SummertimeThursday, Sept. 16, 7 pm (This film) offers a diverse, picturesque Los Angeles, populated with a slew of fresh faces across different backgrounds and ethnicities and genders. …Through their own words, they express life, love, heartache, family, home, and fear with the logic of a musical. – RobertEbert.com |
Ma Belle My BeautyThursday September 9 7:15 PM This film is a music-filled, romantic drama that captures the tender intimacies, jealousies, and complications that arise when love strikes three… or even four people. It’s about a Bisexual, polyamorous relationship and focuses on feminine sexuality in the relationship. It won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. “This proudly queer romantic-drama delivers a poignant exploration of polyamory, giving empathy and insight into all of its lovers.” Robert Ebert.com |
François Ozon’s Summer of 85 (Été 85) announces itself as a story about a corpse, one that had a particularly “terrible effect” on our epicene young lead, the 16-year-old Alexis (Félix Lefebvre), as he states in opening voiceover. “What interests me is Death with a capital D,” he claims, which is perhaps to say, what interests him is growing up. The tale that follows charts the end of—what is for him burdensome—innocence, a largely winsome memoir of doomed first love based on Aidan Chambers’s 1982 novel Dance on My Grave, which so touched Ozon when he discovered it as a teenager that it very nearly became his first film. Despite Ozon’s nearly 20 features, Summer of 85 feels like a debut, considering its tonal clumsiness, clunky third act, and by now exhausted music cues (Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer” and The Cure’s “In Between Days” both make obligatory appearances). But the film also possesses the searing, unpolished vitality of his early work, buoyed by a vivid nostalgia (in 1985, Ozon himself would have been on the edge of 18). If the film ranks among the less refined of the director’s prodigious corpus, few are better suited to depict beachside sexual awakenings or, equally, the rich site where fantasy and intimacy intersect.
This summer finds Alexis—who prefers to go by Alex—adrift in his picturesque Normandy seaside village, uncertain about the future. His working-class parents (Isabelle Nanty and Laurent Fernandez) insist he find a job rather than continue his studies; meanwhile, his literature professor (Melvil Poupaud) encourages him to stay in school with suggestions of his promise as a writer. Things suddenly take an exciting turn when Alex’s boat capsizes in the middle of a storm, and he is rescued by the swaggering David Gorman (Benjamin Voisin)—“the future cadaver,” as per the voiceover narration—who floats out of the mist, lightning flashing behind him like a hero in a fairy tale. The two begin an idyllic summer romance, clouded by the film’s ominous opening, where Alex begins his account of their love affair in police custody.
For too much of the film’s runtime, Alex is implicated in David’s demise and, frankly, efforts to establish a mystery framework clash with an otherwise earnest meditation on the heights and perils of adolescence: a lush, vibrant plunge into teenage reverie, entirely and exquisitely shot on 16mm to evoke not just the past but also Alex’s romantic musings, for his world and the screen become grayer once David is gone. Later we come to realize he is writing about their relationship, at the behest of his professor. David’s quixotic entrance, his somewhat inscrutable character, begin to make sense, even before Alex tentatively wonders, “We invent the people we love?” Indeed, David is repeatedly cast by Alex as the “friend of his dream,” and it is when he refuses to conform to Alex’s expectations that the trouble begins. Certainly, hints of the real David peek through. For instance, with the recent death of his father, he has had the brush with mortality that Alex so desperately and naively covets. And he may or may not himself be seeking reprieve from that grief—much to Alex’s chagrin—in multiple lovers.
