TREATY OF CHANCE (LA TRAITE DU HASARD)
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
SATURDAY, JULY 17	7:00PM	DGA 1	121

DIR: Patrick Mimouni, 1998, France, 35mm, 95 min.

Blurring the gap between biography and fiction, THE TREATY OF CHANCE inhabits an entirely queer world, focusing on a group of friends approaching middle-age, the nature of their survival in the face of AIDS, and the complex fluidity of their relationships. Director Patrick Mimouni stars as a filmmaker (also called Patrick) who, like his oldest friend and sometime lover, Bruno, has avoided the virus. 'Dykess' Lou Rockerfeller III and the sexy young Julien are not so lucky, though in metaphor that is typical of the film's humor, Julien continually mistakes AZT for Ecstasy! Littered with Firbankian bon mots ('now that everyone's dead, living has become so vulgar') and juggling a range of references—La Maman et la Putain, La Ronde, The Boys in the Band, Carmen—Mimouni has created a film that neverthelesss avoids archness and is remarkable for its tenderness and authenticity. — London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

PLUS SHORT: ABOVE THE SEA
DIR: Jean-Pascal Haltu, 1998, France, 35mm, 11 min.

THE THIEVES (LES VOLEURS)
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
TUESDAY, JULY 13	7:00PM	VILLAGE	60

DIR: Andre Techine, 1996, France, 35 mm, 116 min.

This psychological thriller from France features honorary lesbian Catherine Deneuve as Marie, a sensual philosophy professor who is romantically involved with one of her students, Juliette. In addition to studying philosophy and taking languorous baths with Marie, Juliette makes ends meet by stealing expensive perfume from department stores and then selling it to the local ladies of the evening. After Juliette is arrested for her petty theft, she begins an affair with Alex, the detective who arrested her and wants access to the larger band of thieves with whom Juliette associates. This character-driven film noir is richly complex and sublimely structured much like a novel, flashing back and forth such that actions unfold gradually, slowly revealing each layer. The lovers' triangle culminates in a moody meditation and takes a surprising turn in this fascinating and intense dramatic work.

VIOLENT AND SEXUAL SITUATIONS

TOO YOUNG ODE
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12	7:00PM	DGA 2	70

ODE
DIR: Kelly Reichardt, 1999, USA, video, 50 min.

TOO YOUNG (YE MAQUE)
DIR: Min-Chen Huang, 1997, Taiwan, 16mm, 40 min.

This program brings together two remarkable featurettes from opposite sides of the world, united by their astute observations of young people and first love. Fans of '70s pop culture will recall Billy Joe McAllister, who according to legend, jumped off the bridge in his rural hometown rather than face up to an unspeakable secret about himself. Kelly Reichardt's austere featurette ODE brings this fragment of American folklore to life with a grueling attention to the pain of adolescent girls and boys, and the adult lesson that the world often throws up roadblocks where it promises happiness. Understated performances and subtly stylized cinematography complete this sympthetic but uncompromising dissection of youthful disillusionment. Strangely reminiscent of yet another '70s cult classic, MY BODYGUARD, Min-Chen Huang's TOO YOUNG tells the tender story of two schoolboys overcoming alienation and self-doubt to form an intimate friendship. Pensive, tentative, but with an undercurrent of longing, the film captures young love in its painfully beauitful, penulitmate moment.

TREASURE ISLAND
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
SUNDAY, JULY 18	4:30PM	VILLAGE	138

DIR: Scott King, 1999, USA, 35mm, 86 min.

A psychosexual black comedy of incredible invention and inversion, TREASURE ISLAND masterfully weaves elements of social history and film history into a sinister but hilarious examination of identity — sexual and otherwise. Based upon a true story (but reading like an amped-up TWILIGHT ZONE episode), the film concerns a pair of World War II American war strategists who plan to dump a decoy dead body off the coast of Japan with accompanying letters and papers which establish the body's identity and former activities, designed to throw the enemy off the scent. As they invent this All-American biography, however, their imaginations drift to weird scenarios of sexual ambiguity and entanglement involving themselves, their girlfriends, each other — even the dead body itself — calling into question their own identities. Featuring stunning black-and-white cinematography, the film perfectly recaptures the heyday of classic American film-noir, while its skewed perspective and its unremitting manipulation of truth, lies and illusions create a cinematic headspace that is utterly new and bewitching.

