Brownsey, Maureen

1997

A mockumentary that follows the life of a single joke over 8 years.

Parmar, Pratibha

1997

Produced for broadcast in conjunction with the Channel Four co-production The Celluloid Closet, these four works examine the special relationships between two Hollywood stars, a collection of soulful singers and a British soap. Black Divas looks at how such singers as Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Lena Horne and others reflect the gay experience. The Street looks at the quintessential English soap Coronation Street and tries to explain its huge gay fan base. A tribute to River Phoenix, This Road Will Never End features interviews with some of the key characters in the young star's life. Lastly, since she first hit cinema screens in a series of unconventional teenage roles, Jodie Foster has been adored by lesbians who identify with her tomboy traits and admire her consistently powerful portrayals. Pratibha Parmar's Jodie illuminates the Jodie phenomenon with interviews and a wonderful selection of scenes from Foster’s film career.

Thompson, Hope

1997

A frumpy librarian checks out lesbian love in It Happened In The Stacks.

Oxley, Chris

1997

A woman investigator in the british army forced to expose homosexuals is herself expelled for being a lesbian.

Caroline Meagher was serving in the British Army in 1984 when she decided she wanted to be a detective. So she was promoted into the S.I.B. (Special Investigations Branch) of the Royal Military Police, and given the job of investigating and expelling homosexuals from the military. Meagher takes the job, reluctantly participating in lesbian witch-hunts, but when she realizes that she too is a lesbian, she becomes one of the hunted herself. Based on a true story, The Investigator uses a dramatic noir-style, intercutting Meagher's own interrogation in 1989 with flashbacks of her raids on recruits, her coming-out (with a fellow officer!), and her struggle to keep her growing relationship discreet. Definitely a highlight of the festival, this suspense-filled film explores the torments of being closeted in the military.

Cheung, Jacob

1997

Intimates is an epic tale of love found, lost and hopefully to be found again. Director Jacob Cheung has created a sweet, honest and compassionate story of an unexpected love between two women that also reveals the existence of fascinating women-only organizations within traditional Chinese society. Wai (Theresa Lee), a lusty young architect living in modern San Francisco, is fed up with her wimpy boyfriend, and decides to get out of town by taking a journey to China with her "Auntie" Foon (Gua Ah-leh). To her surprise, it becomes a voyage of self-discovery for both women, as Foon attempts to help Wai with her love life, and starts to recall her own true love. Fifty years earlier, Foon (portrayed as a young woman by the winsome Charlie Young) chose the virgin life of the Comb Women in order to avoid marrying a man she did not love. At first Foon is distracted by a hunky fisherman. But when she is hired as a maid by the beautiful Wan (Carina Liu in an outstanding performance that won her best acting honors at the Hong Kong Film Awards), Foon finds real love. Cheung's beautifully crafted film evokes all the pain, the joy and importance of that love, and Foon's undying devotion to Wan five decades after they met.

Neal, Sarah

1997

Independently Blue dives into the heady decadence of the 1930's club scene to explore the impact of betrayl through the memory of an old woman.

Gottlieb, Amy

1997

Amy Gottlieb's film In Living Memory examines her relationship with her father, who developed dementia at age 93.

Kleiman, Vivian

1997

Set in a bare hospital room, Immediate Family is a tender portrait of Virginia, a postal clerk, and Rose, her comatose lover of 21 years.

Set in a bare hospital room, Immediate Family is a tender portrait of Virginia, a postal clerk, and Rose, her comatose lover of 21 years. She’s paralyzed and confined to a wheel chair. She requires oxygen at night to help her breathe. Her medical chart is hundreds of pages long. She’s been treated by dozens of specialists and has undergone innumerable tests. But the results are always inconclusive. Doctors claim there’s no organic cause for her condition.

Pacheco, Adriana

1997

A meditation on the filmmaker's childhood in a society that presumes heterosexuality and continually stereotypes the other while growing up in Colombia.

Houston, Robert

1997

11 HIV + men enter a boat race.

On July 2nd 1997, 11 HIV+ men set out on the sloop “Survivor” to compete in the 2,000 mile Trans-Pacific Yacht Race from L.A. to Hawaii, and filmmaker Robert Houston tagged along to document the challenges these men faced. Editing more than 100 hours of footage into little more than 100 minutes of screentime, Houston has crafted a stirring tribute to the human spirit. Co-captain Robert Hudson envisioned entering the race as a way to prove that life doesn’t end with an HIV+ diagnosis. After enlisting seasoned competitive sailor John Plander as his fellow co-captain, the two recruited around the world for HIV+ men (four of whom had full-blown AIDS) interested in testing the limits of their endurance. Along the way, the group discovered that sharing an HIV status didn’t make them immune to the conflicts which beset every group collaborating on a difficult endeavor. The Human Race documents the "Survivor”’s journey from beginning to end: all the behind-the-scenes planning, the training sessions, the high-seas drama that unfolded during the ten-day race, and the final struggle for the finish line.