[WQ40] Reel Queer Stories: People Have the Power [2024-04-06]

[hermionesviolin]

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Reel Queer Stories
People Have the Power
Saturday, Apr 6 @ 12:00 pm
ArtsEmerson Paramount Center

WQ blurbed this as: "This collection of short documentary films highlights our histories, our current realities and our activism in our collective fight for a better future."

For some reason, the blurbs on the WQ site end with ellipses (though the full-text shows up when I copy-paste?), but the Emerson site had the full blurbs.  I prefer the formatting of the Emerson site, so that's what I'm using. 

My partner felt like the films got worse as they went along, which I'm inclined to agree with.

I think that they generally struggled with trying to do too much.

1. There Are Things To Do
Directed by Mike Syers
2023 | 18 MIN | USA | in English | Lesbian

Urvashi Vaid, an outspoken immigrant, lesbian and woman of color was an LGBTQ+ superhero helped shape the modern day gay rights movement. Her vision for the movement serves as a roadmap of initiatives & tools for generations of activist as they face anti-LGBTQ+ backlash. The film features Urvashi’s life in Provincetown, MA and 34-year relationship with partner Kate Clinton, and inspires us that the best place to build community & work towards equality starts at home.

I don't think I'd heard of Urvashi before, but I learned a bunch about her in this, and the film was consistently interesting.  We start with someone talking about how she protested the Vietnam War at age 11.  She was involved with the 1993 March on Washington.

The film covers a lot, and also takes care not to feel rushed (we, with Urvashi and Kate, relax in their homebase of Provincetown, MA -- where we also get concrete examples of Urvashi's locally-focused activism -- during the latter portion of the film), but looking back on it I would have liked more actionable takeaways (especially given the promise of the blurb).

2. House of Tulip
Directed by Cydney Tucker
2022 | 24 MIN | USA | in English | Trans

House of Tulip follows two Black trans activists as they run for office and work to build Louisiana’s first housing refuge that provides residency for trans and gender non-conforming residents. We’ll follow the founders as they fight to use their organization to protect and build community in a state with one of the highest gun-related murder rates in the country. Their journeys will highlight the dangerous yet beautiful reality of what it means to be Black trans women in the deep South.

This short opens with Mariah Moore -- who helped found House of Tulip and is running for City Council (District D, 2021).  Then we also get Milan -- who I think also helped found House of Tulip.  Their storylines have very different vibes (Milan's includes other youth who have been helped by House of Tulip, as well as a TDoR march; where Mariah's is more reflective and involves her run for City Council).  While there's a nice bit at the end that interweaves the two narratives, they largely felt disconnected to me and like I was watching two (or more) separate films.

I respect that Mariah's desire to run for City Council comes out of the same passion that drove her to help found House of Tulip -- but I think I maybe would have preferred a film that was just about House of Tulip (and possibly a separate film about her City Council run -- at the end of the film we learn, IIRC, that she raised the most money of the candidates in her district, which is the most conservative district in NOLA). One of my notes says, "housing really sets the stage for eliminating violence," and I would have loved more than just the glimpses we get of the services they offer, how they respond to community need, etc.

3. Ferro’s Bar
Directed by Aline A. Assis, Fernanda Elias, Nayla Guerra, Rita Quadros
2023 | 24 MIN | Brazil | in Portuguese with English Subtitles | Lesbian

Based on historical documents and interviews with lesbian who lived and fought in the 1970s and 1980s, during the military dictatorship, we are guided to a central episode in the formation of the Brazilian lesbian movement, the “Ferro’s Bar Uprising”, known as the “Brazilian Stonewall”. The film shows how lesbians stopped being restricted to the night, the inside of the apartments, and became a political subject that rises up against the censorship, repression and homophobic violence.

It was cool to learn about a Brazilian version of Stonewall (though this one is pretty solidly about lesbians). Having not reread the blurb before seeing the films live, I did not realize at the beginning that this was gonna be leading up to a Stonewall type action (I thought it was just a retrospective about a lesbian bar). I think the film probably could have been crafted a bit better to help orient me as the film went along.