TRICK
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
MONDAY, JULY 19	5:00PM & 8:00PM	MANN	143A/B & 144

DIR: Jim Fall, 1999, USA, 35mm, 90 min.

Opposites attract, and an unlikely chemistry begins in this modern-day fable of magical possibility brewing amid the streets, bars, alleyways and tenements of Greenwich Village.

Talented, a little horny and a lot frustrated, cute Gabriel (Christian Campbell) is tired of the familiar patterns of his life repeating themselves ad nauseam. The career he craves as a Broadway composer is always just around the corner, and his search for Mr. Right only leads him to a series of wrong turns. Things perk up when he encounters Mark (John Paul Pitoc), a hot go-go dancer at a local bar whose sultry gaze toward Gabriel turns out to be more than a bid for tips. Only one problem remains for the impromptu two: Where to go? As the crowded Village seethes with nightlife, the two guys repeatedly try and fail to find a place where they can be alone and take care of business. Interrupted by roommates, strangers, friends in need, past tricks and most hilariously by Gabriel’s stagestruck, fag-hag friend and showtune-singing colleague Katherine (an outrageous Tori Spelling), the two struggle to keep their libidos idling while, almost by accident, they also get to know each other better than they had planned.

First-time feature filmmaker Jim Fall crafts a disarmingly compelling — and tuneful — fantasy in this contemporary love story, an official selection of the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Trick perfectly captures the thrill of first lust and the possibility of a happy morning after.

- Shannon Kelley, Co-Director of Festival Programming

TROUBLE IN PARADISE
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
SATURDAY, JULY 17	4:45PM	DGA 2	118

You realize that neither one of you was ever really giving 100%. You realize that you have lost your boyfriend to an S/M dungeon. You discover that you are not as important to your girlfriend as her crack pipe or you notice that she has stopped talking to you because she is too busy writing in her diary. This collection of films and videos tell entertaining and insightful stories of relationships on the rocks or simply scream "NON-MONOGAMY SUCKS!"

50 50
DIR: Ruth Novaczek, 1997, UK, video, 4 min.

CANDY KISSES
DIR: Allyson Mitchell, 1999, Canada, 16mm, 3 min.

KALIN'S PRAYER
DIR: DeSales, 1998, USA, 16mm, 30 min.

CRASH AND BURN
DIR: David Graham, 1999, USA, 16mm, 24 min.

I'M STARVING
DIR: Yau Ching, 1999, USA, 16mm, 12 min.

LESSON 9
DIR: Mark Taylor, year, country, 16mm, 12 min.

POP TARTS
DIR: André Hereford, 1998, USA, 16mm, 11 min.

TWO FROM EYTAN FOX
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
SUNDAY, JULY 18	2:00PM	VILLAGE	134

TIME OFF
DIR: Eytan Fox, 1990, Israel, video, 45 min.

GOTTA HAVE HEART
DIR: Eytan Fox, 1997, Israel, video, 37 min.

Eytan Fox, currently one Israel's top television directors, demonstrates the keen eye for voluptuous beauty and the sure instinct for fantasy and romance which have made him one of the most important artists representing gay life in Israel. TIME OFF, an early short feature from Fox, is the first Israeli film to explore homosexuality in the army. During his military service, Yonatan finds himself singled out for an ambiguous game of cat-and-mouse by his lieutenant. On the way to meet up with his mother, Yonatan finds himself in a cruisy park where the sight of his lieutenant causes the game between them to take on a whole new dimension!

In GOTTA HAVE HEART, Fox examines the social life of the young inhabitants of a small Israeli town. They revolve around the folk dancing club, the ice cream parlor and the hot dog stand. But in private, all of the young friends harbor secret hopes and fears. Nohav dreams of the day he will win EuroTalent, the gloriously cheesy annual song contest. Even local stud Merito has a surprise up his sleeve. In a sublime understatement Fox himself describes this ineffably charming film, made for Israeli television, as a gay fantasy.

IN HEBREW WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

In collaboration with: Beth Chayim Chadashim, Congregation Kol Ami.

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
MONDAY, JULY 12	4:45PM	DGA 2	45
WEDNESDAY, JULY 14	4:45PM	DGA VIDEO	71

Ranging from the wacky and whimsical to the delightfully disturbing to the sensual eroticization of the Ken doll, this collection of short films, anchored by the documentary feature, BARBIE NATION: AN UNAUTHORIZED TOUR, in which Barbie as an anti-feminist icon is no longer de rigeur, highlights the significance of the prototypical girls' toy in queer lives. Welcome to Barbie Nation. Citizens from all parts worship, revile, but mostly just play with that shapely, plastic one-named diva, Barbie. Along the way, discover that the world's most popular toy is played with in ways Mattel never imagined. You'll meet a lesbian couple who accessorize their Barbies with nipples and piercings, and give Ken an appendage that will make it much more difficult for him to fit into Barbie's underwear. Intermingled among these diverse stories of men, women and children is the story of Barbie creator and Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler. Handler's ironic rise and fall brings Barbie Nation to a climax that is about the creation of femininity and the marketing - and subversion — of femininity's plastic icon.

PLUS SHORTS:

BARBIE NATION: AN UNAUTHORIZED TOUR
DIR: Susan Stern, 1998, USA, video, 54 min.

BABY-CUE
DIR: Hazel Grian, 1997, UK, video, 14 min.

MUNECO
DIR: Javier De La Garza, 1997, Mexico, video, 4 min.

MARY, MARY
DIR: Annie Wright, 1998, Holland, video, 9 min.

THE VELOCITY OF GARY* (*NOT HIS REAL NAME)
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
THURSDAY, JULY 15	7:00PM	VILLAGE	86

DIR: Dan Ireland, 1998, USA, 35mm, 102 min.

Starring Vincent D'Onofrio, Salma Hayek, Thomas Jane, and Ethan Hawke, THE VELOCITY OF GARY is a vibrant and unapologetic portrait of a bisexual love triangle centered on charismatic porn star, Valentino (Vincent D'Onofrio). Inspired by a true story, and set against a vanished Manhattan landscape of porn theatres and colorful all-night coffee shops, this audacious tale follows the object of affection as he slowly comes to grips with his disintegration from AIDS. Life moves quickly on the streets of New York City making survival a difficult task for Gary (Thomas Jane), a newcomer with no family or friends. Things change when he meets Valentino, with whom he finds on their encounter, an instant and powerful attraction. However, their relationship is complicated by a waitress named Mary Carmen (Salma Hayek), who works at the all night doughnut shop where they all hang out. Mary Carmen is a free-spirited woman and Valentino's ever-present girlfriend. Valentino is the love of her life but she soon realizes that she shares his heart with Gary. Mary Carmen and Gary are in a constant battle for Valentino's affections and subsequently despise each other. However, when Valentino becomes sick with AIDS, they put aside their difference and create the family they had never known.

WHEN I'M 35
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
TUESDAY, JULY 13	5:00PM	DGA 2	59

DIR: Frank Pinto, 1998, USA, 16mm, 92 mins.

Finding the perfect guy and falling in love is wonderful — but when he’s straight, it’s heartbreaking. Frank Pinto’s first feature, WHEN I’M THIRTY-FIVE puts an intriguing spin on this version of unrequited love. Meet Joe, an intellectual loner and non-practicing gay guy (read: celibate.) His first attempt to act on his gay feelings was not reciprocated. So he retreated back to the safety of his intellectual armor. Joe and his good friend Sandra rent a house by the lake while attending college. Soon after, Sandra announces that her younger brother Peter is going to stay with them for awhile. Peter is a good-looking, but emotionally disturbed young man with a haphazard lust for adventure. Despite Joe’s initial reluctance, Peter and he become inseparable friends, leading to worry and interference from Sandra. Featuring remarkable writing and performances, this tender and intimate story takes its themes of dignity and courage around a few new corners. PLUS SHORT: SHAME NO MORE, DIR: John Krokidas 1999, USA, 16mm, 12 min.

