GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

FEBRUARY 7, 1997

Evenings Out

Love stories for Valentine's Day

PAUL CHEDLOW

Scott Neal, director Hettie Macdonald, and Glenn Berry of Beautiful Thing.

Mini film festival includes Cincinnati premiere

by Eric Hunter

Cincinnati-Just in time for Valentine's Day, The Movies Repertory, an alternative cinema located at 719 Race Street in downtown Cincinnati, will be hosting a gay and lesbian film week from February 14-20. The mini-festival will feature the British film Beautiful Thing (sponsored in part by Pink Pyramid Books), Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon in Bound, and the Cincinnati premiere of Sharon Pollack's Everything Relative

The festival opens Friday, February 14, at 7:30 pm with the screening of Everything Relative, presented by the Crazy Ladies Center with opening night proceeds to benefit the Crazy Ladies Center Building Fund. The festival runs through February 20, with the films alternating on different days and times. Schedules can be picked up at Crazy Ladies bookstore, 4041 Hamilton, and scheduling information is also available by calling The Movies at 513-381-3456.

Beautiful Thing is an affecting gay love story set in the housing projects of East London. Jamie is an introspective boy living with his single mother, Sandra. A friendship and eventual romance develop between Jamie

and the neighbor boy Ste after Sandra invites Ste to stay with them to avoid beatings from his alcoholic father. Partly about the relationship of Ste and Jamie, and partly about Jamie's relationship with his tough-minded mother, this film will draw you into its world in a way that's hard to shake. Beautiful Thing is powerful filmmaking from first-time di-

rector Hettie MacDonald. It is based on the stage play of the same name, and features songs by Mama Cass Elliot of the '60s group The Mamas and the Papas.

In the sexy thriller Bound, a lesbian excon named Corky begins an affair with Violet, the girlfriend of a Mafia money-launderer. Within days of their first sizzling encounter, the women begin to make plans for the future, concocting a scheme to steal two million dollars from the Mob and pin the blame on Violet's boyfriend, Caesar. The plan seems foolproof, but as fans of film noir know, things don't always go as planned. This slick twist on heist pictures, from directors Larry and Andy Wachowski, has received a lot of attention for its steamy sexual content, but it has much more to offer.

Everything Relative is an amazing film from lesbian filmmaker Sharon Pollack which charts the reunion of a group of eight women, all but

Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon of Bound.

one of them lesbians, who went to school together in a political theater troupe during the radical '70s. Brought together for the bris (circumcisionrite) of one of the lesbian couples' newborn son (Harvey Fierstein appears as the rabbi), the event turns into an excuse to visit the country house where they all spent their young adult lives discovering themselves.

Once the initial excitement of the reunion wears off, the women are confronted with dealing with each other as friends, family, exlovers, and new lovers. Called by some reviewers "the lesbian answer to The Big Chill," this film's snappy banter, brisk pace, and nononsense attitude toward lesbianism make for a fine weekend getaway.

According to Denise Moseley of Crazy

RANDY TEPPER

Ladies bookstore, who is one of the organizers of the event, the films that were chosen are sure to entertain, titillate, provoke and inspire. It is also important, Moseley said, to “support the filmmakers that bring our visions and lives to life on the screen," and to support The Movies Repertory.

"As a theater, Repertory Movies maintains a strong connection to the freedom of expression via film," Moseley said. "This commitment has helped to make this week of films possible."

Moseley encourages gay and lesbian folks from the Cincinnati area and beyond to come out, bring a friend or loved one and enjoy, and promised, "We'll see you at the popcorn counter!"