Vaughn Lowery in The Young and Evil
MadProfessah attended the 6th Fusion LGBT POC film Festival in Los Angeles last weekend and saw the following shorts at the Opening Night Gala:
Unfortunately, I missed the Metro/Sexual Shorts on Saturday, since I was attending the EQCA Donor Reception at which MassEquality Executive Director Marc Solomon was introduced as the new Marriage Director for Equality California.EL ABUELO, Dir. Dino Dinco, 2008, 3 min. An intimate portrait of local educator and poet Joe Jimenez, shot on location in San Antonio, Texas. A very attractive hombre is shown lovingly preparing his "homie" uniform at home: ironing his white shirt, his bandanna and even his shorts, while the powerful words of Joe Jimenez ring in our ears as we get a little glimpse into the possibility that same-sex attraction could exist even in the ultra machismo world of Latino gang-bangers. GRADE: B+/A-.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Dir. Roberta Marie Munroe, 2008, 15 min.
Hannah wants a baby. Abigail wants a dildo. Jack and Madeleine like things just the way they are. Intended to be a comedy and written to that fact, the script is ill-served by the screenwriter also serving as the director for what appears to be an either under- or over- rehearsed cast. Clearly the film-maker wants us to wrestle with the dichotomies of women f***ing other women (with strap-on rubber "enhancements") and the complications that the penetrative act can place upon relationships in which both parties are the same-sex and neither has a penis. However, the assumptions behinf her depictions of butch/femme and top/bottom binaries are too simplistic and lacking nuance to make this film anything more than an honorable misfire. GRADE: B-.
THE BATH, Dir. Mi-rang Lee, 2007, (Korean with English subtitles). 20 min. Two sisters share a poignant moment of realization. This is a very subtle film, which happily is able to communicate its message quite clearly despite being in a language foreign to most. There are some slight miscues with the acting, because although the audience is quick to recognize that there are some serious societal taboos being explored and broken, at some points it seems like the film might be about incest when instead it is imply about a family wrestling with a member's gender identity. GRADE: B+.
THE YOUNG AND THE EVIL, Dir. Julian Breece, 2008, 15 min.
A highly intelligent but troubled gay black teen sets out to seduce an HIV-positive prevention advocate into giving him the virus. Visually stunning but highly disturbing content with a remarkable performance by Vaughn Lowery as the very troubled young teen Karel who seeks increasingly dangerous situations, including having unprotected anal sex with HIV-positive men. Contains shocking and arousing images of very attractive men doing things that we don't want to watch but can't stop watching. Problematic indeed, but intensely memorable. GRADE: A-.
LA CORONA, Dir. Amanda Mitchell and Isabel Vega, 2008, 40 min.
Female murderers compete ferociously for a beauty pageant crown in prison. An absolutely stunning tour de force. This film was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 2009 Academy Awards and is clearly one of the best short films on the festival circuit. The setting at first seems so incongruous that initially the viewer is disoriented and thinks "Surely, this must be fictional?" But, as many others have said, truth is often stranger than fiction. The intense desire to win a beauty pageant in a Colombian women's jail is communicated so starkly in the faces of the actual contestants that the film very quickly captivates the audience and we are left rooting for our favorite to win "la corona." The recognition what is entertainment for the viewer is much much more for the women in the film puts this film head and shoulders above its competition. GRADE: A.
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