June 13, 2003 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

eveningsout

Sundance unleashes a flood of LGBT films for June

by Anthony Glassman

While the proposed Showtime/MTV gay channel has yet to appear on cable systems, one channel continues to screen the finest LGBT films, in fact filling every day in June with more queer cinema than one can shake a stick at.

It's the Sundance Channel, the cable sister of the Sundance Film Festival, dedicated to providing the best in independent, underground and foreign film to American cable audiences. This is their fifth annual "Out Loud Cinema" month-long event, although they have played LGBT films in June since the channel's inception.

Two specially-themed programming blocks, "Gay Love Under Fire" and "Are You Musical?" will present audiences with weekly doses of marvelous films both old and new.

Some of the newer, lesser-known films are marvelous, and here is an overview of them.

Trembling Before G-dis Sandi Simcha Bubowski's amazing documentary delving into gays dealing with a different kind of religious extremism: Orthodox Judaism. Being a devout Jew and gay is as difficult as being a fundamentalist Christian and gay, only Jews have more rules to follow. The interviews in this film illustrate the heartache and the joyous victories that people straddling the two worlds face.

Fire was criticized in its native India for its portrayal of the romance between two middle-class women who fly in the face on convention with their relationship. Lan Yu was published anonymously on the internet as Beijing Story, and tells of the on-again, off-again relationship between a successful entrepreneur and a young architecture student, which culminates after the student uprising in Tiananmen Square. The film has been a huge success on the art theater circuit.

Princesa follows a Brazilian transsexual from her home to Milan as she tries to raise enough money to undergo gender reassignment surgery and find the love she believes will make her life complete.

Herr Schmidt und Herr Friedrich tells of the difficult love between two men in partitioned Germany, one in the East and one on the West. This documentary examines the ways in which their separation strengthened their relationship over the years.

On June 20, the documentary The Cockettes debuts. The film, which screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, follows the hippie drag queen troupe through their rise to fame and eventual plunge into obscurity with archival footage of performances and interviews with members of the group. Big Eden, the festival smash hit, will make its television debut, telling the story of a gay man dragged back to his small-town home

from the big city after his grandfather's heart attack. Can Arye Gross find true love in a tiny Montana town? Why does Pike Dexter, the native American owner of the town's (apparently) only store act like a complete jackass every time Gross' Henry Hart is around? Better yet, how can anyone stay sane in a town filled with complete lunatics?

In Lucky Break, the main characters are trying to escape from a Victorian England prison, not a small town in Montana. They'll probably have an easier time of it, especially considering that the prison musical is being performed in the chapel, the least secure

Herr Schmidt und Herr Friedrich

room in the place. Of special interest is the musical itself, with book and lyrics by Stephen Fry, openly gay star of the film Wilde and allaround genius.

Other fantastic film offerings include American Fabulous, a gay Kerouac-like jaunt through the seedy underbelly of Ohio; By Hook or By Crook, which is a transgender Thelma and Louise; and The Devil in the Holy Water, a look at the 2001 World Pride celebration in Rome, coinciding with the Catholic church's 2,000-year Jubilee.

Some perennial favorites will also be shown, like Desert Hearts and The Fluffer, along with little-known gems like Hit and Runway, the tale of a straight Italian guy cowriting a screenplay with a gay version of Woody Allen, and Water Drops on Burning Rocks, François Ozon's adaptation of a play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder telling the tale of a middle-aged man's relationship with his much-younger boyfriend in Berlin in the 1970s.

While the rest of TV continues to laud itself for being so "progressive" for having a couple of gay characters here and there, it's nice to see a channel pretty much hand its entire June schedule to the LGBT community. They should be supported as they support us.

Mama's boy

Reuben Silver, one of Cleveland's most esteemed actors, plays Graham, a middle-aged, closeted gay man in the Beck Center for the Arts' production of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads.

Bennett wrote a series of monologues that were broadcast on BBC under the Talking Heads title. Silver will direct his wife Dorothy in the monologue “Bed Among the Lentils," while Dorothy reciprocates in directing Reuben in "A Chip in the Sugar."

Graham's life is not the happiest, but it is stable: He takes care of his elderly mother, and everything is fine.

When his mother's old suitor returns, however, Graham has to deal with a number of changes in the status quo, including his mother's descent into senility and her paramour's hostility towards him.

Talking Heads will play at the Beck Center, 17801 Detroit Ave. in Lakewood, Friday through Sunday until June 22, with no show on Sunday, June 15. For tickets or more information, call 216-521-2540 or log onto www.beckcenter.org.

-Anthony Glassman

Serving the Lesbian & Gay Community for Over a Decade

Edele Passalacqua

Attorney at Law

Keep it in the Community!

Free Initial Consultation

Call for Free Consultation. Evenings & Weekend Hours Available 2830 Franklin Blvd., Cleveland, Ohio 44113 216-696-0040

Primary Areas of Practice Includes

▾ Criminal Defense

▾ Commercial and

Civil Litigation

▾ Wills/Durable Power of Attorney

Domestic Partnership Agreements

NICHOLAS JEWELERS, INC.

Fine Jewelry Diamonds. Unique Giftware Commitment Rings Watch & Jewelry repair

We buy

unwanted jewelry

(216) 381-3075

At Cedar & Green

2161 S. Green Road, University Heights, Ohio 44121

We have the alternative.......

Marie G. Bielefeld, Ph.D.

157

COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST

Individual/Couple Lesbian/Gay Issues

Self-Expression Through Vocation

Personal/Spiritual Growth

Coping with Medical Problems

OFFICE 440-899-7625

VOICE MAIL

440-734-8164

WESTGATE PLAZA BUILDING 20325 CENTER RIDGE ROAD (ACCESSED FROM LINDEN ROAD)

SHAKER

SAAB SAAB www.shakersaab.com

...to fit your lifestyle.

10299 Shaker Blvd. Cleveland, OH 44104

(one mile west of Shaker Square)

(216) 231-7222