Film

The Italian Cultural Institute, Cinema Italia San Francisco In collaboration with Artistic Soul Association under the auspices of the Consul General of Italy in San  Francisco
Present PASOLINI 100: Homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini On the 100 year anniversary of his birth Saturday, September 10, at the Castro Theatre 429 Castro Street San Francisco, CA

This Special Homage to Pasolini, who pushed the boundaries of politics, art and sexuality, follows the complete retrospective that Cinecittà premiered at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on the occasion of the 100^th Anniversary of Pasolini’s birth.

San Francisco will pay homage to the great Maestro with a selection of his works on September 10 at the Castro Theatre. This is Cinema Italia San Francisco’s 11th program of classic Italian cinema. 

10:30am Pasolini 

Director: Abel Ferrara, 2014, 84 min., DCP, Color, Italy, Belgium France. DCP by Kino Lorber.

Cast: Willem Dafoe, Ninetto Davoli, Valerio Mastandrea, Riccardo Scamarcio

Willem Dafoe stars in Abel Ferrara’s dramatic English-language film Pasolini, about the mysterious final days of the renowned Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini. This haunting biopic draws on Pasolini’s last interview and scenes from his unfinished novel Petrolio, which imagine Pasolini’s muse Ninetto Davoli returning to “finish” the unfinished work, in a final act of love. Dafoe’s charisma shines as he embodies the intellect and passion of the murdered director. The film, written by Maurizio Braucci, was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival and screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

12:30pm Mamma Roma 

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962, 107 min., 35mm, B&W, Italy. Distr. Janus Film. Print from Cinecittà.

Cast: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini

Mamma Roma is Pasolini’s second feature and is among Pasolini’s most audaciously shaped and satisfying movies. The immortal Anna Magnani is equally vulnerable and volcanic as the titular character in Pasolini’s gritty tale of a mother determined to rise above poverty. The writer-director returns to the desolate outskirts of Rome for this tale of doomed maternal love set against a stark backdrop of ancient ruins and prefab apartment blocks. Former prostitute Mamma Roma is trying to start a fresh life in a new flat with her teenage son. But the criminal underworld she thought she had escaped slowly pulls her back into its vortex. 

3:00pm Accattone

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1961, 117 min., 4K DCP restoration, B&W, Italy. Distr. Janus Restored by Cinecittà with Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation in collaboration with Compass Film. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. 

Cast: Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini, Paola Guidi

After writing a pair of novels, Ragazzi di Vita and Una Vita Violenta, set in the urban periphery of Rome, Pasolini decided to turn to cinema to continue exploring this world and its characters. Accattone is the nickname of Vittorio—played by non professional Franco Citti, a soon to be Pasolini regular—a young loafer roaming the hardscrabble Roman slum of Pigneto who fancies himself a pimp. The desperation of Vittorio’s sun-baked world is intensified by Tonino Delli Colli’s crisp cinematography and the strains of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. One of cinema’s great debuts, Accattone reimagines Neorealism by eschewing any sentimentality for the poetry of the everyday.

6:00pm  Medea 

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969, 110 min., 35mm, Color, Italy/France/West Germany. Distr. Unzero Print from Cinecittà. Restored by Cinecittà and S.N.C. in 2012 in its original 35mm format with the support of Gucci. 

Cast: Maria Callas, Massimo Girotti, Laurent Terzieff, Giuseppe Gentile

In Medea, Greek American soprano Maria Callas stars in a rare non-opera role as the title character in Pasolini’s haunting adaptation of the tragedy by Euripides, about a woman scorned by her husband (Jason of the Argonauts) who avenges herself with fierce abandon. The film is also ravishing in its visual imagery—Medea was shot on location in ancient sites of Italy, Turkey, and Syria, including the Citadel of Aleppo. British film critic Tony Rayns called this stunning portrait of a woman pushed to the brink, “a love song to Maria Callas.” 

8:00pm-10:00pm  La Roma di Pasolini 

Mezzanine Reception 

Rudy of C’era una Volta restaurant will re-create the Roman atmosphere for selected guests in the Castro Mezzanine. 

10:00PM  Salò or the 120 days of Sodom 116 min

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1976, 116 min., 35mm., Color, Italy/France. Distr. Park Circus Print from Cinecittá. 

