I joined the group from Congregation Beth Sholom marching in the Pride Parade in Anchorage today. I'm splitting this into two or three posts, starting with the parade. But it was a good day, lots and lots of people out, quite a few company sponsors, some protesters, and lots of dogs and food.
So let's start with prepping for the parade around 8th and F Street.
Right behind Congregation Beth Sholom was the National Park Service.
I knew who Sally Ride was, but knew nothing about Pauli Murray until I got home and googled. Very briefly, she was born in 1903, lost both parents very early, but got herself to Hunter College, but dropped out after she couldn't get work during the crash in 1929. University of North Carolina wouldn't admit her in 1938 because she was black, but her case was widely known and she met Eleanor Roosevelt. She did graduate from Howard, and though she got a prestigious scholarship into Harvard Law School, was rejected ultimately because she was a woman. Instead she went to Boalt School of Law at the University of California. It gets better and better. You can read all about Pauli Murray here.
"Albert Cashier was born Jennie Irene Hodgers on Christmas day, 1843 in Clogherhead, Ireland. . .
Cashier then found his way to Illinois as a stowaway[3][4], though the timing of this is also unclear. He worked a few different jobs including as a laborer, farmhand, and shepherd[5], all the while passing as male. In August of 1862 he enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry, Union army of the American Civil War as “Albert D. J. Cashier” in Belvidere, IL[6][7]. He remained in the army for three years before he returned to civilian life[8]."
Finally, Gilbert Baker. He's the man who created the rainbow flag. I didn't know about him either. He died March 31 this year at age 65. Let him tell you about the flag's creation himself in this video I found at Gilbert's website which has more videos:
One of the great things about blogging is that I learn all this stuff I didn't know and probably wouldn't have known if I weren't going to write about what I saw and did today.
Here's a shot of people on the float of the Asian Community as we marched by and they were in a cross street waiting to join the parade.
I'm not much of a parade person, but it was fun seeing the people lining the streets from within parade itself.
I'm guessing that this is Daphne, since the Anchorage Pridefest website says that Daphne will read the group bios as they get to this point. And that's what she's doing here.
I have lots more pictures. I'm trying to figure out how to organize them. There are a number of dog pictures, there's the strange protest group that got masked by white angels and drums, there are the businesses and other organizations that had booths, and just a mix of other people I met along the way. More soon.
Last summer, already campaigning at PrideFest, Christopher Constant told me (off camera, but his poster didn't hide things) that if he won his seat on the Anchorage Assembly (city council), he'd be the first openly gay member.
He won yesterday, but he wasn't exactly right. Because another openly gay candidate, Felix Rivera, in mid-town, won a seat as well. Here's the video I took of Chris last summer. You can see he's not coming onto the Assembly without experience and knowledge about the neighborhoods he will represent.
I took some liberty with the headline. I doubt any Anchorage voters even knew about the Dutch hand-holding protest when they voted. I'm guessing that most people who voted for Christopher Constant or Felix Rivera didn't even knew they were gay. It didn't really come up in the election until the very end when one of Rivera's opponents sent out a last minute attack ad, and even that used coded language rather than say he was gay. And Rivera got 46% of the vote in a four way race. The next highest opponent got 29%.
No, Anchorage elected two gay men, not because they were gay (though perhaps some voted against them for that reason) but because they were the strongest candidates in their races.
So this is a milestone after a lot of bitter history over this issue.
And here's Felix Rivera at the AFACT candidate forum a couple of weeks ago.
Dutch Hand Holding Protest
While there was no direct connection between the Anchorage election, and the Dutch protest, there are a lot of indirect connections. The article says that after the attack on the married couple who were walking home holding hands, the prime minister condemned the attack. But two lawmakers took it a step further.
"Alexander Pechtold, who is the leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, arrived hand in hand with his party’s financial specialist, Wouter Koolmees, in support of Vernes-Sewratan and Sewratan-Vernes. “We think it is quite normal in the Netherlands to express who you are,” Pechtold said, according to People."
Then lots of Dutch men posted pictures of themselves holding hands in support of the couple. One picture in the article shows a group of men who work at the Dutch embassy in London walking along the street holding hands.
Jay and Gene ran Out North, a small theater/art space that regularly brought acts that challenged conventional thinking. They played a huge role in giving Anchorage a space in which to stretch its mind and continue to reexamine long held assumptions. I'm sure Out North played a role in preparing Anchorage for this day, when two openly gay men have been elected to the Assembly in a race where their sexual preference was almost completely a non-issue. For those of you who think I've gone off in a totally different tangent, Jay and Gene now live in London where those Dutch Embassy colleagues held hands. Jay and Gene they got fed up living in a state that vigorously denied their right to get married and moved to UK. But they did come back to Anchorage to get married here after that became possible.
