Get Ready For Frameline 48!
Catching films being screened at the 48th San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival (hereafter “Frameline 48”) is the best kind of cinematic insult to Christian nationalists and other right-wing homophobic slime. More than 80 programs of queer-friendly stuff await interested viewers. From Lil Nas X to the legendary Sally Gearhart, from the streets of the Castro District to the reaches of cyberspace, take a dive into the colorful and proud universes to be found within the festival’s 11 days.
Frameline 48 has two screening components: theatrical and streaming. The theatrical component runs from June 19-29, 2024 at various Bay Area venues including the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, the Roxie Theater, and the Herbst Theater. The broke-ass out there should note that ticket prices go as high as $19.50 for such places as the Roxie, while tickets to such venues as the Palace of Fine Arts or such special events as the Linda Perry film and party combo cost much more. The streaming component runs from June 24-30, 2024. Many of the streaming offerings can be viewed anywhere in the United States. OTOH, there’s a smaller number of programs available for streaming compared to what’s available during the theatrical component.
For those who want some idea of what to expect, here are some suggestions:
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story
Frameline 48’s Opening Night Film screening is an unusual one for several reasons. It’s being held on Juneteenth. The event is taking place as part of a block party outside the temporarily closed Castro Theater. Besides the screening, there will also be drag performances from Reparations. Most importantly for the broke-ass among us, the screening is free with no tickets required. What’s the film? It’s Carlos Lopez Estrada & Zac Manuel’s concert documentary “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero.” The film follows the titular Black and openly queer superstar on his first national tour after his single “Old Town Road” becomes a massive hit.
1960s R&B soul singer Jackie Shane could have joined Lil Nas X in the rock pantheon. Instead, she disappeared shortly before the moment where she could have found fame and fortune in the music world. But authenticity mattered a lot more to this Black transwoman. Elliott Page served as executive producer for Michael Mabbott & Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s documentary “Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story,” which won this year’s Frameline Out In The Silence Award.
“Crossing” is the new film from Levan Akin (“And Then We Danced”). It’s the story of retired schoolteacher Lia’s search for her long-lost niece Tekla. Fulfilling the promise to make that search means Lia needs to head to Istanbul. What roles will a neighbor and an attorney fighting for trans rights play in finding the niece’s whereabouts?
If lesbian identity depends in part on having a sense of place, then for many women loving women types visiting (or even living on) Lesvos is on their bucket list. Lesvos was the home of the storied First Lesbian, the ancient Greek poet Sappho. However, the locals who already lived in Lesvos have taken issue with the hordes of WLWs arriving here. Filmmaker and native Lesvian Tzeli Hadjidimitriou’s documentary “Lesvia” looks at the decades-long tensions between visiting international lesbians and the locals already present. How do you determine who’s entitled to claim a piece of Lesvos?
Teaches Of Peaches
Fire Island Pines (aka “Fire Island”) may be only 50 miles from New York City. But for over half a century, this naturally beautiful island has been a paradise-like haven for gay men…if you could afford to stay there one way or another. Brian J. Smith’s documentary “A House Is Not A Disco” lets viewers onto the island and observe its residents partying as well as worrying about whether rising sea levels from global warming means this little chunk of paradise will still be around in years to come.
Ray Yeung’s Teddy Award-winning drama “All Shall Be Well” concerns Pat and Angie, a Hong Kong older lesbian couple whose decades-old life together unravels thanks to a family tragedy. Angie soon discovers Hong Kong’s supposedly accepting attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community turns out to be a lie. Pat’s family now feel free to reveal their homophobic sides. Hong Kong’s inheritance laws don’t prove supportive of lesbians such as Angie.
Musician/performer Peaches deserves to be called the living spirit of “épater la bourgeoisie (shock or scandalize the middle classes).” Philipp Fussenegger and Judy Landkammer’s rousing Teddy Award-winning documentary “Teaches Of Peaches” shows how an ordinary Canadian schoolteacher named Merrill Nisker achieved cult stardom in the Berlin Underground scene with songs that made no apologies for their aggressively sexual attitude. The title refers in part to Peaches’ breakthrough LP “The Teaches Of Peaches,” for which the performer is mounting a celebratory anniversary tour.
Jules Rosskam’s unique “Desire Lines” won a NEXT Special Jury Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s a docu-fiction hybrid looking at transmasculine desire for cis gay men. Iranian-American transgender male Ahmad travels back and forth in time from a present-day queer archive to a gay bathhouse in the past, where he has body contact both casual and/or intimate with other cis gay men. Playing key roles in the film are 1980s FTM transcestor Lou Sulllivan and stories from present day transmasc folks on such experiences as PrEP, Grindr, and fisting.
