LLGFF III

Radical Desire
31/3/07
NFT

This was the big femme shindig, with a programme of short films, a live performances and a lively Q&A/argument at the end. Something for everyone, then.

The night kicked off 30 minutes late, thanks to the previous programme over-running. Bird Club on Film performed a rather scrappy and under-rehearsed skit, culminating in some jokey porn accompanied by them singing "Birds on Film" to the tune of "Girls on Film". Not really sure what this added to the evening.

The films, as picked by the unnamed curator, spanned the sublime to the ridiculous. Dara Birnbaum's fabulous re-rendering of Wonder Woman, Technology/Tranformation: Wonder Woman, from 1978, was a crowd pleaser, with Lynda Carter's every appearance loudly applauded.

Dames was a witty lesbian reworking of film noir, by Maureen Devanik Butterfield, in which the two "dames" decided they really didn't need their gangster boyfriends.

Love Struck, by Susan Ali, was laugh-out-loud funny, as Cupid's accuracy let him down, requiring one of his targets to take matters into her own hands.

Debris, by Justin Kelly, left me utterly bemused. No idea what was going on there.

Meeting of Two Queens, from Cecilia Barriga, was another classic, a 1991 collage of clips of the marvellous Marlene and Greta, reclaimed to create a new meaning.

Two newies finished off the programme. I Want to Be a Secretary started off intriguingly enough with a naive secretary starting off her first week at work, keen to make a good impression. However, the story-telling techniques: archive footage and voiceover, really did not sustain the 12 minutes of the story. I found myself a bit restless before it ended on a very odd note, with Dusty Springfield singing over a montage of secretaries.

The most popular film was the world premiere Fem, by Inge Blackman. Several of the women in it were at the screening and cheered loudly during and after the screening. This film also generated the lively discussion at the end, as femmes applauded its celebration of them. The film was a butch appreciation of femmes and set them up in glossy settings as fantasy objects/subjects.

Not finding myself anywhere on the femme-butch spectrum, I remained immune to the thrill that much of the audience seemed to find in this. I don't share the view that femmes don't see themselves depicted onscreen or receive appreciation in the mainstream or the lesbian world. The film programme itself showed that and those films span 30 years. I was also uneasy at the curator repeatedly declaring how wonderful it was to see "beautiful women" onscreen as if femmedom was the only way a woman could appear beautiful. Nobody questioned this statement.

However, the post-film discussion quickly degenerated into a competition as to who is more oppressed, a bit of a pointless exercise. Blackman spoke of wanting to celebrate women who work in the community and of lesbians giving ourselves permission to look at women. Good points well made.

Queer in Your Ear?
30/3/07
NFT

More looking in this music video programme of queer and queer-friendly artists ranging from up and coming indie types Promo Funk and Grizzly Bear to the pop fluff of Kylie and Scissor Sisters. It's a pity the gender ration was so skewed with only two or three queer women in 16 videos. Nonetheless, my favourites included "Pass This On" by The Knife as much for the song as for the video featuring Sweden's leading drag queen. Bjork's "All Is Full of Love" was included presumably because it features two female-featured robots getting jiggy. However, since both of them are Bjork, this is more a case of self love rather than same-sex love, surely.

Gossip's video for "Standing in the Way of Control" isn't up to much, is it? Still, it's great to see Beth strutting her stuff. The standout, however, by a long way was Peaches' "Downtown", which managed to encompass gender play, S/M, glamourous settings and an absolutely filthy song. She also dons butch and femme drag to have sex with herself. But didn't Annie Lennox do this about 20 years ago?

LLGFF I

London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
National Film Theatre
London

A visit to the new tarted up NFT in the new spruced up (and elided) Southbank proved fruitful as the LLGFF, now in its 21st year, is in full swing.

Among the offerings is Red Doors, a US feature about a dysfunctional (always the most fun) family.

Three sisters and their crisis-ridden father come under the spotlight, though the mother is curiously underwritten. The youngest sister Katie is a divine character, oozing rebel girl sass and attitude. Sadly, this character is not queer but there’s time for her, surely. Why did I not meet girls like this when I was at school? More of her, please. The lesbian sister is a bit of a disappointment, quite drippy actually. And her girlfriend a total Anjelina-alike.

Best exchange:
Father: Katie, you have a penis in your pocket.
Katie (with shrug): It’s not mine.

Also viewed:
Odile is a quirky downbeat French short with minimal dialogue about a lonely boulangerie worker who meets a biker from her past. The set-up was intriguing but sadly it never developed.

I’ve been chastised for not being familiar with the work of Jack Smith and after viewing Flaming Creatures I am mystified by the adulation heaped on him. I found the film deadly dull and pointless in the extreme. A few times something interesting threatened to happen but this quickly dissipated into more pouting queens and women wearing ostentatious hats. Turgid and pretentious is my verdict.

The Canadian short Dames was a treat, a spin on film noir with wise-cracking molls taking centre stage to upstage their male patrons. Great fun.

Boy I Am
Here's a political hot potato as viewed by savvy New Yorkers. The only surprise is it hasn't come out of San Francisco, gender haven to the world.

Anyway, this 73-minute doc looks at the conflict/co-existence of lesbian feminists and FtMs (female to male transsexuals for those not up on the lingo). Nurie, Nicco and Keegan, all 20-something pre-op (at least at the start of the doc) FtMs discuss their lives, their feelings about their bodies and status in the world, counter-balanced by suspicious femme Deb and elder stateswoman and fab old-school butch Carmen Vazquez (looking very good indeed, if I may so, not having seen her in about 12 years).

Which isn't to say the views are polarised. Judith "Jack" Halberstam adds a bit of academic perspective on why butches feel threatened by FtMs seemingly claiming "their space" and how it all boils down to misogyny and historical fear and hatred of women.

All well and good. And I learned a lot, for instance that hormone injections of testosterone are referred to as "T". Not the hot drink but the letter, I assume. Think of the potential misunderstandings. "Later, hon. I'm just going out for some T." "Great. Could you bring me back some Earl Grey." "Uh-h-h....."

The doc spent a lot of time talking about body image, breasts, binding and so forth and even ventured into the operating room as Nicco had his chest surgery to remove his breasts. All three of the main subjects agreed how liberating it felt to have the breasts removed and were happy to pose bare-chested once the surgery was done.

What was a bit surprising was how there was no mention of genital surgery, which one would think would be a major talking point: how did they feel about their genitals? Was surgery preferred? Too expensive? Not an issue, etc.?

Only Nicco made any mention of the subject, saying that he was more bothered about having breasts than having a vagina. To me, it seemed a strange omission. But then, it's refreshing not to have the sexual organs being the focus of one's identity.