aGLIFF

Every year at aGLIFF I learn something and have a preconception blown away. This year it happened on the second night watching a film about the leatherman culture.

Kink Crusaders is a documentary about the International Mr. Leather contest. You can picture him, right? A bare-butt man in chaps, a codpiece and a leather cap. That stereotype may have a been prevalent when the contest began in the 1970s, but the wardrobe has evolved and so have the contestants. As Michael Skiff's documentary shows, the contenders are from all walks of life, including a 2008 IML semi-finalist confined to a wheelchair. And if that doesn't intrigue you, watch the last two minutes of the film to shatter even more preconceptions.

It's a daring choice to open a film festival with a documentary about someone dying with cancer. Tuesday night aGLIFF kicked off its 24th film festival with The Lulu Sessions, an unflinching, intimate documentary about a complex woman and her equally complex friendship that defied definition.

Filmmaker S. Casper Wong was in attendance and talked about the difficulties in making the movie. Wong and Louise "Lulu" Nutter were friends when Nutter was diagnosed with cancer. Wong, who was in film school at the time, documented Nutter's experience in The Lulu Sessions, which explores their relationship over 15 years.

Like any good documentary, the story is never that simple, and through Wong's lens and discussions with Nutter, a complex, challenging, and brilliant woman easy to connect with onscreen. Nutter was a well-known cancer researcher; I had the nagging suspicion I knew something about her as the film progressed. It turns out her work was often referenced in scientific papers I helped edit when I worked at Harvard Medical School a lifetime ago.

The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) is 24 years old next week and is bigger than ever. This year, festival movis are screening at three different venues -- Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, Violet Crown Cinema and the Paramount Theatre -- not to mention all the parties and special events.

Looking over the schedule, I'm again having to make tough decisions about what to see. The lineup includes a number of topical documentaries as well as enticing narratives, including a selection of international titles. Even in writing this preview, it was hard to choose titles, especially since Texas is definitely represented.

aGLIFF's Centerpiece Film Mangus! should fill the Paramount quite a bit just on the plot -- a boy who longs to star in his school's production of "Jesus Christ Spectacular." But the cast is guaranteed to draw a crowd too, as it includes none other than John Waters, Heather Matarazzo and the outrageous Jennifer Coolidge. And the best part?  It was filmed here in Texas (just north of Dallas).

aGLIFF knows how to party. I know from experience: the crowds are fun, witty and very welcoming. So just imagine their annual Red Carpet Gala complete with a live Academy Awards telecast this year, so big it's moving to Austin Studios. If anyone can create celebrity sensation, aGLIFF's party planners can.

On Sunday, February 27, paparazzi, a red carpet and a champagne reception await you as the hostess with the mostest, Rebecca Havermeyer, will be on hand to greet you like the Austin celebrity you are. When you get to your private table, your waiter will be ready with some Oscar-themed cocktails, starting at 5:30 pm. Above, you can see Miz Havermeyer chatting up then-Austin filmmaker Kyle Henry, whose Fourplay: San Francisco short played aGLIFF 2010 with overwhelmingly positive reactions. (Henry's in Chicago now, but we still can't stop thinking of him as belonging to Austin.)

Take a look at this picture, it's a prime example of what makes aGLIFF and in fact every film festival in town work.  Pictured above (clockwise from upper left) are David Sweeney, Jenn Garrison, Jean Lauer, Andy Campbell, Michelle Faires and lastly actor Alex Di Dio from closing-night film BearCity. Together they represent the aGLIFF board, 2010 juries, volunteers, filmmakers, and the local film community on all levels.  If it looks like they're having fun, they are. It's been a long festival, but a very successful one with many sold-out or close to capacity screenings.  

You've read Don's hilarious and enlightening dispatch from Saturday, but allow me to wrap up my weekend with you as well. I was able to make the doc The Real Anne Lister, an hour-long look at the life and diaries as seen by Britain's version of Ellen DeGeneres, Sue Perkins. It's as much a musing on Lister as the fact that this very complex landowner who happened to be lesbian has shaken the very core of Regency history. Perkins does not gloss over Lister's life or behavior, and is in fact at times shocked. I hope to see The Real Anne Lister on BBC America sometime soon, as it's a fascinating look at a woman being true to herself more than two centuries ago.

At the end of my third and final day at aGLIFF, I'm glad I was able to see so many interesting films. I had a great time at the festival and learned a lot; even the pre-show videos were very educational. For example, I've now memorized the entire gay alphabet (C is for closet, L is for leather). And after seeing a certain pre-show clip from America's Got Talent a whopping seven times, the inimitable Prince Poppycock feels like an old friend. (Even better, he's given me a lot of thoroughly impractical Halloween costume ideas.)

The first screening of my final day was an eclectic one. First up was the world premiere of an Out Youth public service announcement created by the Queer Youth Media Project Class of 2010. QYMP, a collaboration between aGLIFF and Out Youth, is an intensive summer filmmaking workshop for queer and ally youth. Several students worked on the PSA for most of the summer under the direction of aGLIFF Programs Director Jake Gonzales, and the result is outstanding. With its great interview footage and professional-looking cinematography and editing, the PSA explains Out Youth's mission very effectively.