Cast: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi. Umberto P.Quintavalle, Aldo Valletti 

Pasolini’s infamous final film transposes the Marquis de Sade’s 18^th century treatise on torture to Mussolini’s Italy circa 1944. A group of representatives of the wealthy upper classes—a Duke, a Bishop, a Magistrate, and naturally, the President—have holed themselves up in a palatial estate in the titular city of Salò, where they have imprisoned a horde of young men and women to torment for their pleasure. Salò, a town in Northern Italy, was briefly made the capital under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist government in 1943-1945. The story, rife with political implications, is in four segments, inspired by Dante‘s Divine Comedy. Pasolini’s controversial masterpiece makes disturbingly literal the way the rich exploit the poor. Salò descends into the abyss until not a fleck of light remains.

(Viewer discretion is strongly advised)

Ticket Prices & Info:

Single screenings: $15 per admission

Seniors, Students and IIC members: $12
Reception: $35 per admission
Festival Pass (all films + reception): $80 per pass

Vaccination proof & ID are required

Advance tickets can be purchased via www.cinemaitaliasf.com 
on June 10, 2022, or by calling Box Cubed at 415-552-5580.

About Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini was a filmmaker, poet, novelist, journalist, Marxist, and gay man. His work reflects post WWII Italian society in upheaval and questions power structures, political and sexual mores. Pasolini passionately fought again government corruption, materialism, and social repression. The son of a Fascist army officer, Pasolini films unrelenting examine the Fascist experiment in Italy, the fervor of nationalism, and the disdain of the rich for the poor. His films also celebrate (without fetishizing) the lives of Italy’s working poor, including everyday citizens as well as hustlers and prostitutes. 

Pasolini’s early literary work attempted to resolve his Christian and Marxist ideologies. His first novel, Ragazzi di Vita (1955), on which his film Accattone is loosely based, featured a protagonist who is a young street hustler. The book caused obscenity charges to be filed against Pasolini, the first of many instances in which his art led him to interact with the legal system.

A prominent player in the post WWII cultural scene in Rome, Pasolini was part of a coterie of talented artists, including writer Alberto Moravia, writer Elsa Morante and was friends with opera star Maria Callas, who he cast in her only film appearance in Medea. His decision, long before the modern LGBTQ rights movement, to make his own homosexuality the subject of his poetry and novels was, at the time, scandalous. 

CinemaItaliaSF is proud to present a range of his work, from the sublime to the difficult, in the spirit of the freedom of expression that Pasolini passionately espoused. We are thrilled that this Homage, on the 100 anniversary of Pasolini’s birth, serendipitously coincides with the 100^th anniversary of the Castro Theatre, an architectural jewel in the heart of San Francisco’s LGBTQ neighborhood.

“Though he was a filmmaker for just over a decade, Pasolini’s impact on cinema is profound. An openly gay man and outspoken critic of capitalism and Europe’s bourgeois establishment, Pasolini remained in the crosshairs of the elite for his entire career, which ended tragically when he was murdered weeks before the premiere of his most incendiary condemnation of the upper classes: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. He was 53 years old.

Presented almost in preserved 35mm prints, realized by Cinecittà and Cineteca di Bologna, this small selection of movies traverses Pasolini’s main periods: his reinvention of Italian Neorealism as a potently lyrical vehicle for devastating portraits of modern life (Accattone, Mamma Roma); his searing portraits of the depravity of European society and his shocking one-two punch of the celebratory Trilogy of Life, a celebration of the primal pleasures of sex set in antiquity, and its antithesis, the devastatingly bleak World War II horror show Salò.”  

—B. Rondeau, senior director, film programs, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Presenting Organizations:

Cinecittà
Established in May 2010, following the merger of Cinecittà Holding and Istituto Luce (founded in 1924), Cinecittà is the public service branch of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism with the aim of promoting classic and contemporary Italian cinema worldwide, through traveling programs in major international institutions. Such programs include: film retrospectives of Italy’s most prominent directors and actors, art and photographic exhibitions, books presentations, support in the selection of Italian films at film festivals, and the participation of Italian talents attending international events. It is also home of  Cinecittà Studios. www.Cinecitta.com

The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco
The Italian Cultural Institute promotes Italian language, culture, and the best of Italy by offering information about Italy, scholarships, and cultural events, such as: art exhibits, film screenings, concerts, and lectures. The Institute’s goal is to foster mutual understanding and cultural cooperation between Italy and the United States. www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it

Cinema Italia San Francisco
Founded in 2013, Cinema Italia SF is an organization that operates in San Francisco bringing to major screens the best of Italian Cinema. This will be the 11th program organized by CISF in the Bay Area: Pasolini (2013), Bertolucci (2014), De Sica (2015), Magnani (2016), Dino Risi and Lina Wertmüller (2017), Michelangelo Antonioni, Marcello Mastroianni (2018) Ugo Tognazzi ( 2019) and Fellini 100 ( 2020). Cinema Italia San Francisco is a member of Intersection for the Arts, which provides fiscal sponsorship, incubation and consulting to artists. www.CinemaItaliaSF.com 