Holding Hands In Thailand
I'd like to make one more connection to the idea of men holding hands. When I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, one of the American values that was deeply embedded in me was that men do NOT hold hands.
But in Thailand they do. It's no big deal. It happens all the time. Dealing with my own visceral response when men wanted to hold hands with me in Thailand, helped me understand the idea of biases that our cultures teach us without us even knowing that they are biases. Instead we think that they are 'truths' about nature. In this case, that it is unnatural for men to hold hands. But in Thai culture it isn't and a gradually became comfortable when someone took my hand as we walked somewhere.
The Other Winning Assembly Candidates
Here are some pictures of the other winners last night.
Suzanne LaFrance at the AFACT candidate forum March 12. She's won the south Anchorage seat 6 that tends to be conservative. But not always. Janice Shamberg held this seat. Suzanne LaFrance was supported by Berkowitz. In fact all the winners were except Dyson.
Tim Steele also missed the March 12 forum and I don't seem to have a picture of him in my files.
I realize this post seems to wander all over the place, but society is complicated. Lots of things are interrelated and if we look at everything as an isolated event suitable for a Tweet, then we don't get all that interconnectedness.
Back in December I got some video of the Q&A at the Anchorage International Film Festival's GayLa night. Alex Myung's animated film Arrival opened. It's a visually beautiful story of a young, Asian-American gay man leaving for the big city and later coming out to his mom. It got the first runner up award for animation at the festival.
The second film, a feature documentary called Real Boy, follows Bennett Wallace's transition to a boy.
After the showing, they went on stage together to answer questions. I've paraphrased the question below. I got most of the Q&A but I think there were a few more questions I missed.
The first went to Alex. The Bennett got some, and then it went back to Alex for the last one.
For Alex:
Q1: Was this how you came out or someone you know?
Q2: Was it always going to be a film without dialog?
For Bennett:
Q3: How has the relationships with your parents evolved since the film?
Q4: Given that the film portrays your cutting yourself, what would you tell kids today who are cutting?
Q5: Would it have helped you to see a film like this? [Spoiler: "It would have changed my life."
Q6: How did the film come about?
Q7: How did it feel living your life with the camera on you all the time? [Spoiler: "At first I felt I always had to say something really profound. That didn't last long." "It was difficult when we filmed in public."
Q8: How is Joe doing now?
For Alex:
Q9: I seemed to see a Miyazaki influence, was he a model for you?
I've got lots more video than I have time to go through without staying up to 3am each night. I'll get it up when I can. I accidentally got my Rebel to get into this 3X digital video (don't know how I got there or how to turn it off) that works great for after the film Q&A. But what I got is long and needs editing. Unfortunately a project I've been working on since last spring or so, requires more of my time just this week.
But this has been a great festival so far in terms of the quality of films and the film makers here. So here are some glimpses of things I haven't put up yet.
I haven't taken pictures during the movie for a very long time, but it just seemed I had to do it with the Adventures of Prince Achmed. I'll get more up soon (I hope.)
This was the 1926 German animated film created by Lotte Reiniger. They say it's the oldest full length animated film in existence. It was wonderful, paper cuttings animation. The Milestone Films (where you can buy the DVD) says:
"This cinematic treasure has been beautifully restored with its spectacular color tinting and with a new orchestral recording of the magnificent 1926 score by Wolfgang Zeller."
Miles and Karina with AIFF director Rebecca Pottebaum
Well, we didn't get the 1926 score by Zeller with the film. Instead we got an enchanted score by Miles and Karina (David Keenan and Nova Devonie).
They are pictured here after the film with AIFF Director Rebecca Pottebaum.
Putnam and Hunter
Prince Achmed was followed by The First Girl I Loved- a beautiful and touching . . . ok, it's hard to write a short description of a movie without sounding clichéd and hypish. It's the story of a high school student and her first love, told in a way that makes them any two awkward high school students exploring their feelings and how to connect. The picture is of the film's producers Ross Putnam and David Hunter.
Tuesday night (it's the beginning of Wednesday as I write) we The Best and Most Beautiful Things paired with Real Boy. The two films complemented each other perfectly. In both documentaries the film makers essentially moved in with the families whose stories they were capturing on film. In Best and Most Beautiful - the focus was on Michele Smith who, while legally blind, is determined to be herself and live a full and rich life. The producer/directorGarrett Zevgetis - on the right there - said one way they were able to get the trust of the family and the intimacy they got, was by having female camera folks. I have a close friend who is blind and I appreciated how well the story demonstrated the kinds of barriers society puts up for blind people. Michele finds an accepting community in the local BDSM community, where, as Garrett explained in the Q&A, people are very accepting and non-judgmental and there is a structure that offers control and safety. Michele's sign for the gay pride festival says "Redefine Normal." That's appropriate for the next film too.
