One summer I lived in Philadelphia and was so poor that I would sell my clothes to Buffalo Exchange so that I could get a carton of ice cream. Nevertheless, the only thing I spent my ever-dwindling cash on that summer was a 10 ticket pass to the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Granted, Portland’s own little screenfest isn’t quite as epic, yet theres nothing quite like the fervor of filmic queerness.
Only two of the scheduled films popped up on my gaydar as familiar, but both of these promise to be worth watching, though on completely different levels. Margaret Cho’s new Assassin shouldn’t be a departure from her usual punchy, omni-queer comedy but that is not to say that our favorite comedienne hag will be any less raucously funny. For the more serious documentary lover among you The Aggressives promises to be a hard and real look into the lives of masculine women of color in NYC. Let’s hope it approaches the subject matter a bit more tactfully than its more famously problematic predecessor Paris is Burning. There’s one last film I look forward to, though I had not heard of it previously. Transamerica, starring Felicity Huffman, (of Desperate Housewives fame) chronicles the experience of a conservative transsexual woman, nearing her surgery, who finds out she has a son from an early sexual encounter as a man.
For the rest of the fest check out the complete schedule.
Besides the projected pleasures, the Portland Gay and Lesbian Film Festival has several opening and closing parties and events that are sure to pique the interest of the boys and girls (and all else).
