From: Sam Damon Subject: Gay Movies Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 04:34:09 -0500 (EST) Here's a catalog of some rather obscure gay movies I received today. I'm not familiar with any of them but perhaps some of you here have heard of Jerry Tartaglia. Apparently he's been well-received. ========= The Films of Jerry Tartaglia I have been making films sonce 1971 when I was influenced by the early American "Underground Films" which explored human awareness, sexuality and politics. Each of my films portrays some aspect of gay consciousness, sexual representation, or self-identity. At the same time, each film utilizes the medium's unique potential for visual technique. I am not very interested in creating narative forms, which generally are used to show how gay people are supposed to become lavender carbon copies of straight people. Instead, I work with short, personal, experimental forms which explore and celebrate the uniqueness of gay identity. In the era of AIDS, our hope is derived from the strength of our queer "window on the world." You can contact Jerry Tartaglia and his distributor through email at: WNJA85A@PRODIGY.COM VHS video sales for private or classroom use are available from: Franklin Media Distribution, 211 West Broadway, #500C, NY, NY 10013. 212/274-8480 Rentals on 16mm are available from: Canyon Cinema, 2325 Third St, Suite 338, San Francisco, CA 94107, 415/626-2255 ================= (A set of the following 3 costs $17 + s/h) ECCE HOMO 1989 7 min Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) interweaves images from Jean Genet's masterpiece, Un Chant d'Amour with images from gay sex films. It forces the viewer to question the point of view in looking at "pornographic" images. AIDS hysteria portrays gay sex as pornographic, politically incorrect, sinful, or, at best, a public health hazard. Ecce Homo asks whether the taboo is against gay sex or against seeking gay sex. 1990 Atlanta International Film Festival: Best Experimental Film "Ecce Homo makes it all worthwhile. It reclaims desire in the age of AIDS. Tartaglia is an artist at the peak of his powers." - Vito Russon, The Advocate A.I.D.S.C.R.E.A.M. 1988 6 min AIDS has become a conveninet excuse to desexualize gay men and thereby destroy gay liberation. This experimentally processed film expresses Queer anger and rage at the no-win constructs of straight culture's refusal to acknowledge the political impact of the disease. Selected by the Whitney Museum of American Art for AIDS Counter-representations, 1989 "Short, acidic, and militant!" - Helen Knode, L.A. Weekly "Perhaps the most gut wrenching is A.I.D.S.C.R.E.A.M. ... the kind of movie we have a right to expect from a gay film festival..." - Joseph Lanza, New York Native "It brings us ti what Art About AIDS should be about: telling the truth about AIDS." - Michael Hunt Stolbach, SocialText FINAL SOLUTIONS 1990 10 min Queer imagination has no place in the death-dealing consumerist culture. For, in it, the final soulation is management of all situations through enforced assimilation using death-terror as the weapon. This film explores the Teleculture's treatment of AIDS as a consumer image. San Fran International Film Festival, 1991: Golden Gate Award Honorable Mention "Tartaglia raises hell in this unrelenting analysis of AIDS consumerism." - Robert Hilferty, Outweek "Strong and innovative." - Kate Bornstein, Bay Area Reporter ================= (a set of the following 3 costs $16) REMEMBRANCE 1990 5 min A short remberance of growing up gay, searching for an identifiable image on the movie screen. This character chose Bette Davis in "All About Eve." The film includes clips from Davis' performance and the narrator's childhood home movies. "Tartaglia plays with a stereotype as old as cinema itself: the connection between movie going and coming out." - Jonathan Mandell, New York Newsday HOLY MARY 1991 5 min A collage film which intercuts images of Pope J.P. 2, Fashion Experts, and a sex-change medical specialist. The result: an outrageously funny look at gender, fashion, and the head of the world's largest gay sex club. "A witty, immodest proposal about sex, clothes, the single girl and Pope John Paul II." - Manhola Dargis, Village Voice "Hilarious. I have't laughed so much at a video in