Artistic Soul Association

The Artistic Soul Association was founded in 1995 by Loredana Commonara, a professional in the film and audiovisual sector. Artistic Soul Association’s activities include the production and organization of short films and international festivals in Italy (Ventotene Film Festival) and the promotion of contemporary Italian cinema and audiovisual in New York (Italy on Screen Today-New York Film & Tv Series Fest). The initiatives produced by the association are realized thanks to the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Italian Cultural Institutes, in collaboration with the Parliament, the European Commission, and many prestigious Italian and international Universities. www.ventotenefilmfestival.com – italyonscreentoday.it 

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Website: www.cinemaitaliasf.com

OUTBEAT COLLAGE – OUT IN THE ARTS JUNE 19, 2022

When his golden-haired, blue-eyed brother Jimmy mysteriously died in Vietnam in 1975, gay filmmaker Peter McDowell was just a kid, growing up within his family’s “veil of silence.” As an adult, armed with a video camera, Peter embarks on a quest to uncover the possibly queer brother he never knew. Plotted like a terrific detective story, Jimmy in Saigon follows Peter’s search for the truth about the strikingly enigmatic Jimmy—a rebellious kid drafted into the war, who stunned his family by returning to Saigon after his tour of duty to enjoy “hedonistic pleasures.” 

The film will screen at Frameline 46 San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival at the Castro Theatre June 19 at 1:15 p.m. It will be available for streaming online June 24 – 30. For tickets and more information go to www.frameline.org

Gaysonoma’s Gary Carnivele recently interviewed director Peter McDowell. 

Gary Carnivele:  Congratulations on the success of “Jimmy and Saigon” Peter.

Peter McDowell:  Thank you.

GC:  Tell us a bit about your education on professional background

PM:  I’ve been interested in film my whole life.  I made some short films as a kid and an ended up interested in opera.  Then I got my degree in arts administration and arts management and I ended up working for a short time for the San Francisco Opera in the early 90s.  Then I went into a big career in arts management in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.   I made a few short films in San Francisco in the 90s that were in Frameline in ’94 and ’95.  Then, I kind of let the filmmaking go for a while and it wasn’t until 2010 that I decided to take it up again with the with this project.

GC:   Talk about your brother Jimmy and the impact his life and experiences had on you and your family. 

PM:  I’m originally from Champagne Urbana Illinois, the college town in the middle of Illinois about 2 1/2 hours south of Chicago.  I’m the youngest of six children.  Good Catholic family.  Most of my siblings and I were born in the 50s and 60s.  My brother Jimmy was the oldest in the family born in 1948. He was almost 20 years older than I and he died in 1972 when I was five years old.  He was 24 when he died under somewhat mysterious circumstances in Saigon, Vietnam and of course I was just a little kid I remember when he died. I remember the terror and agony in my house when everybody found out.  I’m not sure I was aware of who he was at that young age.  I have some lovely pictures of the two of us together that prove that we definitely spent time together. I’m so sorry that I don’t really remember those times. I’ve always been very drawn in by history and wanted to know a lot more about Jimmy.  

GC:  In 2010, you decided to make the film.  At the time did you see the structure of the film or did you just think I want to start investigating what happened and I’ll see if there’s a film there?

PM:  The latter.  I decided to just go for it.  The task that I gave myself was to try to interview everybody that ever knew him, almost 40 years after he died.  Other people I contacted were floored to hear from me because they hadn’t been in touch with anyone in our family at all since he died.  So I set off just trying to talk to all these people as well as members of my family and I really thought at that point that I would be going to Vietnam right away.  My goal was to go to Vietnam and try to see if I could walk in his footsteps and retrace his steps and also try to find some people that he knew/. It took me a good six years.  I started in 2010 and it took me about six years to get to Vietnam.

GR:  What surprised you most about Jimmy’s service in Vietnam, his decision to return soon after the end of the war, and his life after he return to Vietnam?  

PM:  I’m lucky that my brother left behind about 200 letters and he wrote tons of letters to my mom.  My mom is the most fabulous pack rat who saves everything.  Thank goodness she had his letters.  One of my brother’s friends is a former librarian and stored in archived all of his letters from Jimmy. I have this sort of treasure trove of letters and I tried to piece together his life.  A couple of things surprised me and it was very surprising to everybody that he went back as a civilian.  He was in the army, did his duty and recieved an honorable discharge.  Then within six months he decided to return to Vietnam, which was unheard of – nobody really did that at the time and then I noticed some inconsistencies of things that he was saying to some friends but not to others.  Some things that he said my mother were actually not true and so I realized he was probably hiding something if he was making up some things 

GC:  Were you prepared for what you would find out in Vietnam or were you truly surprised?

