to see the world premiere of the terrifically entertaining Norwegian drama, Happy, Happy at the Sundance Film Festival this past January. The film opened this weekend in New York and Los Angeles and is coming soon to your town.How to convey the tremendous gay resonance of this film without ruining the plot? I'm not even going to review it; just trust me on this one and go see it.I will tell you that the film forcefully depicts the consequences of societal homophobia and living in denial. Plus it’s exceptionally well acted and has irresistibly quirky acapella interludes, which are a stroke of genius. Of the innumerable LGBT-themed stories I’ve seen depicted in hundreds of LGBT films over the past twenty-five years, I’ve never seen this one. Whatever your sexuality or gender, you must see this movie.

Watch "Blue Diary" on YouTube (my first 16mm film)

2011-09-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Joy of Life is now on iTunes!

2011-07-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

I am very excited to announce that my film THE JOY OF LIFE is now available for rental on iTunes! You can rent it for just $2.99 and watch it right this minute in your living room (or get the HD version for $3.99). Go ahead and click right HERE.

Need more encouragement? Here's an exciting description:

The Joy of Life combines stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voiceover (performed by Harriet “Harry” Dodge) to share two San Francisco stories: the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide landmark, and the story of a butch dyke in San Francisco searching for love and self-discovery. The two stories are punctuated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's beautiful reading of his ode to San Francisco, "The Changing Light" and bookended by opening and closing credits music from legendary '50s icon (and probable Golden Gate suicide) Weldon Kees. The Joy of Life is a film about landscapes, both physical and emotional.

Let me share a few choice bits of critical acclaim to convince you:

"Thrillingly minimalist. Gently hypnotic."
--Rob Nelson, The Village Voice

"A cinematic love poem. . . Beautiful."
--Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Transfixing, starkly powerful. . . unforgettable.”
--Jeffrey Anderson, San Francisco Examiner

"Another perfect film with a masterful screenplay."
--Brandon Judell, indieWIRE.com

"Captivating."
-- Film Threat

"The festival's best film. . . vividly evocative."
-- Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe (from review of Boston L&G Film Fest)

"The pick of the festival. . . one of the most sensuous documentaries you will ever see."
--Kelly Vance, The East Bay Express (from review of SF LGBT Film Fest)

"Simply stunning to behold."
--Candace Moore, AfterEllen.com

"Absolutely brilliant. A poetic and heartfelt adventure."
--Kathleen Wilkinson, SFGate

Did I mention these awards?

2005 Marlon Riggs Award (for courage & vision in Bay Area filmmaking)
-- The San Francisco Film Critics Circle

2005 Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award
-- Outfest, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

2005 Best US Narrative Screenplay Award
-- The New Festival, New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

Rent THE JOY OF LIFE from iTunes now.

Frameline Archive Finds a Home at SF Main Library

2011-07-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

Check out the very nice little article about this in the Bay Times (and here is the accompanying photo by the fabulous and ubiquitous Rink).

Pictured above: the Hormel Center’s Karen Sundheim, curator Jenni Olson and Frameline Festival Director Jennifer Morris.

We Who Are Sexy: The Film List

2011-06-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

Susan Stryker and I had a great time this afternoon at the Victoria Theater presenting the Frameline: San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival premiere of our clip show, We Who Are Sexy: The Whirlwind History of Transgender Images in Cinema. We had a wonderful audience there, many of whom joined us for a post-screening Q&A at Muddy Waters on 16th & Valencia. A few people were interested to know the titles of all the films we included so I promised to post the list here on my blog. Do run out to the video store to get these (we recommend Four Star and Lost Weekend who helped us in our research process), tho' of course many of these are so rare that they are not actually available on consumer home video or DVD. There are so many films — this really just scratches the surface.

We Who Are Sexy: The Whirlwind History of Transgender Images in Cinema

Presented by Susan Stryker & Jenni Olson

Guys in Dresses — Girls in Suits: The Early Days

Judith of Bethulia (1913)

A Florida Enchantment (1914)

Sylvia Scarlett (1936)

Boy! What a Girl (1945)

Kitsch, Camp & The Avant-Garde
Kaming Mga Talyada (We Who Are Sexy) (1962)
Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)
Homicidal (1961)
Women In Revolt (1971) trailer
Female Trouble (1974) trailer excerpt
Let Me Die a Woman (1977)
Dandy Dust (1998)

Fear & Loathing + “T” & Sympathy
I Changed My Sex (1953) trailer
The Christine Jorgenson Story (1970) trailer
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Ticked Off Trannies with Knives (2010) trailer

Verite
Hilary Swank’s Oscar speech (1999)
Paris is Burning (1991) trailer
Queens at Heart (circa 1967)
Stonewall (1995)
The Look of Love (1996)
By Hook or By Crook (2000)
The Aggressives (2005)
She’s a Boy I Knew (2008)
No Dumb Questions (2001)
Just Call Me Kade (2001)

Stuff We Just Love
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
Something Special (1986)
Summer Vacation: 1999 (1988)
The East is Red (1993)
Chocolate Babies (1997)
Maggots & Men (2009)
Two Spirits trailer (2009)

The End

Supplemental sampling of interesting titles from the past 40 years:
Myra Breckenridge (1970), I Want What I Want (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Outrageous (1977), La Cage Aux Folles (1978), Victor/Victoria (1982), Yentl (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Second Serve (1986), Vera (1986), Torch Song Trilogy (1987), Orlando (1992), The Crying Game (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), M. Butterfly (1993), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), The Birdcage (1996), Different for Girls (1996), Ma vie en rose (1997), You Don’t Know Dick (1997), The Brandon Teena Story (1998), Gendernauts (1999), Southern Comfort (2001), The Cockettes (2002), Soldier’s Girl (2003), Beautiful Boxer (2004), Unveiled (2005), Breakfast on Pluto (2005), Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria (2005), Boy I Am (2006), Cruel and Unusual (2006), Red Without Blue (2007), Trained in the Ways of Men (2007), Against a Trans Narrative (2008), Prodigal Sons (2008), Pageant (2008), Be Like Others (2008), The Last Summer of La Boyita (2009), Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight (2009).

There are more than a few Transgender films on this year’s festival circuit:
Becoming Chaz (2011), Bob’s New Suit (2011), Gun Hill Road (2011), Leave It On The Floor (2011), Madame X (2011), Miwa: A Japanese Icon (2011), The Mouth of the Wolf (2011), Orchids: My Intersex Adventure (2011), Renee (2011), Romeos (2011), Tales of the Waria (2010), Tomboy (2011).

And a few coming eventually to a theater near you:
Albert Nobbs (2011), The Danish Girl (2012), Pierrot Lunaire (2011)

We are also excited to present our program in Los Angeles — at Outfest, on Saturday, July 16th at 4:30pm at DGA2.

Please feel free to post any comments or questions below. Thanks!

575 CASTRO ST. Update

2011-06-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

Two exciting bits of news to share about my short film, 575 Castro St. this month.

First and foremost is a brand new opportunity for San Franciscans and visiting tourists to view the film in the most perfect venue I could ever have imagined. You may have read that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) recently relocated their San Francisco store to the now legendary address of Harvey Milk's old Castro Camera shop (yes, that would be 575 Castro St.). As part of the new HRC Store they have worked with our awesome GLBT Historical Society to create a wonderful historical display about Harvey Milk and Castro Camera. A prominent part of the display is an installation of my film, 575 Castro St. exhibited on a continual loop, with a set of headphones so you can listen to the soundtrack while you watch. Of course the most amazing thing about this is the fact that not only was my film footage shot at this address (in 2009 when it was the empty Castro Camera Store set of Gus Van Sant's Milk) but the audio of Harvey Milk talking about his wishes in the event of his assassination was also recorded in this very room (not upstairs in his apartment as fictionally depicted in Milk).

I am so thrilled at the prospect of so many people being exposed to my film and want to express my gratitude to the folks at HRC (and to the folks at FilmInFocus.com for granting permission for the installation). Please go visit the HRC Store next time you're in the Castro and take a look at my film if you have a chance!

I'm also very proud to report that an HD tape of 575 Castro St. is now officially on deposit with the Sundance Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive as part of their effort to preserve all of the fabulous films that have been showcased at the Sundance Film Festival over the years. One of these days I will get it together to deposit my negative of The Joy of Life!

AMERICAN FABULOUS at SF Main Library — Thursday, June 16th @ Noon

2011-06-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

Come on out to the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Main Library on Thursday, June 16th @ Noon for the latest installment of this exciting series of highlights from the Hormel Center’s Frameline Movie Archive Project.

American Fabulous (1991) USA, English, 120 mins.
Director Reno Dakota will be at the screening for a Q & A session.

Winner of the 1991 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Audience Award for Best Video.

Adding to a hearty tradition of ascerbic gay folklore, American Fabulous is the very oral biography of Jeffrey Strouth, a wild, storytelling homosexual whose unglamorously picaresque life makes for compulsively addictive narratives that are unbelievable, hilarious, and movingly tragic. From a thronelike position in the backseat of a 1957 Cadillac, Strouth indulges in an autobiographical yakfest while the uninspiring landscape of Columbus, Ohio, provides a moving backdrop. He recounts a life so relentlessly melodramatic that, as he says, “nobody could make this up, and if they did, why would they want to?” Between cigarettes Strouth tells us about his first gay friend, the toothless “Myth Earl”; his psychopathic, abusive father; being kept, at 14, by a kindly 400-pound drag queen with a closet full of faux denim leisure suits; his passion for sex and drugs; and just about all the poop on the East Village club scene. Like a queeny, white-trash Kerouac, Strouth's most poignant moments take place on the road. To hear his epic of hitchhiking from Ohio to Hollywood with a mincing, Tallulah Bankhead groupie boyfriend, a tiny yapping dog, and a finch in a cage is classic Americana, alone worth entering this tragicomic universe. As indulgent as its subject, the tape's two-hour length may send you out screaming, but if you can stick with it—and I suggest you do—Strouth emerges as an admirably uncompromising "free spirit" who has more than earned his endearing bitchiness.

The screening will be introduced by series curator Jenni Olson and is co-presented by Wolfe. Please click thru for more info HERE.

Go See: QUEEN OF THE SUN!

2011-06-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

I got to watch a DVD press screener of Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us? last week with my family. I continue to feel so emotionally impacted by the film, I want to encourage everyone to get out and see it when it opens in theaters June 10th (in New York City at the Cinema Village) and June 17th (at the Laemmle Monica 4-Plex in Santa Monica). And take your teenagers! It's a perfect educational film for kids. My 12 year-old daughter Hazel gives it a big thumbs up and adds a hearty, "Bravo!"

This harrowing and beautiful new documentary from Taggart Siegel (The Real Dirt on Farmer John) ought to be subtitled: "a portrait of the miraculous and endangered honeybees — and the people who love them." An international array of scientists, scholars and beekeepers vividly explain the apocalyptic consequences of pesticides, corporate agriculture and industrial farming as they also wax poetic about the joys of honey and the vital importance of bees in our ecosystem.

Queen of the Sun offers an impassioned introduction to basic and advanced environmental issues in a way that is really accessible for kids — and will motivate their latent activist selves with a desire to pursue environmental justice for these amazing creatures.

Watch this film and you will never eat non-organic honey again!

More info, trailer and playdates here:
Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us?

We Who Are Sexy — Clip Show at Frameline (June 19th) & Outfest (July 16)!

2011-06-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

We Who Are Sexy: The Whirlwind History of Transgender Images in Cinema

Join film historians Jenni Olson and Susan Stryker for a whirlwind ride through the history of transgender images in film. A smart combination of on-stage conversation and film clips, this program will showcase an amazing array of rarely seen tidbits ranging from the bad old days of guys in dresses and pathological transsexuals up through the empowered self-representations of the early '90s and into the hot transgender best of the 21st century.

At Frameline:

Sunday, June 19, 2:00 PM

Victoria Theatre

Ticket Code: SEXY19V

And at Outfest:

Saturday, July 16, 4:30 PM

DGA 2

Hazel, I'm a big fan of your work

2011-06-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

Click to see a gallery of four of my favorite images from a recent photo shoot Hazel did down on the Embarcadero. You can also click through to see more of her wonderful compositions on her Flickr page.

