March 4, 2005 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Spring is coming, and the movies are blooming

Cleveland film festival's 10% Cinema has fertility as a theme

by Anthony Glassman

Cleveland-Every March, a cinematic fertility festival blooms on the north coast, the Cleveland International Film Festival.

This year, interestingly enough, fertility is a running theme in a number of the films in the festival's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender 10% Cinema, running March 10 through 20 at Tower City Cinemas in downtown Cleveland.

To make it easier to decide what movies to see and when, here is a look at the 10% films in the 29th annual festival in chronological order of screenings. Filmmaker restrictions prevent some films from being fully reviewed. The first of the 10% Cinema films is Let's Get Frank, Bart Everly's documentary on Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, perhaps the most prominent gay politician in office today.

The film follows Frank through the Clinton impeachment hearings following the end of special prosecutor Ken Starr's investigations into Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

In clips from committee meetings and interviews with Frank, a portrait of the man emerges, concerned with justice and appalled at the hypocritically moralistic witch-hunt that swept the country at the time. Having been censured by Congress following a scandal involving a hustler he helped out, Frank was keenly aware of dangers facing the president, as well as some of the emotions he must have felt during that trying time.

A loving look at one of the LGBT community's most visible champions, Let's Get Frank will play on Friday, March 11 at 3 pm and on Sunday, March 13 at 7:15 pm.

Next up is Making Grace, one of two documentaries about procreation and the difficulties involved when the parents are a lesbian couple. The film traces Ann Krsul and Leslie Sullivan's lives as they decide to have a child, engage in assisted procreation through sperm donation and have a beautiful redheaded daughter named Grace.

Making Grace will be shown Saturday, March 12 at 7:15 pm and the next day 2:15 pm. Getting away from documentaries for a moment, Dorian Blues is the coming-of-age tale of a slim, studious teen who is bullied by his football-team captain brother and his imperious father, while his Donna Reed-wannabe mother is oblivious to his struggles.

The film follows Dorian as he comes out, gets kicked out, enters and exits his first relationship, and suffers all the slings and arrows that outrageous fortune can provide in a witty, warm-hearted film.

Tennyson Bardwell's Dorian Blues will play on Saturday, March 12 at 9:30 pm and the following day at 12:30 pm.

A perennial favorite of the Cleveland International Film Festival is the short film programs, and this year should be no exception. A quintet of short subjects will be shown on Sunday, March 13 at 5 pm and Thursday, March 17 at 10 pm.

A tale of intergenerational love in the Philippines, the difficulties of coming out as a parent in a small town, the story behind the

San Francisco marriage, a look at the historical leaders of the LGBT rights movement and an evil stepmother fill out the program.

Many years there is the offbeat comedy that rounds out 10% Cinema for the festival, whether it's a film (like 9 Dead Gay Guys) or an event (Frank DeCaro hosting Absolut Cin-

Joseph Parlagreco's Call Me Malcolm is next, an examination of the life of a female-to-male transgendered person as he BART EVERLY explains his long, and often arduous, road to acceptance, both from himself and his family.

The 27-year old finds that, although he lives in a small Colorado town, most people are surprisingly supportive. Especially so are people at his church, a member congregation of the United Church of Christ. In fact, his minister believes that Malcolm has been called to be a man of the cloth, a path he embraces.

A warm look at a life in transition, in more ways than the obvious, Call Me Malcolm will be shown on Monday, March 14 at 7 pm and the following day at 12:30 pm. The March 14 screening will be followed by a Film Forum with the director, Malcolm and others examining the struggles facing transgendered people.

The Finnish film Producing Adults returns to the fertility theme with its doubleentendre title, which can be read

as turning some-

Barney

A reporter interviews Rep. Barney Frank in Let's Ger Frank, top, while a young trans-man looks into the future in Call Me Malcolm, both playing at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

one into an adult, or adults creating offspring. This incredibly European love trapezoid (well, there are four people involved) centers around a fertility clinic and the lengths to which people will go to get what they want or to keep from getting what they do not want. Producing Adults could be the sleeper hit of the 10% Cinema. It shows at 12:15 pm on Friday, March 18 and 7 pm on Saturday, March 19.

Wrapping up this year's fixation on fecundity, Nicole Conn's Little Man follows the struggle of Nicolas James, the filmmaker's second child with partner Gwen Baba. Nicolas was born severely premature, with a miniscule chance of survival. His mothers, however refused to give up hopes, and Conn took her camera into the secret world of the neo-natal intensive care unit to speak with the staff and her partner.