Following the PSA were the My Queer Movie Competition short films, all very watchable. My favorite was Heart of the Matter, a very funny parody of a 1980s marriage counseling video. In the film -- which perfectly nails its 1980s video look, from bad hair to blocky fonts -- a husband and wife marriage counseling team explains how to strengthen a marriage while obviously in denial about their true sexual orientations. My second favorite was Bereft Left: A Very Brief, Very American Tale, a clever satire about a left-handed young man who tries to convert to far more godly right-handedness.

Here's something you don't see every day, even in eternally weird Austin: a half-dozen men in full-tilt -- and I do mean full-tilt -- drag queen mode parading around a theater lobby.

Even amid the organized mayhem of a crowded Saturday afternoon at aGLIFF, it was impossible to miss the drag queens – all members of the Mardi Gras Krewe of Armeinius – as they entered the Alamo Drafthouse lobby. In costumes that no mere words could ever describe (and no – I will not resort to calling them fabulous!), the sequined and bewigged gentlemen were at the theater for a screening of The Sons of Tennesee Williams, a documentary about the Krewe's history. They also appeared at the festival's Centerpiece Party on Saturday night.

I wish I could say the films I saw on Saturday afternoon were as fabulous! as the Krewe of Armeinius (oops – I just called the Krewe fabulous!, didn't I). Unfortunately, this isn't the case, although all three films were interesting.

Why yes, we're all having a lot of fun writing the headlines for the aGLIFF entries this year. Normally I disapprove of lengthy headlines, but I'm willing to make exceptions when we're having so much fun writing about a film festival. I'm starting to wish I'd assigned myself to every day of the fest ... hmm, food for thought for next year.

Last night, I planned a rather jarring double-feature for myself at aGLIFF, and admittedly I was slightly worried that the two movies wouldn't quite go together. True, they had nothing in common, but they were both so much fun, and both audiences had such a good time watching them that it didn't matter.

I started the evening with The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, a BBC production about a real-life woman in nineteenth-century Yorkshire whose diaries were found and decoded 150 years after her death. Turns out Anne Lister was an extremely independent woman who decided she didn't want a husband ... she wanted a wife. Of course, she says "female companion," which made it all reasonably acceptable at the time as long as no one looked behind closed doors.

Out of my way, all of you. I Am Empowered. I am ready to ... well, I'm not sure what I'm ready to do, but I certainly feel empowered to do it as soon as I figure it out. I saw The Heretics at aGLIFF last night, and it definitely made me feel like I should be doing something more in the name of feminism. We may have to get rid of Don and have only female contributors at Slackerwood (no, not really ... I like our male contributors way too much), or start the contemporary equivalent of a consciousness-raising group, or something. I felt this way in college but frankly, over the years I haven't done much about it, which is disappointing in retrospect.

The Heretics was my first film of aGLIFF this year, and it was a wonderfully energetic way to begin the fest. I Killed My Mother was the most popular film in the early-evening timeslot last night, nearly selling out, but The Heretics had a wonderfully energetic crowd, mostly women, ready to enjoy this documentary about a unique publication started by second-wave feminists in the 1970s. I realized as the film intro began that I was sitting a couple of seats away from the BookWoman owner -- the bookstore sponsored this screening, and the owner reminded us that BookWoman is one of only a dozen feminist bookstores left in the U.S. (They also frequently have Movie Nights. But I digress.)

Before we saw the documentary, aGLIFF screened a short film called Swimming, which centered around a song by Austin singer-songwriter Gretchen Phillips, who appeared in the short and also was its scriptwriter. Phillips was in the audience for the films and did a short Q&A afterward. Swimming was a cute, sweet film about yearning, specifically a lifeguard yearning for one of the frequent patrons of her swimming pool. The water images were lovely. Before the film started, aGLIFF Programs Director Jake Gonzales told us that the fest programmers liked the short so much, they scheduled it in front of three films this year.

Tropical storm Hermine had moved on by the second night of aGLIFF, leaving behind a muddy Lamar Boulevard and muggy air and making way for another enthusiastic crowd at the festival. The crowd was just the right size at the two screenings I attended; the theaters were nearly full but not sold out, so no one was turned away.

My first screening of the evening was the Argentinian import El Último Verando de la Boyita (The Last Summer of the Boyita), a lyrical, visually captivating coming-of-age story with a highly unusual twist. Jorgelina (Guadalupe Alonso) is a young girl suffering through the difficult time between young childhood and adolescence. She travels with her father to the family's ranch, where she spends her time with her longtime friend Mario (Nicolás Treise), an adolescent ranchhand who is going through an unexpected physical transformation and keeping a potentially devastating secret from his family and friends.

El Último Verando de la Boyita (pictured above) is an often touching love story with an important point about tolerance and acceptance. From its lovingly filmed, hardscrabble rural setting to its sensitive handling of a difficult theme, it's the sort of film that is tailor-made for festivals like aGLIFF but deserves a much wider audience.