BUDDIES Screening Kicks Off Hormel Center's Frameline Video Archive Project Film Series

2011-05-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, June 2nd at Noon at the Main Library's Koret Auditorium, the Hormel Center's Frameline Video Archive Project series kicks off with an extremely rare opportunity to see Arthur Bressan's pinoeering AIDS drama, Buddies. This 1985 indie was the first American feature film about the AIDS crisis. Frameline presented the world premiere of Buddies at the Castro Theater as a benefit for the Shanti Project in 1985.

Buddies (1985) USA, English, 81 mins.

Director: Arthur Bressan Jr.

Buddies, the first American film to dramatize the AIDS crisis, is an intensely personal story of a 32-year-old Californian dying of AIDS in a Manhattan Hospital and the 25-year-old New Yorker who starts as his volunteer counselor and becomes his greatest friend. Writer/director Arthur Bressan Jr. includes factual information about AIDS, but more importantly shows that love and caring is also a major part of this tragedy. "I made this movie," Bressan says, " because I had to make it. This one came from my heart . . . It is a very small movie about the landscape of the heart and the caves within us." Robert, the patient, and David, his "buddy," resist one another at first, but, as time goes by and their hospital visits become more personal, the men share thoughts and experiences that touch them both. Since Frameline presented the world premiere in 1985, Buddies has played to audiences around the world and received critical acclaim—both for the fine performances of Geoff Edholm and David Schacter, and the no-nonsense, gut-wrenching emotion of the film.

About the Series

Come on out to the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Main Library for this exciting series of highlights from the Hormel Center’s Frameline Video Archive Project. These five films represent some of the most significant items in the collection — for the most part unavailable on commercial DVD, these rarely screened titles offer a glimpse at the wide range of historically significant titles in the collection. All titles are part of the Hormel Center’s Frameline Video Archive Project and will be presented on DVD and introduced by series curator Jenni Olson. Series co-presented by Wolfe Video.

Buddies (1985) — June 2

Olivia (Pit of Loneliness) (1951) — June 9

American Fabulous (1991) — June 16

Summer Vacation: 1999 (1988) — June 23

Boy! What a Girl! (1945) & Out of the Shadows (1990) — June 30

The series kicks off with a rare screening of Arthur Bressan’s Buddies — the 1985 drama was the first American feature film about the AIDS crisis. In week two we present the rarely seen 1951 French lesbian boarding school drama, Olivia (Pit of Loneliness). Next up is the Best Video Audience Award winner of the 1991 San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Director Reno Dakota will be here in person to introduce his legendary showcase of gay Southern storyteller extraordinaire Jeffrey Strouth, American Fabulous. Week four brings us Shusuke Kaneko’s futuristic Takarazuka melodrama, Summer Vacation: 1999 (this 1988 boys’ school charmer features a terrific all-girl cast). The series concludes with Arthur Leonard’s rediscovered 1945 all-black-cast musical, Boy! What a Girl! Starring Tim Moore (best know as The Kingfish from the Amos n’ Andy ‘50s TV series) as the bald, cigar-smoking female impersonator, “Madame Deborah.” Boy! What a Girl! will be preceded by Out of the Shadows, a rarely screened 1990 short documentary portrait of African American gay and transgender men in Washington D.C. — narrated by poet Essex Hemphill.

Retrospective of my Films at Kashish Mumbai Queer Film Fest!

2011-05-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'm extremely proud to report that a retrospective of my work (curated by Paul Lee) is being presented at this year's Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival this coming Friday, May 27th at 1:30pm at the Alliance Francaise de Bombay — 40 Theosophy Hall Marine Lines, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400020 (Tel: 022 2203 5993).

The program is called THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO and features my short films: Sometimes, Blue Diary, Meep Meep! and 575 Castro St. followed by my experimental documentary, The Joy of Life.

If you happen to be in Mumbai, please attend!

Ultimate Tortured Lesbian Lust Scene (1969)

2011-04-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

Mini-Interview on Butch Lab!

2011-03-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

Very proud to say that Sinclair Sexsmith has recently posted my Mini-Interview on the very cool Butch Lab website. And in case you were wondering, here is the Butch Lab Mission Statement:

The mission of the Butch Lab Project is to promote a greater understanding of masculine of center gender identities, expressions, and presentations, through encouraging: 1. visibility, because we feel alone; 2. solidarity, because there are many of us out there, but we don’t always communicate with each other; and 3. an elevation of the discussion, because we have a long history and lineage to explore and we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Click on thru to Explore the Lab!

A Poet Comes Out of the Closet

2011-02-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

I have been writing poetry for years now. Just for my own enjoyment and as a different format of journal writing — composing sketches of a given scene, person or day. This past Thursday, my partner Julie asked if I would read a poem at her birthday dinner the next night. On Friday nights over the past few years we've developed a tradition of Poetry Shabbat (featuring favorite poems of established poets and the occasional piece from me). Realizing I lacked the courage to recite the full text of Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" (my current fave) to the table of 12 guests, I decided to compose my own poem for the occasion. Since I actually like this poem so much (and since it seems so timely) I've decided it's time to come out of the closet and share it with, if not the world then with the handful of people who read my blog.

Being Alive on #February 25th — for Julie and the Revolution

Precisely a month of awe precedes this day on which
snow threatens the West;
Democracy, the East;
Equality, America.

In the calm safety of our
morning
we enjoy

The New York Times, the golden light
and feeling we have too much to do:
a mechanism we use to obscure awareness of our own mortality.

Wipe away the clatter
that distracts us from what matters.
The din of commerce and innovation. Of keeping up.

Did you notice the wind and the big puffy clouds?
I have never cared for Thoreau.
I deny being a nostalgic luddite.
Rather, call me keeper of the mundane.

Aspiring to mindfulness,
wonder,
and noticing beauty.

Especially yours.

My Queer Sundance 2011 Wrap-Up

2011-02-03T16:14:00.000-08:00

My Queer Sundance 2011 Wrap-Up was posted on both FilmmakerMagazine.com and AfterEllen.com — please pick one and click thru to read my reflections on the very queer year.

Pictured above is a production still from one of my top picks, CIRCUMSTANCE.

Remembering Mark Finch (October 21, 1961 - January 14, 1995)

2011-01-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite picture of Mark — so utterly characteristic of him. Cheerfully perched atop the front counter in the old Frameline office on Dolores Street in 1992.

Mark pretty much missed the digital revolution (we did have an AOL address at Frameline in 1994 thanks to Tom Reilly and Karen Wickre and Digital Queers, but that was about it). And so there are only a few items of evidence of Mark's legacy visible online. Here's Mark's GLBTQ.com entry on LGBT Film History and here's Mark's Wikipedia page created by an old friend of his, and here's Mark's imdb.com entry (noting his cameos in Gregg Araki's The Living End and Todd Verow's Frisk). You can see a glimpse of his performance in the trailer for The Living End at Strand's YouTube page (at 0:33 seconds in).

Please share any and all of your Mark Finch memories in the comments field below.

Michael Hawley "Hearts" Frameline34 Screening of MADCHEN IN UNIFORM

2011-01-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

Bay Area film blogger Michael Hawley just gave a nice shout-out to the Frameline34 presentation of the 1958 Romy Schneider remake of MADCHEN IN UNIFORM as part of his Top Bay Area Repertory Screenings for 2010. The screening was introduced by yours truly, hence my interest — here's his nicely phrased appreciation:

A whole lot of LGBT folk must've played hooky from work to catch this mid-day, mid-week revival from 1958 – itself a remake of a 1931 queer cinema classic. Romy Schneider and Lili Palmer are respectively radiant as a student obsessively in love with her boarding school teacher – to the extreme consternation of battleaxe headmistress Therese Giehse. Shown in a gorgeous and rare 35mm print, with the inimitable Jenni Olson delivering a dishy intro. Frameline34's other revelatory revival was Warhol's 1965 Vinyl, in which Factory beauties Gerard Malanga and Edie Sedgwick dance a furious frug to Martha and the Vandellas "Nowhere to Hide." Twice.

Read the rest of Michael's picks right HERE. And then go order the DVD from WolfeVideo.com for only $13.46!

Lavender Images Program by Alison Bechdel

2011-01-04T22:37:00.000-08:00

Just came across the original art that my old pal Alison Bechdel designed for the very first Lavender Images Film Series back when we were both living in Minneapolis. It was a 10-week series of LGBT movies shown on the University of Minnesota East Bank and West Bank campuses (at Coffman Memorial Union and the West Bank Union) during Winter quarter of 1987. I will reminisce at length about it all one of these days, but for the moment just had to share this wonderful cover design.

What is Butch?

2010-11-21T00:04:00.000-08:00

Butch blogger Sinclair Sexsmith has invited me to be part of the Sugarbutch Chronicles Butch Symposium #1. Since Sinclair very flatteringly included me on last year’s TopHotButches.com list (#74) I feel not only indebted, but, as you can imagine, invested in maintaining my status and credibility. Read on below for my response to Sinclair’s Symposium #1 prompt:

“What is butch? How do you define butch? What do you love about it? What does it mean to you?”

I’ve been pondering this prompt for the past few weeks and trying to muster my creativity to say something original on the topic. As the proprietor of Butch.org, obviously butch is a meaningful category for me.

Though there are also times in my life where I feel somewhat jaded and tired of having this discussion.

One of the things I often say (when I am interested in talking about butch identity) is that I think both butch and femme are concepts which people have very idiosyncratic understandings of — we are not always on the same page in our ideas of what it means to be butch. Whether talking about outward characteristics and mannerisms; more seemingly internal personality traits such as qualities of sensitivity, vulnerability; what we do in bed; etc. Much to talk about, no wonder I get weary of the conversation sometimes.

I do believe that the dialogues we feel so compelled to create around butch identity arise out of a deep desire to be understood (and to understand ourselves). We have a need for community, a need for heroes. And a need for the validation that can help us retain our sanity and self-esteem in a culture that rarely offers us affirming recognition and is far more likely to give us questioning looks, overt criticism, or a hard time about using a public bathroom.

Having grown up as a gender non-conforming child, and navigating life as a gender-trans adult, my butch identity has been a way of naming myself and proclaiming who I am — so that I might embrace these qualities and think of myself as a hero instead of an awkward, self-conscious mistake of nature.

I’m writing this on the weekend of Transgender Day of Remembrance and have been immersed in thoughts of Gwen Araujo — the transgender teen who was murdered here in the Bay Area in October 2002. I have come to know Gwen posthumously through the activism of her mother, Sylvia Guerrero.

The first time I saw Sylvia speak, at the first San Francisco Trans March in 2004, I remember experiencing an indescribable feeling of sadness and joy as Sylvia publicly expressed her love and compassion and support for her daughter. She proudly praised Gwen’s unique beauty. She righteously denounced not just Gwen’s murderers, but all of the people whose ignorance and fear prevented them from appreciating who Gwen was. Thinking back on this experience I remember wishing that Sylvia (who is in fact younger than I am) were my mother in that moment.

It would have been wonderful to have felt more understood by my parents when they were alive. To make up for that particular disappointment though, I am now having the spectacularly uplifting experience of feeling understood by my children.

In the intimacy of being a parent — being seen and loved by my kids who totally get me and embrace me for exactly who I am — I feel more deeply understood than I ever imagined possible. And I’m that much more hopeful for the future, as the kids of genderqueer people come of age and make the world a place of greater understanding for us all.

Chuck Gorder (May 1, 1919 — November 16, 2010)

2010-11-18T21:10:00.000-08:00

I feel compelled to write about my stepfather, Chuck who passed away on Tuesday morning at the age of 91. He was an amazing man and had a tremendous influence on me. I am always grateful to him for instilling and encouraging my passion for classic Hollywood cinema. From a very early age I used to flip through his big stack of 8x10 movie stills from the films of 1935 (the year he worked as an usher at the University Theater — now known as the Varsity — in Dinkytown near the University of Minnesota East Bank campus). *Cited in 1999 City Pages article about me and my career as a film historian.

