Carlton, Wendy Jo

1993

A charming account of the life of an STD.

1985

Spetsiotis, Takis

1985

In Meteor and Shadow Greek director/writer Takis Spetsiotis has avoided the clichés of the typical film biography. Instead he has fashioned a fascinating portrait of the poet Napoleon Lapathiotis (1888–1944) that both celebrates his life and stylishly depicts his tragic fall and eventual suicide. A romantic, charming leftist homosexual, Lapathiotis created a scandal in Athens when he refused to follow the rules of conservative Greek society. Turn-of-the-century Athens is conveyed rather than reconstructed in a bold departure from traditional period films and Spetsiotis makes great use of the junkies, gays, and avant-garde singers that surrounded Lapathiotis during his life as a poet. An unusual, striking film that won awards for best actor, set design, costume design, and make-up at the prestigious Thessaloniki Film Festival in 1985. Takis Spetsiotis was born in 1954 and studied film and English in Athens and London before beginning his filmmaking career with the short films Lisa and the Other and Beauty. In 1982 he created a half hour television film called “Napoleon Lapathiotis” that served as the inspiration for the feature-length Meteor and Shadow.

Van Sant, Gus

1985

Filmed on the streets of Portland, Oregon, Mala Noche is a stunning, ultrarealistic look at a younger gay man's unrequited love for a 16-year-old illegal alien from Mexico. Walt, who is openly and happily gay, lives and works among the transients, winos, and migrant workers that make up Portland's skid row. When he meets Johnny he develops a hopelessly doomed passion that he seems to know is pointless and unrealistic but can't seem to shake.  Director Gus Van Sant has created a beautiful, highly stylized black-and-white film that features a charming, understated performance by Tim Streeter as Walt. The anguish he feels over his obsessive attachment to a non-English-speaking, frightened teenager is at once pathetic and completely understandable—the characters and milieu are that well defined. Mala Noche has been compared to Stranger Than Paradise and it does have a similar low-key realistic tone, but Van Sant's visual style is infinitely more interesting. It suits perfectly his original, matter-of-fact depiction of Walt, one of the most believable, likable gay characters seen in years.  Mala Noche's gritty, reckless-seeming style—and its story of passionate delinquency—prefigures the pleasures of My Own Private Idaho and Drugstore Cowboy.

Babenco, Hector

1985

Wells, Peter

1985

The adventures of Mandy, a man in drag, and Jewel, a transsexual and the love of his life. They are both trapped on the fringes of an unsympathetic, mocking society that refuses to try to understand their unusual relationship. Richard Hanna and Georgina Beyer give brilliant, very moving performances in a cleverly told and beautifully photographed film directed by Peter Wells, one of New Zealand's most distinctive new directors.

Bressan, Arthur J.

1985

Buddies, the first American film to dramatize the AIDS crisis, is an intensely personal story of a 32-year-old Californian dying of AIDS in a Manhattan Hospital and the 25-year-old New Yorker who starts as his volunteer counselor and becomes his greatest friend. Writer/director Arthur Bressan Jr. includes factual information about AIDS, but more importantly shows that love and caring is also a major part of this tragedy. "I made this movie," Bressan says, " because I had to make it. This one came from my heart . . . It is a very small movie about the landscape of the heart and caves within us."  Robert, the patient, and David, his "buddy," resist one another at first, but, as time goes by and their hospital visits become more personal, the men share thoughts and experiences that touch them both. Since Frameline presented the world premiere in 1984, Buddies has played to audiences around the world and received critical acclaim—both for the fine performances of Geoff Edhold and David Schacter, and the no-nonsense, gut-wrenching emotion of the film.

MacLean, David

1985

Schiller, Greta

1985

From the sexual experimentations of the roaring twenties, to the scapegoating of homosexuals during the McCarthy era, to the developement of the early homophile rights movement, Before Stonewall presents a unique portrait of the history of the homosexual experience in America. Archival research director: Andrea Weiss; narrated by Rita Mae Brown.

Epstein, Robert
Schmeichen, Richard

1984

Six years in the making, The Times of Harvey Milk has seen unparallelled success in the past year. From its first screening at the Telluride Film Festival last September to the winning of the Academy Award in April, the film has rewritten the history of gay cinema. Chronicling the rise to power of both Harvey Milk and the city's gay community, the film gives a nostalgic look at a unique period in the history of the gay rights movement and the city of San Francisco.Winner of the 1985 San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary.