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TUESDAY, MAY 4

Part 2
Guest Curated Programs
1970's, 80's, 90's

Film Theatre
Lower Level
Regina Public Library
2311 12th Ave.

(see May 3 for introduction)

7 PM

1980's

Double Helix: Sex and Death in the 80s
Curated by Jim Hubbard

The 1980's began with sex triumphant and ended with grisly, awful death. Three pairs of films, one by a man, one by a woman, explore these issues. In what ways are they the same for men and women? How are they different? Curt McDowell and Cecilia Dougherty explore sex in San Francisco. Roger Jacoby and Abigail Child struggle to find a place for homosexuality in the culture. Barbara Hammer and Stashu Kybartas meditate on the meaning of death ö for the dying and for those left behind ö and the uses of cinema.


Loads
(Curt McDowell, USA, 1980, 16 mm, 22 min.)
Curt leans out his San Francisco Mission Street studio window and invites, cajoles and otherwise lures men up for his legendary blowjobs.

Claudia
(Cecilia Dougherty, USA, 1987, video, 8 min.)
What could be more revolutionary, more upsetting to the reactionary than the notion than lesbian sex is a perfectly ordinary part of life?

How to Be a Homosexual Part II
(Roger Jacoby, USA, 1982, 16 mm, 15 min.)
In his last film, completed three years before his death, Jacoby turns the camera on himself. Filled with extremely difficult graphic images of illness and moments of transcendent beauty.

Mayhem
(Abigail Child, 1987, USA, 16 mm, 20 min.)
Perversely and equally inspired by the Marquis de Sade and Dziga Vertov, Mayhem splices film noir, soap opera, thrillers and more in order to upset received notions sex, sensuality and cinematic satisfaction.

Optic Nerve
(Barbara Hammer, USA, 1985, 16 mm, 16 min.)
"Optic Nerve is a powerful personal reflection on family and aging...layered and manipulated to create a compelling meditation on her visit to her grandmother in a nursing home. The sense of sight becomes a constantly evolving process of re-seeing images retrieved from the past and fused into the eternal present of the projected image." öJohn Hanhardt

Danny
(Stashu Kybartas, USA, 1987, video, 20 min.)
Retracing Dannyâs memory of his once high lifestyle in the clubs and gyms of Miami, Danny avoids sentimentalizing its subject as it juxtaposes images, text, and voice-over to build a sense of the psychological struggle brought on by Danny's impending, premature death from AIDS.

9 PM

1980's

WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU
Curated by Anne Golden

Official timelines for decades give markers of dates and events that are useful to jog memories. These grids situate a mass of information. I searched such timelines in order to pepper these notes with proper references to the eighties. During my research, an alternative timeline began to emerge. It is a personal one and it is in the form of recollections.

In 1981, reports of a 'gay cancer' send out shock waves. Soon after, 'gay cancer' is replaced by the term GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency), then AIDS. These words and terms are so prevalent and familiar that I don't think twice. But, when I focus on the films and videos I have seen that deal with AIDS/HIV, I am overwhelmed by memories.

It is a rare thing to be given the chance to choose amongst a decade of film and video productions. What moved you then? Does it move you still? Armed with more critical skills, sharper vision, you are older, wiser and the gloss of nostalgia is your enemy. But, you must concentrate and you have a song stuck in your head.

Working my way back to you babe
With a burning love inside

The version I have in my head is by The Detroit Spinners and was actually released in 1979. The song was still being played when the eighties dawned. It is a catchy tune in a decade of them. The lyrics of the song mirror the selection process for this program. I have been sifting through films and videos I love and find important in order to come up with this list. Film critics who are asked to name their top ten films often insist on recording the date and time of their lists to indicate that their choices may change with each passing minute.

