O'Brien, Kelly

1999

Things the filmmaker forgot and learned about birth control on her trip to America.

Benning, Sadie
Hanna, Kathleen

1999

Davis, Laura

1999

Experimental documentary examines the evolution of HIV/AIDS activism in Paris, paying particular attention to the relationship between aesthetics and politics.

Drago, Carla

1999

An inner-city apartment, a seasoned hypochondriac, belligerent neighbours and vanishing underpants...the secret lies above the dust level.

Yeung, Raymond

1998

A delightful story of a gay Chinese man living in London who only dates white guys until the handsome Asian neighbor down the hall invites him over for dinner.

Oliver, Jorge

1998

A visual poem that is also a clever send up of fundamentalist homophobes that uses the Bible to contradict them.

Brooks, Phillip
Bocahut, Laurent

1998

Feature doc on Gay Africans, Dir. Philip Brooks

In one of the few films with gay subject matter to emerge from Africa, directors Brooks and Bocahut turn their documentary camera onto the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan and some of its queer citizens. The cast of characters is diverse and fascinating. Seductive, upper-class Barbara presides over the Association of Transvestites of the Ivory Coast (ATCI), a tough bunch of queens who fight the sensationalistic, derogatory treatment of transvestites and gays in the local media. Laurent is a small business owner who attracts the attentions of lay-about young men called "yossi.” Vincent is a shamanic individual who speaks of his relationship with society and the spiritual world. Ferdinand Doudou serves as a cultural interpreter for the conversations and interviews in this refreshingly anti-anthropological perspective on contemporary African sexuality. In spite of Africa's increasing identification with the international gay movement, Woubi, Cheri makes it clear that sexuality in the Ivory Coast still speaks a very unique language.

1998

Celebrate the Global Village with this selection of funny, dramatic, and lyrical shorts. In LOVE AFFAIRS a gay man and a straight woman find common ground talking about their ex-lovers. A club boy loses his love in the beautifully photographed CHERISH. SAILOR, inspired by the work of Pierre & Gilles, is an unabashedly sexy look at a handsome young man’s nautical fantasies. Across a 30-year divide, Michael Atavar has a three-way with Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell in DIY. A dark road, a young hitchhiker, and an erotic power struggle change the lives of two men in THE EXCHANGE, and WHAT A WORLD takes a playful whirl through the lives of open and closeted gay men in Italy.

Juhasz, Alexandra

1998

Women Of Vision is a three-part documentary that explores a rich, but under-represented component of both American art and politics: The history of feminist film and video makers – women who are drawn to the media because they have something urgent and opinionated to say. Part One begins in the 1950s and ‘60s with controversial filmmakers such as Julia Reichert, who directed Union Maids and Seeing Red, and renowned visual artist Carolee Schneemann, who made the provocative and sexually explicit film Fuses. Part Two focuses on six women whose careers began contemporaneously with the women’s movement of the ‘70s, including Barbara Hammer, Michelle Citron and Susan Mogul. Part Three catches up with the present, looking at filmmakers working in today’s so-called post-feminist climate, including Carol Leigh and Yvonne Welbon, two visionaries with works featured in this year’s Festival. In each episode, interviews with the artists and clips from some of their most important works remind us that even though the mainstream media is flooded with images of women, we don’t see nearly enough work from an explicitly feminist perspective. Director Alexandra Juhasz has created an invaluable record of some of the most important filmmakers of this century – women unjustly relegated to the hidden corners of film history solely because they had the courage to speak up.

Royle, Su

1998

Women At The Gay Games Amsterdam documents the sporting and cultural events that occurred at the 1998 games, including a special look at the night-life of gay women during the games.