Vu, Trac

1997

Sedelmaier, J. J.

1997

Ace and Gary teach a group of young boys various "safety tips", ranging from bicylce safety to the heimlich maneuver. As usual, no one can get past the idea that the Duo might be gay!

Doundakov, Ilko

1997

The film tells the stories of several gay men in their own words and gives an overview of the trial in 1964 in Sofia, which ended with jail sentences for 32 people / among them actors and singers.

Ten years ago, Dobromir met Tanya in a disco. They got married and had a daughter. Then, while in the army, Dobromir met Alexander. At first they were just friends, but when Alexander told Dobromir he loved him, Dobromir realized his own strong feelings. Tanya wasn't pleased, but Dobromir decided to move to Kazanluk to be with Alexander anyway. Unfor-tunately, not all the stories in this heartfelt look at gay life in Bulgaria end as sweetly as this one. Under communism, homosexuality was seen as a contagion of decadent Western (read: capitalist) morals. Men tell of living in fear and shame, of hoping to be cured, of incarceration and interrogation. But today Dimiter, who owns Bulgaria's first mixed (read: gay) club, and Marus, an actor who came out and recorded the campy music video "Love War," say the situation is slowly changing. An overview of Bulgaria's social and legal stance on homosexuality contextualizes their stories, while two bare-chested dancers offer a poetic pas-de-deux on the joys of male-male love.

Governi, Valerio
Cipelletti, Claudio

1997

Sichel, Alex

1997

Tomboy, Texas

1997

Documents a video artist's alien abduction experience. Local Bay Area filmmaker.

Novaczek, Ruth

1997

Set in New York and London, 5050 is about a relationship, a reflection on love gone wrong, and dual responsibility; an argument, a separation, and the nature of love are explored in images and text, cut like a music video with a jazz rhythm.

Gonick, Noam

1997

The Winnipeg general strike as seen through the window of a semi-fictional bath-house/barber shop

Swenson, Laurel

1996

Young, angry and in-your-face, these women talk about poverty, classism, and the day-to-day trials, absurdities and joys of being a young, low-income lesbian mother.

Kwan, Stanley

1996

Leaping with admirable amounts of enthusiasm and passion for Chinese film, Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan – recipient of our 1999 Frameline Award – creates a bewitching documentary full of subversive gender images from across the spectrum of Chinese cinema. From Mainland films of the 1930s to the latest über-violent films of John Woo, Kwan exposes the ways in which genderplay and queer imagery have been a facet of Chinese film throughout its history. Within the first three minutes of his film, Kwan enthralls with powerful images from his own life experiences as a gay man, as a filmmaker and as a lover of film – and reveals how these parts of his experience may or may not be interrelated. Yang + Yin also takes a close look at the mainstreaming of traditionally gender-subversive texts as they were translated into Chinese films, highlighting such examples as Farewell My Concubine, and Tsui Hark’s remake of The Lovers. But Kwan saves the best for last, bringing the academic and the personal together in an intense conversation with his mother regarding some of the films discussed earlier, her son’s “lifestyle” and how Kwan's sexuality affects her feelings about tradition.