4. Conte: Transitioning Politics
Directed by Daniel Leonard Bernardi
2023 | 24 MIN | USA | in English | Trans

In the face of intense political rivalry and relentless media scrutiny, this film chronicles the extraordinary journey of Joanne Conte, an Italian immigrant’s child who not only breaks barriers as the first elected transgender city council member in U.S. history but also fearlessly forges an enduring legacy as a soldier, activist, politician, and investigative journalist. Conte embodies a defiant spirit of resilience and unwavering commitment to public service.

The film is not as coherent as this blurb would suggest.  

We open with a clip from a radio show about legislation being introduced in Colorado which would expand non-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.  I think it's Chris Daly who introduced the bill, or at least is talking about it on the radio show?  And so I (who had not reread these blurbs before seeing the films live) assumed the short was gonna be about that particular legislative battle.  I remembered some about those battles here in Massachusetts, but didn't know anything about how they played out in Colorado and was interested.

But then we pivot to Daly talking about meeting Conte when he was hired by the Arvada City Council (when she was a sitting council member) and talking about how much she cared about her constituents and was beloved by them.  We maybe start, in fact, with her insisting that he come to a baseball game with her, and him being worried when they see other City Council members at the game?  Which doesn't make any fucking sense at the time in the film, since we don't hear about Conte being disliked by her fellow City Council members or anything.  Like, he talks about how at his ostensible job interview, the Council is mostly arguing with each other about stuff from previous meetings -- but that felt pretty standard City Council to me.

There are some hints from the other primary speaker in the documentary [I forgot her name, but IMDb says it's Mary Hudgins] that Conte is trans, but mostly it just felt like a standard biopic.

Eventually we get to Maury Povich (ah, the 90s) and I honestly don't super remember what exactly is in the film -- since Abby and I did a bunch of Internet research afterward -- but I think basically someone discovered that Conte was trans, was maybe gonna try to blackmail her with it?, she opted to disclose ... she doesn't get re-elected to City Council, starts her own radio show, eventually dies, Daly gives the eulogy at her (sparsely attended) funeral.

(So we decided afterward that this baseball game event from the beginning of the film must have been after she got outed. And the radio clip was probably from her radio show.)

We get some about her later life -- about how her longtime friend/partner Sandy took care of her.  Early on, I think Mary says that Sandy is her (Mary's) step-mother.  It's only in the closing credits that we learn Sandy and Joanne had been married and stayed close friends after the transition/divorce.  We eventually learn that Mary knew Conte pre-transition -- and it's only in that one clip that she deadnames/misgenders Conte.

Abby and I later learned that she only served on Arvada City Council for 4 years (1991-1995), which seems to be 1 term, in which case she was never elected while out.

I learned in Googling that Daly and Conte met "when he was hired as the city attorney in 1995."  Which was her last year in office. So it feels a little weird that so much of what Daly talks about was Conte's time on City Council -- though it does seem like that was where she had the biggest impact.

Despite the blurb, any work Conte did after City Council gets only brief mention in the film. I definitely came away from the film with the impression that she served on City Council for a long time and didn't do much after she left City Council.

5. The Pride Liar
Directed by Andres Lübbert
2023 | 19 MIN | Belgium | in Dutch, English, Georgian | Queer

Emzo, a courageous queer activist, escaped persecution in Georgia five years ago, finding refuge in Belgium. This short documentary captures his unyielding commitment to the LGBTQ+ cause, showcasing the indomitable spirit of one individual’s fight for acceptance and equality.

I understand why this film dropped pieces of information throughout, but it meant I struggled to follow the actual timeline. There are also various protests throughout the film, which I think mainly (possibly all) happened in Belgium, but we weren't sure what language Emzo was speaking, and so we wondered who the audience of the protest was (e.g., if he was in Belgium but speaking Georgian, would the average passerby have understood him?).

I appreciated the inclusion of an activism film focusing outside the U.S., but...

Comments

[lunabee34]

Thanks for these!