The film loses much of its energy after David, strikingly embodied by Voisin, exits. As the parallel timelines come together, the second half proves languid and heavy-handed, although characteristic glimmers of magic still emerge. The scene where Alex realizes that he may have idealized some dimensions of David features a poster of Mike Newell’s mummy flick The Awakening (1980), perhaps a nod to Alex’s obsession with death and corpses. More specifically, the scene follows a sequence where Alex disguises himself as a girl (donning a dress in the same pattern as the auspicious frock of Ozon’s 1996 short A Summer Dress) to fool the coroner, only to throw himself hysterically across David’s dead body. But this late appearance of the director’s trademark wit cannot redeem an ultimately uneven script with its hollow execution of not especially complex themes. Although Summer of 85 boasts all the classical traces of Ozon—the black comedy, the eroticization of national identity and class tension, looming maternal figures (here, principally Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as David’s offbeat, mercurial mother)—it’s also graceless. Perhaps purposefully—the story belongs to a teenager, after all; but Alex’s fixations on death and love (complete with a mention of French poet Paul Verlaine, who famously shot his lover Arthur Rimbaud) feel especially contrived, particularly when death so often lurks behind passion and far more intriguingly in earlier films such as Swimming Pool (2003) or Young and Beautiful (2010). So, too, the noirish elements that plague this feature were far more successfully integrated in those films, and he has yielded more sophisticated ventures into fantasy as fundamental to desire, and ultimately survival, in Frantz (2016) and Double Lover (2017).
Notoriously prolific, Ozon is perhaps more meaningfully described as a promiscuous author, with no fidelity to genre or style. With the occasional exception—e.g., his 2018 film Grace of God—there is a recognizable hunger, a vigorous curiosity about gender and love and sexuality, and perhaps an overarching argument for the innate queerness of all these things; or at least, he consistently seeks to displace oppressive normative structures, for his characters are most frequently defined by their decisions to resist or submit to these culturally constructed dynamics.
Apropos, in Summer of 85, the main characters’ sexuality is refreshingly incidental. Their romance blossoms with almost no conflict, although Alex’s alienation from his parents is likely due in part to this perceived difference. During one of the film’s strongest moments, he shares a tender scene with his mother, in which some of this distance is quietly bridged as she gets as close as she can to acknowledging and accepting his sexuality. For all its unwieldy parts, Summer of 85 does poignantly attend to the beauty of these passing connections, to grief as the clearest sign of love and living.
| Thursday August 12, 7 PM No Ordinary Man No Ordinary Man is an in-depth look at the life of musician and trans culture icon Billy Tipton. Complicated, beautiful and historically unrivaled, this groundbreaking film shows what is possible when a community collaborates to honor the legacy of an unlikely hero. |
| For decades, the life of American Jazz musician Billy Tipton was framed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. In NO ORDINARY MAN, Tipton’s story is re-imagined and performed by trans artists as they collectively paint a portrait of an unlikely hero. Together, the filmmakers join Tipton’s son Billy Jr. to reckon with a complicated and contested legacy: how do you tell the story of someone who was hiding in plain sight yet desperate to be seen? |
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| Thursday August 19, 7 PM Swan Song |
| Retired hairdresser Pat Pitsenbarger is the Liberace of Sandusky, Ohio!. When he is offered $25,000 to style an estranged friend for her funeral, he does the only sensible thing: he escapes his nursing home and hitchhikes into town with a sign boasting “free beauty tips.” As Pat makes his way through his now-alien hometown shoplifting beauty supplies, he finds himself reconnecting with friends, confronting old rivals, and facing the demons of his past. This is based on Pitsenbarger’s real life. At Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol |
“I Carry You With Me” is Based on true love, this decades spanning romance begins in Mexico between an aspiring chef (Armando Espitia) and a teacher (Christian Vázquez). Their lives restart in incredible ways as societal pressure propels them to embark on a treacherous journey to NYC with dreams, hopes, and memories in tow.
Armando Espitia stars as Iván in his first romantic film. He starred “Heli” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. He his appeared in many films TV shows and theater productions. He is presently in Mexico City premiering the film.
A special screening of “I Carry You With Me” will be a benefit for Queer Asylum Accompaniment which is a local organization that helps LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers in our community. It happens Sunday July 18 at 4:15 pm at Rialto Cinemas In Sebastopol.
Gary Carnivele: Armando, you are fantastic as Ivan in “I Carry You With Me. What attracted you to the role of Ivan?
Armando Espitia: First because it was a love story and I’ve never played the lead in a romantic movie. It was a deep and layer epic story. Then there is the social and political aspect because it deals with homophobia and immigration in both Mexico and the US. So this movie offered me everything as an actor
GC: Did you meet with Ivan to help prepare for your role and if so, what did he offer you?