“Fag School” zine publisher and local treasure Brontez Purnell made his directorial debut with “100 Boyfriends Mixtape.” This short is a semi-autobiographical “video mix tape” of his horny cruising around San Francisco.
Would you believe director Honey Lee Cottrell was a San Francisco State University student when she made the short “Sweet Dreams?” Perhaps it’s not surprising the short’s subject matter is an exploration of female fantasy and self-love done in an elliptical style. After all, Cottrell herself would later become an iconic San Francisco photographer of the lesbian gaze.
Desire Lines
A different sort of lesbian gaze can be found in the restoration of Paul Vecchiali’s X-rated film noir “Don’t Change Hands.” Lesbian private detective Melinda has been hired by a wealthy politician to find the source of a pornographic film reel starring the politician’s estranged son. The film reel is being used to blackmail the politician and she wants Melinda to stop the scheme. The trail soon leads the detective to the notorious den of iniquity known as the Shanghai Lily, where the hotness of the femme fatales there is eclipsed only by their willingness to shoot the unwary.
A new 4K restoration helps mark the 30th anniversary of Rose Troche’s seminal lesbian classic “Go Fish.” Queer hipster Max (Guinevere Turner) and crunchy lesbian Eli (V.S. Brody) might make a great couple, assuming they can be brought together. Enter several members of Chicago’s dyke community willing to make this coupling happen. These members include a college professor, a semi-closeted divorcee, and a promiscuous heartbreaker.
In Iris Brey’s French romantic drama miniseries “Split,” Anna Roques is a stunt double for multihyphenate performer Eve Cellac during the making of a biopic about the French lesbian silent film star Musidora. Yet as Anna slowly steps into an affair with Eve, she hasn’t stopped loving her current partner, cinematographer Natan. The miniseries is visually distinguished by its continually inventive use of split screen, which does everything from scene setting to catching simultaneously differing perspectives on the same event.
A far different visual tack of mixing home movies with formal interview footage marks the look of Chloe Barreau’s new documentary “Fragments Of A Life Loved.” The film lets Barreau’s former lovers candidly talk from their perspectives about how their relationship with the director unfolded as well as the sometimes ignominious end of their affair. That Barreau winds up looking like a jerk or a weirdo at times makes this film fascinating viewing.
How does a well-meaning desire to rekindle the passion in a decades-old relationship turn into an absurd game of one-upmanship? David Lambert’s comedy “Turtles” offers the answer. The elements are: a recent police force retiree with a strong lack of direction, a husband who just wants to bring the spark back to their 35-year-old relationship, and increasingly desperate acts that only drive the couple further apart.
Alix Blair’s documentary “Helen And The Bear” is a film about a marriage whose apparent cisgender normality was anything but. Helen may have eventually realized she was queer, but she wound up staying married to Pete aka “the Bear” for 40 years. Pete may have been an anti-war pro-environment Republican, but he was also 26 years older than Helen. Now as the couple celebrates 40 years together (even accounting for Helen’s LTR with another woman), Helen has to deal with the prospect that the 96-year-old Bear will not be around much longer.
Don’t Change Hands
David Joseph Craig & Brian William Crano were just inspired (we hope) by their real life adoption woes to make the comedy “I Don’t Understand You.” Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells) are a couple celebrating their 10-year anniversary in Italy. But their happiness is undermined by some big problems. They hope to finally adopt a child after three years, but the mother’s (Amanda Seyfried) continual hesitation has them on edge. Add to the mix the couple’s unfortunate talent for leaving destruction in their wake, and viewers should get ready for one very messy comedy of errors.
What would be worse than being torn away from the early days of a loving relationship with a girlfriend? In India Donaldson’s comedy “Good One,” the answer is being dragged into a weekend wilderness bonding trip with father Chris (James Le Gros) and his best friend Matt (Danny McCarthy). That’s the comically unwelcome experience awaiting Sam, especially as she has to endure the older men’s absurd and frequently childish behavior alone. Incels will hate this comedy for its portraying its main two adult male characters as ridiculous buffoons. The rest of us will love it.
Alessandra Lacorazza’s feature debut “In The Summers” wound up winning both Grand Jury Prize and the Directing Award at the recent Sundance Film Festival. It’s the coming-of-age story of sisters Violeta and Eva, who spend summers with their father Vicente in New Mexico during the most formative years of their lives. Vicente very much loves his children, but he also displays reckless and tempestuous behavior around them.
