2016-17

Based on the ground-breaking book by MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Allan Bérubé, Coming Out Under Fire features nine gay and lesbian veterans who recount how they joined the patriotic war against fascism in the 1940s only to find themselves fighting two battles: one for their country and another for their right to serve. They first remember warm and entertaining stories of finding each other in a compulsory heterosexual environment and reminisce over tales of first love and deep friendships. Their good times were short-lived, however, as they became targets of newly created anti-homosexual policies which called for witch hunts, dehumanizing interrogations, involuntary psychiatric treatments, and the incarceration of suspected homosexuals in “queer stockades”…

Real Boy is the coming-of-age story of Bennett Wallace, a transgender teenager on a journey to find his voice—as a musician, a friend, a son, and a man. As he navigates the ups and downs of young adulthood, he works to gain the love and support of his mother, who has deep misgivings about her child’s transition. Along the way, Bennett forges a powerful friendship with his idol, Joe Stevens, a celebrated transgender musician with his own demons to fight.

After being wrongfully convicted of gang-raping two little girls during the Satanic Panic witchhunt era of the 80s and 90s, four Latina lesbians fight against mythology, homophobia, and prosecutorial fervor in their struggle for exoneration in this riveting ‘True Crime’ tale.

Lesbian Looks opens our 23rd annual season with Barbara Hammer’s 2015 lyrical documentary Welcome To This House (2015). The film explores the homes and loves of poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)–her life in the shadows, and the anxiety of art making without full self-disclosure. Hammer filmed in Bishop’s ‘best loved homes’ in the US, Canada, and Brazil believing that buildings and landscapes bear
cultural memories. Interviews with poets, friends, and scholars provide "missing documents" of numerous female lovers. Bishop’s intimate poetry is beautifully performed by Kathleen Chalfant, with the creative music composition by Joan La Barbara.

»Tanya’s 4 selections for 2016-17, plus honorable mentions