This retrospective showcase of Vancouver-made shorts had some good moments, but on the whole they kind of left me cold. Now that I think about it, I think all the rough and low-budget films might have suffered in comparison to Jamie Travis’ highly stylized and polished pieces. Not fair, I know, but there you go. Plus, if I’m being honest, it was late and I was dead tired. This whole festival marathon thing worked a lot better last year when I was unemployed.
Besides that, one thing that disappointed me was the lack of very old movies. Out of the 17 shorts most were from the late 90’s / early 00’s, with only two from the 80’s and one from the 70’s. Could a bigger sampling of older movies just not be found, or were they not high enough quality? I would have liked to see what Vancouver queers were up to in the 60’s and 70’s. Oh well. He’s are the highlights:
Bruise (1974) was notable just for its WTF value. Injecting your blood in someone else to make a bruise, then filming it? Even in those pre-AIDS days, why on Earth would you do that? Was it some kind of fetish I’m too sheltered to know about?
Designer Gays (2004) is a lovely spoof of the then-current TV trend of campy gays helping hapless straights (e.g.: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy). Or I guess just gays on TV generally since wasn’t that also the height of Will & Grace’s popularity?
I’m pretty sure I saw lisa g’s My Sweet Prince Charming in a previous festival. I can’t place it, but it definitely rings a bell. And I definitely remember Clark Nikolai’s Galactic Docking Company from two years ago. It’s just as naughty and subversive now as it was then.
Ah, Ivan E. Coyote. I haven’t seen her stuff in a while, but 2001’s Transmission, a heartfelt homage to an older transman father figure, reminded me what a great storyteller she is.
I’m a sucker for these faux-documentary films on queer culture (Lesbian National Parks, I’m looking at you) so it’s no surprise I loved Enter The Mullet, an informative piece on mullets in the lesbian community, the history and practice thereof.