Azra and Mariam may be Pakistani daughter and mother, but they’re as much emotionally apart as they are physically apart. Azra lives in 1999 Toronto, Mariam lives in 1999 Karachi. The mother is a strictly religious person, the daughter is a lesbian in a relationship with a white non-Muslim girlfriend. The sudden death of Azra’s father forces her to return to Karachi to pay her respects. But as the film flips back to Mariam’s life in 1969 Karachi and Azra’s adolescence in 1989 Nova Scotia, the viewer soon starts sensing that Azra and Mariam might not be as different as they believe themselves to be. Fawzia Mirza’s crowd-pleasing semi-autobiographical feature debut “The Queen Of My Dreams” recounts Azra’s emotional journey. This trip is punctuated by its borrowings of Bollywood movie trappings as well as Amrit Kaur’s award-winning dual performance as Azra and 1969 Mariam.
The weirdest musical a viewer can see at Frameline 48 is probably Janis Pugh’s sensational “Chuck Chuck Baby,” which memorably mixes together a lesbian romance, a jukebox musical format, and a Welsh chicken factory. Grieving and divorced protagonist Helen finds comfort in two things: music and her camaraderie with the other chicken factory workers. Enter Joanne, who was Helen’s first teen crush. As the two women woo each other, will they take advantage of this second chance to finally act on their love?
Chuck Chuck Baby
In the early 1970s, the National Women’s Football League became the US’ very first women’s full tackle football organization. When news of the league’s formation reached Texas, an intersectional group of sports-minded feminists decided to come together and form “The Herricanes.” Olivia Kuan directs this rousing documentary recounting the team’s untold story. The friendships and other relationships the team members formed with each other would need to sustain them in the face of such challenges as public ridicule, empty stadiums, and insufficient financial resources. Winner of the SXSW Audience Award.
Fan of “RuPaul’s Drag Race?” Then you might want to check out Luke Willis’ documentary “Lady Like.” It recounts the life of “Drag Race” queen Lady Camden. From a difficult UK childhood liberated by the expressive potential of ballet to the adoption of drag artistry as a new passion, Camden’s journey is one of learning to embrace the artist within. Stardom will eventually come to Camden via Season 14 of “Drag Race,” but so will intense scrutiny.
Now that 1990s music phenomenon Ani DiFranco is a 51-year-old mother of two, what sort of righteous babe can she still become? Find out in Dana Flor’s documentary “1-800-ON-HER-OWN.” How does a woman who’s spent a good chunk of her life touring support her family during COVID shutdowns?
4 Non Blondes may have been a one-hit wonder as far as Billboard is concerned. But Linda Perry, the band’s lead vocalist and songwriter, has gone on to become a record producer and a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter. Don Hardy’s “Linda Perry: Let It Die Here” offers a biographical portrait of Perry that touches on her courage and honesty in dealing with incredible life challenges as well as her friendships and collaborations with such well-known names as Celine Dion, Miley Cyrus, and Dolly Parton. A live performance by Perry at Oasis follows the screening.
Linda Perry: Let It Die Here
Oakland-based cinematographer Clare Major follows activist-artist Whitney Bradshaw as she travels around the United States for her new art project in “OUTCRY: Alchemists Of Rage.” This particular art project involves Bradshaw leading a bunch of women in group scream sessions before photographing them in mid-scream. The aim: to inspire women in post-Roe America with images of resistance and female solidarity.
Sally Gearhart may have been a contemporary of late Supervisor Harvey Milk. But this radical lesbian feminist’s political work from the 1970s and 1980s has been erased from history. Here to correct the record is Deborah Craig’s documentary “Sally!” It introduces a new generation of viewers to the charismatic political trailblazer whose achievements included helping defeat the noxious Briggs Initiative, getting the nation’s first Women’s Studies Program up and running, and writing about lesbian separatist communities. Gearhart was also a real-life version of “The L Word”’s Shane McCutcheon, but that just shows the complexity of her character.
Frameline 48 wraps its theatrical portion up with a day of shorts programs. One such program is “Rise Up: Doc Shorts.” Among its short offerings are Kimberly Reed’s “Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr” (the story behind Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr’s staking out a bench in the State Capitol as her “office” and what happened next) and Lindsey Dryden’s “The Callers” (follows volunteers with British queer resource LGBT Switchboard as they handle anonymous calls from across Britain by providing community information or even help in guiding these callers to imagine a better future for themselves).
There are many more joys to discover in Frameline 48, whether it’s a debut feature from the photographer behind “Them” magazine’s “Love Lies Bleeding” photo series or a stage conversation with Lena Waithe. Whatever catches your fancy, may it be something that will irritate those who want people to unquestioningly obey authority.
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