Credits Real Boy
Real Boy shares a very similar documentary style of the filmmakers living with the family for a long period of time and capturing candid and difficult conversations among the family members over Rachel's name and body change to Bennett. An incredible scene shows Ben talking to a bunch of transitioning teens online demonstrating how modern technology is making finding like souls much easier than in the past. He even finds a close friend named Dylan who is having his surgery the same day and place and they travel together. I've got some video of Ben's Q&A afterward and will try to get it up before too long.
Real Boy's subject Bennett Wallace was there for the showing, sang a couple of songs and then was joined by animator Alex Myung, whose beautiful short animation - Arrival - showed before Real Boy. There's a short video of Alex I got opening night here, and I've got video of the Q&A that I'll get up eventually.
Finally I got to talk to John Serpe whose film The Happys I missed last Sunday, but which will show again Sunday [Saturday] at 2pm. I'll put up the video of his pitch before then. Of interest to me was the origin of the name - The Happys - which John said was a rough translation of the part of LA where the film was made - Los Feliz. It's also a part I know from growing up in LA and living in nearby Silverlake before we came to Alaska 39 years ago.
I was going to add dates of the second showing of the movies mentioned in this post, but when I checked, it turns out that most aren't having a second showing. There are some feature films showing twice, but not most of those in competition. I highly recommend Planet Ottakring which plays again on Saturday at 7pm. Some of the award winners will play again Sunday night, but there won't be much warning of what they are. I'll try to live blog and tweet the awards ceremony.
"The funny and touching story of Anne Santos, who has decided it’s not worth coming out as a lesbian at her LA public school — until she falls in love with Sasha Basañez, a star athlete even more in the closet than she is."
There's a Short Docs and an Animation program at AK Experience at noon today. [UPDATE 1:15pm: Whoops, we got to the theater and found out Animation was at the Museum where we went, and the Short Docs were at the 49th State Brewing Company. Sorry. The rest looks right. But going to a festival is a little like being a ball on a pool table. You may be going to do something, but you meet a film maker, or something is full, or you go to the wrong venue, and you end up going in another direction, that turns out to be interesting. There was one film in the animation today that I thought was brilliant - a Burmese film called My Life I Don't Want - which in very basic and simple terms tells the universal story of women.
[UPDATE January 23, 2018: I've removed mention of a film and the video on the request of the film maker, who has removed the film from circulation.]
NANA - is a film by a granddaughter about her grandmother who died when the younger one was 11. She learns Nana had been in Auschwitz and reads her memoir. And makes this movie. 2pm at the Anchorage Museum Global Village is a program of short films at 3:45 at AK Experience Theater today.
At the same time (3:45pm at AkExperience) is the Holly Kane Experiment. I'd asked one of the Feature programers about good features that didn't get into competition and he mentioned this one.
Features are full length fictional films. Films in competition are those chosen by the original screeners to be eligible for awards.
a list of the super shorts in competition
list of the programs where they appear and when
description of each super short in competition in alphabetical order
I'd note that while these are the screeners picks, screeners don't always agree, so some would have chosen other super shorts as the best. I often disagree with the screeners, but this is a good start.
"In January 1914, a horrific murder shocked the city of Budapest. Elza Mágnás, a famous courtesan, was strangled and her body thrown into the icy waters of the Danube. The film which is based on a true story chronicles the last four days of Elza’s life through the eyes of a naive maid, portraying Elza’s complex relationship with her housekeeper, her sugar daddy and her young lover. (HFM)"
Director Szász's The Ambassador To Bern won the best feature at the 2014 AIFF. It was an excellent film and I'm sure this one will be a contender this year. I did a Skype interview with Szász then and part of it was about this film. I'll try to edit it to focus on Demimonde. But it's in sections with transcript so it is easy to find.
Here's what he said two years ago:
"Q: What's the new film about?
The assassination of a famous courtesan….Years ago that shook up the entire city of Budapest, everybody was talking about it because the courtesan was very famous, everyone knew about her and they were shocked because someone famous was getting murdered.
Q: Was that before or after the Arch Duke got shot?
It’s before. It takes place in January, so it’s maybe a couple of months before the assassination [of the Arch Duke]. It’s a style piece. It’s the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. So it’s very difficult to recreate the era, because we have to start from scratch, the costumes, the props, set, everything. And we have so little money again, but I just couldn’t refuse this chance because the script is again something I love very much. I was warned, do you remember the first time you had to shoot in 17 days with so little money, you suffered and you were frustrated, and you want to do it again? I said, yes, because it’s a good script and we have now, nineteen days so it’s two more days, - piece of cake - probably it's a bit longer, the story. so it’s very difficult to shoot again, but hopefully next time we’ll have the backing of the film fund and we’ll have maybe three or four times the time and money, because it’s normal that Hungarian films are being shot in 35, 40, maybe 45 days and we had less than 20 both times."
"Peter Latang (Jesse Wakeman) left working class Warwick, Rhode Island to reinvent himself as a slick, Wall Street mover and shaker. Fifteen years later, when he's forced to return home to bury his Grandmother he loses his wallet on the trip. Stranded, the only person he can think of to help him out is his next door neighbor and former childhood friend Donald Treebeck (Kris Avedisian). Donald hasn't changed a bit, and what starts as a simple favor turns into a long van ride into their past."
And interesting point from the director's notes from the same link:
"For me specifically it had a lot to do with the guilt of how I treated people in high school and the guilt I carried with me. Jesse and Kyle (co-writers) come from the same really small town in Northern California and brought elements of their experience going home. All the Rhode Island elements, the people the neighborhoods, were very specific to my experience growing up there in the 80's."
"Anne (Dylan Gelula, from Netflix’s “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) is a mildly quirky 17-year-old who lives with her single mom (Pamela Adlon) and exercises her arty side as photographer for the school yearbook. It’s in the latter capacity that she encounters softball-playing senior star athlete Sasha (Brianna Hildebrand), and is instantly smitten. "
"Sinopsis: Tati y Pedro llevan una vida rutinaria hasta que él amanece convertido psicológicamente en un niño. Buscando la cura Tati lleva a Pedro a donde él vivió su infancia, allí Pedro se reencuentra con su familia y a ninguno reconoce, en cambio juega y es feliz como cuando realmente era niño. Después de que su madre lo ve en una de sus crisis decide revelar un secreto, esto hace que Tati lleve a Pedro a seguir las huellas de su padre. Encontrarlo para que haga catarsis es la última esperanza."
Bear with me on this one. This some interesting background that will add depth to your understanding of the movie. I couldn't find a good English description for this film, so I started with the German synopsis from the film's website:
"Eine Krise zieht ihre Kreise um den Planet Ottakring: Disko, der letzte Pate stirbt, Frau Jahn, Kredithai vor Ort, übernimmt die Macht. In dieser Situation gerät die Wirtschaft des Bezirks ins Strudeln. Sammy ein junger und nicht sehr überzeugter Kleinganove, aber Erbe Diskos, ist gezwungen zu handeln. Valerie – Wirtschaftsstudentin aus Deutschland – gerät im Zuge ihrer Masterarbeit ins Zentrum des Geschehens. Gemeinsam mit Sammy und seinen Freunden bilden sie eine Allianz gegen die heimtückische Vorgangsweise von Frau Jahn und finden dabei ein Wirtschaftssystem, von dem eigentlich alle profitieren können. Wären da nicht auch noch Gefühle mit im Spiel. David gegen Goliath in Wiens 16. Bezirk!"
Here's my translation with some help from internet dictionaries. I was still a little uncertain, but checked with an Austrian friend, who confirmed I'd gotten the gist and then I was able to tweak it into more idiomatic English.
"A crisis erupts in the Viennese neighborhood of Ottakring. Disko, the last godfather, dies. Mrs. Jahn, a local loan shark, takes power. The economy of this district then goes to hell. A younger, and not very eager minor hoodlum, Sammy, Disko's heir, is forced to act. Valerie - a business student from Germany [it's an Austrian film] - while working on her masters thesis, finds herself in the center of the action. She builds an alliance with Sammy and his friend against the malicious approach of Mrs. Jahn and through this finds an economic system in which all can profit. If only there weren't feelings coming into play. David and Goliath in Vienna's 16th district."
Poking around with my sketchy German that is certainly no match for Viennese dialect, I did discover that the movie's ideas go back to an experiment in the 1930s in a place called Wörgl where they had a "money-experiment" to deal with the desperate economic situation. This comes from a post about the film when it was shown in Wörgl.
