Friday, May 31, Programs

All screenings at Neutral Ground Gallery, 1856 Scarth Street.

Program 3 - P3 / Program 4 - P4 / Program 5 - P5

QCC10 - P3 - 7PM (74:00 min.)

Short films and videos.

C.L.U.E. (color location ultimate experience), Part 1
robbinschilds and A.L. Steiner, USA, 2007, 10:47 min.

Inhabiting the intersection of human movement and architecture, A.L. Steiner and robbinschilds (Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs) present a full-spectrum video, set to a score by rock quartet Kinski. Edited in succinct rainbow-hued sections, each sequence features robbinschilds in monochromastic gear, acting in psychedelic contrast and communion with their surroundings. In a style that is obsessive, persistent, and often humorous, robbinschilds reveals their observations of the human imprint on the world.

Kif Ma Yi Qulu (As They Say)
Hicham Ayouch, Morocco/UAE, 2011, 20 min. Arabic with English subtitles

Father and son go on a fishing trip together into the mountains. When the son confesses to the father that he’s gay, the situation escalates: tests of masculinity, rituals, violence, erupting feelings, speechlessness, and finally an unexpected end. Not only does the film attest to family and generational conflicts, but it positions these within an overwhelming landscape (the Rif mountains), which itself becomes one of the agents.

The Runaway Troupe of the Cartesian Theater
Lior Shamriz, Germany/People’s Republic of China, 2013, 18 min.

A person of undefined gender and ethnicity is sent by a German cultural institution to a city in China, where s/he experiences a cruel conspiracy against her/his loved one.

I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard
Matt Wolf, USA, 2012, 24:35 min.

Modesty, whimsy, and clarity of design grace the work of Joe Brainard (1941-1994), an artist and writer whose evocations of memory and desire perhaps found their greatest expression in his memoir-poem I Remember. Composed of a sequence of brief recollections, the poem’s standardized format admits an incredible variety of images and feelings: “I remember Greyhound buses at night...I remember candy cigarettes like chalk...I remember leaning up against walls in queer bars...” Wolf’s archival montage combines audio recordings of Brainard reading from the poem, as well as an interview with his lifelong friend and collaborator, the poet Ron Padgett. The result is an inventive biography of Joe Brainard, and an elliptical dialog about friendship, nostalgia, and the strange wonders of memory.

QCC10 - P4 - 9PM (68:44 min.)

Feature film preceded by short films and videos.

African Mayonnaise
PJ Raval, USA, 2012, 4:44 min.

In African Mayonnaise, the 6th installment of the Christeene Video Collection, Celebrity gets Fucked.

She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column
Kevin Hegge, Canada, 2012, 64 min.

She Said Boom: the Story of Fifth Column is a feature length documentary film about the multi-disciplinary post-punk group Fifth Column, a group of women from Toronto who formed in 1981 and ended up collaborating for almost twelve years. Fifth Column formed with the intention of re-imagining what it meant to be in “a band”, and as self-proclaimed outsiders, decided that they would create a malleable space within which to collaborate with other artists and outsiders, whether they were musicians, photographers, or filmmakers, all of these things became one. As the project continued over its 12 year run, this inclusivity spread through cult filmmaking, and self-publication of magazines to strongly represent the Queer movement.

This story explores how these women went on to kick-start the Do-It-Yourself art making generation and inspire other groups of young women and men all over the world for the following generations, such as the Riot Grrrl and Queercore movements. Their commitment to working outside a capitalist structure made it impossible for them to claim their due as musicians and artists, despite having garnered worldwide notoriety for their work. It also explores the contributions of this group of young people to the core of Canada’s rich subculture, and investigates the reasons these cultures often slip through the cracks of our history and art-heritage. The three core members of the band, Caroline Azar, Beverly Breckenridge and G.B. Jones help tell their story here – along with other former members of the group and their friends, such as notorious filmmaker and controversial artist Bruce LaBruce, who helped create the hugely impactful J.D’s fanzine with Jones. The film also features activist, musician and writer Kathleen Hanna (Le Tigre, Bikini Kill) who fronted the Riot Grrrl movement, as well as performance artist and musician Vaginal Davis.

QCC10 - P5 - 11PM (78:00 min.)

Feature film preceded by short films and videos.

Tom’s Gift
Todd Verow & Charles Lum, USA, 2012, 7 min.

Voice-over narration describes Tom’s Gift - a sex shop in rural America closed by municipal ordinance.

2P2R
Filipe Afonso, Portugal, 2012, 11 min.

Two prostitutes wander and complain about the lack of happenings in their night. When a boy, whom they see frequently, passes on his way home, one of the women asks for something to eat, following him home. At home, one other boy waits in bed, deciding to take an action for the first (and last) time, as his plane leaves early in the morning...

Interior. Leather Bar.
James Franco and Travis Mathews, USA, 2013, 60 min.

The 1980 film Cruising (starring Al Pacino as an undercover cop investigating a murder in the NYC gay leather bar scene) was plagued with controversy, and It is famously rumoured that William Freidkin, the film’s director, was forced by the MPAA to cut and destroy 40 minutes of sexually explicit material. Those 40 minutes have never been screened publicly. Inspired by the mythology of this controversial film, filmmakers James France and Travis Mathews collaborate to imagine their own lost footage. Amid the backdrop of a frenzied film set, actor Val Lauren reluctantly agrees to take the lead in the film. Val is repeatedly forced to negotiate his boundaries during scenes on and “off camera”, as unsimulated gay sex happens around him. What emerges is a portrait of the fascinating dynamics that drive the filmmakers’ need to challenge normalcy, the interplay of celebrity and experimentation, and the dilemma faced by actors struggling to reconcile who they are with the idea of performing in a sexually explicit, gay, S&M film. The film itself is constructed as a play with boundaries remaining queer in subject and form. The result is a provocative exploration of the importance of the radical and transgressive in society and the value of engaging with things that scare us. As much a film about filmmaking as it is about an exploration of sexual and creative freedom, Interior. Leather Bar. defies easy categorization.