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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

March 13, 2009

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

It's film festival time

A dark comedy, a Michelin star obsession and 'don't ask' join 10 Percent's eye candy and love stories

by Anthony Glassman

Cleveland-As spring makes its slow journey to the North Coast, one thing blossoms more colorfully than any other, filling the air with its poignant bouquet. The Cleveland International Film Fes-

lesbian soldiers serving openly.

Ask Not will be shown on Friday, March 20 at 11:50 am, Saturday, March 21 at 9:20 am, and on Sunday, March 22 at 7 pm with a discussion panel following the film.

Together, they're an amazingly diverse group, and their reactions to being accepted or rejected from the lottery for the open apartments brings tears to the eye. A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square shows on Monday, March 23 at

Happy

St. Patrick's

Day!

Between Love and Goodbye

tival arrives at this time each year, bringing dozens of new movies to the Tower City Cinemas downtown.

It's the 33rd year for the festival, from March 19 to 29, and it returns with ten films in the 10% Cinema section, the repository of most of their LGBT offerings.

That doesn't include the two programs of 10% Cinema shorts, which would really make it 29 films. Short films don't seem to count, though, even when they bear intriguing names like Tranny McGuyver and What I Found in GreatAunt Nell's Closet.

So we're left with a nice, round ten films, from places as exotic as Israel and the Philippines to those as mundane as Texas and New York. And, of course, Spain, because there is an unwritten law that very film festival must have one really amusing Spanish gay film that will draw comparisons to those of Pedro Almodóvar.

Three of the offerings are documentaries covering a startlingly diverse range of subject matter. This is even more surprising because all three are domestic and none deal directly with producing or adopting children, a common theme in years past.

Ask Not

Ask Not examines the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy through the eyes of current and former service personnel and activists working for its repeal. It asks why 12,000 capable military men and women have been discharged in the 15 years since the policy was introduced.

Director Johnny Symons' film follows a group of people discharged from the service as they tour college campuses discussing the policy. Symons integrates their interviews with protests outside military recruiting sites, news footage and images from Bill Clinton's campaign and administration. There are also clips of a current servicemember whose identity is masked to protect his career, even as he risks his life in Iraq.

While the documentary doesn't really break new ground, it is strikingly appropriate as Barack Obama brings back the possibility of ending the ban on gay and

A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square

The next doc is A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square, Carolyn Coal's examination of the creation of Los Angeles' first low-income housing building for LGBT elders.

Coal speaks with those behind the scenes, the movers and the shakers who got the beautiful apartment building from a spark of inspiration to glittering reality.

But what makes the film moving is her interviews with prospective tenants from the time the project was announced, through the application process and into moving-in day. There is joy, there is heartache, since there are a limited number of apartments available and some of the

Antarctica

subjects don't make the cut.

Seven hopefuls comprise the heart of the film; one has to walk the equivalent of two flights of stairs up to his house on a hill, and his knees can't take it any more; another has a decent house, except for the rampaging crime in the area, the lack of other gay people to talk to and the fact that he can't really afford needed repairs.

One lesbian has moved 62 times in her life, and wants her last move to be into Triangle Square, while another never expected to be alone in her 70s.

7:20 pm and Tuesday, March 24 at

12 noon.

Trinidad

The final documentary is Trinidad by filmmakers P.J. Raval and Jay Hodges. It is not about the Caribbean island nation, but rather about an island of safety for transgendered people in the Rocky Mountains.

Trinidad, Colorado is the "sex-change capital of the world," and Dr. Stanley Biber, who performed one of the first gender reassignment surgeries, is now retiring after nearly 6,000 operations. the town has become a mecca for those undergoing gender reassignment, including Dr. Marci Bowers, who will succeed Biber,

Sabrina Marcus, who works at Morning Glow, a recovery center for those who have had surgery, and others. Dr. Laura Ellis rounds out the trio of women. She will also be working at Morning Glow, and is starting her surgeries with Bowers. Trinidad shows on Thursday, March 26 at 5:10 pm, Friday, March 27 at 9:40 pm, and Sunday, March 29 at 9:15 am.

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