PM:  I really had no idea.  I was looking for people that knew him and I didn’t know whether they would be alive or dead.  I didn’t know if they would still be living there or know the  answers to my questions.  I cannot say publicly because you have to go see the film to find out whether they’re alive or dead or whether I found them or where they were.  I didn’t necessarily know that much.  I had some hunches and some suspicions.  I came upon a major discovery in 2018 that changed everything and allowed me to finish the film.

GC:  Talk about some of the people you did meet in Vietnam who you would like to talk about that won’t reveal too much about the film.  There are some fascinating twists and turns. 

PM:  One of the things I found out about my brother is that he loved living there.  Maybe I would love it too and it was very kind of heartwarming to me that that when I went for the first time.  I went twice but when I went first time in 2016 I truly am almost immediately felt that love for the country and I found it very curious and hopeful and energetic and fun and really engaging.  There’s a segment of the film where we see me going down this rabbit hole – little streets – to try to find anything.  I met so many people who said come with me in an effort to help me on my quest. There were a lot of false starts.  I eventually met a couple of Vietnamese women who are a combination of super strong women, who’ve been through a lot, very empathetic, very earthy and very intelligent.  Many of the people I was coming across were people who lived in great poverty and without formal educations so I was really impressed by the level in which we communicated about deeply emotional things, about the level of emotional intelligence.  Some of these people have been through unspeakable trauma of losing family members, losing children, losing their property, losing everything. Essentially the same between the late 60s until the early 90s was really just hell in Vietnam and I think people lived through so much and the people that survived and are still around today to talk about it have this real resilience that I admire.  It’s remarkable that the Vietnamese are so resilient and so  willing to forgive.  You know most Americans who lived through the Vietnam war zone are traumatized by what happened so it’s just hard to fathom how these folks felt.

GC:  Did you come to an understanding as to why Jimmy felt so safe going back to Vietnam?

PM:  I think safety means different things to different people.  I think he knew he was in danger physically because of the war but I think emotionally he felt kind of at home and comforted and protected by being in Vietnam.  There’s a line in the film – it’s in one of his letters – where he writes: “I can’t stand the United States.”  Jimmy was 24-years-old when he wrote this.  Jimmy is going through a lot of angst. A lot of people were feeling at the time of the Vietnam war in the counterculture movement real frustration.  I’m really fascinated by the fact that this is the 50- year anniversary my brother’s death. He died on June 6, 1972 exactly 50 years ago so it really gives us a moment to take a pause and look back and see what was happening 50 years ago and if I, a gay man, look back and see like what happened in the world over the last 50 years.  Well, a lot of things didn’t happen until after Stonewall.  The first pride marches kind of started around country in the 70s but it was the landmark American Psychiatric Association ruling that being LGBT was not a disease also in the 70s, so it was a really fertile time for a change.  It was a time that I am I am deeply fascinated by.

GC:  You’ve really been raking in the laurels at film festivals all around the world.  What are some of the experiences where you were present and able to gauge the reaction of the audiences?

PM:  Thank you.  It’s been an incredible experience.  Our world premiere was at the British Film Institute Flare Film Festival which started off as the London LGBTQ Film Festival.  It was an absolutely rapturous experience, partially because I think that it was one of the first things to really come roaring out of the pandemic – not to say that we’re totally post-pandemic but in London in March we felt comfortable going out in public and feel comfortable going into theaters and so we had a screenings at the BFI Southbank space in London. I haven’t been to London in 14 years and I was blown away by the kindness and the warmth of the British audiences.  People came up to me afterwards to talk about the film people lit up my Twitter account account and was added as part of their best so London was just an exceptional experience.  From there we went to Miami and had a great time in Miami at the Outshine Film Festival estival there to the lovers phone customer which is apparently the oldest festival festival Europe and I was in Torino Italy for the week and we ended up winning the top award  

GC:  That’s really impressive!  You have attended Frameline with two short film, but this is your  first full-length film at the world’s biggest LGBT+ film festival.   How excited were you to learn that “Jimmy in Saigon” would be screened there this year.   

PM:  I was over the moon!  San Francisco is my home away from home.  I currently live in LA but I lived in San Francisco twice.  I lived there in the mid 90s.  I worked at San Francisco Opera and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.  I’m really fond of the city.  I also came back briefly in the 2000s and lived in Berkeley which I also love so it’s really important for me to be able to showcase the film in the city where I have so many friends and I have so much love.  The Castro Theatre just takes the cake for me.  The film has been screened in a lot of 100-seat theaters around the world, which is great and I love them for that nice intimacy but this will be the first time in a huge theater.  The Castro has 1400 seats, so it will be great to see how it looks in and sounds in the historic theatre. 

