HRONICLE

4, 2001.

evening'sout

Video releases to warm the cold December nights

by Anthony Glassman

As the days grow alarmingly short. people's thoughts turn to gift-giving.

The holiday season has settled across the land, reaching its tendrils into the hearts and wallets of humankind. The consumer frenzy that December engenders is reaching a fever pitch, as anyone who has been to a mall in the last two weeks can relate.

This holiday season, gay movies are flourishing on VHS and DVD, an alphabet soup of gift ideas sure to please. from companies that have dedicated themselves to serving the LGBT community through fine entertain-

ment.

For instance. Water Bearer Films has the fine collection Dangerous When Wet, a set of six short films ranging from the confessional to the surreal, occasionally hitting both notes in one piece.

The collection starts off with the claymation "Adam." the tale of a baby dyke who gets mistaken for a boy on the playground and makes the most of the opportu-

nity. Next up "Sleep

is

Come Free Me," in which

a woman lives the love of her life... in her dreams.

The next two shorts are the true standouts in this collection. "I'm Starving" is a love story between a young black woman and the hun-

1:48

WATER GLAREM FILMS > RESENTS

ing a montage of images from old films and other sources. Really good stuff here. "Blue Diary" and "Badass Supermama.“ all but an ode to Pam Grier and the empowered black woman, are both really cool. with the former being narrated by Lynn Flipper of Tribe 8. Another good gift would be Aimée and

DANGEROUS Jaguar. a Holocaust-era Sapphic love story.

WET

Ine luttest most delicious.

anc Ongpat CHLIC MAU lesbian shorts

gry Chinese ghost that shares her apartment. It's fully worth the purchase price of the video for the line. "You ate my diary." which elicits the response. "I was hungry."

"Dangerous When Wet" is another confidential piece. relating a schoolgirl crush us-

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WE'VE GOT CLEVELAND COVERED

now out on vidco.

As usual, though, the women are overshadowed by the men on the retail front. There are literally dozens of new releases of "boy" flicks out there. Three come to mind.

First off. 10" Productions and Greenwood Cooper Home Video, purveyors of fine erotica featuring achingly beautiful young men, go on a slightly different tangent with their latest release. The House of Morecock.

Yes, the name is supposed to be funny. This collection of nine short animated films, originally beamed out over the internet. combines Scooby Doo with the old Meatmen comics and comes up with strangeness through and through.

Jonas Morecock is an intrepid adventurer who seems to run headlong into strange monsters and horny men. It's almost as if Shaggy were shagging Fred, and the Sheriff, and the helpful townspeople, and the villams masquerading as monsters, and

You get the picture.

As with most porn, the sex is formulaic. and since these were origmally web cartoons, the animation is very rough It would have been nice had they remade the toons instead of repackaging them, but Joe Phillips' art, seen in 10. Productions" "Boys Will Be Boys" calendars, is pretty good.

Strand Releasing, on the other hand, is definitely aiming for a higher part of the body with World and Time Enough, the winer of the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. The film is being released on DVD) with filmmaker commentary and the original theatrical trailer.

David, the Guppie best friend, narrates the tale of radical artist Mark and his cute but not that bright boyfriend Joey in this tale of relationships. However, the relationships this movie really examines are not the usual ones in a gay film. Instead of turning the microscope on the tandem of Mark and Joey, the film looks at the relationships between man and society, between children and parents. and between humans and God.

It's a pretty deep movie disguising itself as fluff, sort of a cinematic wolf in sheep's clothing.

Mark's mother died in a cathedral when the giant crucifix at the altar fell on her. leaving Mark's father, dead at the beginning of the film. obsessed with cathedrals.

Styx

Continued from page 9

to myself. “You've led a wasted life, you haven't been yourself." So I made two promises to myself. One was that if and when I got better, that I would out myself. And that I would do one more tour with the group Egot to realize both dreams.”

Panozzo says he is now in good health. He continues taking experimental drugs, both because he believes the medications have kept him alive, and also because he thinks he owes it to the next generation of PWAs, to be a "test case for aggressive treatments.

Rocking 'out'

Panozzo's public coming out last summer garnered a moderate amount of media attention, but it wasn't treated as groundbreaking news. Perhaps the reaction, and in some cases. lack of reaction to it reflects shifting attitudes in the rock world.

The mild reaction may be due in part to the fact that while Styx continues to tour successfully and record new music. the band has settled in as a solid force born of '70s classic

Joey has both of his parents, but they aren't his biological parents, and his father's rejection of his homosexuality spurs him to search for the parents that gave him up for adoption.

As things begin to fall apart for Mark, his father's obsession takes him over and he decides to build

a cathedral, not

a model like his father, but a fullsized one in the middle of field. bringing visitations from his father's ghost and the “owner” of the a field.

The Hon

Events spiral MOD COCK

out of control as Mark teeters on

the edge of santy in this dark comedy.

Finalis. ITA Releasing presents Forgive

A newer why Things go Bump in the Night!

and forget, a Scottish-made film originally broadcast on Britain's 11V, where showing the naked bodies of incredibly cute guys is apparently allowed. Be thankful.

The movie revolves around David. the sexually repressed scion of the owner of a construction company, and his relationship with his best friend since childhood. Theo.

David loves Theo. Theo loves his girlfriend Hannah. David is deeply in the closet. emerging for the rare sexual encounter with a stranger. Secrets, however, have a way of coming out, and his comes out spectacularly. shattering his closet door and the "comfortable" life he leads.

The film is an incredible character study. and deals superbly with the violence inherent in repression and the empowerment of self-acceptance. The acting is phenomenal. flawless, and begs the question: If this is what they show on TV in Britain. why is the U.S. so excited about Showtime's Queer as Folk? This film makes Folk look even more like a softcore porn soap opera than it did before. illustrating how American puritanism still oppresses the IGBT community in even the most open of arenas, entertainment.

Five fine films for the cinemaphile's stocking, sure to please for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. Christmas or any other occasion warranting a present.

The movies are available at a wide array of IGBT stores, can be ordered through most mall stores that sell videos, and are also easily purchased online.

rock, and is no longer a rising, chart-climbing act Also. Panozzo was preceded by Elton John. Freddie Mercury, Rob Halford, and more recently Michael Stipe. Nonetheless, the macho world of man-made rock music isn't yet totally gay-friendly.

"Male rock artists] have to prove that they are balls-out and show no signs of being ef feminate, and they have to knock up as many chicks as they can find.“ Panozzo says of the rock culture. "As someone who supports the Equal Rights Amendment for women, I'm pretty liberal and I have nothing to talk about with these guys. But that's the fabric of rock, they want that raw energy.“

Nonetheless. Panozzo finds an interesting twist that also emerges. “It's so sexual, it's based on these young girls who aren't sure what's going on with themselves and they see these rock stars and there's this emergence of their own sexuality." he says. "I think that the less intimidating you are to young females, the more they like that. If you are pretty and young and have no hair and are blond, they relate to that. because it looks like them. Metal bands always have a lot of male fans because they are more intimidating. Then I see these guys in long hair and tight pants and I'm thinking: Who's gay here?”