QUICK SELECT
BENT LENS QUEERDOC
AUSTRALIA'S MOST DELICIOUSLY VOYEURISTIC SELECTION OF NEW DOCUMENTARY COMES TO ARC CINEMA
There’s something deliciously voyeuristic about documentary film. Whether you’re empathising, sympathising or fantasising, it is thrillingly satisfying to catch a glimpse of somebody’s private world. QueerDoc 2009 offers a guiltfree opportunity to give in to that temptation. Whether you are an L, a G, a B, an I or a T, or even just queer-curious, there’s something sure to satisfy in this year’s line up... so what’s your Queeriosity? As part of Canberra’s Bent Lens film screening season (as well as our look at the cinema of Divided Germany in Projecting on the Wall) we will also be screening the 1989 East German Queer classic, Coming Out. Queer Docs is made possible through the generous support of Volkswagen, the NSW FTO and ACON. Presented in association with Queer Screen. Presented as part of Bent Lens 2009.
FIG TREES
Dir: John Greyson, Canada, 2009, 104 min, 35mm (unclassified 18+)
Controversial Canadian filmmaker John Greyson has made a very different history of AIDS activism. Subverting current Discovery Channel-style fashions in historical re-enactment, its characters (including a squirrel) perform its scenes as a series of operatic arias on the greed of pharmaceutical companies, the beatification of AID's victims, the celebrity do-gooders, and the infuriating denial of South Africa of the 1990s. Greyson won Best Documentary at this year's Berlin Film Festival for a film as magical as it is factual, and as invigorating as it is sobering.
EDIE & THEA: A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT and PUNCH LIKE A GIRL
Entire program 113 mins', video (unclassified 18+)
'We danced so long, I wore a hole in my stocking' says Edie of the night she met Thea in Edia and Thea ... (Dirs: Gréta Olafsdóttir, Susan Muska, USA, 2009, 67’). That was 45 years ago. The two women now sit beside each other and reminisce on a life both ordinary and extraordinary, began in their very visible romance amongst New York's high society. Plus Punch Like a Girl (Dirs: Maya Gallas, Justine Pimlott, Canada, 2008, 54’) Three of Sully’s Gym’s best female boxers go head to head with the unstoppable reigning champion.
COMING OUT
Dir: Heiner Carow, East Germany, 1989, 105 mins, digital (unclassified 18+)
After being coaxed into visiting a gay club, denial and anger begins to destroy the life of a repressed homosexual school teacher when he becomes attracted to a younger man. Coming Out marked two historical milestones in East German cinema history. It was East Germany first ‘Queer’ film, combining the expected realist aesthetics of Socialist cinema with a libertarian acceptance of a local gay identity. Historically, it also took on additional meaning when the night of its premiere was disrupted by the fall of the Wall. Also presented as part of the Projecting on the Wall program.
COLLEGE BOYS LIVE
Dir: George O'Donnell, USA, 2009, 90 min, video (unclassified 18+)
A behind-the-scenes and off-webcam look at one of the popular Gay porn websites in the US: College Boys Live, where you can pay to watch young men bonk and bare all in front of web cams at routinely timed hours of the day. O’Donnell’s doco is enjoyably exploitative but also confronting and frank about the business of sex work in the age of the Web.
HOLDING HANDS
Dirs: Tonnette Stanford, Katherine Wilkinson, Australia, 2009, 65 min
In 2007, Craig and Shane fell victim to a brutal hate crime off Sydney’s Oxford Street. The image of Craig’s shattered face electrified Sydney’s queer community, reinforcing for many that years of struggle for safety and acceptance were not over. The hard 18 months after their bashing - the endless surgeries, and the recovery from physical and psychological damage - is interwoven with discussions on homophobic violence from Sydney’s queer community, police officers, and politicians.
