Leave it to Brown to bring together a drag-king motor-home tour bus, Argentinean punk lesbians named Mao and Lenin, and the best love scene according to Girlfriends magazine. In a whirlwind of unique films with a something-for-everyone objective, "Queer Window," Brown's first LGBTQ film and video festival, continues through Sunday at Providence's Cable Car Cinema.
This debut festival, which opened Thursday, is ambitious technically and ideologically. It is wedged in between last month's French Film Festival and the upcoming Africana, Ivy and Latin American Film festivals. In only four days, the Cable Car will host 12 feature-length films and 26 film shorts in 14 screenings, along with hosting guest speaker and acclaimed producer-director Rodney Evans '93. Each film will be shown once. No film is more than four years old, and most were released in 2003 or 2004.
The festival samples the diversity of contemporary cinema with an aim to broaden the definition of gay, lesbian and queer film.
Festival posters depict an apartment building whose windows feature scenes from different films. As the "Queer Window" title and materials suggest, this weekend's moviegoers can "look into different lives, through different windows and different visions," said Lynne Joyrich, associate professor of Modern Culture and Media and head of the festival steering committee. The goal of the festival is to bring "narrative and visual pleasure," she said.
Eugenie Brinkema GS, a member of the festival's steering committee, said she sees "Queer Window" "as an activist film festival, not just for cinephiles." According to Brinkema, discussions of queerness are not limited to large cities with festivals like New York or San Francisco. A prescreening loop of movie factoids as well as exciting guest introducers from LGBTQ groups Marriage Equality, Youth Pride, Inc., and Equity Actions - and even a drag show - should be the start of discussions that "bring together people before films even start," she said.
Movies range from documentary to narrative to experimental, from high art to crowd pleasers. Some overtly broach issues of queerness, such as the independent shorts in "Transitions and Intersections," which include animation and documentaries about "gender outlaw" identities. Other films are less explicit, like the 2004 Cannes Special Jury Prize winner "Tropical Malady," a Thai/French film lauded for developing a "new language in cinema."
Many of the films' directors are Brown alumni. "Emerging Queer," a collection of films by and about LGBTQ youth, includes the prom parody "Camaflogue Pink" by recent Brown grads Laura Rodriquez '03 and Carolyn Caizzi '02. Angela Robinson '92 contributes "D.E.B.S," released by Sony in major cities March 25, about Catholic schoolgirls turned secret agents.
Evans is attracting the most attention. He will close the festival on Sunday with a question-and-answer session for his film, "Brother to Brother," a story that connects the struggles of a contemporary gay artist with the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
Evans is earning attention in an industry with few successful gay black men, and his film has been lauded as one of the first feature-length films about the Harlem Renaissance, Brinkema said. The film's awards include a 2004 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize and the Independent Feature Project's Gordon Parks Award.
An MCM concentrator, Evans praised in the Boston Globe the critical education he received, explaining, "You're forced to think about the ways in which what you make has an effect on culture and the society around you, whether you like it or not." He will teach a production workshop for MCM students on Monday.
Organizers hoped that a diversity of content will appeal to an extended community that includes, but also goes beyond Brown and Providence to the greater New England area, they said. Festival volunteers include Johnson and Wales, Rhode Island College, and University of Rhode Island students.
Conceptually, the festival has been a growing project for Joyrich, who teaches a tangential course, MC 0150, Sec. 06: "Seeing Queerly: Queer Theory, Film, Video." Joyrich and Brinkema both said "Queer Window" is also a product of the high graduate, undergraduate and extended New England interest. Depending on the success of this year's festival, the committee will consider putting on a similar event in future years.
The Malcolm S. Forbes Center for Research in Culture and Media Studies and the MCM department are the festival's primary sponsors.
