QNY Must-See Film: We Were Here

Last night I attended a screening of We Were Here, the new AIDS documentary by David Weissman.  David is friend to many illustrious radical faeries I know, including Justin Vivian Bond, Covelo, Fannie Mae B. Free, Fussy Lo Mein, and Daisy Shaver, who were all in attendance.  I also spotted NY Sen. Tom Duane, Mario Cantone, and tons of other celebrity-looking people whose names I should probably know.  After co-directing the 2001 documentary The Cockettes with Bill Weber, it's not surprising that such a crowd would appear to view Mr. Weissman's new film, but this one especially because it's one of the first and deepest looks back at the AIDS crisis in San Francisco.  I've never been so moved in a room filled with so many stars.

We Were Here takes a simple, spare approach.  Mr. Weissman interviews five individuals who lived in San Francisco before AIDS struck and elicits their plague stories.  A florist, a nurse, an activist, an artist, and a caregiver tell about those years and how their lives were changed.  The interviews are set against a variety of still and moving archival images from the time.

The film is well served by by this minimalist approach.  The audience develops an immediate affinity with each, and I'd venture a guess that most queer people will find a particular interviewee with whom they resonate.  I was particularly drawn to Daniel, an artist who survived the very first drug trial, which study quickly killed every other participant (including his boyfriend), because he was a "wuss" who refused to tolerate the lethal side effects.  Daniel's story of survival while caring for dying friends and lovers and founding a seminal, grassroots AIDS care organization is nothing short of stunning.  I also found myself drawn to Eileen, a nurse at the first AIDS ward in San Francisco, and one of the first AIDS researchers, whose pragmatic approach to comfort and work to save lives is heroic.

But this isn't a movie about favorites.  The director does an amazing job of integrating these stories and using them together to tell the broader story of the AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s.  Of course I shed tears throughout much of the film.  But I also shook with anger as I watched queers fight proposed laws that would have quarantined all AIDS patiets in California--not once but twice!  I booed and shouted with ACT UP! members as they demanded adequate government response.  The whole story is here, beautifully and terrifyingly brought to life with video footage and art from those times.  And finally, the film brings these epic cultural events back to these five people who lived through them, and grounds us in the simple human feelings and failings that overwhelmed them.  In so doing, the film becomes about more than AIDS; it is a hopeful prayer for all humanity, for all who suffer unimaginably and survive.

Please see this film.  It premiers at the Angelika Film Center on September 9th.  It is essential for every queer person and every loved one of every queer person.  I cannot overstate the importance of keeping this recent history at the forefront of our social consciousness.  I graduated high school in Kansas in 1994, and though I have heard hundreds of accounts from dear friends and partners who witnessed these times, never had I seen the whole arc so succinctly and intensely retold.  Had I known, had I experienced this story in the visceral, total way that it is presented here, I might not now be living with HIV.

It means so much more than the success of a documentary.  It could mean the health and happiness of a young queer person. 

Florent: Queen of the Meat Market

By West Village Bill

Last night, my boyfriend Tony P. and I caught Florent: Queen of the Meat Market, a documentary about Florent Morellet, the out, HIV-positive owner of the dearly departed bistro-diner on Gansevoort Street that became wildly successful and started the gentrification of the Meatpacking District. We really enjoyed it.

The movie features a lot of celebrity cameos, but the most fun came from the stories told by employees such as longtime hosts Harry Erickson—who looks like the love child of Roger Daltrey and David Bowie—and Darren Anthony—who relates how he dealt with a customer who had stripped to his underwear and covered himself with grape jelly—and hunky former waiter Tom Eubanks.

The real star, though, is, appropriately, Morellet, who comes across as a real mensch who enables and revels in the sea of craziness around him. We see him as an activist and entertainer—he does drag for the "high holidays": Halloween, New Year's Eve, and Bastille Day—and a preserver of historic things and places who despises nostalgia.

Neither Tony nor I had ever eaten at Florent, and it was a hoot to spend some time there almost three years after it closed.

Florent is playing at the Cinema Village on E. 12th Street.

Review: MIX Fest Opening Night

by riot

Last night I attended the opening event of MIX 23 (mixnyc.org), the annual New York queer experimental film festival.  This year's festival is being held at Theater for the New City, which is a venue that works very well for this event.  After the jump I'll give a brief review of last night's festivities.  I highly recommend checking out some or all of MIX's programs!

Musings on MacGruber

Posted by David

MacGruber, in case you didn't know, is a recently-released movie that is based on a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name.  The basic premise is centered on the character of MacGruber, a MacGyver-like fellow, who is always in the process of defusing a bomb but keeps getting bogged down in inter-personal issues leading to the detonation of the bomb and the death of all those involved.  Over and over again.

NOTE: There are spoilers that follow, so you have been warned.

Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice: New York Coming Attractions

Posted by Beau RN

I have to confess even though I'm a geek from head to toe and pride myself on being aware of forthcoming movies, I missed the memo when Disney greenlit a live action version of their 1940's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".  Greenlit it with Nicolas Cage and the Whole Lotta Jew Fire dude from "Nick & Nora's Playlist".  Seriously, WTF?

The trailer for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" was released yesterday to what appears to be some anticipatory fanboy fanfare so I watched it just to get a read on how this might go.  I think it might go right in the toilet, to be honest.

BUT! And there is always a BUT, what I loved about the trailer is the opening scene when the great metallic gargoyles that thrust out from New York's Chrysler Building start moving and then fly off the building to do the Sorcerer's bidding.  Who has ever looked at the Chrysler Building and not wanted those great Art-Deco avians to spread their wings and take flight over the city?

(The Chrysler Building photo by Margaret Bourke-White)

The win for me in this movie, if I'm going to be pleasant and positive since it won't be released until July 2010, is that was filmed all over New York City last summer.  I can sit through a total suck of a movie if it is in New York so I can make due with watching for all the places I love and frequent in the city, if only to gloat to everyone not living here.  So yes, despite my misgivings and growing sense of suck, I'll be in the theater this July to see "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".

New York City movies are one of those almost insignificant things that keeps me loving the city just a little bit more.

A Queer New York Review: It's Complicated

Posted by Beau RN

(Meryl Streep from "It's Complicated" by Universal)

"It's Complicated" is the new film from Nancy Meyers staring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and then a bunch of other people, most notably, John Krasinsky (from 'The Office' fame).  As the Four Word Film Review put it, "Streep's sex with ex" though I'd also tip my hat to "More dick Jane fun" (because Streep's character's name is 'Jane', you see.)  Essentially Jane is taking her sweet old time to get over her divorce from Baldwin's cheating, puffy lothario ten years earlier. Just when she's ready to move on, thematically represented by the building of a kitchen and bedroom she's dreamed about but put off for the last ten years, using Steve Martin's architect for the work, she has a drunken bedding of Alec in his swank NYC penthouse hotel room. Hilarity and pathos mush this dog-led sled forward for the next hour and a half.