WHEN LOVE COME
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
SUNDAY, JULY 18	7:30PM	FORD	142

DIR: Garth Maxwell, 1998, New Zealand, 35mm, 94 min.

Sexual energy saturates the screen in this complex urban love story set against a vibrant world where creative energy runs rampant, illicit substances fuel artistic juices, sex is always available, but love is elusive. Garth Maxwell captures the outrageous decadence of the music business while creating characters who speak to the way that people really cope with ambition, regret, broken dreams and fear of intimacy.

Rena Owen brilliantly plays Katie Keen, an aging singer who has seen her star rise and sputter in Los Angeles and comes home to Auckland to reassess her life and reinvent herself if she can. Though she is being pursued by her hunky boyfriend Eddie, she moves in with her best mate Stephen — the only person she allows herself to lean on. Stephen plays all of Katie’s old hits, much to the bemusement of the wild and youthful object of his affection, Mark, a promising lyricist who writes through a haze of alcohol, dope and confusion. When Stephen asks Mark for more maturity than he can deliver, Mark cavorts with Fig and Sally, an extreme pair of lesbian punk rockers, hell-bent on stardom, who idolize Katie and urge Mark to bring her into the band. With warring loyalties and conflicted emotions at stake, it becomes increasingly unclear whether love, friendship and success can peacefully co-exist.

Bohemian in both form and spirit, WHEN LOVE COMES is driven by vivid characterization, gorgeously imaginative imagery, and an economical script abundantly empowered with emotion. Rena Owen delivers an electrifying performance as Katie, while Sophia Hawthorne and Nancy Brunning give Sally and Fig a kinetic sexiness. Inspirational and deeply moving, WHEN LOVE COMES is a testament to the redeeming powers of love and honesty.

WALLOWITCH & ROSS
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
MONDAY, JULY 14	7:00PM	VILLAGE	48
TUESDAY, JULY 13	2:00PM	VILLAGE	56

DIR: Richard Morris, 1998, USA, 16mm, 77 min.

A surefire treat for gay people of all ages, this uplifting documentary details the creative and loving partnership between two accomplished artists, now in their golden age and still going strong! The film introduces us to Bertram Ross, former star dancer for the Martha Graham company, and his partner John Wallowitch, renowned pianist and songwriter of the New York cabaret scene. Though we are generously treated to memorabilia and rare footage from the two men's early careers, much more central to the film is the story of their meeting in later years, and their current life together as a celebrated singing duo, the very picture of urbane sophistication so central to gay identity of the recent past. Grateful students and longtime colleagues alike attest to the couple's artistic integrity and warmth, but the film's most moving testimonials are played out in song, as the two gentlemen pass time at home and in performance, spinning off amusing anecdotes and clever tunes like so many jewels at Tiffany's.
In collaboration with: West Hollywood Senior Center and Project Rainbow

WHY NOT ME? (POURQUOIS PAS MOI?)
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
MONDAY, JULY 12	7:15PM	DGA 1	51

DIR: Stéphane Giusti, 1999, France,35mm, 94 min.