When I went to visit him a few weeks ago I recorded some of our conversations. He was speaking very slowly because of his recent stroke, but was really philosophical and so profound. I transcribed some of it last night as I was writing his obituary. It comes off very literary — almost like it was written, but this is literally what he said as he was reflecting on how hard it was to be approaching the end of his life in such a compromised state:

“I’ve lived a pretty full life. Had some good times, and some rotten ones… And so there’s nothing to be done. We continue to love each other and there’s no help for it. But there’s to be no weeping and wailing. It’s as though there’s nothing left to do… So I suppose it’s a funny kind of business where it just kind of persists. And neither life nor any resemblance to life is there. But you still can’t write it off, can you? You still can’t put a dot at the end of the sentence. I say, you still can’t put a dot at the end of the sentence.”

May his memory be for a blessing. Period.

NOTE: Here is the link to the obituary I wrote for Chuck, published in his hometown paper, the Albert Lea Tribune.

Get "Trailers, Schmailers" on DVD!

2010-11-11T22:57:00.000-08:00

You're wondering what to get Bubbe and Zayde for Hanukkah?

Here's a nice little tchotchke they're sure to love!

I curated this program of classic Jewish movie trailers for the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in 1997 and am finally making it available on DVD just in time for Hanukkah (yes, just barely in time it's true).

Trailers, Schmailers is an 82-minute program of more than 30 Jewish coming attractions from 1937-1997 in color and glorious black and white (these are the original trailers, transferred from original 35mm prints). From the Marx Brothers to Fiddler On The Roof, this feature-length compilation of Jewish film trailers offers a compact glimpse at the history of Jews in American cinema. These original coming attractions trailers offer a unique insight into the relationship between Hollywood’s studio marketing departments and the growing visibility of Jews in American life. Trailers Schmailers includes playful spotlights on Woody Allen and Barbra Streisand, an overview of films about New York Jewish life, a look at the evolution of films about the holocaust, and much, much, more.

Esteemed Jewish film critic Michael Fox called Trailers, Schmailers: "Terrific" on its premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. At the Jerusalem International Film Festival it was hailed as: “Wonderfully amusing. Everyone leaves the film with a smile.”

Click thru to the Trailers, Schmailers website to see the list of trailers included in the collection and more details. The DVD is available to individuals for just $24.95; there's also an institutional rate option (which includes public performance rights — for JCCs, libraries and community groups) for $72. It really does make a great program to generate discussion about Jewish representation in cinema — or just to create lively dialogue about memories of the Jewish films that have been most important to each of us over the years.

Blue Diary at PFA's Radical Light

2010-11-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

My 1997 short film, Blue Diary is screening at the Pacific Film Archive on the 21st as part of the PFA's series, "Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area." I will be in attendance and am particularly excited to see all the other work in the program — come on out! Below is the PFA program note:

Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area

Sunday, November 21, 2010
5:15 p.m. 1990–1999

Artists in Person

By the 1990s, many Bay Area filmmakers were products of Bay Area film programs, with some, such as Sandra Davis, Jay Rosenblatt, and Greta Snider, going on to teach. Dominic Angerame continued to run Canyon Cinema, a distributor of experimental cinema; Scott Stark founded Flicker, which documents alternative cinema online; and Jenni Olson programmed for the local lesbian and gay film festival. These were artists who spent a lot of time viewing and thinking about cinema, which nurtured an interest in the particularities of the medium. For Greta Snider and the collaborative group silt, this included hand processing their film. Scott Stark and Jay Rosenblatt found new meaning in footage they found or collected while Kerry Laitala recontextualized antique medical slides. Cauleen Smith fabricated a personal history in her collage film, and Jenni Olson contrasted a recollection of a one-night stand with San Francisco’s urban landscape. In their films, Angerame, Davis, and Timoleon Wilkins each beautifully evoked a specific place.

Short of Breath (Jay Rosenblatt, 1990, 10 mins, Color). Chronicles of a Lying Spirit (by Kelly Gabron) (Cauleen Smith, 1991–, 5 mins, Color). Au Sud (To the South, Sandra Davis, 1991-99, 6.5 mins, From artist). Premonition (Dominic Angerame, 1995, 10 mins, B&W). Shadow of the Son (silt, 1995, 7 mins, Color, Super 8mm, From the artists). Flight (Greta Snider, 1996, 5 mins, Silent, B&W). Secure the Shadow (Kerry Laitala, 1997, 9 mins, Color, From the artist). Lake of the Spirits (Timoleon Wilkins, 1998, 7 mins, Color). Blue Diary (Jenni Olson, 1997, 6 mins, Color, PFA print). Noema (Scott Stark, 1998, 10 mins, Color).

• (Total running time: c. 80 mins, 16mm, From Canyon Cinema, unless indicated otherwise)

Click HERE for full details and tickets!

The Kids Are All Right DVD Box Art = Less Lesbionic

2010-11-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

Look! It's the classic de-gaying marketing campaign strategy in action on the DVD release of THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT. (The DVD comes out November 16th and I'm not complaining, just saying). The recipe: Add the opposite sex character into the key-art to demonstrate greater appeal to straight audiences (the original movie poster was just the image you see at the bottom here — of all the characters seated around the table).

At least this design choice has a fully legitimate rationale behind it — Mark Rufallo is terrific and is a full lead character in the film.

Unlike the ultimate example — Samuel Goldwyn Company's original theatrical poster for DESERTS HEARTS (featuring the addition of two straight minor characters to help the lesbians in the middle seem less lesbionic). An offense rectified by the Wolfe 20th Anniversary DVD re-release box art (below) which showcases the stars, Patricia Charbonneau and Helen Shaver, alone together as they ought to have been in the first place.

And as I always say: Please go ahead and buy your DVDs from Wolfe Video: Your trusted community source for LGBT movies since 1985.

The Legacy Awards 2010

2010-10-25T13:24:00.001-07:00

The Legacy Awards 2010, originally uploaded by outfest.

Eileen Myles: An American Poet

2010-10-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

a love letter and short interview by Jenni Olson that was published somewhere back in the day.

*unearthed from the archives of 1992, yet no less relevant nearly 20 years later as her, "INFERNO: a poet's novel" is about to come out from O/R Books on November 30th. Click for more details HERE.

I am always hungry

and wanting to have

sex. This is a fact.

So begins "Peanut Butter" from Eileen Myles' 1991 collection of poetry, Not Me (Semiotexte).

I fell in love with Eileen Myles in 1989 when I first read her collection of short stories, Bread and Water (1987, Hanuman Books). Her simple reflections on life and love (and her picture on the cover) captured my heart. Who could resist such temptingly cynical prose as, "A woman uses you because you let her in so naturally never expected it's just chess."

In 1991 I got myself onto Eileen's campaign letter mailing list (she was running for president as a write-in candidate). Eileen's mailing list. Eileen was writing letters to me. She spelled my name wrong on the mailing label, but I didn't mind. She called me "Dear Citizen." A bit impersonal, but sort of a sweet idiosyncrasy, I thought (she was a poet, after all). She wrote about all kinds of things — political, and, well, personal. And she would stick the stamp on my envelope upside down. You know what that means. After awhile I realized that the stamps she used had a picture of the White House and a big American flag on them. So maybe it was just a political gesture. She probably put everyone's stamps on upside-down. Still, I think it was also her way of saying what Ross Perot got to say on national television — that she was running for president because she loved us.

In May, Eileen came to San Francisco to do a reading. At last I would meet her… and not have anything to say. "Loved your reading. Thanks," I managed anxiously.

I finally got the chance to interview Eileen in October of 1992 during her presidential campaign tour. In person, she's more handsome than I'd expected — looking like a full-blooded Kennedy, and with an unnerving idiosyncratic (Eastern?) personality that makes me incredibly anxious. Her gestures, expressions, speech are abrupt and bursting. Like her poetry. Interviewing her I feel too eager, feel like she doesn't know what to do with my nervous intensity. I'm afraid I'm acting like a fan. The whole experience makes me feel like crying.

Throughout 1991 and 1992, Eileen merged art and politics in a fabulous propaganda trek which took her to 20 states across the country, as well as Mexico and Canada. Keeping supporters informed through her unique series of campaign letters, Eileen expressed platforms on everything from reproductive rights to the North American Free Trade Agreement. She received some mainstream media coverage (MTV even interviewed her), and although Clinton won the race, she says of her campaign, "As an artist and poet it provided tons of opportunities for me to make speeches and make my work become more political."

Discussing her evolution as a writer, she recalls, "I didn't come out 'til I was 27. My poetry really took off when I came out. Falling in love and writing poems seemed like the same gesture." Personal changes in her life led to political changes in her work, she explains, "I stopped drinking almost ten years ago. My work started to get political when I got sober."

With her sensual vocabulary and dry sense of humor, Eileen entwines the personal and the political in both her prose and her poetry. In "A Poem" (from Not Me) she touches on relationships, world views and the meaning of art:

Symbolically

I want my black jersey back. Realistically

you must give it to me because I will keep

talking to your machine if you don't.

Our mayor is a murderer, our president

is a killer, Jean Harris is still not

free, which leads me to question the

ethics of our governor who I thought

was good. There is an argument

for poetry being deep but I am not that argument.

Eileen identifies as a "lesbian poet" but acknowledges that she has little in common with the canon of lesbian poets that includes Adriene Rich. The pitfall of, "being labelled a lesbian artist," she notes, "is that people think it tells you something about content. But I know it doesn't. It simply tells you something about me. And there is a gap between me and my work."

Although her presidential campaign is long past, her political campaign is only just beginning. "Ending things is my favorite part—the poet part, full of death & incredibly sweet," she wrote in her final campaign letter. "At this point I can say any damn thing I want."

Eileen Myles's was born in Boston and moved to New York in 1974. Her Inferno (a poet's novel) is just out from OR books. For her collection of essays, The Importance of Being Iceland, she received a Warhol/Creative Capital grant.Sorry Tree is her most recent book of poems. In 2010 the Poetry Society of America awarded Eileen the Shelley Prize. She is a Prof. Emeritus of Writing at UC San Diego. She lives in New York.

Outfest Legacy Project to restore 1971 Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day footage

2010-10-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Super exciting news on the LGBT Film Preservation front — check out this Outfest announcement (especially the last paragraph — ah, the glamor and excitement of queer film preservation):

"We are thrilled to announce that The UCLA Film & Television Archive in collaboration with the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation has been awarded a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to restore historic footage recorded at the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day in 1971.

Shot by a collective under the name Women's Liberation Cinema (including feminist writer Kate Millett and artist Susan Kleckner), this footage is extremely valuable documentation of one of the earliest events of the LGBT Rights movement: one of the first LGBT Pride marches in history. The restored footage will serve the LGBT community as well as academics and filmmakers seeking archival evidence of an event for which very little moving image documentation exists.

The 16mm film was in Ms. Kleckner's storage locker until 2006 when filmmaker Jenni Olson discovered it. Ms. Olson delivered the reels to the Legacy Project, a collaborative effort of UCLA Film & Television Archive and Outfest."

The footage is really fantastic and I look forward to eventually seeing it show up in lots of forthcoming LGBT documentaries (when the preservation is done and UCLA/Outfest are able to make it available for stock footage licensing)! It is particularly exciting that there is a lot more footage of lesbians than you often see in archival gay Pride footage. Of course that is probably because it was shot by women!