Little Man screens at 4:45 pm on Friday, March 18, and at 3:15 pm on Sunday, March 20. A Film Forum on the ethics of deciding premature birth viability will follow the March 20 show.

The Graffiti Artist is up next, following two teens from different worlds as they paint the walls, skate around and discover that their might be more to their friendship than just being friends.

It will be shown on Friday, March 18 at 9:45 pm, and the following day at 5 pm.

Dykes Towatch Out For by Alison Bechdel

O conspiracy!

(Julius Caesar, II.1.77)

460

CLARICE

IS ON THE PROGRESSIVE

DIET.

HER APPETITE IS COMPLETELY GONE, AND SHE WORKS HERSELF INTO A LATHER DAILY.

... AND THE BEAUTY OF IT IS, BUSH DOESN'T NEED THOUGHT POLICE. WE POLICE OURSELVES! EVERYONE'S SO AFRAID OF BEING LABELED A "CONSPIRACY THEORIST," THEY SHUT THEIR BRAINS DOWN!

FLEX

NATIONAL REVIEW GUNS & AMMO

UH OH. KEEP TALKING, BUT I HAVE TO LOOK BUSY.

ema). This year, it's Eating Out, a farcical, gay collegiate sex romp by Q. Allen Brocka that is, without a doubt, the finest film ever put outby Ariztical Entertainment, the queer film company that produced it.

The film stars Jim Verraros, a finalist on the first season of American Idol, as Kyle, a gay college student and musician who is in love with both his straight roommate Caleb and their friend Marc. Caleb, in the meantime, gets dumped by his girlfriend because he's too nice, so he pretends to be gay to pick up Gwen, Marc's “fag hag” roommate.

Unfortunately for Caleb, Marc and Kyle, Gwen actually passes up a chance to obsess over a gay man for once, and hooks Marc and Caleb up on a date.

Now Caleb has to somehow arrange for everyone to learn the truth in time for a happy ending, before he goes too far with Marc, not far enough with Gwen, breaks Kyle's heart and comes out to his parents.

Silly, yes, but a fun little whirl through varsity slang, twee parties and overall zaniness, with a solid heart of caring friends who want the best for each other.

Eating Out will play on Saturday, March 19 at 10 pm, and Sunday, March 20 at 7:30 pm. For more information or to buy tickets online, go to www.clevelandfilm.org. Tickets and information are also available by calling 866-865-3456 (866-865-FILM).

I SAY, OF COURSE I'M A CONSPIRACY THEORIST! WHAT DO CEOS AND POLITICIANS AND MEDIA MOGULS AND DEFENSE CONTRACTORS DO ALL DAY IF NOT SIT AROUND CONSPIRING ABOUT HOW TO CONSOLIDATE THEIR POWER? IT'S IN THEIR JOB DESCRIPTIONS!

20008

CONCEALED

MAGAZIN

CARRY

FILMWORKS, INC.

WELL, HERE'S A NEWS FLASH. WE DID INVADE IRAQ FOR OIL. THE GOVERNMENT IS SPYING ON US. THE OHIO ELECTION WAS RIGGED. AND BUSH CHEATED ON THE DEBATES BY WEARING A FRICKIN' WIRE!

BOO

CLARICE, CALM DOWN! I'M ON YOUR SIDE! AND BESIDES, YOU GET MORE CARDIOVASCULAR BENEFIT IF YOU STAY BETWEEN 50 AND 80 PERCENT OF YOUR MAXIMUM HEART RATE.

GLORIA! HEY!

OH, HI, MO.

HI.

HI,CLARICE.

SO HOW'S THE OLE MARRIAGE BATTLE GOING?

FORBES

OH, THE BILL. BADLY. IT'S PROBABLY GONNA PASS. BUSH'S BIG LIE DIDN'T HELP, WHEN HE SAID "STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT THE IDEAL IS WHERE A CHILD IS RAISED IN A MARRIED FAMILY WITH A MAN AND A WOMAN."

WELL, HE DIDN'T SAY THE IDEAL WHAT.

MAYBE HE MEANT THE IDEAL SITUATION FOR RAISING VERBALLY CHALLENGED NEO FASCISTS.

RIGHT. WELL, I'VE GOTTA RUSH. I'M ON MY LUNCH HOUR.

HUH. DID

NO WEIRDER THAN

SHE SEEM WEIRD TO You?

ANY LESBIAN WHO WANTS TO GET MARRIED.

UHA... LOW-CARB FITNESS MONTHLY? YES, MAAM. THAT'S RIGHT OVER HERE.

www.DykesToWatchOutFor.com

WHAT?

Peop

INCHES

EYE SPY