I did also find something on this in English at Lietaer.com:
"One of the best-known applications of the stamp scrip idea was applied in the small town of Wörgl in Austria in 1932 and 1933. When Michael Unterguggenberger (1884-1936) was elected mayor of Wörgl, the city had 500 jobless people and another 1,000 in the immediate vicinity. Furthermore, 200 families were absolutely penniless. The mayor-with-the-long-name (as Professor Irving Fisher from Yale would call him) was familiar with Silvio Gesell‘s work and decided to put it to the test.
He had a long list of projects he wanted to accomplish (re-paving the streets, making the water distribution system available for the entire town, planting trees along the streets and other needed repairs.) Many people were willing and able to do all of those things, but he had only 40,000 Austrian schillings in the bank, a pittance compared to what needed to be done.
Instead of spending the 40,000 schillings on starting the first of his long list of projects, he decided to put the money on deposit with a local savings bank as a guarantee for issuing Wörgl’s own 40,000 schilling’s worth of stamp scrip. He then used the stamp scrip to pay for his first project. Because a stamp needed to be applied each month (at 1% of face value), everybody who was paid with the stamp scrip made sure he or she was spending it quickly, automatically providing work for others. When people had run out of ideas of what to spend their stamp scrip on, they even decided to pay their taxes, early."
The post goes on to say it was so successful that other Austrian towns wanted to copy it and the Central Bank clamped down. They were sued, but the Austrian Supreme Court backed the bank and these schemes became criminal.
From the first post above, the writer also says that director Michi Riebl says that the Ottakring district no longer has the gangsterism in this form.
There's something here for everyone. Youth in Oregon is the directorial debut for Avatar actor (Dr.Norm Spelling), Joel David Moore. It takes place in Oregon with acting greats like Frank Langella and Billy Crudup. There's Married... with Children's Christina Applegate and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'sMary Kay Price.
"When 82-year-old curmudgeon RAYMOND Ingersol tells his family that he has made arrangements to be euthanized in Oregon, his daughter KATE is determined to stop him. But when another family emergency arises, Kate’s husband BRIAN finds himself with the unlucky task of driving his father-in-law from New York to Oregon AND convincing the crotchety old man that he doesn’t want to die. The problem: Brian hates Raymond. And with Raymond’s wino wife ESTELLE tagging along for the journey, it’s just in-laws and the open road for the next 3000 miles."
Variety reviews don't pull punches. But they aren't looking for film-festival flicks, as the last line of this quote suggests:
"Rarely has euthanasia seemed more desirable than it’s made to appear in “Youth in Oregon,” a torturous saga about a man dying of an incurable heart condition who sets out on a cross-country journey to Oregon, where killing oneself is legal. Maudlin and mannered, this contrived indie squanders another fine late-career performance from Frank Langella, dousing its treatment of the subject in affectations until it’s snuffed out any trace of genuine life. While it fits comfortably into the fragmented-family drama subgenre prized each year at the Tribeca Film Festival, its groan-worthiness is apt to get it buried at the box office."
But here's from a more sympathetic reviewer. Mary Kay Place on her character from The Mary Sue answering the question, "Did you feel their marriage had gone through a change before the film started that altered their dynamic?"
Mary Kay Place: I did, and I think that’s when she became a heavy drinker. Because he was withdrawing and becoming angrier and more isolated. And that was infuriating to her, because I image them being a solid couple and had been true partners. And that partnership started dissolving as he became more isolated and cranky. Well, I think he’s always been cranky, but now he’s become crankier than ever. And it’s been difficult on my character, because she felt as if she’d lost her partner before he died. He had already slipped away.
There's a note on this YouTube video - "This video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice before sharing." - but this seems an appropriate place for it and I can't find any easy links where I could ask for permission. I can't find a website or FB page for this film.
Let me get this up so I can start on the Documentaries in Competition. I don't usually get more than a few of these up each year as a preview. Let's see how far I can get. I'll also try to add the times and locations for each of the film showings. This one went pretty easily until I got to Planet Ottakring which took a while. This looks like a solid group of films and there's still a bunch more other Features, many of which I'm sure are going to be well worth watching.
"In competition" means these films were selected by the screeners to be eligible for awards at the festival. "Features" are 'stories' that are 55 to 140 minutes. "Shorts" are stories that are 10-55 minutes. Super shorts are stories under 10 minutes. 'Stories' are fictional and distinguished from documentaries. This looks like a particularly strong group this year. Danny DeVito is in one, Ed Asner in another, Valerie Harper in yet another. Bruce Springsteen played a role in getting one to screen (because of issues over music rights.)
Here's the list and below is a bit more about each.