So, attention documentary filmmakers! Here are some highlights of the footage you're going to want (from my original viewing notes):

Woman holding "I Enjoy Being a Dyke" sign and she is also holding a can of Tab!
Pan up to big banner for: Christopher St. Gay Liberation Day 1971.
Shot of Radical Lesbians banner (and footage of Kate Millett in peasant blouse, long hair and weird sunglasses — this is just the year after the publication of her landmark book, Sexual Politics and her coming out as bisexual; and before NOW made their official statement in support of lesbian rights).
Shot of yellow "GAY" balloons being blown up.
Great shot of a lesbian shooting a 16mm Bolex.
Woman holding up a "Come Out" sign.
When the march actually begins there is great shot with big banner from the Gay Activists Alliance!
Shot of cheering construction workers.
Great shot of flyer on phone pole that says: Christopher Street Liberation Day March & Gay-In Sunday June 27th. And great pan over to front of march with banner on street corner (Prudential Savings Bank). This is probably the best reel - with all the people milling about in front before the start of the march and at least some of them must be recognizable figures in NYC gay movement.
End of march at Central Park. So many hippies! So much hand-holding! And so many smokers!

The Back Story of Finding the Film (because I like to reminisce):

In November, 2006 while I was in New York City for the Museum of Modern Art screening of my film, The Joy of Life — read the wildly entertaining account of THAT right HERE — I literally spent an entire day in Susan Kleckner's storage locker digging around trying to find the print and negative of this 1971 documentary called Three Lives (the film had been produced by Kate Millett and I had somewhat randomly mentioned to Barbara Hammer a few months earlier that I was in search of Kate's film and she said I should contact Susan Kleckner, thinking she was the likely holder of the film's original elements). We did find Three Lives in the storage locker (it, too is now in safe keeping at the UCLA/Outfest Legacy Project Collection).

And this Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day footage just happened to be in the same pile of dirty old film cans — it was a total surprise discovery, she had completely forgotten about it. Susan proceeded to tell me about the shooting process and how they had been in the midst of production on Three Lives, they had the camera equipment and the film stock and just decided they would go shoot some of the Liberation Day event.

Sadly, Susan passed away in July, 2010. I only had the chance to meet her that one time; she was extremely gracious, helpful and full of stories about the 70s and Feminism and Art, etc. She was also a photographer and filmmaker in her own right and taught at the International Center of Photography. We are all indebted to her for hanging on to this footage all those years!

It is really exciting that the footage will be preserved. And this is one more great reason to support the Outfest Legacy Project and all their amazing work.

I'm Her

2010-09-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

Just dug up this blog piece I wrote in January, 2007 for the dearly departed OurChart.com (a few hundred words of my writing — along with many thousands of others from OurChart and PlanetOut.com in particular — which I mistakenly assumed would be ever-available through the miracle of the Internet). Reposting this reflection here as it seems worthy of new posterity — until the demise of Blogger or other veritable catastrophe.

Writer-director Cheryl Dunye (The Owls, The Watermelon Woman, Stranger Inside) once sagely advised me that saying you’re “in development” on a film project sounds much better than saying you’re just “working on something.”

I’ve been “developing” my latest film (Get Me Guinevere Turner, or The Royal Road) for about two years now [make that five, since it is now 2010]. Being a filmmaker with a full time day job and a family makes for a unique, and very protracted, creative process (regardless of what you decide to call it). My last film (The Joy of Life) took eight years to get to the screen – six years of working on it in my non-existent spare time, followed by two years of actual production.

Slowly but surely this new film is taking shape as I scribble ideas on scraps of paper and make time for late-night online research hours. Like my previous films it’s hard to do it justice in a written description. But I will reveal that it is primarily a voiceover film incorporating static urban landscape shots, a variety of non-fiction narrative strands that take a while to get where they’re going, a yearning butch hero and a muse.

In the last few months of my research process I’ve been thinking a lot about narrative structures and heroes and how we attach ourselves to protagonists in the stories we’re told (in books, movies, etc.) And I recall that, as a little tomboy, my strategy for coping with the drama of our alcoholic household was to escape into old movies. Starting when I was about eight years old I discovered the joy of identifying with such unique models of masculinity as: Buster Keaton, Groucho Marx and Gary Cooper.

Gary Cooper was, of course, the quintessential strong silent type, and a vastly more complex figure than that other uber-butch matinee idol, John Wayne. Behind Gary Cooper’s silence was a desire to speak, where John Wayne just plain had nothing to say. Cooper’s perennial furrowed brow and aura of melancholy seemed to speak of some unknowable past injury, a lifetime of stoic heroism, a truly sensitive soul in need of a woman’s love — yet never quite capable of getting it.

That was me all over.

I’ve recently been enjoying a series of Care Bears books with my three-year old daughter [now seven!]. Sylvie provides daily evidence of my evolving theories about our desire for heroes and how we identify with protagonists in fiction.

There are about a dozen Care Bear characters, each embodying different positive character traits to be absorbed by our impressionable youngsters. In case you’re not familiar with them there’s Cheer Bear, Share Bear, Funshine Bear, Best Friend Bear. You get the idea. Each of them is a different color and has a unique symbol on its tummy: rainbow, star, heart, and so on. I think Sylvie is attracted to their respective colors and abdominal décor, rather than identifying with the characteristics they’re meant to convey.

The end-flap of the book has pictures of all the Care Bears, and Sylvie always insists on going through pointing to her favorites and saying: “I’m her and I’m her and I’m her.” Proving also that we have the capacity to identify with multiple protagonists.

We identify with certain kinds of protagonists because they enable us to feel like heroes in our own lives. They can genuinely make us feel better about ourselves. And when we tell people about our favorite characters, we desire to tell them something more about who we truly are.

And then, of course, there’s that critical difference between identifying with and being attracted to.

It wasn’t until I was ten or eleven that I discovered Ingrid Bergman. But when I did, I understood my connection to her was different than the one I had with Humphrey Bogart.

I never said to myself, “I’m her.” But rather, I secretly cherished the fantasy: “I’m him.”

Whenever I’m asked my favorite L Word character it’s sort of a no-brainer. There aren’t a lot of choices available for my heroes. It used to be that Shane was the closest thing to butch. And now, of course, there’s Max.

Neither of them is quite adequate; but they’ll do for now.

Anyway, that’s why I’m making my own movie.

Jenni Olson's Top 7 Wolfe Film Picks (for The Derek and Romaine Show)

2010-09-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

Jenni Olson's Top 7 Wolfe Film Picks (for The Derek and Romaine Show)

Lesbian Movie Timeline & Kids Are All Right

2010-09-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

With the DVD release date being announced for Lisa Cholodenko's THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (it's coming on November 16th) I figured it was a good time to re-promote this project I worked on for FilmInFocus.com — The Lesbian & Bi Women's Movie Timeline. Click on that link to get a fun visual and textual showcase of the history of queer women's cinema!

A Gorgeous Romy Schneider Shot

2010-09-14T15:28:00.001-07:00

romy1958-1, originally uploaded by romy1938K.

Here is a really beautiful production still from the 1958 version of MADCHEN IN UNIFORM of Romy Schneider and one of her young co-stars. This is the scene where they are gossiping like the lovelorn schoolgirls they are about where their teacher (the beloved Frau von Bernburg played by Lilli Palmer) goes on the weekends. And yes, today is finally the US streetdate for the DVD release of the film from Wolfe. Please ask for it at your local video store or buy a copy now from WolfeVideo.com or elsewhere. We are still trying to get Netflix to carry the damn thing and they say there is not sufficient demand — so please add it to your Netflix queue when you have a chance.

A Life of Longing and Laforgue - at SF360.org

2010-08-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

In honor of the big day today (the 150th Birthday of Jules Laforgue) the folks at the fabulous Bay Area Film site, SF360.org are running a piece that I wrote which is essentially the prologue to my new film project, Grandement Triste.

Here's an excerpt:

"A lifelong engagement which could even be said to supersede our commitments to friends, family, and lovers. That is how I would characterize our relationships with those certain special touchstone writers and artists whose work shapes our own sense of self, connects us via eloquent craft to the truths we hold most deeply.

My verging on Talmudic analysis of Jules Laforgue has been just this kind of lifetime connection. He is always there. Anchor, compass point, North Star of my soul-searching and angst. Even if I have now outgrown some aspects of my original attachment to him, he remains a central muse and inspiration for me."

Please go read the rest HERE.

Ventana Inn & Spa review

2010-08-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

Julie and I had a wonderful overnight getaway in Big Sur last month which I wrote up for OutTraveler.com's GPS blog. Read the full review HERE. And p.s. if you can't afford to actually stay at the Ventana Inn, you should just go check out the Restaurant at Ventana — it's a beautiful place and they served us really one of the most flavorful and delicious dinners I've ever had.

# 1 Anti-hero role model of the day

2010-08-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

Alison Bechdel is Watching Out for Dykes & Madchen

2010-08-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

I posted a plea for help this week to some friends and got this very supportive post from Alison Bechdel on her Dykes To Watch Out For blog!

Remember Mädchen in Uniform? The very steamy 1931 German film about girls at boarding school? My pal Jenni Olson has been working very hard to make a DVD release happen of the 1958 Romy Schneider/Lilli Palmer remake. I haven’t seen this but now we all can! Help Jenni succeed by adding the film to your Netflix queue or ordering it online.

Please go save MADCHEN to your Netflix queue now, too! Or BUY it from Wolfe for just $13.46!

Thanks!

Jews & Baseball at SF Jewish Film Fest

2010-07-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

How much do I love the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (unspooling from July 24-August 9 throughout the Bay Area)? It is one of the best festivals in the city (and you know we have a lot of them here). They always have top quality programming and legendary audiences — so whether you live in San Francisco, Berkeley, Palo Alto or San Rafael you must get out to see a movie this year (the 30th Anniversary program is terrific). For starters, I would recommend one of this year’s festival highlights: JEWS AND BASEBALL: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY.

A true celebration of its titular topic, JEWS AND BASEBALL covers all the bases and then some. Ample and excellent archival footage makes for an absorbing visual experience, supported by interviews with historians and historic figures (many of these are fairly predictable, but a few of them really rise above — especially the Sandy Koufax sequence and Hank Greenberg’s kids talking about his special connection with Jackie Robinson). Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, the film is straight-forward and uplifting and sure to please even the non-baseball lover.

If you liked Aviva Kempner’s classic THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG you’ll love JEWS AND BASEBALL (okay, this is very funny — I just finished writing this and then went to look at the Jewish Film Festival program description of the film on sfjff.org — it concludes with the exact same final sentence!)

JEWS AND BASEBALL premieres on Sunday, July 25th at 1:15pm at the Castro Theatre as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival with additional acreenings on Saturday, July 31 at 2:00pm at the Cinearts @ Palo Alto Square‎; Sunday, August 1 2010, 2:15pm at The Roda Theatre (at Berkeley Repertory Theatre); and Sunday, August 8 at 2:00pm at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.

The 30th Anniversary of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival takes place July 24-August 9, 2010 at the Castro Theatre and the JCCSF in San Francisco, Roda Theatre (at Berkeley Repertory Theatre) in Berkeley, the CineArts@Palo Alto Square in Palo Alto, and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. The first and still the largest of its kind, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF) continues to search the globe for the best and brightest cinematic gems—offering a full complement of films, festivities, special discussion programs and international guests that highlight 5770 years of culture. For ticket information, please contact the box office at 866-55-TICKETS (866-558-2453) or 415-256-8499, or visit the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival online at www.sfjff.org.

This moment of June

2010-06-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

“The triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June.” —Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Well, actually:

life; San Francisco; this moment of June.

Appreciation & Analysis of QUEENS AT HEART

2010-06-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

Gina at Skip The Makeup just posted a really terrific in-depth analysis and appreciation of QUEENS AT HEART (the amazing 1967 archival short I unearthed which was restored by The Legacy Project and will be playing next month at Outfest). Here's an excerpt from the blog:

"Back in the mid-90's, San Francisco film historian Jenni Olson would peruse collectors magazines like the now-defunct "The Big Reel" looking for hidden cinematic treasure. She came across a 35mm print being sold by an old projectionist in Kansas City for $75. Olson was always on the lookout for queer/trans-related titles and her radar instantly went up when she saw the title "Queens at Heart" and thought it might be related to the subject of drag."

Read the rest HERE.