AE: We didn’t meet until the last week of shooting the film. Heidi the director didn’t want us to meet because she wanted us to play the memories that Ivan had. This playing memories allowed us artistic freedom Ivan and I have become friends so I think he liked my performance
GC: Was it more or less difficult to play a real person compared to a fictional character?
AE: At first it was difficult because I felt pressure to play his life with dignity. Later I learned to not try to be perfect and tried to have some fun and take risks as an actor
GC: Did you feel a responsibility playing a gay man, as well as an undocumented person living in American?AE: I am a gay man so I felt proud to play a gay man which doesn’t happen in many Mexican movies. Also an immigrant who ate sting people and important to the country they work in. They deserve our respect. I felt a responsibility because movies travel around the world
GC: What was it like working on location in Mexico and New York?
AE: Mexico is beautiful and my home. It was my first time in New York and I loved it. It was great when I returned to present the film. I felt like I already knew the city
GC: Were you very satisfied with your performance?
AE: Never. (Laughs). I feel insecure when watching myself but so many people on social media have written beautiful things about my performance.
GC: What do you hope audience members take away from “I Carry You With Me?”
AE: “I Carry You With Me” will make LGBTQ people and immigrants and Dreamers feel good and appreciated. I am very happy the movie does that because the story is important.
GC: Talk about your background and what if anything your experiences brought to this role?AE: I grew up in Mexico and many members of my family and neighbors are unable to find work here to support their families. They want to be responsible fathers but need to leave to work in US. It is very hard for them
GC: Tell us about your career. How many films have you made and which are you most proud of?
AE: 15 maybe. My first lead in a film “Heli” premiered at Cannes and I am very proud of that. It was right after university. I do many films and TV and theater. My friend and I started a theater company in Mexico. I also teach film acting classes
What advice would you offer to young actors just starting out?
Come to Mexico and take my free classes. (Laughs). Ask many questions. Lead with all your senses. Never stop learning.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. Best of luck to you.
| 6 LGBTQI Films in the next few months We have found SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE – Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Elder, Undocumented Immigrants, Documentary, Narrative – even one on LGBTQI Comix.Instead of having OUTwatch’s Film Festival in October in the middle of fire season, we decided to work with the Rialto Cinemas and present 6 GREAT LGBTQI films this summer and early fall.All films are at Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol |
| Thursday July 15, 7 PM NO STRAIGHT LINES – THE RISE OF QUEER COMICSDid you follow Dykes to Watch Out For? Or Cathartic Comics with African American LGBT characters? Or Wendel by Howard Cruise? Or Rude Girls and Dangerous Women? Or Come Out. Comix by Mary Wings? “No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer comics,” tells the story of five scrappy and pioneering cartoonists who depicted everything from the AIDS crisis, coming out, and same-sex marriage, to themes of race, gender, and disability. Their work is funny, smart, and profound, and provides a unique, uncensored window into LGBTQ lives from the 1970s onward, beginning at a time in which there was no other genuine queer storytelling in popular culture. |
| Sunday July 18, 4:15 PMI Carry You With Me. A Benefit for QAA (Queer Asylum Accompaniment) |
| The story of Undocumented Immigrants. Ambition and societal pressure propel an aspiring chef to leave his soulmate in Mexico and make the treacherous journey to New York, where life will never be the same. It’s based on the real life love story of Ivan Garcia and Geraldo Zabaleta, where their fresh romance is tested by the fact closeted Ivan wants to make an illegal move to the US while openly gay Geraldo is afraid to make the leap. It follows these two men as they fall in love, cross the border and struggle to carve out a piece of the American Dream for themselves. |
| Thursday August 12, 7 PM No Ordinary Man No Ordinary Man is an in-depth look at the life of musician and trans culture icon Billy Tipton. Complicated, beautiful and historically unrivaled, this groundbreaking film shows what is possible when a community collaborates to honor the legacy of an unlikely hero. |
| For decades, the life of American Jazz musician Billy Tipton was framed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. In NO ORDINARY MAN, Tipton’s story is re-imagined and performed by trans artists as they collectively paint a portrait of an unlikely hero. Together, the filmmakers join Tipton’s son Billy Jr. to reckon with a complicated and contested legacy: how do you tell the story of someone who was hiding in plain sight yet desperate to be seen? |
| Thursday August 19, 7 PM Swan Song |
| Retired hairdresser Pat Pitsenbarger is the Liberace of Sandusky, Ohio!. When he is offered $25,000 to style an estranged friend for her funeral, he does the only sensible thing: he escapes his nursing home and hitchhikes into town with a sign boasting “free beauty tips.” As Pat makes his way through his now-alien hometown shoplifting beauty supplies, he finds himself reconnecting with friends, confronting old rivals, and facing the demons of his past. This is based on Pitsenbarger’s real life. |
| Look for MORE Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay films during September and October. Tickets for all the films are at the Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol the week the film is showing. |
“No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer comics,” tells the story of five scrappy and pioneering cartoonists who depicted everything from the AIDS crisis, coming out, and same-sex marriage, to themes of race, gender, and disability. They tackled the humor in queer lives in a changing world, and the everyday pursuits of love, sex, and community. Their work is funny, smart, and profound, and provides a unique, uncensored window into LGBTQ lives from the 1970s onward, beginning at a time in which there was no other genuine queer storytelling in popular culture. Equally engaging are their personal journeys, as they, against all odds, helped build a queer comics underground that has been able to grow and evolve in remarkable ways
The Film’s director/producer Vivian Kleiman is a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker.[1] She has received a National Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Research and executive produced an Academy Award nominated documentary. Her films include: “Families Are Forever” “Always My Son” “Out for the Count.”
In 2019, Kleiman was awarded a Eureka Fellowship of the Fleishhacker Foundation, a fellowship program for visual artists. Also an educator, she served as Adjunct Faculty at Stanford University‘s Graduate Program in Documentary Film and Video Production from 1995–2004.
Kleiman was a long-time collaborator with black gay filmmaker Marlon Riggs. They founded Signifyin’ Works in 1991, which creates and distributes films about the experiences of African Americans. Directed by Riggs, their 1992 film “Color Adjustment” screened at the Sundance Film Festival and received the International Documentary Association‘s IDA Award, the Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historiansand the George Foster Peabody Award in 1993
“No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer comics,” which will be screened as part of Outwatch’s Film Series Thursday, July 15th at Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol.
Gary Carnivele: Have you always been a fan of Queer Comics and which were some of the first that you followed?
Vivian Klienman: I was a huge fan of Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For when it was serialized in the local women’s newspaper, Plexus. We all would chomp at the bit in anticipation of the next installment, and learn what exploits our fave characters got into. And of course, Hothead Paisan was a hoot.
GC: Did they play a part in opening up a new, big, queer world to you?
VK: Dykes to Watch Out For was so important for many of us – it was the first time many of us lesbians in the 80s actually got to see ourselves represented in comics. Goodbye to the hokey white bread romances. Goodbye funny little animal stories. Instead, it was poking fun at our real lives with elegance and insight. That was such a gift to lesbians as we were creating new networks of connection (eg bookstores, cafés, and community health care providers.)
GC: What made you decide to make “No Straight Lines” and what were your first steps to get others interested in joining you on this cinematic journey?
VK: I was approached by a colleague Greg Sirota and his friend Justin Hall (an expert in the subject) to take on the project. Justin encouraged me to attend the first Queers & Comics Conference (an international in-gathering of a wide diversity of artists) held in NYC in May 2015. It was a casting director’s dream. When I walked in and saw a young person with chartreuse-colored hair talking with an older gentleman with balding head wearing a buttoned-down collared shirt, surrounded by a panoply of gender non-binary non-conforrming (to ANY standards and assumptions), I was drawn in. And once I attended the panels over the next 3 days, and heard the remarkable stories and saw the range of artwork, I knew it would be my next film project.
GC: I can imagine you and your team did a huge amount of research. What was that process like?
GC::Did you and your team straight away know who you wanted to be in the film?
VK: I knew that I did not want to do a film that replicated Justin’s anthology of queer comics, which would be an encyclopedic history of who did what when.
Instead, I wanted to create a film that took the viewer on an experience that touched many different emotional notes: from the humorous, to the poignant, and the painful moments.
So, I limited the film to profile 5 pioneer queer cartoonists and that was a challenge: who to omit when there are so many talented and important artists to profile. Justin and I carefully deliberated that decision.