Shorts in Competition
Director
Country
Length
Curmudgeons
Jake DeVito
USA
17 min
Gorilla
Tibo Pinsard
France
14 min
Il Campione (The Champion )
Boming Jiang
Italy
12 min
Like A Butterfly
Eitan Pitigliani
United States
28 min
My Mom and the Girl
Susie Singer Carter
United States
20 min
Thunder Road
Jim Cummings
USA
13 min
Since shorts are short, they are grouped into programs. These are the programs that the films are in and when those programs show: Hard Knocks, Love and Pain, and Global Village. The Martini Matinee is a regular AIFF event and takes a few shorts from different programs. Also, there are some super shorts mixed in some of the programs.
This chart is my attempt to help you find which program each of the shorts in competition is in and when you can see them. I'd note that those shorts not in competition can also be really good. I often find films at the festival that are not in competition that I think should have been. But seeing the ones in competition is a good bet. And the others are mixed into the programs.
Program (right)
Film (below)
HARD KNOCKS Saturday - 1st
Dec 3, 2016
11:30am -1 pm -
AK Exper Small Thursday -2nd
Dec. 8 5:30-7:30pm AK EX Large
MARTINI MATINEE Friday. Dec 9
2-4 PM
BEAR TOOTH
LOVE AND PAIN Wed. 1st Dec. 7
5:30-7 pm
BEAR TOOTH Sat 2nd
Dec. 10
5:45-7:15pm AK Ex Small
GLOBAL VILLAGE
Sunday, DEC. 13
1PM-2:45PM
AK Exper Large
Curmudgeons
Jake DeVito
USA
0:17:00
✓
Danny DeVito is actually listed as the director and an actor in the film. Jake is one of the producers and one of several other DeVito's in the credits.
"THE INSPIRATION. I love apes. Not you? I love real monkeys, but also "fake" apes, like the old King Kong, those played by actors in the original The Planet of the Apes, or the wonderfully created apes by makeup master artist Rick Baker for Greystoke, with Christopher Lambert and Ian Holm. All these films and these movie apes have profoundly marked my viewer's imagination, the universe they live in, the dangerous and fascinating jungle, but mainly because it talks to my "inner ape". We do not think enough about our "inner ape". Do we ?"
Il Campione (The Champion )
Boming Jiang
Italy
0:12:00
✓
I'm having trouble finding much about this film, so I'll just leave you with the trailer for now.
"About a man who dreams he's a butterfly and he becomes so involved in this dream that he no longer knows if he's a man dreaming he's a butterfly, or if he's a butterfly dreaming he's a man."
"the reason why I became a director, which is the need to capture the essence of life and of what life could be and then put it on screen, through a special medium: the film. What is great about films is that you make them together with other people, in my case with wonderful and special individuals that helped me take the idea I first had to the final stage. The story of the film came from a series of personal experiences that I have had over time, that I then jotted down in words together with the screenwriter Alessandro Regaldo. There were so many things that inspired me while I was writing the story."
------------------------------------------------------------------ My Mom and the Girl
Susie Singer Carter
USA
0:20:00
"MY MOM AND THE GIRL is a true story based on an odd encounter my East Coast mother, who suffers with Alzheimer's, shared one evening on the streets of East L.A. The story takes off after dinner with family & friends takes a dark turn and my mother is led to a proverbial crossroads where 3 very disparate, desperate women are unpredictably pulled back into the light. It's a funny, poignant and surprisingly rich story where apparent disabilities can be seen as gifts."
"As Cummings tells it, the film very unexpectedly got into Sundance, where it then won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film. Of course, this brought some heat to the short and Cummings, which meant attention was also paid to a major question from the film: If he’d secured the rights to Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” which plays during a pivotal scene. After paying $7,000 for the rights to the song so it could travel the festival circuit, Cummings was faced with a $40,000 to 50,000 licensing fee to put his short online. This prompted Cummings to take his case to Springsteen in the form of an open letter he posted on the internet."
*When I first starting blogging the film festival, films that were available online were not eligible for most festivals and there was some concern when I would find the whole film somewhere. But online video has gone from the dark ages to the present in just a few years. If a film is good, you should want to see it several times, and on the big screen as well as on your computer.
A friend posted this picture of a poster he saw in Oakland.
The picture required a second look. Zapotec Muxe? There's a bit of description on the poster (which you can focus better by clicking on it).
Perhaps the concept of muxe will help us 21st century Americans in our reexamination of how we think about gender and sexuality.
The military has decided that gay and now transgender troops are ok. But some legislators in some states have made bathroom use by transgender folk an issue. And same sex marriage is still a problem for many people.