The Times of Vito Russo teaser trailer

2010-06-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

Documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz is currently in production on this exciting celebration and showcase of one of the greatest LGBT activists of all time. Vito Russo was one of the founders of the gay liberation movement, a driving force in ACT-UP, and a pioneer in the exploration of LGBT representations in film. He was also one of my mentors and his book The Celluloid Closet basically saved my life. Take a minute to watch this trailer and then click through HERE to join the Facebook page for the film (and please contribute to support the film if you can).

P.S. I was interviewed for the film (whether I end up on the cutting room floor or up on the big screen only time will tell — but in the meantime for some reason I am—happily—listed fifth in the cast credits on IMDb! Just after Michael Musto and before Larry Kramer).

My Fave Flickr Image of the Day: Ree[L] Joy

2010-06-02T22:53:00.001-07:00

Ree[L] Joy, originally uploaded by shadowplay.

17 Reasons Because

2010-06-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

Back in April 2007 I wrote this blog post for OurChart.com (the fabulous L Word social network site that no longer exists). It is the 5th anniversary of the demise of the legendary 17 Reasons sign and seems a good time to re-post this. If you have not seen this episode of The L Word you definitely should (the sign figures heavily in the plot). Read on to learn more and you should also check out this great new piece about the sign on MissionLocal.org — which is what reminded me to post THIS item right now..

NEWSFLASH! That wonderfully enigmatic fictional structure that helps Bette win Jodie’s heart actually exists.

The legendary 17 Reasons sign was one of the most treasured landmarks of San Francisco’s Mission District until it was surreptitiously torn down in May 2002 and replaced by a thirty-three foot square illegal billboard (which continues to be leased by San Francisco outdoor signage company Foster Media Inc.) The “Why” part of the original sign had been taken down years prior, and currently resides in a nearby design studio on Shotwell Street.

An Architectural Touchstone
Like many San Franciscans, I fell in love with the 17 Reasons sign the first time I saw it – monumental and enigmatic, perched high atop the Thrift Town at 17th Street and Mission this nostalgic beacon had the charismatic appeal and architectural grandeur of Great Art. And the whimsical joy of poetry! It’s meaning was so unclear that it lent itself to philosophical, even spiritual interpretation. It was a true icon (or as I said to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003, during the time when there seemed to be some hope of saving the sign: "It has always been inspirational to me as an artist. It's an architectural touchstone.")

In 1997, when I made my first 16mm urban landscape film, Blue Diary (now available as an extra on The Joy of Life DVD – click HERE to pop it in your Netflix queue today) the 17 Reasons sign was one of the first locations we shot. It was so beautiful in the early morning light.

Erected in 1935, the 17 Reasons Why sign was a terrific Depression era commercial advertising structure, which originally sported neon tubing and stood as a neighborhood landmark promoting the Redlicks Furniture Store (check out this Google map link for 2101 Mission Street and you can see the billboard atop the building).

1,089 square-foot spectacular
Local film archivist Stephen Parr looked out his window one fine morning in May 2002 to see the sign being cut apart and hauled away. Parr went all the way to a Benicia salvage yard to rescue the pieces and bring them back to the neighborhood in hopes of somehow restoring the icon to its rightful home. Neighborhood activists then unsuccessfully approached the San Francisco Board of Appeals in an attempt to force the building’s owners to restore the sign (and remove the billboard which was erected less than a year after the passage of Proposition G, a measure banning all new general advertising in the city). Alas, their efforts failed and the billboard continues to blight the intersection (or as the Foster Media Inc. website proudly proclaims: “This 1,089 square-foot spectacular can be seen by heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic on Mission Street, travelers heading east on Seventeenth Street and residents going through the Castro District.”)

I stopped by Parr’s office (home of The San Francisco Media Archive and Oddball Film + Video) to photograph the sign last week. The word REASONS takes up the entire wall of one room. The twenty-one-foot high 17 had to be cut into pieces for transport and is now nestled between the shelving units that hold Parr’s vast holdings of archival film prints (which also includes the Jenni Olson LGBT Film Archive).

Parr expresses little hope that the sign will ever be restored to its original home. “I’m still trying to find a home for the 17 -- preferably indoors,” says Parr. “My ultimate goal is for it to be all together in one place, here in the Bay Area. Like the lobby of a building or some large public space.”

How did it end up on The L Word?
The other story behind the story: OurChart’s Beth Callaghan (photographer and erstwhile inner-city archeologist) has been documenting San Francisco’s historic urban advertising for years — from the faded, painted ads that once covered the exteriors of Tenderloin hotels to the understated Lipton Tea and MJB Coffee promotions that once graced the windows of every corner store in town. When L Word creator Ilene Chaiken needed a piece of vintage sign art for her season finale plot device she turned to the expert, and Callaghan turned her on to the long-lost 17 Reasons sign.

My original OurChart piece had lots of images in it but I don't have time to pull that all together, so. Here is a link to my Flickr photoset with a bunch of shots. And to see more images of the sign visit the 17 Reasons Why Group Flickr Pool!

My Fave Quotes: The Great Gatsby

2010-05-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

"I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night, and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove. Sometimes, in my mind, I followed them to their apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned and smiled back at me before they faded through a door into warm darkness. At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others—poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner—young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of the night and life."
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Remembering Kristen Pfaff (May 26, 1967 - June 16, 1994)

2010-05-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

Recently discovered this great photo of Kristen via a very kind Hole fan in Italy who sent it to me. It's sweet how this shot conveys her joyful spirit — seems like almost all of the publicity shots for her work with Hole are kind of dark or sad. This image more accurately reflects my memory of her (though the time we spent together was in the late '80s and this picture is from the early '90s). She was so talented. She used to play these very melodic, incredibly beautiful little instrumental riffs for me on her bass (early on, in Minneapolis before she was playing in any bands). I have this vivid memory of a horrible, rainy New York City trip we took together — I remember breaking up with her at Dojo Restaurant on St. Mark's Place after a cockroach crawled out from under my napkin. The last time I saw her was after her last Hole gig at Slim's in November 1993. So sad, so sad.

Listen to Harvey on Harvey Milk Day

2010-05-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

This coming weekend people all across California are celebrating the new State Holiday of May 22nd (Harvey Milk’s birthday). And people all across the country, from Alabama to Washington, are mobilizing around Harvey Milk Day as well. You can visit EqualityAcrossAmerica.org to find a rally or a celebration near you.

Or if you've got about seven minutes to spare right now you can take a listen to Harvey in his own words — in this little film I made called 575 Castro St.

Like, As If!

2010-04-24T09:49:00.001-07:00

More, still more, little buttons to push. Clicking our way into imagined posterity—we crave impact, want to be recognized for our oh-so-unique individual cleverness, deeply held activist beliefs, conspicuous consumption, what have you. We will absolutely achieve our fifteen minutes of celebrity to bolster our gelatinous egos.

Andy Warhol had no idea this quarter-hour spotlight would occur on a daily basis. And it doesn't take Jean-Paul Sartre to recognize the pathos of this desperate existential flailing—making our marks on physically non-existent walls and "liking" (dog-earing) millions of "pages" when we could be, oh, I don't know, writing our memoirs in a cafe somewhere over poached eggs on wheat toast with a double cappuccino in the sharp morning light of April.

PlanetOut.com R.I.P.

2010-04-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

The cheerful April 7th headline: "PlanetOut Has a New Family" appears to be the sole indicator on the world wide web of the sad ultimate demise of the PlanetOut.com URL (which is now re-directed to Gay.com under the ownership of Here Media). The saddest thing of all has to be the fact that this moment seems to have gone past unnoticed by gay bloggers and traditional LGBT media alike.

I'm having my own personal moment of silence for this final nail in the coffin.

Okay, no, actually the saddest thing is the incredibly lame clip art image (above) that they used for the post.

The Olson-Dorfs in Curve Magazine

2010-03-20T16:52:00.001-07:00

On my way to pick up Hazel from school on Thursday afternoon I swung by the offices of Curve Magazine to pick up a copy of the new April issue which features a substantial profile of me and Julie — and a great photo of us with the kids taken by the fabulous Daniel Nicoletta. The article is part of a very nice series of profiles called Family Values. Plus there's a great cover story about the new dykesploitation movie, Bitch Slap (from the guys who made Xena: Warrior Princess). Pick up a copy today!

The Real Lesbian 501s Commercial

2010-02-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

The first short I ever made was called Levi's 501s Commercial. It was significantly more explicit than this one and was a sexy riff on the whole: "What do you do in your 501s?" campaign of the early '90s. You can possibly guess what I was doing in mine. Every time I try to submit the details for it to imdb.com for my filmography they reject it — even though it played the LGBT film fest circuit and is a real, actual short film. In any case, it is nice to see that the Levi's folks have finally created their own lesbian 501s ad lo' these nearly twenty years later.

Using Google Map for my Laforgue project

2010-02-20T21:35:00.000-08:00

My Google Map from my pilgrimage to Montevideo — tracking my attempt to find the birthplace of Jules Laforgue.

Current inspiration: Balzac's imaginary harem

2009-12-05T23:06:00.000-08:00

My Fave Radio DJ Movie: Times Square

2009-11-19T12:33:00.001-08:00

I just posted this on my FilmInFocus.com blog and couldn't resist cross-posting here.

The release of PIRATE RADIO offers a great excuse for me to blog about my favorite radio DJ movie of all time (in fact my favorite movie, period, of all time), Allan Moyle's 1980 NYC teen-girl adventure tale, TIMES SQUARE. Please chime in in the comments field below and share YOUR favorite radio DJ movies (maybe you're thinking about Allan Moyle's 1990 follow-up to TIMES SQUARE, PUMP UP THE VOLUME with Christian Slater?).

Allan Moyle's TIMES SQUARE is one of the all-time cult classic movies of my generation. The story is structured around late-night disc jockey Johnny LaGuardia (a great performance by Tim Curry) as he follows and narrates the drama of teen runaways Pammy and Nicky (Trini Alvarado and Robin Johnson). If you have not yet seen this film — run don't walk to your Netflix queue. If you HAVE seen the film — it's time to see it again! [click here for the direct Netflix link]

During my obsession with TIMES SQUARE in the early '90s I did a substantial amount of primary research on the film's production history and script development. The article below first appeared in San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter in September 1993 in conjunction with a screening of the film presented by Frameline (the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival) at the Roxie Cinema with star Robin Johnson in attendance.

TIMES SQUARE: The Story Behind The Dyke Cult Classic

by Jenni Olson

Allan Moyle's 1980 teenage girl rock 'n roll adventure, TIMES SQUARE developed status as a lesbian cult film with showings at lesbian and gay film festivals in New York and San Francisco in the early and mid 1980s and continues to be a favorite at lesbian and gay film festivals in the early '90s. Long-standing rumors about lesbian content removed from TIMES SQUARE have provided ample fodder for lesbian readings of the teen girl buddy movie. Indeed, a look at Jacob Brackman's original unpublished script of May, 1979 (on file at the University of Southern California Script Library) reveals many erotically-charged scenes between the protagonists, Nicky (Robin Johnson) and Pammy (Trini Alvarado). Some of these scenes were removed from the script prior to shooting, some of them were shot and then excised from the final cut of the film. A fragment of one such excised scene appears in the film's preview trailer - it is a one-second, barely perceivable, clip of Nicky and Pammy playing together in the river.

The basic plot of the film is conveyed in its publicity blurb: "In the heart of Times Square, a poor girl becomes famous, a rich girl becomes courageous, and both become friends." Pammy is the quiet and sheltered daughter of a prominent politician, Nicky is a streetwise troublemaker. Admitted to a hospital for the same psychiatric tests, the girls share a room and get to know each other. They escape from the hospital, create a home for themselves in a dockside warehouse and live their lives together against the gritty urban backdrop of Times Square. There's tons of romantic tension between the girls, and, most importantly - they love each other and they're not interested in boys. As their friendship begins, Pammy's first feelings for Nicky are expressed in a poem she writes in her journal (which Nicky steals): "your ribs are my ladder Nicky, I'm so amazed, I'm so amazed." Pammy later recites T.S. Eliot to Nicky and proclaims to her, "everything you do, or you say, is poetry. At least I think so."

