Adkin, David

1998

Eleven of North America's funniest openly gay or lesbian comedians are profiled in this candid film about the social power of laughter.

Filmed at Canada’s first international festival of gay and lesbian humor, We’re Funny That Way gets up close and personal with 11 of the funniest queer comedians from around the world, including Lea DeLaria, Kate Clinton, Bob Smith and Karen Williams. Mixing live performance clips with behind-the-scenes interviews and footage, the film brims over with insight and emotion. The comedians talk about their motivations, their ambitions, and the obstacles facing gays and lesbians in the entertainment industry. Placed in a room full of their peers, these comedians pull no punches when it comes to ruminating on gay life, whether their subject is coming out and getting laid or family anxiety issues and relationship dynamics. Irreverent and inspiring, We’re Funny That Way stands, most importantly, as a testimonial to these comedians who have chosen to engage and entertain audiences on their own terms.

Ogawa, Lulu

1998

Documentary presenting the thriving and diverse transgender movement and the opening up of discussions about gender in contemporary Japan.

Winner of the Best Amateur Video Award at the Tokyo Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, We Are Transgenders depicts the diverse transgender movement thriving in today’s Japan. Viewers are taken to conferences, public meetings, a wedding, an FTM & partners party, and go along on a group holiday with the girls – complete with a trip to the public baths. A diverse range of activists representing a variety of lifestyle choices – including cross-dressers, transgenderists and transsexual men and women (with a significant presence of FTMs) – are all given the chance to tell their stories of the struggles they face as transgendered members of traditionalist Japanese society. Japanese trans people are fed up with having to get their hormones on the black market, and with surgeons who offer treatment being threatened with censure and disciplinary actions by the medical authorities. As a result, many people go to the U.S. to have their sex reassignment surgery. Now, the appearance of groups like the Japanese chapter of Transsexual Menace, along with home-grown organizations like G-front, are putting the transgender agenda on the table. For the first time, trans people have the chance to talk about their lives fully while demanding civil rights.

Tsanana, Ewjenia

1998

A secret agent story playing in Hamburg. Two mean and unscrupulous drag queens against an insane, cruel lesbian and her fire-spitting transgendered body guard.

Ashurst, Gillian

1998

A strange woman wanders from town to town. Everyone she meets sees in her their own image of perfection and they cannot resist her and she passes on to them a contagious virus which brings enlightenment.

Maclvor, Daniel

1998

Rob makes a film to apologize to his estranged lover for his constant betrayals, but each time the camera is turned on his betrayals grow as does his desperate, fruitless desire to change.

Salzman, Bernard

1998

Christopher Cavetelli’s dying wish was for the four most important people in his life to join together for the 450 mile West Coast Cycle for AIDS. When his homophobic identical twin brother Frank (Vincent Spano), a New York cop, arrives in Hollywood for Chris’s funeral, he finds that he must make the ride with Chris’s lover Doug (Stephen Spinella), ex-wife Melissa (Lea Thompson), and slacker best friend Gaetano (Danny Nucci). The grueling five-day bike ride down the spectacular California coast tests the foursome to their limits. Untrained for the physical exertion and unprepared for the emotional journey, the four riders must navigate the geography of the land and of their own fears and desires. As humor gives way to anger and phobia to understanding, the four come to terms not only with their differences, but also with their loss. Ultimately, each of them realizes that personal transformation was the final destination Chris intended for them, and that his spirit will bind them all together for the rest of their lives.

Huntgeburth, Hermine

1998

A gay father and his spunky daughter take in a sexy young man to join their team of pickpockets.

Crotchety queen Zobel (Götz George) serves as ringleader of a shady trio of small-time pickpockets consisting of himself, his lover Karl (Christian Redl) and daughter Lizzie (Jeanette Hain). But after one scheme goes awry, Karl ends up in the hospital, and Zobel and Lizzie recruit Rudolf (Felix Eitner) to take his place. What seems to be a match made in heaven gets complicated when both father and daughter fall for their new accomplice. Neither Zobel nor Lizzie can keep their paws off the irresistible Rudolf. A whole lotta deceit, desire and betrayal follow, sending one person to jail and leaving the other two struggling to survive. Director Huntgeburth, who won the German equivalent of the Oscar for her first film, The Terrible Threesome, has crafted a wonderful story about lies and lust within the context of family, in whatever form it takes. George's performance as Zobel is all the more remarkable given his status as the macho über-superstar of Germany's top-rated cop show.

Lebow, Alisa
Madansky, Cynthia

1998

[From IMDB]: "Filmmakers Lebow and Madansky document their life experiences as Jewish lesbians."

Goldberg, Paula

1998

Travel writer seeks companion for trip to Italy and finds love in the unlikely form of a local waitress.

Coyote, Ivan E.

1998

Queer family, boy drag, top surgery and female-born gender transgressors. Transmission examines a queer family in Canada who talk frankly about their gender transgressions and their top surgery.