OUTFEST christens the French Film Series, VIVE LA DIFFERENCE!, with this charmingly buoyant romantic comedy about three dykes and a disco bunny who decide it is finally time to tell their parents the truth about their sexuality. Eve, Ariane, Camille and Nicolas are four cute twentysomethings with four things in common - they work together in "Lovespace" a publishing house they have launched, they are dependant on Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"

To ward off depression, they are all reluctantly pushing thritysomething, and they are all flamingly queer. Tired of playing the beard, the skirt, and the innocent roommate for one another, they decide it is time to confront their worst fears - their parents. Fortunately, Camillle's mother - the sort of woman who would wear "I love my dyke daughter" on a t-shirt - decides to hold a weekend party for the foursome and their parents, so that the truth can be told in a lavish and loving environment. But drama, chases, secrets, wild laughter and compromising situations erupt, taking even the parents for a ride on the wild side. Giusti's delectably juicy dialog is perfectly timed, placed and delivered by a sterling cast of irresistible young newcomers and established stars such as Johnny Hallyday and Marie-France Pisier. Funny and intelligent, WHY NOT ME? is a delightful bon-bon served up by a French talent to watch.

WOMEN OF VISION
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
SATURDAY, JULY 10	4:45PM	DGA VIDEO	18
SUNDAY, JULY 11	1:00PM	DGA VIDEO	29
MONDAY, JULY 12	9:30PM	DGA VIDEO	54

DIR: Alexandra Juhasz, 1998, video, 80 min.

Art and politics, and the fusion of the two, form the focus of WOMEN OF VISION, a groundbreaking three-part documentary chronicling five decades of feminist film and videomaking in the United States. Through profiles of 18 feminist filmmakers, videomakers and critics, director Alexandra Juhasz celebrates the diversity that has characterized the work of feminists from the 1950s through the women's movement of the 60s and 70s to the current day. Their dedication to political, personal and artistic change is evident in the samples of their work in the fields of experimental film and video, historical documentary, digital art, and community activist videomaking. WOMEN OF VISION serves as both an informative introduction to the beauty and passion of independent film and media and an up-to-date look at the latest cutting-edge work in the field of feminist film and videomaking.

In collaboration with :ONE Institute

WOUBI CHERI SUNFLOWERS
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
SATURDAY, JULY 17	9:45PM	DGA 2	127

WOUBI CHÉRI
DIR: Phillip Brooks & Laurent Bocahut, 1998, France, video, 62 min.

SUNFLOWERS
DIR: Shawn Hainsworth, 1996, USA, video, 50min.

Two videos produced by Western filmmakers explore homosexual and transgender identity in Africa and Asia. Woubi Ch éri is an honest and touching portrait of the emerging gay community of the African Ivory Coast and its struggle for acceptance. Our introduction to the gay citizens of Abidjan, the capital city, reveals how sex and gender roles are divided into three specific categories: woubis (gay men who play the "wife" in a relationship with another male); yossis (bisexual men, perhaps married, who play the "husband" role); and transvestites, who call themselves "bats" because they go out only at night. Sunflowers celebrates queer integration in a rural town in the Philippines. The film focuses on a Christian festival, which the gay townspeople perform in drag. A testament of how gay and straight people can live together, the film offers a touching portrait of one community in which the homosexual minority is met with acceptance by the heterosexual majority.

IN FRENCH AND TAGALOG AND ENGLISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

In collaboration with: The Pan African Film and Art Festival.

X-GAY
DATE	TIME	LOCATION	PROGRAM #
SUNDAY, JULY 11	3:45PM	DGA 2	34

This ironic, campy, and oft times hilarious collection of progressive/regressive films and videos follows gays and ex-gays they struggle with their homosexuality, become disenchanted with queer commercialization, create new queer identities, and run flamingly back into the closet.

MY BODY
DIR: Joel Moffet, 1997, USA, 16mm, 30 min.

EVERYBODY LOVES NOTHING (Empathetic Excercises)
DIR: Steve Reinke, 1996, CanadaA, video, 11 min.

HETE ROY
DIR: J.J. Sedelmaier, 1998, USA, video, 2 min.

STARGAZE
DIR: Jason McBride, 1998, Canada, 16mm, 12 min.

GAY SHAME '98
DIR: Scott Berry, 1998, USA, video, 8 min. A CASE FOR THE CLOSET
DIR: Glenn Belverio & Bruce La Bruce, 1995, USA, video, 29 min.