In their poetry, music and other idiosyncratic forms of artistic self-expression, the girls perform for each other, and together, throughout the film. Each gives loving support to the other in their artistic pursuits as they encourage one another to grow and develop self-confidence.

Early in the film, Nicky gets Pammy a job as an erotic dancer, "I'm brave, but you're pretty. I'm a freak of fuckin' nature," she tells Pammy as Pammy prepares to go on stage at the Cleo Club. Nicky (with her hair tied back and looking as butch as ever) positions herself at the front edge of the stage to watch, and Pammy focuses on Nicky as she begins to dance (in the original script she dances topless). In a later scene at the Cleo Club, Pammy watches Nicky perform her song "Damn Dog" (a poem Nicky had first read to Pammy on bended knee: "I can lick your face, I can bite it too, my teeth got rabies, I'm gonna give 'em to you. I'm a damn dog.")

While there's no explicit lesbian content in the film, the romantic tone of Nicky and Pammy's interactions is undeniable. The original script had several scenes and plot elements that developed this aspect of Nicky and Pammy's relarionship, including a scene of their first meeting in the hospital, in which they have to undress in front of each other; two scenes where they take off their shirts and play together in their underwear in the river (the clip of which remains in the film's trailer); a wrestling scene; a scene of the first night that they sleep (sleep, not fuck) together and a scene of Pammy dancing topless at the Cleo Club. Most of the scenes removed from the script/film are scenes involving erotic tension or physical contact between the girls.

There are many rituals remaining in the film, in complete forms or as remnants of rituals excised from the original script. The film relies heavily on ritual and symbolic meaning, and, in fact, contains an excess of overdetermined pieces of dialogue, references, ideas and objects that signify the girls' bonding together and rebellion against society. After they escape from the hospital, they cut each other's wrists and hold them together to become blood sisters; they make a pact that they will shout each other's names when they need each other; they call themselves the Sleaze Sisters; they have their own sayings like "No sense makes sense;" they write and perform poems and songs; they drop TV sets off of buildings as one of their trademarks and they wear garbage bag outfits and black out their eyes.

Of the ritualistic elements removed from the film, three are especially significant as they convey the intensity of the bond between Pammy and Nicky. Early in the script, just after they escape from the hospital, they henna and cut each other's hair (with this scene removed, their hair inexplicably changes color and length in the second reel of the film). The girls also create a journal together, called the Doomsday Book, to write their poetry and songs in (the scene where Nicky burns the book at the end of the film is still intact although all reference to the book itself has been removed). Also excised is a scene, again relatively early in the script, where Nicky "pulls up her shirt and pulls down her jeans a little to show Pamela a tiny P and an N, tattooed prison-style on her abdomen. 'I got a lot of dumb ideas. But at least I make 'em up myself,'" says Nicky.

TIMES SQUARE is one of the most remarkable rock n' roll soundtrack movies ever made (artists include Patti Smith Group, Pretenders, Talking Heads and Roxy Music), and the soundtrack often provides romantic commentary on the developing relationship between the girls. "You Can't Hurry Love" accompanies their escape from the hospital, and when Johnny (Tim Curry) the disc jockey learns that "you two sweethearts have a favorite song" he plays it for them. The song is dyke-rocker Suzi Quatro's "Rock Hard."

In a letter to her father, which Johnny reads over the radio, Pammy proclaims, "We are having our own Renaissance." Indeed, they create their own scavenged culture in their pastiche clothing, the decor of their squat on the pier, their poetry and music, and in their own unique brand of political activism. They decry the hypocrisy and prejudice of the establishment in a live radio performance of "Sleaze Sister Voodoo" in which they proclaim: "Spic, nigger, faggot, bum/Your daughter is one."

Patti Smith's darkly co-dependent dirge of obsessive love, "Pissin' in a River" signals the beginning of the end for Pammy and Nicky. In the most heartwrenching scene of the film Nicky destroys their home, burns their journal, and throws herself into the river. She emerges sobbing, "What the fuck is wrong with me?" Distraught, she storms into Johnny's radio station, "put me on the radio, I got somethin' to say." When Johny hesitates she smashes the control booth window, shouting, "You fuckin' little straight!" She then calls out her song to Pammy on the air: "My heart/it's pumpin'/my foot/it's runnin'/my head/it's hurtin'/it's hurtin' me./I never told you/everything/I never said the stuff I should/I was chicken to tell you/I never thought I could./ Find me/help me/save me./Can you hear me?/Can you feel me out there?/Pammy! I'm callin' you Pammy! Pammy!"

While Nicky's previous song to Pammy, "Damn Dog" had a sexy edge to it, this one is a desperate cry for help as she realizes that they must go their separate ways. Their break-up is partly prompted by Nicky's jealousy at the possibility that Pammy might be interested in Johnny (this possibility is quickly dispelled as Pammy tells Johnny that she hates him). Thinking she has lost Pammy, Nicky's jealous rage is succeeded by a deep depression. Pammy makes it clear to Nicky that she loves her but says, "I can't be like you." Nicky's final statement, as she performs "Damn Dog" in Times Square, is a proclamation of her love for Pammy, "she was the best friend I ever had." Nicky turns and dives into the crowd of teenage girls below, smiling and waving back at Pammy as she is carried away by her adoring fans.

Although the removal of so much material from the original script gives the film a fragmented feel and sometimes sloppy continuity, the bond between the girls is always clear, and always has some proto-lesbian resonance to it. As such, TIMES SQUARE is a marvelous experience not only for lesbian youth, but for any girl who's ever had a crush on a girl or who's wanted to see girls on film without boys in the middle.

The most intriguing thing in the unpublished screenplay of the film is the following scene description (not in the film), which begins towards the bottom of a page, the next page of the script is missing:

The Hideout Night

NICKY is pumping iron with a set of weights she has fashioned from a lead pipe and some iron wheels. PAMELA watches proudly from across the room, where she is sewing.

NICKY - Even though you may stagger…

Copyright 1993, Jenni Olson. It is okay to use excerpts without requesting permission but please credit: Jenni Olson (www.butch.org). Thanks.

Two exciting upcoming SF screenings of my films

2009-10-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Monday, October 19th!
Please come out for a special screening of my award-winning experimental feature documentary: THE JOY OF LIFE at the Jack Hanley Gallery (395 Valencia St. (@15th St.) on October 19th at 6:30pm. The screening is free (donations accepted) and also includes the short OUTSIDE THE DEMOCRACY OF CIRCUMSTANCE by Richard T. Walker. This special THE JOY OF LIFE screening kicks off a really cool extravaganza called Night Tide (October 19-23) which marks the 100th Anniversary of the Portola Festival — which took place October 19th-23rd of 1909 as a celebration of San Francisco's diversity and recent renewal and rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake. For more details on this 5-day oceanic celebration of the "ungraspable phantom of life" through film, art, music, readings, performance and dancing please see the flyer above. The whole thing is curated by Elephant and Giraffe and I am very proud to be a part of it.

Thursday, October 22nd!
kino21 is presenting a screening of my short 575 CASTRO ST. at SF Camerawork Gallery (657 Mission Street, Second Floor) on Thursday October 22nd, 7pm as part of their series called San Francisco: Place, Portrait and Performance (in conjunction with SF Camerawork's year-long 35 Anniversary celebration, we present the first of three screenings of films by local artists, who highlight our legacy as citizens of San Francisco). 575 CASTRO ST. screens this evening with Nathaniel Dorsky's 17 REASONS WHY and Roger Jacoby's HOW TO BE A HOMOSEXUAL, Parts I and II.

I'm happy to say that 575 CASTRO ST continues to have screenings in various cities thanks to the generous distribution assistance of the folks at New American Vision. Keep an eye out for these upcoming screenings across the globe:

A Million Different Loves!? International Queer Film Festival (November 2009)
Espacio Queer - La Plata, Argentina (November 2009)
Starz Denver Film Festival (November 2009)
Viennale (October 2009)

And remember (if you don't happen to live in Warsaw, La Plata, Denver, Vienna or San Francisco) you can always watch 575 CASTRO ST. online right HERE!

Support Outfest & QUEENS AT HEART!

2009-09-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody!

On September 30th I will be attending the Outfest Legacy Awards for the restoration premiere of an amazing LGBT cinematic treasure. Watch this clip, and then read on to participate in Queer Film History!

QUEENS AT HEART is truly one of the most remarkable LGBT films I've ever seen (and I have watched thousands of them). It is a short exploitation documentary produced in 1967 and featuring candid interviews with four trans women who speak honestly and with great courage about who they are (despite the lascivious tone of the weird guy who is interviewing them). The experience of seeing these women talk about the dangers and pleasures of queer life in pre-Stonewall New York City is inspiring. The camera follows them out to a fantastic drag ball, and shadows one of them along the streets of the city to her job as a hairdresser. I discovered this badly faded 35mm print many years ago and donated it to Outfest's Legacy Project. Outfest chose it (along with CHOOSING CHILDREN) as their 2009 preservation project.

You know the National Film Registry thing where they pick 25 films each year and proclaim them to be of historic significance for preservation?

Yeah, this is sort of like the gay version of that -- a very big deal. And film preservation is expensive. While the National Film Registry preserves Citizen Kane and Groundhog Day (okay, they DID add The Times of Harvey Milk to the list, but still) it's up to us to bankroll the movies that reflect OUR heritage (previous Outfest restorations include WORD IS OUT and PARTING GLANCES).

So, please click through and make your contribution now. Or go ahead and buy a ticket to attend the Legacy Awards Gala (I'll see you there)!

Even a small donation will make a very big difference — seriously, click through to give just $35 right now and be part of saving our images for posterity. If we don't do it nobody else will. Do it now so you don't forget!

Thanks!

Jenni

There I am on YouTube Again (Lesbian Riot at the Roxie)

2009-08-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

If you don't know about the Frameline Film Festival Lesbian Riot at the Roxie: Watch and learn! And look, I'm wearing the same shirt as in my other recent YouTube appearance on stage at the Jewish Film Festival (but in a different color). Which reminds me of one of my all time favorite quotes (by David Byrne): "People will remember you better if you always wear the same outfit."

575 Castro St. Onstage Q&A at SF Jewish Film Fest

2009-08-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, it was a bit unnerving to hear that one of my favorite film bloggers, Michael Guillen, had videotaped my post-screening Q&A for 575 Castro St. at the Jewish Film Festival and then posted it on YouTube. I spent the last few days thinking about it at 1am and worrying about whether I had said anything inappropriate for ears beyond that relatively small Castro Theatre audience. Having just watched it I was very relieved that not only did I not say anything incriminating, but my cinematographer Sophie Constantinou and I actually did a pretty good job of putting the film in context AND I gave my pitch for everyone to get out and support Mark Leno's Harvey Milk Day bill! Now that our President has seen fit to honor Harvey with the Medal of Freedom let's see if our Governor can get with the program and sign the bill (instead of vetoing it like he did last year). For more info go to EQCA.org right now.

And hey -- if you have not watched my movie yet you can always go over to the Film In Focus website for your personal desktop premiere!

More kind words for 575 Castro St.

2009-07-21T00:18:00.000-07:00

Another amazing review of my short film, 575 Castro St. — I am so grateful to the thoughtful movie lovers and film critics who put such energy into writing about my films. Best line from a very lengthy reflection on the film:

"575 Castro St. challenges every formal tendency of the Hollywood biopic -- it's short, slow, contemplative -- but, in a way, it is a Hollywood biopic."

Read the rest at LongPauses.com!

Me and Micah Schraft at Outfest Opening Night

2009-07-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

IMG_1459.JPG, originally uploaded by gppict.

It's so fabulous that JD goes around the entire festival capturing the glamorous (and mundane) moments of any given evening. And then she writes about it! Visit TheSmokingCocktail.com for all the scoop.

Beyond Chron review of 575 Castro St.