Getting past the strict dichotomy of male or female or straight or gay is tricky. We all know there are women who have more than average typically male characteristics and males who have more than average typical female characteristics. I think most people can get that far conceptually, because you can still put people into one of those two categories: male or female.
Since genitals in our culture are usually covered up in public, we haven't had much opportunity to examine and get to know the variety they come in. While we might recognize a picture of a friend's mouth or nose or eyes, most of us wouldn't recognize a picture of a friend's penis or vagina. And when people are born with ambiguous genitalia, the parents, traditionally, haven't talked about it or the decisions they had to make about what to put on the either/or male/female space on the birth certificate. But there have been clues in our language - terms like hermaphrodite - that have acknowledged gender ambiguity.
Nowadays these topics are well discussed, at least in many circles. Enough, at least, that laws have been passed to allow same sex marriage and to protect transgender folks from discrimination.
But this is still an uncomfortable issue for many. An issue often informed by ignorance.
So when I saw this poster it made me think of the Samoan tradition of Fa 'afafine, male Samoan children who are early identified as Fa 'afafine and raised as girls to have a unique place in their cultural life, crossing between gender roles. I learned about at a presentation of Diverse Voices at UAA back in 2007.
Muxes, in their communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, are accepted as somewhere between straight and gay. A New York Times article tells us a little about muxes:
“Muxe” is a Zapotec word derived from the Spanish “mujer,” or woman; it is reserved for males who, from boyhood, have felt themselves drawn to living as a woman, anticipating roles set out for them by the community.
Anthropologists trace the acceptance of people of mixed gender to pre-Colombian Mexico, pointing to accounts of cross-dressing Aztec priests and Mayan gods who were male and female at the same time. Spanish colonizers wiped out most of those attitudes in the 1500s by forcing conversion to Catholicism. But mixed-gender identities managed to survive in the area around Juchitán, a place so traditional that many people speak ancient Zapotec instead of Spanish.
Not all muxes express their identities the same way. Some dress as women and take hormones to change their bodies. Others favor male clothes. What they share is that the community accepts them; many in it believe that muxes have special intellectual and artistic gifts.
As I read the Wikipedia article on Muxe, I noticed that the district and town of Tehuantapec showed up. Long ago, my wife and I drove through Mexico, including Tejuantapec. And that mysterious brain nestled in my skull retrieved a long-ago absorbed and forgotten tidbit: the Zapotecan culture in Tehuantapec is matriarchal.
"The city is still the center of Zapotec culture in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and is the second largest in the region. The city is known for its women and their traditional dress, which was adopted by Frida Kahlo. Tehuantepec has a reputation for being a “matriarchal society.” Women do dominate the local markets and are known to taunt* men. However, political power is still the domain of men."
So this got me to thinking. From somewhere else deep in my brain, I remembered something about power and gender and sexuality. The idea of some that going from the stronger gender (as male is often described) to the weaker makes no sense, or is even a betrayal of one's gender. I wasn't able to figure out the right search terms to find something online voicing that specifically. (Though this is an interesting look at three men who were involved in gay-bashing and their reasoning which gets near this idea.) The concept was related to power and a disdain for someone who would go from the gender with power to the one with less power.
But the idea that this community that is tolerant of a third gender/sexuality option is a matriarchal community is intriguing and ought to be explored further. Now, I did leave in the quote about men being dominant in political power in Tejuantapec because it would be disingenuous to hide it. Even the power divide in Tehuantapec is not clean and unambiguous. Nor is it anywhere. It would be interesting to explore other cultures that are matriarchal and see whether the gender divide is les either/or in those cultures as well.
*In my ideal world, no one would taunt anyone, except in a playful way for the taunted.
When I first heard the news that the military was dropping the ban on transgender troops, I thought, what's the big deal? Corporal Klinger wore dresses all the time and it
didn't seem to really bother his unit during the Korean war. Or the TV viewers. Of course, cross-dressing is not the same as transgender. Here's a take on this as part of the evolution of showing transgender folks on television from Bilerico:
"Jamie Farr's crossdressing character, Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger, debuts on the CBS television show M*A*S*H [1972] - the first transgender-related character to appear regularly on TV. Although Klinger was said to crossdress only as an attempt to be given a discharge from the Army, it is the first moment of particular visibility that deviates from comedians' sporadic use of crossdressing for comedic purposes (popularized by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in the movie "Some Like It Hot" as well as by comedians ranging from Milton Berle to Jerry Lewis to Monty Python's Flying Circus), and develops into sympathetic characterization."
