GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

July 6, 2007

eveningsout

Evening

Continued from page 9

dark thriller or even a blockbuster superhero franchise. He certainly has the acting chops and his is a beauty that if coupled with danger could be even more explosive, unendingly provocative.

Cunningham who came to Hollywood fame with the adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hours (also with Streep, Collette, Atkins and Danes) has been a great boon not only to Hollywood but also to queer cinema. In his films, including A Home at The End of the World, gay characters are created with depth and seriousness--they

are full-blooded humans in the world, as integral to the machinations of the cosmos as any of their straight counterparts. Cunningham's screenplays have thankfully allowed the images of gays in Hollywood to mature from marginal stereotypes on the fringes of a storyline, often as the butt of jokes, to living, breathing humans in search of dignity and meaning.

Gyula Pados' cinematography is breathtaking, and with director Koltai the film is like watching romantic and idyllic paintings come to life. Koltai who cut his teeth as a cinematographer for such wonderful films as Malena, Sunshine and Being Julia, is masterful with his images.

Everything in the film is bathed in the most perfect light from the resonant sunsets

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Claire Danes will grow up to be Vanessa Redgrave and Marnie Gummer will become Meryl Streep in Evening.

to the delicious flicker of fireflies. While this is artistically impressive, the constant treatment of everything as precious is also the film's biggest flaw. Koltai envelops every moment in a light that photographers call the golden hour" or the "magic hour"-the first and last hour of sunlight in a day. This robs the film of some of its depth and even emotional subtlety. When every single moment is ensconced in preciousness, even directorial and visual precociousness, the film achieves a surface uniformity which calls attention to itself rather than illuminating the internal life of the story. This is a minor quibble in an otherwise

sublime film. Many will dismiss Evening as a "chick flick"-a term I find offensive because it is reductive at best and misogynistic at worst. Evening is a nice study of life lived full of regrets and what-ifs. The story richly illustrates that human life is rarely, if ever, simple or perfectly realized. Above all, the film asks us to see the beauty even in what we might see as the mistakes of our lives. Through the failings of its characters, it exhorts us to better live our existences, even if it means taking bone-chilling risks and heartbreaking chances, so that in the evening of our lives, when we look back at every moment, we can honestly say that we tried to live life as we wanted, not as we had to.

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physicality. Spoken word and hip hop aficionados will want to return to Acoustic on Friday for the politically acute raps of Tamil Sri Lankan artist D'Lo.

Earlier in the day you'll have your hands in the air at the Day Stage for Hip Hop at High Noon featuring Skim from Los Angeles, Feloni from Detroit, and Mahogany out of Brooklyn. If that's a hard act to follow, you can bet that Lesbians on Ecstasy are up to the challenge. Their "plunder music project" played to rave reviews on tour with Le Tigre. What's not to love about samples from '70s women's music mashed up with electronic dance beats?

The sun-filled Day Stage is where you'll also find funky R & B and kick-ass jazz. Hanifah Walidah, singer with Brooklyn Funk Essentials who has a solo Top 10 video on the Logo channel, returns with a band. First-timer Ruthie Foster brings her soul-stirring delivery to gospel and blues. Anything can happen when the stage is taken by the musician's dream team of Barbara Higbie, Vicki Randle, Teresa Trull and Julie Wolf.

Rounding out the offerings on the Day Stage are the energetic vocals and guitar of festie-virgins Wishing Chair and Erin McKeown, and the ever-popular Comedy Sunday. In addition to enjoying full comedy sets by Vickie Shaw, Sabrina Matthews

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and Karen Williams, campers will fall out of their backpack chairs laughing all week with emcee-in-residence Elvira Kurt. Close your week in the woods with the Sunday traditions of Ubaka Hill's Drumsong Orchestra, Aleah Long's One World Inspirational Choir, and Ruth Barrett's Candlelight Concert.

Buy an all-inclusive ticket before July 14 to get the early-bird advance rate. If the 40 performances just mentioned aren't enough, the ticket price includes three delicious vegetarian meals a day, camping on a beautiful square mile of oak and fern forest, hundreds of workshops, a film festival, sporting events and crafts bazaar, along with countless dances, parades, open mikes and parties. For no extra charge, attendees can take advantage of a full range of community services, from networking for women of color and sign language interpretation, to child care, first aid, and transportation.

While other feminist events and institutions have come and gone over the past four decades, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival persists. But the Michigan experience is not to be taken for granted. If you haven't been in a while, or you've yet to make the trip, check it out. And then tell your friends about the real deal: the M word.

For more information, write to We Want the Music Co., P.O. Box 22, Walhalla, Mich. 49458, go to www.michfest.com or call 231757-4766.

Holly Pruett is a freelance writer in Portland, Oregon, who wrote this for the Michigan Women's Music Festival.

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