GC: How receptive were the subjects of your film to tell their stories on camera?
VK: All of the comic book artists who I met are eager to tell their stories. While they are content to have solitude and do creative work, contrary to the stereotype of a curmudgeonly artist, these folks are genuinely eager to share their work.
GC: What surprised you the most about them, their work, and their careers?
VK: I never expected this band of mischievous artists to be appealing to such a broad audience. I think it boils down to this: a well-made film about people who follow their passion. Instead of the drive to earn money, these artists are motivated to be creative in a world where there isn’t much likelihood of financial remuneration. Their passion for their work is infectious.
GC: Who are some of the artists that you weren’t aware of and what do they bring to the medium?
VK: The new generation of web artists were all new to me. I love the fact that the Internet and tech can continue to be a place where the DIY artform continues to flourish.
GC: You do a terrific job representing the doc’s subjects creative process in the film. What did you find most interesting about the development of their work?
VK: One of the important themes that I braided in the film is that of “the means of production,” as Karl Marx would say. I really enjoy taking the viewer on this historical journey not only of queer history in the U.S., but of the evolution of the art form itself. The journey starts from a pen and paper, then expands to offset printing, to Xerox machines, to major printing processes, and finally the web.
At the same time, the nature of the images evolved. After Rupert realized that he had been drawing only white people, he trained his eyes on his own experience as a Black gay man. Diane diMassa gave voice to the rage of inequality and violence against women. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, queer artists responded with comics that ranged from the tragic to the humorous.
GC: Did you have a real sense of what the film would look like or did that come about during editing?
VK: During the editing, I realized that the film felt stale. I wanted to infuse it with a vitality and with a connection to my targeted audience: queer youth. So I did an experiment: I spent a day filming “speed interviews” with a dozen Next Gen artists who were attending the 2017 Queers & Comics conference. I had exactly 10 minutes with each artist, enough time to say hello and ask them just a few basic questions. At the end of the day, I didn’t know how I was going to use that material, but I knew I had something special. Those became the “Greek Chorus” in the film, and immensely changed the tone and impact of the film.
GC: Even though the focus of the film is Queer Comics, you truly take us on a trip through LGBTQ+ history. Why was it important for you to firmly set the work on the background of the Queer experience?
VK: You know, despite the many successes in the journey towards acceptance of queers in this country and others, the statistics about attempted suicide among queer youth is by far disproportionate to the general population. This is deplorable. And our youth still need our help towards self-acceptance.
I wanted to create a film that I wish I had when I was young and struggling with coming out. And I wanted to offer young queers today who similarly are struggling with their identity, to understand that there were many who encountered similar obstacles along the way. The history of queer comics is a wonderful journey from isolation to the formation of community that I hope will inspire a new generation.
GC: You premiered the film at Tribeca and it was featured at Frameline. At what other festivals was it screened and what was the virtual film festival experience like for you?
VK: It’s an independent filmmaker’s dream to premiere at Tribeca. But No Straight Lines continued further, and reached the perfect trifecta of major venues for its launch: Tribeca, Sheffield Doc Fest (England), and American Film Institute Doc Fest in DC – this is such a joy! It’s also a testament to the amazing team of collaborators who together helped me shape a film that aimed for more than information and journalism. We all were dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. And that infused the work with a vitality that touches a much larger audience than I set out to reach.
GC: When you were finally able to experience a live audience’s reaction, what aspects of the doc did they seem to connect to the most?
VK: I love how everyone erupts in a deep guffaw when seeing two older gay men, who have lived together and loved one another for over 40 years, sit down in front of the tv to watch the morning news with eggs and coffee on the tray. So ordinary and so unremarkably the daily experience of so many.
GC: What are you working on now?
VK: I often serve as an Executive Producer on documentary films, especially ones with a challenging subject and filmic approach. Currently, a film by Vicky Funari is in post-production. It’s a profile of a group of seniors who take an aquacize class at their neighborhood YMCA swimming pool – older bodies and souls in water.
In the Fall 2019, I was honored with a Eureka Fellowship from the Fleishhacker Foundation that I planned to start this winter. However, with the arrival of Covid-19, and the incredible loss of over 600,000 American lives, I am probably going to change the focus of that film. Stay tuned!