GC:  What’s the date and time of the of the screening?

PM:  It’s on Sunday, June 19 at 1:15 p.m., which is Father’s Day and Juneteenth which is you know not really related to my film but it’s a day of celebration and healing and I hope people can come out to see a film that is also both a celebration and ultimately healing.

GC:  Tell us about your family members’ reaction when you informed them of your decision to make the film and then what their reaction was when they first saw the film?  

PM:  The genre of documentaries that I made it’s called personal documentary it’s considered an unique art form because the filmmaker will put themselves in the phone because they know the audience wants to know the experience of what’s happening.  12 years ago, I went to my mom and I said I want to do this project, I want to use the letters you wrote and received.  It’s an oral history of my family.  I said I wanted to interview everybody whoever knew my brother and my mom was on board with that.  She gave me a lot of names of people.  I bought a camera and sound equipment, using my last couple bucks.  I started interviewing everybody that I could, including everybody in my family.  My mom has been incredibly participatory in the film.  I interviewed her many times.  She doesn’t want to see the film.  She made a security line in the sand.  Jimmy was her first child and she is still really broken up about the fact that he died at age 24, so she can’t bring herself to see it.  She sort of apologized to me profusely for that.  I don’t want it to reflect on her love for me or my film and I totally get it.  I totally appreciate it. One of my brothers is hesitant to see it, but he might come around.  My other brother, John, is actively involved in the film as the film’s composer.  He wrote the soundtrack to the film.  We worked on it every day for a year, so he’s seen it many times.  My sister and I attended the  Sonoma International Film Festival where “Jimmy in Saigon” was screened.  My other sister who’s seen an early version of it but hasn’t seen the finished film yet.  My family is super supportive and happy about it.  There’s a little bit of the film about some of their initial resistance and when I revealed that it wasn’t just a history project but rather a work of art that I would like to share with the public.  That took a little bit of adjusting to realize that your family stories would be out there and Jimmy’s story would be really, really out there. 

GC:  What are you hoping audiences take away from “Jimmy in Saigon?”

PM:  I would say that I created this first and foremost as a cinematic therapeutic device for my family.  People asked me did I get the closure or the healing that I hoped for and I say I don’t really believe in closure. I mean, no death is something that’s come to some sort of acceptance but it’s really hard to come to closure.  I will say that I do think that our family has whether it’s related to the summer not I think our film families come closer together. A lot of audience members are really touched because they had a type of trauma in their family.  I recently met some people that were in tears when I just told him about the story of the film and they said my uncle or my nephew sexuality or drug abuse or you know you’re right all these things that are really sad and deep and close to our hearts and most families haven’t I think people are really reacting to that.  I even know a couple of men who had lovers in other countries where they had done it had difficulty with him being able to legally continue the relationship and  they had tears in their eyes as well so I think it affects a lot of different people and I’m really pleased with 

GC:  In your documentary you touch on a good number of universal themes that many people can relate to.  Most everyone’s lost a family member, many people have family members or close friends who had to fight wars.  Obviously, this is a well thought out documentary, but were all these themes you set out in the beginning to explore or did you find yourself going down roads while making the film that you didn’t see that you would be going down? 

PM:  Yes, I did.  I think mostly the roads that I didn’t see it going down were there the roads of contextualization meaning like I thought I was just going to tell Jimmy’s story from beginning to end or my story and making the phone but we realize we were putting it together that we needed to contextualize the story because I’m 54 and a lot of people in their 20s 30s maybe 40s and some teenagers they don’t really I know what the Vietnam War was like what the political climate was like in the 60s and 70s they may not have known how it was for gay people and even in the 80s which I talk about my coming out so you know a lot of them are sort of contextualization and laying out of history not only you know you are some world history but also my family and my purse Understand it and that was that was not something I anticipated but I think it’s something that works well.

GC:  What future film festivals will include “Jimmy in Saigon?”

PM:  We just announced three more film festivals in kind of smaller but important cites were going to be in Bentonville Arkansas which is a film festival that’s run by Gina Davis and Sandra Bullock so that’s exciting in the sort of new arts hub in Arkansas.  We’re going to be in Des Moines Iowa on June 24 and then will be in Nyack New York, which is just outside of New York City, on August 15. There’s a bunch more screenings in the US and abroad on our website: saigon.com.  There’s a place for people to sign up for emails so that they can learn about upcoming screenings and any word on a distribution.  We’d love to get it out as a theatrical release so that it could be in some art houses around the country.  We’d love to get it on PBS in this country as well as educational TV in other countries and I know eventually it will be available for streaming.  That doesn’t usually come at the beginning of a film’s lifecycle. Frameline is offering a limited number of tickets for a limited number of days to see it on their streaming format. 

GC:  I know you’re in the midst of promoting “Jimmy in Saigon,” but have you started to think about what your next project will be?

PM:  I’m not ready to rush back into another film project. I’m kind of like a parent that is just getting settled into parenthood.  I do love documentaries and I love music and I’d love to make a music documentary, maybe multiple music documentaries.  It was brought to my attention that “Jimmy in Saigon” is 70% music and I thought that was very touching as my brother Jimmy loved music.  There’s a band that I love that I would love to make a documentary called The Roches. Love to throw my hat in the ring to make that documentary.  

GC:  I love the Roaches!  Such a great band.  I’ll be looking for that, fo sure. Thank you so much for joining us tonight Peter and best of luck with “Jimmy and Saigon” and all your future projects.  Please come back when the next film is released.

PM:  Thank you, Gary, I really enjoyed talking to you.

In June of 2016, 49 lives were tragically taken during a mass shooting on Latin Night at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. One of the survivors of that night is Jeannette Filiciano, a lesbian single mother struggling to come to terms with a tragedy for which no one will ultimately be held accountable.

Between raising her teenage son, fighting with her mom around whether homosexuality is a sin, rigorous training as she tries to go pro as a competitive bodybuilder and, a little over a year later, dealing with Hurricane Maria’s effects on her family in Puerto Rico, Jeanette’s consistent, encouraging smile and motivational attitude can only hold out for so long.

Director Maris Curran’s realistic portrait of survival—full of unglamorous perseverance and routine setbacks, losses, and triumphs—illustrates that life keeps moving, never allowing for the time to truly process trauma. But in Jeannette, we are shown how building up one’s body can also assist with healing the mind and uplifting the spirit.

“Jeannette” will be screened June 17 at 1:30 PM at the Castro Theatre and will stream online June 4 — June 30.  For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.frameline.org.

Gary Carnivele:  I want to congratulate both of you on the success of “Jeanette.”  It’s a beautiful film.  Thank you for bringing this really important story to audiences everywhere. Jeanette, you’re an amazing woman and thank you so much for opening up your life

Please, tell us a bit about your background.

Jeanette Feliciano: I am community organizer. I am mother. I am the world champion Beachbody right now. I am a professional personal trainer. I motivate people through our personal training 

Maris Curran:  I am a filmmaker and I live in Los Angeles, where I work in both documentary and fiction films and I’m also a mother.

GC:  Why did you make this film about Jeanette’s life?

MC:  I met Jeanette while working on an anti-discrimination campaign in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting.  “Jeanette” is a film that I didn’t plan to make but became inspired to make. I think that upon meeting we discovered parts of ourselves reflected onto the each other which  allowed this really beautiful opening up of places where we’re similar.  It gave us a chance to create a really trusting relationship that allow the space to really go into what happens when the cameras go away – a place that I think we actually exist.  We were really concentrate on the need to really open up conversations about how this impacted the entire community.  I think that Jeanette also knows she’s a modern day superhero.  I think that seeing examples of not only her resilience and her determination but her vulnerability.  Watching somebody like Jeanette and her mom expressing their unconditional love.  Not all mothers are alike. Here we are watching this unbelievable woman push a huge heavy truck tire and then come home and be everything to her teenage son. 

GC:  What was it like opening up your life and in such an intimate and detailed manner?

JF:  It was something that we discussed initially.  We live in a society that we look at women of color in a ceratin way.  Here we have an American white woman right who wants to know about my life.  I’m wondering why cry because we put all these barriers We took the colors out we took that out because we realize that we are human we all bleed the same color that helping set the timer on for me being able to be vulnerable.  People don’t necessarily see my vulnerability.  They don’t understand what my healing process is because I had to go right back into this world.  I’ve come to realize the importance and the beauty in vulnerability and being able to connect again as human beings.  

MC:  This film is really not just about you but I truly feel that this documentary is made for the purpose of you seeing yourself in the spirit and understanding the importance of healing – the importance of being able to be human and vulnerable with others who are actually around you.  There is beauty in that and there’s a lot of healing in that mirror.

GC:  Marris, you tackle so many issues in this film – both intense and joyous – as Jeanette just mentioned.  What struck you most on an emotional level about Jeanette and her experience?