Not listed on timelines of the eighties are all the independent films and videos that begin to play at film festivals around the world. This is where we find ourselves. To be truthful, this is where I find myself. My very own eighties includes lots of exposure to video art and independent film, meetings and marches, actions and the beginning of a long association with Image et nation gaie et lesbienne, Montrealâs film festival. I am smitten with images produced by gay and lesbian artists. I realize much later that I was waiting for them. They make a fan out of me. They teach me. They make me laugh. They make me hot. I believe they helped make me. From 1980 to 1989, I see all the works in this program, but probably not all in the year each was made. And, in the past little while, I have experienced memories of what these works represented/represent for me.
February 29, 13:04, 2004


Labyris Rising
(Margaret Moores, Canada, 1980, no dialogue, 14 min.)
This parody of Scorpio Rising uses some of the same devices found in Kenneth Angerâs classic homo-motorhead-pop-song filled classic. Moores show us a woman fixing a bike, but it's not a Harley. Popular songs by Joan Armatrading and Janis Joplin play under images of iconic lesbian pastimes: shooting pool, getting ready to go out and the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.

Francha Con Francha (Dyke After Dyke)
(Maria-Angelica Lemos and Robin Askew, Brazil, 1989, Portuguese w/ English sub-titles, 4 min.)
Two women sing a passionate duet about love, girls and the inevitable. A tape that played around the world ö a brief and funny DIY version of a music video.

This Is Not an AIDS Advertisement
(Isaac Julien, UK, 1988, 16mm, 10 min.)
From the maker of Looking for Langston and Young Soul Rebels comes an impressionistic antidote to a passionless, guilty AIDS awareness campaign conducted in Britain in 1987. This Is Not an AIDS Advertisement blends an imaginative video style with strong political messages. Isaac Julien emerged from Sankofa Film and Video Collective, an influential and important group of filmmakers in 1980âs Britain. Julien attends the Image et Nation Festival during which he presents this film and Looking for Langston to packed houses.

Flames of Passion
(Richard Kwietnowski, UK, 1989, 16mm, 18 min.)
A commuter steals an intriguing set of photographs from a train station photo booth, then comes face to face with the handsome doctor they depict. Flames of Passion is a witty reworking of the classic British tearjerker Brief Encounter (written and produced by Noel Coward). Kwietnowskiâs use of visual puns is an absolute pleasure to behold.

DHPG Mon Amour
(Carl Michael George, 1989, USA, Super 8-to-16mm, 12min.)
For a description of this film, I prefer the following to anything I have tried to write. "Carl M. George's super-8 movie, DHPG Mon Amour, is a profoundly moving, quirky and difficult film which narrates a day in the life of two men, David Conover and Joe Walsh. Following Walsh as he leaves his job at New York's Community Research Initiative and shops for food, the film opens with Ella Fitzgerald's Nights in Tunisia played beneath Walsh describing himself and Conover, his lover of eight years. Joe was diagnosed HIV positive in 1985; David has been living with AIDS for several years and is currently dealing with CMV retinitis, a condition which can lead to severe impairment of vision and possibly blindness. Refusing to accept standard and 'official' medical advice on appropriate drug treatments and methodology, David chooses instead to self-administer the medication DHPG Gancyclovire, opting for an infusaport applicator (which remains under the skin) rather than a bulky and physically prohibitive Hickman catheter." The writer of these words, Tom Kalin, goes on to analyze the film in some detail. I recommend the book from which this passage was taken, A Leap In the Dark ö AIDS, Art and Contemporary Cultures (eds. Allan Klusacek and Ken Morrisson, 1993, VŽhicule Press)

A Woman in My Platoon
(Marilyn Burgess, Canada, 1989, English version, 20 min.)
A young lesbian joins the army in search of others like her. But there is no room for homosexuals in the Canadian Armed Forces. An allegory in three parts, this tape examines metaphorically the power of desire in the face of considerable constrains imposed on its expression within the military. Burgess makes beautiful use of archival footage of women in the military culled from various sources. After the screening in Montreal at the Image et Nation Festival, women in the audience thank her for making the video.

The ADS Epidemic
(John Greyson, Canada, 1987, video, 4 min.)
A parody of Death in Venice. In fact, "This is not a Death in Venice...". Aschenbach succumbs to an attack of ADS (Acquired Dread of Sex) while Tadzio learns that Safe Sex is Fun. Greyson has made a musical look at the media-induced paranoia about AIDS. It is 1987. During a screening of Greysonâs mini-musical, I listened as members of an audience in Montreal sang along with the video. It was a funny, stirring and sad moment. Greyson takes a humourous/educational tack and in a brief four minutes makes a plea for practicing Safe Sex. A timely pitch, then as now.



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