years." - James Broughton VOCATION 1981 7 min A pastoral hymn to the God Pan; filmed at the Short Mountain Collective in Tennessee; adapted from a text by Aleister Crowley. ================== INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS 1992 17 min A dream-like film study which takes the viewer through a series of sketches examining the creative drive as expressed in the languages of cinema, the fears of life threatened by homophobic violence and AIDS, and the hope engendered in the possibility of internal vision. Black Maria Film Festival: Jurors Citation, 1994 ================== 1969 1991 13 min A personal recollection of a time past, when gay identity was a source of joy rather than of mourning. The film explores the fictional nature of personal history and the unreliability of memory, San Fran International FIlm Festival, 1992: Golden Gate Award, Honorable Mention "A memorable short which explores personal and political values, idealism, and radical freedom of expression ... " - Roy Grundman, Cineaste "A refreshingly tart memory film ... " - Stuart Klawans, The Nation "A fearless, aggressive film. A barbed critique of political amnesia." - Manohla Dargis, Village Voice =================== LAMBDA MAN 1989 10 min A personal experimental film exploration of a gay identity in the pre-AIDS era. Exerpt from LAWLESS 1977 13 min Pope Ondine rages abd pontificates on Queer life, the hopelessness of heterosexualism, and the importance of having a good hairdo. From: Sam Damon Subject: Gay movies Date: Sun, 20 Feb 1994 04:35:51 -0500 (EST) Once more, I have no familiarity with any of these ... Gay-Themed Films By Other Filmmakers You can contact Jerry Tartaglia and his distributor through email at: WNJA85A@PRODIGY.COM VHS video sales for private or classroom use are available from: Franklin Media Distribution, 211 West Broadway, #500C, NY, NY 10013. 212/274-8480 Rentals on 16mm are available from: Canyon Cinema, 2325 Third St, Suite 338, San Francisco, CA 94107, 415/626-2255 ================= OUT IN THE GARDEN by Vincent Grenier, $15 + s/h An extraordinary film which explores the dynamic of assumptions, seen through the struggle of a gay man who has recently been told that he is HIV positive. In his own way he comes to terms with the news that he is HIV positive. In his own way he comes to terms with the news in front of Grenier's camera. The film eschews the usual "talking head" format and result is a studied examination of questions of identity, social tyrannies, and the viewers' complicity in this intimate struggle. ================= (The following set of 4 films by Tom Chomont costs $15 + s/h) Four deeply felt shorts by a filmmaker whose works spans three decades. "For Chomont, making films has become a medium for enabling the material and spiritual worlds to discover each other." - Scott MacDonald, A Critical Cinema "There is neither anguish nor camp in his work ... just getting on with being homo-erotic, among other things." - Richard Dyer, Now You See It JABBOK - Jacob wrestled til dawn at Peniel by the waters of Jabbok. In this interpretation, mortal and angel are two aspects of one person. THE HEAVENS - For Joe Glin. A portrait influenced by metaphysical elements. RAZOR HEAD - An erotic bondage and shaving ritual filmed at Ken Chomont's request in 1980 and edited to distill the S/M fantasy elements of a haircut. THE BATH d'apres Ingres - Variations on a single shot from This Sporting Life. Male nude bathers seen in the context of French Neo-Classic female nude bathers. ================== FLAMING CREATURES by Jack Smith $100 + s/h The notorious 1963 underground classic is now available for the first time on video. The film's extravagantly queer behavior triggered a series of police raids, court battles and a special screening by Strom Thurmond to elucidate its pornographic content. To contemporary sensibilities the film will probably seem tame. But Smith's creatures exhibit the kind of gender play and pre-cockettes fantasy which helped to push the limits of its day. Flaming Creatures is an extraordinarily beautiful film which, above all else celebrates the ecstacy of the visual image. Proceeds from the sale of this tape will be used to restore and preserve Smith's film legacy, including Normal Love and No President.