Taylor, Amanda

1995

Amanda Taylor's Cat Nip looks at her family's myths and how they intertwine with the stereotypes of lesbians and cats.

Decker, Mark

1995

With a heart of pure California gold, Casa Hollywood is the story of a fiery Latin drag queen named Paloma. In the tradition of Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck, Paloma fights City Hall in order to save her Hollywood Boulevard nightclub from being destroyed by a powerful real-estate development company that wants to build a theme-park shopping mall called Hollywoodland II in its place. At the same time Paloma struggles to save her "family" — a colorful assortment of people who live with her in a large apartment behind the club. As tensions rise, Rick, the young man she has raised from boyhood and who is now a headline male stripper at Casa Hollywood, threatens to leave just when Paloma needs him the most.

Umen, Alix

1995

A romp through the life and times of transvestite jazz musician Billy Tipton.

Winterbottom, Michael

1995

Eunice (Pulp Fiction’s Amanda Plummer), passionate and impulsive, journeys all across northern England on her desperate search for Judith. Judith is the only person who had ever accepted or loved her. Then Eunice meets Miriam (Saskia Reeves), a lonely, introverted and naive young woman who works at a gas station, cares for her infirm mother, and constantly eats noodles. Eunice completely dominates Miriam with her directness and power, since no one had ever paid any attention to Miriam in the past. Together they continue the search for Judith, a search marked by Eunice’s constant testing of Miriam’s love. But Miriam sticks to her friend even after she finds out that Eunice has committed a murder. How dependent is Miriam on Eunice? Can she keep her from committing further crimes without taking on this same criminal lifestyle? Butterfly Kiss is Michael Winterbottom’s first film for theatrical release. “The public has to understand the motivation of the characters, regardless of how strange or exotic it may appear. People are supposed to laugh during the film, but not because the actors provoke them with an obvious intent,” he says. Winterbottom succeeds in creating a balance between humor and offense that is simultaneously funny and macabre.–D. Peters, Berlinialle

Hindley, Emma

1995

Finally a film that takes a serious look at contemporary butch-femme relationships from a British perspective. Emma Hindley expertly blends candid interviews with hot sex in her documentary film Butch Femme. What is it that attracts one to the other and why do they face so much discrimination both from the straight world and from their own lesbian communities? These are just some of the questions addressed in Butch Femme in an effort to bring us a little closer to a better understanding of the complexities of gender and sexual identification. An interesting cross-section of butches and femmes tell us their stories of discovery, both of themselves and the other. Running throughout this film is beautiful and evocative B&W footage of a butch/femme sexual encounter.

Hunter, Neil

1995

“Are you faithful to him?” asks one of the characters in Boyfriends. “Yes,” comes the response, “mentally.”If the Festival’s entries are any indication, 1996 was the year when lesbians and gay men went to the country to sort out their problems. Everything Relative tells of a very funny reunion of lesbian couples in a country home. And Boyfriends is a sort of rural Boys in the Band.This British comedy depicts three troubled couples who spend three days together cooking, talking about relationships, and sleeping around. They’ve all got problems: Wiil is a social worker who wants to sleep with a boy he used to counsel — again. Matt is a hopeless romantic who likes the music at the beginning of newscasts and wants semi-interested Owen to move in with him. And Paul is blowing his smoke into Ben’s precious plants, the ones Ben complains to when Paul is a jerk. The moment all six arrive at Paul’s brother’s country house to celebrate Paul’s birthday, things fall apart. Don’t blink, or you may miss another sexual pairing.Boyfriends is a witty, poignant, and very true to life. The characters banter and fight and make up and throughout it all are drawn with depth and compassion. Nobody has all the right answers, but everybody has some of them. It’s no fairy tale, but offers hope in the end: with some hard work and a sense of humor, gay men can maintain loving relationships with each other.

Fernando, Sonali

1995

A lush and beautiful meditation on the life and work of Audre Lorde. Sonali Fernando's film is an imaginary biography of the lesbian, feminist, professor, mother, visionary and 'warrior poet' who died of breast cancer in 1992. Avowing the subjectivity and desire with which we view our forebears, the film meditates on those moments in a life lived with passion that steel the political will and irradiate the poetic consciousness.

Percillier, Nathalie

1995

Handelman, Michelle

1995

Michelle Handelman's long awaited documentary about the political activities and sexual choices of women in the leather S&M community. Using a combination of documentary, personal histories, artistic visions, and media imagery, this film focuses on nine central figures who represent a diverse cross-section of the leather S/M community. Handelman documents a series of competitions held throughout the country by the women's leather S/M community. By following these women and cutting between their personal lives, political activities, and candid interviews, Blood Sisters provides an in-depth picture of the leather S/M community. Graphic footage of actual play also gives us a greater understanding of the nature of the intensity of the bonds that exist between these women. Mixing both experimental and traditional documentary styles, Handelman draws us deeper into this often misunderstood community and gives us a more intelligent and less sensationalistic view of the reality behind these women's lives. Starring Tala Brandeis, Wickie Stamps, Amy Marie Meek, Pat Califia, and Skeeter, with music by Coil, Chris and Cosey, Frightwig, and the Lucy Stoners.

Wallin, Michael

1995

Michael Wallin's voyeuristic Black Sheep Boy explores the sexual thrill and emotional obstacles inherent in looking at and eroticizing boys barely on the edge of being legal. These are “boys who open like flowers, boys who look like they could murder.” Their tough street clothes, the cool way they undress before his self-conscious camera, their cocky attitudes broken only by an occasional boyish smile, the extreme close-ups on their bulging crotches: these images expose a lingering purity, a freshness untainted by the burdens of adulthood. But as Wallin's poetic narration reveals, such unspoiled virtue is a fantasy that cannot long be sustained, and a pair of clean white Jockeys becomes more than just a metaphor for young sexual energy. It becomes a poignant reminder of that which is lost in the aftermath of these erotic encounters, when all that's left is the space between boy and man.