The documentary that brings to light the fascinating, seemingly untold story of the queer community within the comic book world. Introducing the vast achievements, as well as obstacles faced by, the queer comic-book artists featured in Justin Hall’s eponymous anthology – including Alison Bechdel, Jennifer Camper, Howard Cruse, Rupert Kinnard and Mary Wings – director Vivian Kleiman, in her first feature-length documentary, reveals the inspirations, creations and adversities unique to LGBQT+ writers. The story not only covers modern-day artists and illustrators, but the earlier “golden age” of comic books, and what issues and images were pushed to the shadows at that time.
No Straight Lines fully captures the queer comic-book experience, though it follows a fairly formulaic structure, moving between the five main featured artists and delving into their unique writing/illustrating styles. We also see their personal viewpoints of the comic world, taking a look at how the mainstream comic franchises (Marvel, DC, newspaper comics, etc.) played an integral part in inspiring each writer, even as they forced queer writers underground at their humble beginnings.
Outside of its personal reflections, No Straight Lines tackles major world events as they pertain to those in the LGBQT+ community, including the discrimination they face, overlapping themes with the “hippie” era, the AIDS epidemic, Stonewall, and many other relevant experiences. All of this content mixes together well with the informational elements of the film, as we see the emotional (even traumatic) effect the world and its historical content had on the writers profiled.
While No Straight Lines is otherwise strong, as a documentary I found it often quite repetitive. By its conclusion, the film struggles to introduce new ideas, and the freshness of the topic dwindles towards the second half. Without affecting the overall impact for the viewer, No Straight Lines starts to recycle ideas and information as it wraps up its narrative. All the same, the story is a must-see look at representation, and fits in perfectly with our modern-day push for greater inclusion.
When maverick Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff is diagnosed with stage-4 cancer, she faces down injustice as she always has – with her camera. With the help of her wife Nancy and their chosen family, she traces a journey through the twists and turns of the end of her life. What emerges is an emotionally raw, funny and profoundly intimate portrait of shifting relationships and identities — a story about hanging onto life, as you prepare to let it go.
The World Premiere of PROGNOSIS – notes on living will be held on June 19 in the Frameline45 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival; followed by a special live Q&A with filmmakers (encore screening June 26).
PROGNOSIS – notes on living is a production of Citizen Film & Groundspark, is in English, and is not rated by the MPA.
ABOUT THE FILM
After being diagnosed with stage-4 breast cancer, documentary director Debra Chasnoff decides to make a film about what it’s like to navigate life with a potentially terminal illness. Accompanied by her wife Nancy, her adult sons, and her LGBTQ2SIA+ chosen family, Debra sets out to capture the physical and emotional rollercoaster of treatment. Underpinned by their decision to not hear the prognosis, Debra and Nancy reveal their most vulnerable moments, as Debra struggles to reconcile her professional identity of activist social justice documentary filmmaker with that of stage-4 cancer patient. Facing the overwhelming bureaucracy and logistics of being a cancer patient, they try everything possible to stall Debra’s slowly declining health, including alternative healing methods like meditation, cannabis treatments, qi gong movement and sound-healing practices. Through it all, they lovingly work toward their common goal—Debra’s survival. With Debra at the helm, their on-camera honesty and candor offer a level of emotional access that is difficult to achieve when mediated by a film crew. They bravely put themselves on display, hoping that their experience would help others.
Debra Chasnoff and executive producer Carrie Lozano initiated the film project in 2015. The world-renowned UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center granted Debra full access to filming her medical treatments. From there forward, Debra and an intimate circle of family and friends collectively recorded over 200 hours of footage. In a unique co-creation, filmmakers Carrie Lozano, Lidia Szajko, Joan Lefkowitz and Kate Stilley Steiner completed the film with her wife Nancy Otto and editor Mike Shen. The team progressively assumed the roles of co-caregivers as well as co-creators, determined to carry Debra through to her final act, and her film through to completion.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Debra Chasnoff
Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff was a nationally recognized champion of using film as an organizing tool for social justice campaigns. A pioneering leader, she was at the forefront of the international movement working to create safe and welcoming schools and communities. Debra’s highly acclaimed documentaries addressing youth and bias issues, including the groundbreaking film It’s Elementary, are widely hailed by educators and advocates as among the best tools available today to help open up dialogue and activism around many of the most challenging issues affecting young people’s lives and school environments. Her first film, Choosing Children, explored the once unheard of idea that lesbians and gay men could become parents after coming out. She won the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for her film Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment. She was also the founder of GroundSpark, and served the organization in a directing capacity from 1982 until her death in 2017.