MC: I think the biggest surprise that I found in making the film is that family ended up being at the forefront.   I knew that Jeanette was a mother and I knew that she had been struggling with her relationship with her own mother but I didn’t realize that that would form the emotional core of the film.  What life brings right in the rhythms of them is of one of the essential questions that I asked going into the film.  After such trauma, how does one ever feel safe again.  How does Jeanette make Anthony understand what happened to her?  It was just a beautiful surprise to discover the answer to her life was through her dedication to her family,  through letting go and letting herself be mothered by her mother.  I think that that was really very touching to have such a lovely support group.  Many of those folks are in the film.

GC:  What was the reaction of your family and friends when you told them about your decision to put your life out there on film? 

JF:  I don’t think that it really clicked but most everyone wanted to offer their support. The community obviously rallied behind what I was doing as a trainer and somebody who continues to live life and help others.  Everything just turned out beautifully.  You see the support system that I do have here in Orlando and it’s something that I’ve always had even prior to Pulse.  Even during my bodybuilding training, the importance of healing that I’ve unfortunately been through a lot.  You are able to see that I am still connected to and still very close to all of those individuals.  We are even tighter than before and they have expanded in their helping and healing others.  I just think that it is phenomenal that we’ve come this far and the growth of so many people who actually a part of the filming and the sense of how our minds have changed as well with making sure that we actually care and connect with people again especially in this world that is just run by nothing but social media people have disconnected besides being on their phone people forgot to communicate but you know with with me and my friends and my family we know how to put that aside and actually enjoy the company for around us and we really talk about how is it that we can all heal individually and together 

GC:  Maris, you capture such intimate moments of Jeanette’s life and her interaction with her friends and family.  Talk about it how much footage you shot, how long the shoot was and how difficult editing it down was?

MC:  When Jeanette introduced me to the people in her life, I was accepted and welcomed and could feel this love that they have for Jeanette my extension which and you know it didn’t you know and when I would Allowed for that on the phone took five years to me right before and the editing process and it took a while because we’re not telling the story and it’s not really about and I think that it was really important to me that I felt the truth to her like that emotional in a way where the audience could have enter into Stop and keep working and then you get more money and I had it really interesting experience of where I work with is incredible and I can’t even believe that never met in person where we cut it in like the last leg amazing art of getting the film is a beautiful soul and I would get up at five in the morning it was beautiful and I think you’re really in a very strange way the circumstances of the world hired to help us finish the film because you know how they been Pre-pandemic times I would’ve said well you know he’s a zero and I’m in Los Angeles and we can’t afford to find them here and I can’t just go there and yes you know 

GC:  Jeanette, in the documentary you travel to Puerto Rico to help your family after the devastating hurricane.  Can you give me an update about your family in Puerto Rico? 

JF:  I was just there to help in any way I could. I bought and hooked up a generator and had to find food.  There are a lot of things that happened in Puerto Rico even before the hurricane.  I wanted to be there for my sister, but also to help the community of Puerto Rico.  I was knocking on doors to check on people – to make sure they had they’re basic needs met. I went back to my island to do my part I spoke to my sister last night we were on the phone for two hours and  they’re doing great.  I love the bond that my mom and my sister have created within the past year.  My sister is able to talk to my mom and ask for advice and ask for counsel.  Finally get it I think it’s just so important you know my mom is doing great she’s always come here and she’s always hanging out with my partner.  Now everything, thank God, is absolutely amazing.  When it comes to my family and my family bonding, I just wanted to continue to support everyone and for everyone to express the love I know is there.  That’s why I am the way that I am with Anthony.  He is my world and I make sure that he knows how much I love him because I did’t always have that.   I have it now but it’s so important for our children to have that.  For us to break the cycle.  Everything that we do in life should be led by love first and foremost because that is something that every human being 

GC:  Maris, what was it like when “Jeanette” was accepted into Frameline 

MC:  Wonderful!  can’t wait to share the phone with dad he will text them and I hope that the film opens up some of those doors so that people are able to talk about things that sometimes they would rather not talk about but that can be really nice now that you’re not we will you be here in San Francisco unfortunately I will not be there I think we’re going to  probably be doing a Q&A through Zoom after the “Jeanette” is shown at Frameline. 

GC:  What are you both up to now?

MC:  I’m working on a new film here in Los Angeles that’s about a justice program and how it works.  I have a little baby who I just brought into the world.  I’m traveling around with “Jeanette,” and couldn’t ask for anything more than that. 

JF:  My son Anthony is getting ready to go to college.  My partner has moved in with her son so I have an eight-year -old right so I need to make sure that I’m reading that he’s showing love to each and every person the same way that I believe Anthony is.  I’m currently the world champion in my catgegory so I will be competing this coming November, which keeps me very busy.  I just want people to have a sense of being seen and being able to see themselves.  

