Kayli, Shon
Nudelman, Sherri

1997

dOpE on dOpE taps into human sensibility by presenting a shockingly realistic perspective of heroin use, while disconnecting the romantic element so often paired with drug use. A short cautionary tale about heroin featuring an excellent hardcore soundtrack and interviews with former shooters, including local icon Lynn Breedlove of Tribe 8.

Etchells, Tim

1997

Across a 30-year divide, Michael Atavar has a three-way with Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell in DIY.

Gawn, Pamela

1997

Tony (aka J.Travolta) gets inspired by a hair removal infomercial and takes it to the streets (in camera edit!).

Downing, Todd

1997

Mixing stop-motion animation with live action, Dirty Baby tells the story of a maive baby doll who whashes onto the shores of the Fire Island Pines.

Camara, Mohamed

1997

Keitel, John F.

1997

When his secret lover falls victim to a brutal gay-bashing, a college fraternity member confronts the agonizing issues of "coming out."

"A coming out tale set in the towel-snapping, butt-slapping, group showering, horny hetero world of a Southern California college fraternity house, Defying Gravity focuses on a couple of cute young gay guys who manage to find each other while living in the animal house from Hell. It's easy to see why Pete, a gay senior who is learning to accept his sexuality, decides to leave the fraternity and move across town to a more progressive (they eat rice cakes) group home. The problem is that the man he loves, Griff, is still in the frat house and unwilling to admit that he's gay. Griff and Pete have a satisfying physical relationship but Griff keeps it secret from everyone, including his closest friend in the house, Todd, a relatively sensitive straight guy. But when Pete is assaulted in an alley behind a gay bar and slips into a coma, Griff is finally forced to deal with who and what he is.

Vallois, Philippe

1997

While on a fashion documentary short, a filmmaker starts recalling memories about his lover who died two years before.

Vallois, Philippe

1997

While on a fashion documentary short, a filmmaker starts recalling memories about his lover who died two years before

In Dancing Under The Bombs, French filmmaker Philippe Vallois, visiting Beirut on a fashion shoot, recalls his life and romance there during the height of the Lebanese war, when he was a photojournalist. Haunting images of models in bridalwear posed against the shell-shocked rubble of the city supply the visual backdrop to Vallois' reminiscences, as he explains how he danced with his now-dead lover as the bombs fell around them and learned one of life's profounder lessons – how to snatch moments of joy amidst the inevitablility of pain, suffering, and death.

Nicolaou, Cassandra

1997

Growing up a Canadian tomboy, Cassandra Nicoloau resisted learning the women's parts in Macedonian dances, until she found in them a way to connect emotionally with her aging mother – a story sweetly told in Dance With Me.

Camara, Mohamed

1997

The first West African feature film to deal with homosexuality, Dakan begins with the most sexually explicit opening scene in African cinema. Rather than showing a rural landscape or an urban panorama, locating the characters in a recognizable social context, the camera focuses instead on an isolated couple locked in a clandestine embrace in a sports car at night. The shot becomes even more transgressive when we realize the couple is two young men. When one of them later tells his mother he’s attracted to another man, she replies, “Since time began, it’s never happened. Boys don’t do that. That’s all there is to it.” Dakan is the story of two men who, by coming out, disappear and become invisible to their families and society, because their society has no language which recognizes their love. Sori and Manga are well-to-do schoolmates in urban Guinea, deeply in love and remarkably open about their feelings. Both are the only children of single parents who have invested their whole emotional lives in their sons. Each parent takes steps to end what they see as a doomed relationship which threatens their families' futures, and for a while the children attempt to go along with their parents’ wishes. Trying to forget Sori, Manga even attempts a sexual relationship with a young white woman. But in the end the young men cannot change, and must accept their love as destiny, even though their future is uncertain. While coming out may have become primetime fare in the US, this film had to be filmed clandestinely in the director’s native Guinea. Because Dakan both challenges the idea that there is a universal gay culture and debunks the notion that homosexuality is non-existent or foreign to African societies, this moving and thoughtful film has provoked controversial discussions at several international film festivals. But beyond its taboo topic, Dakan is a contemporary reinterpretation of the age-old Romeo and Juliet conflict between love and social convention. In director Mohamed Camara’s words: “I made this film to pay tribute to those who express their love in whatever way they feel it, despite society’s efforts to repress it.”