Kate Stilley Steiner
Kate Stilley Steiner is a documentary filmmaking producer, director and editor. She also is a co-founder and co-director of Citizen Film, the documentary non-profit media organization she started in 2001 with Sam Ball and Sophie Constantinou. Her most recent producing credits include American Creed. The CPB-funded feature-length documentary premiered in 2018 in the PBS primetime core schedule and was one of 2018’s most widely carried documentaries. Debra Chasnoff’s long-time collaborator, Kate edited several films with her, including two in the Respect for All series. They also co-produced several titles together, including Let’s Get Real, It’s Still Elementary and One Wedding & a Revolution.
ABOUT OUR PARTNERS & CAMPAIGN
PROGNOSIS – notes on living, in partnership with Bay Area organizations the Koret Foundation, Breast Cancer Action, J-Sei, and San Francisco Village, as well as national organizations International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA), and SAGE(Advocacy & Services for LGBT Elders), will spark discussion around the often challenging topics of serious illness, end of life care, and death. The film is designed to invite audiences to consider their mortality and discover ways to live more fully in the present.
| MICHAEL BARNETT’S thought-provoking documentary about the trials and triumphs of trans teenager athletes was made in the Trump era where society was encouraged to express rampant transphobia. In fact, violently oppose everything that was not about white cis-gendered men.Whilst the topic of trans sportsmen and women may surface in the media quite often, it is being confronted by the reality of what they face on a daily basis helps us understand how very serious it all is. And that’s exactly what this documentary does Barnett follows three teen trans in different US States. That in itself is important as each State has different rules of what these teenagers can and cannot do. In Texas where MACK BEGGS a high school wrestler lives, he is forced to wrestle girls even though he is very much a boy.Beggs is being raised by his very loving grandparents. Whilst his elderly grandpa still struggles with Mack’s pronouns, his Grandma. a devout Christian, Republican, and a gun-totting Sherriff’s Deputy could not be more supportive of her grandson. She confesses to studying the bible at great length and when she found that God would acceptMack without question, she decided to do the same. |
Even living in an accepting household like this, Beggs must still deal with the hostility hurled at him …. mainly by adults, … when he is out competing. His grandmother tells Barnett that she feels if they had not fully accepted Mack he would definitely have been part of the 40% of trans teens in the US who commit suicide or attempt it, every single year.
Begg’s very supportive Coach suggests that the whole subject of being a champion is what irritates people most, they would be more willing to accept him if he didn’t win every time.
| In New Hampshire, trans SARAH ROSE HUCKMAN gets to ski with the other female skiers. She talked about often holding back from winning her events to avoid the inevitable outcry of ‘unfair’. The very articulate Huckman becomes an activist and a major force in the movement who successfully get the State to pass legislation to level the playing field and stop discrimination.Huckman’s actions are a gamble and could have backfired. Most trans would prefer to remain under the radar and out of the glare from the (mostly reactionary) media, yet she was actively encouraging it.The third athlete that Barnett features is a champion runner ANDRAYA YEARWOOD. After one of her runs, she is met by a woman screaming and accusing Yearwood of single-handled undoing women’s rights that she had fought for. Every adult who vents such anger at these teens likes to suggest that the basis of their complaints is what they allege is the unfairness of (the success of) trans athletes but you can sense it is based in a much deeper inbred hatred.One of the school Principals summed up her own attitude very succinctly She claimed that it is impossible to accept these teens transitioning in everyday life, but then demand they revert back when it comes to playing sports.In a world where coming out as gay has gotten much easier, we now need to turn our attention to support trans kids living their true identity We have an incredibly long way to go to ensure that no teen again is ever so unhappy, that they end their own lives. Getting rid of Trump is only the first step. |