GC:  Thank you both for making this beautiful film.  Best of luck with reaching as wide an audience as possible.  Please come back whenever you’ve got something else in the works.  Happy Pride!

Cristi’s out of town visitor Hadi is a German-Turkish flight attendant so handsome that he can’t wait to get him to his apartment. The elevator will do.

But when his sister drops by, she chides her brother for not taking Hadi out, showing him the Romanian sights. She echoes Hadi’s own hopes that they’d “take a drive” to “the mountains.” Nothing doing.

Cristi hasn’t even taken time off work. On the job, in this Eastern Orthodox, conservative and homophobic country, no one can know about his private life. Cristi (Conrad Mericoffer) is a cop and any public displays of his sexuality could be a career killer, at the very least. 

“Poppy Field” is a Romanian drama about the state of gay life in that still-backward country, decades after the end of its totalitarian dictatorship. Eugen Jebeleanu’s brief, intimate film sees Cristi challenged at home — by Hadi (Radouan Leflahi), who frets over his closeted status, and by sister Catalina (Cendana Trifan), who berates him for not treating his lover with more respect, even if she’s sure this is just serial-dater Cristi’s “gay phase.” On the job, Cristi keeps as much to himself as his fellow Jandarmeria (police) allow. He talks of women he’s dated in the past tense, and stays silent when he’s jokingly asked if he “beats them,” perhaps a logical Romanian reason for relationships that never seem to last.

But things come to a head when he and his team are sent to break up a disturbance at the state cinema. A group of noisy, icon-wielding Orthodox protesters have disrupted a screening of a lesbian romance. In the film’s long middle act, Cristi must stand passively by as furious fanatics hurl slurs at the audience, get in the paying patrons’ and cops’ faces in a situation that isn’t helped by police presence.

Because when the cops start asking for IDs, it’s the folks who bought tickets to the movie that they seem to want to interrogate. And a guy in that audience may be discrete, but when nobody else is watching, he turns insistent.

“You’re really gonna pretend you don’t know me (in Romanian, with English subtitles)?” 

Jebeleanu keeps his ambitions modest in his debut feature film. This is one man’s often-ignoble reaction to having to deny himself to half the people he knows — his colleagues. Cristi lashes out and “overcompensates,” and that only makes matters worse. 

The script (by Ioana Moraru) is more concerned with introducing Cristi’s dilemma and putting him through this harrowing test than in resolving his situation — publicly or psychologically.

Mericoffer keeps this interior journey on simmer for most of the film, only exploding in his “protests too much” reaction to being confronted with some version of his true self. It’s a compact, tightly-wound performance, which suits the film beautifully. 

By Western standards, “Poppy Field” may feel as dated as one protestor’s hurled insult — “Sexo-MARXIST!” But in showing Romania’s version of what the West went through decades ago in terms of simple tolerance, there’s an implied “Let’s not go back there” message to increasingly reactionary Europe and America’s reddest states that feels fraught, if not downright wearying. Maybe “It gets better,” but not without making hard, brave choices. 

“Frameline—the world’s longest–running and largest showcase of queer cinema—announced Frameline46: The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, taking place June 16–26, 2022. 

“With this year’s theme, ‘The Coast is Queer,’ Frameline46 will expand its footprint with screenings taking place in-person at a record number of theaters and venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Castro Theatre, Roxie Theater, SFMOMA, and AMC Kabuki in San Francisco; the New Parkway Theater and Landmark’s Piedmont Theatre in Oakland; and more.

“Tickets for Frameline46 will go on sale to the general public beginning Wednesday, May 25, 2022. For more information, visit www.frameline.org. 

“Highlights of Frameline46 include:

• Over 90 films spanning narratives, documentaries, and shorts, and representing more than 30 countries, including Brazil, Norway, Georgia, Australia, Chile, and more!
• A national Streaming Encore available to cinephiles anywhere in the United States from June 24–30, 2022.
• Frameline Talks, a curated series of live panels and thought-provoking Q&As with filmmakers, celebrity guests, and community personalities.
• A glittering Opening Night Gala featuring a silence auction and Centerpiece Party!
• Frameline Awards, including First Feature Award and Audience Awards. This year, Frameline is adding awards for Best Narrative Short and Best Documentary Short, as well as presenting the inaugural Out of the Silence Award which will be given to a film that highlights brave acts of visibility.
• A vibrant new website to improve the Frameline46 experience.

INFO & TICKET LINKS WILL BE FOUND HERE