I was reminded of this by a new LA Times story that says transgender troops in other countries is nothing new. Well, we had a cross dressing role model on television back in 1972. I realize that young men are still forming their self-identity including their sexual personas when they enter the military, and some have had some pretty anti-gay / transgender brainwashing. Let the military recognize this and educate them, and help them to get over any hangups. Let them watch M*A*S*H reruns.
2. How About Running For Vice President To Promote Your New Book?
The Washington Post reports that Trump is seriously considering Ret General Michael Flynn, a registered Democrat, as his running mate. Is anything Trump says serious? It turns out Flynn's book The Field of Fight comes out on July 12, though apparently you can start reading it already on Amazon:
"Ten years ago we found evidence that al-Qaeda was far more organized and adept than we had previously given them credit for. It took us nearly that long to locate and execute their leader, Osama bin Laden, and we are far from finished. Al-Qaeda has morphed into a much more dangerous, menacing threat: ISIS. A war is being waged against us by radical Islamists, and, as current events demonstrate, they are only getting stronger. This book aims to inform the American people of the grave danger we face in the war on terror―and will continue to face―until our government takes decisive action against the terrorists that want nothing more than to destroy us and our way of life.
Lt. General Michael T. Flynn spent more than 33 years in Army intelligence, working closely with Generals Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus, Admiral Mike Mullen, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and other policy, defense and intelligence community, and war-fighting leaders. From coordinating on-the-ground operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, to building reliable intelligence networks, to preparing strategic plans for fighting terrorism, Flynn has been a firsthand witness to government screw-ups, smokescreens, and censored information that our leaders don’t want us to know. A year before he was scheduled to retire, Flynn was sacked as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for, among other things, telling a Congressional Committee that the American people are in more danger than we were just a few years ago. Why? The Field of Fight succinctly lays out why we have failed to stop terrorist groups from growing, and what we must do to stop them. The core message is that if you understand your enemies, it’s a lot easier to defeat them―but because our government has concealed the actions of terrorists like bin Laden and groups like ISIS, and the role of Iran in the rise of radical Islam, we don’t fully understand the enormity of the threat they pose against us.
A call to action that is sensible, informed, and original, The Field of Fight asserts that we must find a way to not only fight better, but to win."
I'm not sure being an active participant in the Iraq war, where we resoundingly restored democracy to a country that had never had it before, is that great a recommendation.
3. Blogger Stuff: Closing comments on a single post
click to enlarge and focus
I posted about the 2013 Anchorage International Film Festival documentaries, which included the film Tales From The Organ Trade. That attracted ads from kidney traders. Then I wrote a post called Blogger Ethics: Leave Comment From Kidney Trader? Well, in the last month or so, that old post has begun attracting ads from kidney traders again and I mark them as spam. But I'm tired of that. So I wondered, "Can I shut off comments on a single post?" It turns out to be surprisingly easy.
Just look under options on Post Settings either in create post or edit post (on the right).
The first category is reader comments. Bingo.
Thanks to Blogtimenow.
At PrideFest I came across Chris Constant's campaign table. I'd heard of Chris and had just read his piece in Anchorage Press on the aftermath of Orlando.
Since I think that there should be as much information about all candidates for office up and available for all to consider, I asked Chris if we could do an interview.
It's pretty much unedited, except the freeze frame at the beginning and ending.
I'll let the photos do most of the talking. I'd note that there were a lot more exhibitors than I recall from last year.
Cormac and Anton were so striking that I asked if I could take a picture and post it here. They obviously said ok.
I'm afraid most of the other pictures are here more to document some of the organizations that hosted booths, than for the photography.
I first connected with the Alaska Workers Association at a previous PrideFest. This is a group of volunteers that works to help workers who have no other organized support.
Petroleum Club of Anchorage made its first appearance at a PrideFest.
National Park Service.
Hilton Hotels
Dogs of all sizes and shapes were there.
The Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center.
And there was plenty of food - here's Bear Mace Bites.
AARP Alaska.
There was HIV and Hep C testing.
The Writer's Block Bookstore and Café is coming soon on Spenard where the old adult books store used to be. They had architects plans for the new building where writers and readers will be able to hang out, buy books, read, and maybe even write.
They predicted an October opening date. We'll see.
The Alaska Club.
More food from Mimi's Kitchen.
Wells Fargo was there.
The Family, from the University of Alaska Anchorage.
And the National Organization for Women.
There were lots more booths, and I have a video of a candidate for the Assembly that I'll post separately. At first PrideFest had booths around the perimeter. But over the years there have been more in the middle as well. This seems to be the biggest yet.
Lots of people, lots of rainbows, lots of kids and dogs. Lots of smiles and lots of people talking.