2009-07-06T21:42:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco International Film Festival press office just sent me clippings of coverage they got for my short when it played the festival in May. Consider me extremely impressed! And thrilled about this quite substantial review from BeyondChron:

"The titular "575 Castro Street" of Jenni Olson’s short is the address of slain supervisor Harvey Milk’s camera shop. Viewers of the film “Milk” know this shop as the base for the gay leader’s political runs for office. But the shop also processed the Super 8 studies in light and motion that became the basis for the San Franicsco Gay Film Festival.

Olson’s short pays homage to both these legacies. Visually, the viewer is treated to static shots of the shop’s interior, which was meticulously reconstructed for “Milk.” Reflections from the outside traffic resemble rivers of quietly flowing light. The effect renders the shop as a contemplative shrine.

The audio track will rattle certain viewers’ cages. Despite being recorded over three decades ago, Harvey Milk’s posthumous post-assassination message still has the power to discomfit. His reminders about the evils of organized religion, complacency in the LGBT community, and those who put their egos above the movement is still timely advice that has been sometimes ignored in the decades after his death.

Olson’s union of these two individually powerful elements creates a mournful whole. Milk’s monologue feels like wind whispering through a mausoleum. But it also stimulates the viewer’s imagination to visualize the many political meetings in that shop and to muse over the sociopolitical changes brought to the LGBT community by ensuing decades. Unmediated by Sean Penn, Milk’s voice still compels."

The Hefty Gift Bag from Frameline Women's Brunch

2009-07-06T14:18:00.001-07:00

June 26 09, REEL Women's Brunch, originally uploaded by frameline32photos.

Photographer Ana Grillo took this awesome shot of one of the Wolfe gift bags at last week's Women's Brunch during Frameline33. We crammed them with all kinds of great stuff including ITTY BITTY TITTY COMMITTEE t-shirts, Wolfe lollipops and Wolfe's "Big Picture" LGBT DVD catalog.

The Hefty Gift Bag from Frameline Women's Brunch

2009-07-06T14:17:00.001-07:00

June 26 09, REEL Women's Brunch, originally uploaded by frameline32photos.

Sharon Gless & Rosie O'Donnell Kissing

2009-06-29T12:40:00.001-07:00

Frameline 33 Closing Night Party, originally uploaded by frameline32photos.

Sharon Gless jokingly kissed Rosie O'Donnell onstage at the Frameline closing nite party - after earlier in the evening, Rosie had spoken to the audience about her lifelong desire to kiss Sharon when she introduced the world premiere of the new lesbian feature film, HANNAH FREE. (Photo by Debra St. John).

I am #74 on the Top Hot Butches List!

2009-06-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

What a fabulous honor to have bestowed upon me this Pride Weekend. And you have to go browse this terrific list of:

The 100 hottest butch, masculine, androgynous, genderqueer, transmasculine, studs, AGs, dykes, and queers, a project by Sinclair Sexsmith, the kinky queer butch top behind Sugarbutch Chronicles.

Visit TopHotButches.com and enjoy the eye candy (and intelligent reflections on female masculinity, etcetera).

Jeanne Dielman coming to DVD

2009-06-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

Now THIS is exciting! Chantal Akerman's brilliant rarely-seen masterpiece Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is coming to DVD at last. Click to order your copy from Amazon now. This is a double-disc set from Criterion and the street date is August 25th 2009 (a new great moment in cinema history).

Opening Night Party @ Terra Gallery Frameline 31

2009-06-23T16:27:00.001-07:00

Opening Night Party @ Terra Gallery Frameline 31, originally uploaded by frameline32photos.

My annual Frameline sighting of Christopher Lee captured by photographer Joie Ray Cohen!

Frameline Opening Night

2009-06-23T16:19:00.001-07:00

opening_party_35, originally uploaded by frameline32photos.

My annual sighting of Monica and Julie Ann captured on film by photographer Debra St. John!

575 Castro St. at Frameline

2009-06-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

Please come see 575 Castro St. in the Calling All Nerds and Art Freaks program at the Roxie on Saturday June 20th at 1:15 pm!

See you there!

Hotel Tip: The Americania in San Francisco

2009-06-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Jenni's (and Julie's) recent review of the Hotel Americania in San Francisco, on OutTraveler.com:

"San Francisco's gay-owned boutique hoteliers, Joie de Vivre have done it again. Like their equally creative Best Western makeover in Japantown (The Hotel Tomo), their latest lodging facelift job spiffs up a 143-room South of Market motel into a playful, creative and fun property for grown-ups and kids alike, The Americania Hotel (121 7th St, San Francisco, CA 94103; 415.626.0200)."

Read the rest of the rave review HERE!

My new 1-minute short at xtranormal.com

2009-05-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's better not to talk so much when you're trying to pick up a girl on the street. Part one in a series of unsuccessful lesbian cruising techniques.

575 Castro St. at SF International and...

2009-04-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

My short film 575 Castro St. is finally having it's San Francisco premiere this weekend at the SF International Film Festival. Come see it in the Voices Carry shorts program at the Kabuki on Sunday, April 26th at Noon or on Wednesday April 29th at 12:15pm.

The film is showing at tons of other festivals in the coming months (thanks to the fabulous folks at New American Vision who helping me with all the tedious details of that process). Keep an eye out for it at:

Boston LGBT Film Festival (April 2009)
Torino GLBT Film Festival (April 2009)
OutView Film Festival in Athens, Greece (May 2009)
QDoc: Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival (May 2009)
Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (May 2009)
Frameline: San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (June 2009)
Los Angeles Film Festival (June 2009)
Queer Takes, Minneapolis (June 2009)
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 2009)
Outfest: Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (July 2009)

You can click over to my 575 Castro St. blog page for links to all these fine festivals. Or just go watch it online right now at FilmInFocus.com

Legacy Project: ONE Archive Screening April 19 in L.A.

2009-03-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

Coming up in a few weeks in L.A. is this very exciting opportunity to see some rare film and video highlights from the ONE Archives.

My connection to this event is two-fold: 1) Some of the video preservation monies for this arose out of a brief conversation between myself (as a member of the Outfest Legacy Project Advisory Board) and Bay Area Video Coalition staffer Wendy Levy in the aisle of the Castro Theatre before a screening at Frameline two years ago! 2) I am a huge fan of Jim Kepner who was the originator of the ONE Archives and who I got to meet on my first trip to Los Angeles back in like 1986 when he had all his collection crammed into a messy old storefront off of Hollywood Boulevard. He was one of my early inspirations about the importance of saving stuff!

April 19, 7:00pm
LEGACIES FROM THE ONE NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN ARCHIVES, a lecture/screening at the UCLA Festival of Preservation

The ONE Archives began in 1942 when writer-activist Jim Kepner created a private collectioen of gay-related materials in New York. The ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives now thrives as the world's largest research library on LGBT heritage and concerns. In early 2007, ONE deposited its collection of rare film and videotape with the Outfest Legacy Project at UCLA. This evening's program presents highlights from a portion of that collection, in conjunction with a discussion hosted by Joseph Hawkins, president of ONE Archive's board of directors, about ONE's crucial role in preserving LGBT history.
35mm, 16mm and video, approx. 90 min.

Preservation funded by: the Bay Area Video Coalition's 2007 MediaMaker Award
IN PERSON: Don Kilhefner, Lillian Faderman, Malcolm Boyd, Mark Thompson, Joseph Hawkins.

Location: Billy Wilder Theater
Tickets/Information: www.cinema.ucla.edu
OUTFEST members receive $1 off admission at the box office.

Epic review of 575 Castro St. on Invencible Vulnavia

2009-03-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

Just came across this really substantial review of my new short film on Diego Trerotola's blog, Invencible Vulnavia. Diego is based in Argentina and of course his blog is in Spanish so I need to spend some time gleaning the highlights but it looks like he has positive things to say about the short (and about THE JOY OF LIFE which played at the Mar Del Plata Film Fest there in 2005).

Okay, I can get the main sense of it via the miracle of Yahoo's Babelfish (which has some pretty crazy imperfections and yet it translates Spanish to English better than I can).

Phrases like: "intelligence and sensitivity" sound promising!

The Olson-Dorfs on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

2009-03-02T16:06:00.001-08:00

Click here to watch the video: Online NewsHour | PBS

We are getting ready for the big Overturn Prop 8 Rally on Wednesday and the Supreme Court arguments on Thursday. This video gives a nice 10 minute overview of the current state of Marriage Equality (or lack thereof) here in CA — starring: The Olson-Dorf Family!

Tune in to the Jim Lehrer News Hour on Thursday for the TV version featuring even more thoughtful analysis (and yet more B-roll footage of Jenni, Julie, Hazel and Sylvie making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner). A similar story will run on our local PBS affiliate, KQED on the show, "This Week in Northern California" this coming Friday.

We can also be seen in a special about Prop 8 on Voice of America as well. The photo caption for the VOA items proclaims:"Jennie Olsen [sic] and Julie Dorf are the human face of same sex marriage in California." Yikes!

Nick's Flick Picks review of The Joy of Life

2009-02-25T15:46:00.001-08:00

Nick's Flick Picks review of The Joy of Life

Posted using ShareThis

Get MILK on DVD!

2009-02-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Director Gus Van Sant's riveting biopic about slain gay rights activist and San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk comes to DVD at last in this handsome must-own edition that’s packed with extras.

Based on the politically resonant and thoroughly timely screenplay of Dustin Lance Black, Van Sant follows the arc of Milk's political awakening, from closeted Brooklyn insurance executive to doyen of San Francisco's Castro district's burgeoning gay mecca in the 1970s. Sean Penn portrays the film's hero, melting into the role with an affable flamboyance that is both spirited and eminently engaging. James Franco plays opposite Penn as Milk's supportive and easygoing boyfriend, Scott Smith. The couple's cheerful and loving rapport lends buoyancy to the film's overall message of hope as Milk ascends from grassroots community organizer to a galvanizing figurehead in the push for gay civil liberties.

CLICK TO ORDER NOW for only $19.95 from WolfeVideo.com: Your queer-owned community source for LGBT DVDs since 1985!

Ready? OK! trailer- great new DVD about gay kid cheerleader

2009-02-12T13:36:00.001-08:00

When you wish for a son on the wrestling team, how do you deal with one who loves fashion, dolls, and pyramid formations? Watch this trailer and then visit http://www.wolfevideo.com/products.asp?id=1478 to preorder your very own copy of the DVD. Starring Carrie Preston, Lurie Poston, John Preston, Michael Emerson, and more and winner of numerous f

read more | digg story

Attn. Filmmakers, Programmers, Journalists, Distributors, Publicists, etc.

2009-01-27T09:27:00.000-08:00

Come sign up for the PopcornQ Film & Video Professionals List!

The PopcornQ Film & Video Professionals List is a low-volume, moderated Yahoo Group intended for use by film and video professionals (filmmakers, distributors, exhibitors and festival programmers, bookers, journalists, publicists, etc.), with an emphasis on the genre of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender motion pictures and events. Please feel free to exchange information such as: calls for entries, funding opportunities, film production, job searches, newly completed projects, etc. Please also share your expertise regarding: labs, how to work with actors, finding a distributor, etc. The list is also open to critical discussions of issues in queer cinema, info about queer film festivals, announcements of world-wide events in film, retrospectives, and items of interest to film professionals.

THIS GROUP IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY NON-FILM PROFESSIONALS OR AS A BULLETIN BOARD FOR POSTING ADVERTISEMENTS REGARDING NON-FILM RELATED WEBSITES OR OTHER MATERIALS. MEMBERS ABUSING THIS PRIVILEGE WILL BE BANNED.

Click right here to Join Now!

Conversation with GLAAD's Damon Romine

2009-01-23T22:45:00.000-08:00

Wow! I am so happy about this interview. Damon Romine from GLAAD talks to me about my film, 575 Castro St. and the current state of LGBT cinema as we stand out on the Main Street balcony of the Queer Lounge during Sundance 2009. (Thanks Damon!)

Short filmmakers (including me) spout off on Sundance Channel

2009-01-23T22:27:00.000-08:00

2009 Sundance Q Preview

2009-01-14T18:48:00.001-08:00

My whizbang overview of all the LGBT films at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

read more | digg story

Remembering Mark Finch (Oct. 21, 1961-Jan. 14, 1995)

2009-01-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

Fourteen years later the thought of Mark still so bittersweet.

