GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE November 30, 2001

think!

what have you got against

AIDS

AIDS

FONDING CARRATIVE

www.healthmuseum.org

THE HEALTH MUSEUM

NORTH COAST

HIV/ALDS

HI Coalition

HELP IN THE EFFORT TO END HIV

We're Enrolling Again...

HIV negative gay men who might be interested in HIV vaccine studies are needed

No vaccines will be given

Study involves Interviews, Questionnaires, and Blood Samples

Participants will be compensated for their time

Call us at (614) 293-8112

or

Ahrens.16@osu.edu

The Ohio State University

Whitney: Mama's Little Baby

Movies in the life

Cinna Fest brings black lesbian and gay films to Cleveland

by Anthony Glassman

The Brother2Brother program at the AIDS Taskforce of Cleveland has worked for years to keep black same-gender-loving men healthy and safe, and on December 4 and 5, they're expanding their mission with the second CinnaFest Cleveland International Black LGBT Film Festival at the Shaker Square Cinemas.

Brother2 Brother will be taking care of the mind as well as the body, bringing seven LGBT films from the U.S., Canada and Zimbabwe to the North Coast.

Two of the films, both very short, are done without dialogue. Love on Vendome is a lesbian love story shot in black and white which uses jazzy, soulful music to tell its tale. Testing, One... Two deals with an interracial couple, one of whom is HIVpositive, as they near their first anniversary.

Welcome to Africville is a documentary about the last days of a colony of black lesbians in Nova Scotia. The community is scheduled for demolition and multiple generations of lesbians tell their stories. The women had set up a space for themselves, a space soon to be lost, and their insights into life and love are touching.

Rainmakers II: Tina Machida in Zimbabwe looks at a charismatic lesbian activist in a homophobic African nation.

Using the South African notion of “no equality, no justice" as an aegis, she has enlisted the aid of many heterosexuals in her fight for equal rights. Zimbabwe is one of a number of African nations whose leaders simultaneously label homosexuality as an ailment caused by colonialism while quoting chapter and verse of the Bible to condemn gays and lesbians, making Machida's struggle an unenviable fight.

A more traditional drama is Kevin's Room,

a tale of black gay men in Chicago. Life in the big city, dealing with work, relationships and all the other things involved in modern society combine with a great cast to create this honest look at these men.

Perhaps the most familiar film in CinnaFest is Living with Pride: Ruth Ellis at 100, a documentary set in Detroit.

Made in 1999, the film looks at the life of lesbian pioneer Ellis, who came out in 1919 at the age of 20. She spent her life building a community around herself, and made it a mission to teach the children who flocked to her about the history they inherit.

Ruth Ellis passed away on October 5, 2000, and this film is a fitting testament to the woman and the legend. She was one of Detroit's boldest crusaders for decades, and her life is a familiar and fascinating one.

It is quite easy to pick the funniest movie in the festival: Whitney: Mama's Little Baby. The 30-minute, shot-on-video film is done from baby Bobby's point of view, with a drug-addled Whitney Houston doing everything horribly wrong, from leaving the baby alone to buy booze to mistaking the odor from the baby's diaper for a stray dog. Eventually, Dionne Warwick, Cissie Houston, Aretha Franklin and Lola Falana (or at least drag queens resembling them) must come and do an intervention to get Whitney's life back on track. Marrying Bobby Brown is one thing, neglecting the children is another!

There will be an opening reception on both nights of CinnaFest from 6 pm to 7 pm, followed by the program of films, which range from 6 to 60 minutes. The program will be the same both nights.

Shaker Square Cinemas is located at 13116 Shaker Square in Cleveland. For more infor

POPOTAWATOA

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mation, call 216-621-0766 ext. 258.

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