The "Ainagram" above (diagramming "Why Olivia Newton-John is still popular") is one of his many wild creations. Click on the image to see it full size.

I'm blogging for FilmInFocus.com this week!

2009-01-14T10:41:00.000-08:00

Julie and I are off to Sundance on Friday! In between shmoozing and watching movies I will be posting an item or two on my blog at FilmInFocus.com (the usual queer gossip and observations on the thrill of Sundance) so be sure to check it out in all your spare time.

P.S. I just got my first big coverage today for 575 Castro St. -- The Pary City Record has a substantial interview with me talking about my film, the Queer brunch, etc. right HERE.

Secretary of the Arts Petition

2009-01-11T21:31:00.000-08:00

Click now and go sign Quincy Jones's Secretary of the Arts Petition

Sun sets on PlanetOut - San Francisco Business Times:

2009-01-09T12:45:00.001-08:00

PlanetOut's "merger" with Here Networks: What does this mean for the future of LGBT media?

read more | digg story

Queer Brunch at Sundance: The History

2009-01-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

Just found this nice little piece about the history of the Queer Brunch from Peter Bowen on the Sundance Channel site.

Filmmaker Jenni Olson, one the Brunch's founders, remembers how it came about: "In 1996, I spoke with Morgan Rumpf, the then head of Outfest and we both wanted to do some sort of queer party. We teamed up with ITVS and each chipped in about $100 for bagels and stuff. And since we couldn't afford a venue on Main Street, we found the Grub Steak Restaurant, which only wanted $7.25 a person to cater. That year we had about 50 people. Now it seems like everyone wants in."

People thought we were crazy to be having a party anyplace besides Main Street. And when we actually saw the enormous size of the Grub Steak (which I had booked by phone, sight unseen) it was a bit overwhelming. We limited the party space that first year to just the entryway area so the party wouldn't seem so pathetically small. The event has grown by leaps and bounds since then and has expanded into the entire space of the restaurant (as you can see in the picture above from the 2006 Queer Brunch — look, there I am over in the left lower corner talking to that blonde who is nowhere near as cute as my girlfriend).

This year's 13th Annual Queer Brunch takes place on Sunday January 18th from 11am-1pm at the Grub Steak Restaurant (2200 Sidewinder Drive)! This year's presenting sponsor is Here! TV. You're supposed to RSVP to the folks at Outfest, or you can take your chances and just show up. See you there!

Yes On Sundance

2008-12-17T23:07:00.000-08:00

The Bay Area Reporter asked me to write a Guest Opinion piece about why I'm NOT boycotting the Sundance Film Festival. If you can stand to read one more defense of Sundance read on RIGHT HERE. And then go watch my film again — 575 Castro St. is now available in HD on the FilmInFocus website!

575 Castro St. to World Premiere at Sundance 2009

2008-12-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

The press release just went out from the Sundance Film Festival today announcing all the short films for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. My new short film, 575 Castro St. will have it's festival World Premiere there (in front of the exciting new documentary, Shouting Fire: Stories From The Edge of Free Speech). Playdate info is below in case you're attending.

And here's the other great thing:

575 Castro St. is now available for viewing on the Focus Features MILK website (which is what it was originally commissioned for). But it's so hard to find you should go watch it here.

And then come read more about the film on the 575 Castro St. official blog.

575 Castro St. (2008) | HD | color | 7 minutes | USA
575 Castro St. reveals the play of light and shadow upon the walls of the Castro Camera Store set for Gus Van Sant’s film Milk. These mundane shots are almost bereft of movement and sound. So quiet, so still. All the better to showcase the range of emotions evoked by Harvey Milk’s words on the soundtrack. The audio track is an edited down version of the 13-minute audio-cassette that Harvey Milk recorded in his camera shop on the evening of Friday, November 18, 1977 (a few weeks after his election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors which made him one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States). Labeled simply: “In-Case” the tape was to be played, “in the event of my death by assassination.” The sensibility of 575 Castro St. hearkens back to the dozens of Super 8 gay short films of the ‘70s that passed through Harvey Milk’s hands to be processed and developed.

Sundance Film Festival Public Screenings:

Showing in front of the Documentary Competition film, Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech:

Mon. Jan 19 9:00 PM Temple Theatre, Park City
Tue. Jan 20 2:30 PM Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Thu. Jan 22 6:45 PM Broadway Centre Cinemas V, SLC
Fri. Jan 23 8:30 AM Holiday Village Cinema III, Park City
Sat. Jan 24 12:00 PM Temple Theatre, Park City

Find details about tickets and everything else on the Sundance website right now!

75th Anniversary of lifting of ban on Ulysses

2008-12-05T22:00:00.000-08:00

"Molly darling he called me what was his name Jack Joe Harry Mulvey was it yes..."

Saturday, December 6th 2008 marks the 75th Anniversary of the lifting of ban on James Joyce's Ulysses!

First Review of 575 Castro St.

2008-12-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

Daryl Chin was nice enough to watch my new short film and write up some thoughtful reflections on his fabulous Documents on Art & Cinema blog last week. He gives me a brief tangent in the midst of his lengthy and entertaining critique of Janet Gaynor Day on Turner Classic Movies. How perfect!

"Anyway, over the weekend, i watched a short film made by Jenni Olson, "575 Castro Street" (which was the address of the store owned by Harvey Milk in San Francisco). It was quite a lovely short... consisting of shots of the (reconstructed) store interior (used as the set for the Gus Van Sant movie "Milk") accompanied by a taped message by Harvey Milk, which was made "in case of" his death. (Milk felt that he would be assassinated, because his stature as an openly gay man elected to public office was going to be under attack.)

Jenni's film brought to mind the attempts (since the 1960s) to find a way to meld "radical" content to formalism. On its own, it's a very evocative short: the "empty" interiors take on a ghostly quality as Milk's words (which foretell his assassination) pervade the space. Milk's own space is devoid of his presence, which is reinforced by his own words which explain the possibility of his absence.

I was reminded of how many people (Straub-Huillet, Marguerite Duras, Yvonne Rainer, Peter Wollen and Laura Mulvey, William E. Jones) have attempted to create disjunctive relationships between sound and image. "575 Castro Street" is a evocative addition to this aesthetic legacy."

— Daryl Chin, Documents on Art & Cinema

My short film: 575 Castro St.

2008-11-27T14:15:00.000-08:00

575 Castro St. from FilmInFocus on Vimeo.

a film by Jenni Olson
(2008) USA 7 mins. HD

575 Castro St. reveals the play of light and shadow upon the walls of the Castro Camera Store set for Gus Van Sant’s film Milk. These mundane shots are almost bereft of movement and sound. So quiet, so still. All the better to showcase the range of emotions evoked by Harvey Milk’s words on the soundtrack. The audio track is an edited down version of the 13-minute audio cassette that Harvey Milk recorded in his camera shop on the evening of Friday, November 18, 1977 (a few weeks after his election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors which made him one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States). Labeled simply: “In-Case” the tape was to be played, “in the event of my death by assassination.”

The sensibility of 575 Castro St. hearkens back to the style of the dozens of Super 8 gay short films of the ‘70s that passed through Harvey Milk’s hands to be processed and developed at the Castro Camera Store.

575 Castro St. is now available for viewing on the Focus Features Milk Website or just by clicking on the player above — but it's better if you go to the Focus site and get the player coming up larger (please go watch and be generous with your comments, I would love to see your comments).

And look for 575 Castro St. coming soon to a film festival near you (hopefully). I'll be posting screening info and such on my 575 Castro St. blogsite very soon.

Transgender Day of Remembrance: November 20th

2008-11-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

Thursday, November 20, 2008 marks the 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgender — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people.

Click here to find a Trans Day of Remembrance event near you.

Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier Victory!

2008-10-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

Today (October 10, 2008) the Golden Gate Bridge Board of Directors voted 14-1 to approve the installation of a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Read this San Francisco Chronicle item for further details and stay tuned for updates (or visit the Bridge Rail Foundation and sign up for their newsletter).

I'm very proud that my film, The Joy of Life, played a small part in educating the board and the general public and in keeping the spotlight on this issue and the need for a solution. There is still a long road ahead (especially in terms of the funding aspect). But it is a sweet victory to have the Board of Directors finally take leadership on this issue after 71 years.

There have been so many people working on this issue for so many years. In the course of researching my film I was fortunate to come to into contact with many of these community leaders and conscientious activists. I just want to list a few of their names here to recognize and celebrate this achievement: Eve Meyer (Executive Director, San Francisco Suicide Prevention), Kevin Hines (Golden Gate Bridge suicide survivor), Paul Muller (Bridge Rail Foundation organizer), Ken Holmes (Marin County Coroner); Tom Ammiano (San Francisco Supervisor and Bridge District Director), Bevan Dufty (San Francisco Supervisor and Bridge District Director), Janice Tagart (Executive Director, Psychiatric Foundation of Northern California), Mary Zablotny (mother of Golden Gate Bridge teen suicide Jonathan Zablotny and member of the Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Barrier Task Force), Dr. Mel Blaustein (organizer of the Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Barrier Task Force), Eric Steel (director, The Bridge), Jerome Motto, Richard Seiden, Roger Grimes, SO MANY of the friends and family of Golden Gate Bridge suicides who have come forward over these many years with continual efforts to have a barrier erected, plus all of the journalists who have been drawing attention to the issue — especially over these past 5 years since Tad Friend's thoughtfully crafted New Yorker article so convincingly posited the story as a public safety issue and initiated the substantive journalism that followed (in contrast to the 65 previous years of primarily sensational, provocative and hopelessly apolitical press coverage).

And here are links to a few of the most significant media pieces of the past five years, starting with Tad Friend's New Yorker article (which was also the inspiration for Eric Steel's documentary, The Bridge).

Jumpers (Tad Friend's New Yorker piece from October 13, 2003)

The Urge to End It All (Scott Anderson's revelatory July 6, 2008 NY Times Magazine piece).

Lethal Beauty (the SF Chronicle's 7-Part series).

Suicide Watch (Andrew Blum's NY Times timeline of the cinematic critical mass drawing attention to the Bridge suicide issue in early 2005).

Power Over Life and Death (My SF Chronicle Op-Ed from January 14, 1995).

Of course, the other great debt of gratitude is owed to the Golden Gate Bridge Board of Directors and Staff.

And if you still feel like reading more check out:

The History of Suicide and The Golden Gate Bridge (script excerpt from The Joy of Life)

#1 in My SnagFilms Queue

2008-09-24T15:31:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting to see this film and just discovered it is available on SnagFilms.com, this really exciting new website where you can watch really good documentaries online for free. The site has all kinds of great features including the ability to donate money to support causes associated with each film. Check it out.

Yesterday was Park(ing) Day!

2008-09-20T22:16:00.001-07:00

_MG_4511, originally uploaded by jrb314.

Watch the ITTY BITTY trailer, buy the DVD!

2008-09-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is my favorite lesbian movie of the year (this year AND last year)! Jamie Babbit's ITTY BITTY TITTY COMMITTEE is finally out on DVD and you can buy your copy now from WolfeVideo.com, or from fine retailers everywhere. Or click here to add it to your Netflix queue!

Don LaFontaine (1940-2008)

2008-09-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

The King of the Trailers passed away on Monday in Los Angeles.

Best known as the guy who did the omniscient summarized plot narration for thousands of movie trailers (as well as being the voice of Oscar broadcasts), Don LaFontaine was an amazing talent.

As a longtime trailer fanatic and scholar of this unique genre of filmmaking I sent Don LaFontaine a fan letter several years ago. He sent back an enthusiastic and gracious reply and even offered to do the trailer voiceover for my next film project!

Don's voice lives forever in the many, many trailers we know and love. Here's a nice quote to remember him by:

"When you die, the voice you hear in heaven is not Don's. It's God, trying to sound like Don." — Ashton Smith