November 4th

3:30 Fiction and Other Truths - From the directors of the critically acclaimed Forbidden Love comes this entertaining and insightful look at the life, work and politics of famed lesbian novelist and activist Jane rule, author of the book which later became the movie Desert Hearts.

5:30 Desperately Seeking Asians - Leftovers: A young girl gets a surprising reception and a lot of misunderstanding from her traditional family when she brings her girlfriend home for a family holiday.

Bottom: A gay man?s surreal, sexual encounter glimpsed through the assumed roles and sexual stereotyping that face many Asian males today.

7 Steps to Sticky Heaven: Listen in as Asian men talk frankly and show explicitly aspects about being ?sticky?

Preservation of the Song: This award winning dramatic narrative was shot in Chicago?s Chinatown. It is a story of an interracial couple?s relationship in the age of AIDS and gay activism. The film examines the conflict caused by two different points of view towards activism, while confronting the sometimes lethal stereotype that Asians are immune to AIDS.

These Shoes Weren?t Made for Walking: Lee explores the lives of four generations of women in his family, including their changing roles in Chinese society, the 20 year relationship between his cross-dressing, butch dyke aunt and her girlfriend, and the stories of their shoes and aspirations.

7:30 Time Passages - I Like Dreaming: A chance glance may change your life. Lofton presents a dreamy confession on the pleasures of cruising straight men on subway platforms, leading to an unexpected encounter with a stranger. Who?s cursing whom now?

Let?s Just Kiss and Say Good-bye: A bittersweet montage of film clips that stitches together a love story from the few moments of small talk and romantic gesture in gay porn.

IDI ? A poem of recollection and release in which a brief scrap of video which stands for the memory of a sexual intimacy shared is intercut with images of commercial porn and lyrical images of nature.

Paixao Nacional: Memories of a young Brazilian man are interwoven with a tourist?s impression of his country as an oversexed paradise.

Vacancy: Set in a low-rent residential hotel on the edge of San Francisco?s Chinatown, Vacancy tells the story of two transients who are both trapped in limbo; a pre-operative transsexual from Thailand who was murdered in the room and is awaiting final Buddhist rites until his killer if found and the hustler with nowhere else to go.

9:30 Change the Frame - A delightfully whimsical film about love and the maturing of relationships. Angela and Rachel live in a small college town in Colorado Rockies. Rachel is finishing graduate school, while Angela?s art career is on hold as she works at a hot dog stand to pay the bills. Their life has become a bit strained, as Rachel has become so absorbed by school that she has failed to pay attention to the relationships. Add to this the arrival of a flirtatious singer from Los Angeles, and you have the makings of trouble. But, while the singer provides a temporary distraction for Angela, she also makes her realize the need for a serious re-assessment of her life?s goals and priorities.

November 5th

3:30 The Last Supper - Winner of the ?Gay Teddy Bear? audience award for best feature at the 1995 Berlin Film Festival, The Last Supper poignantly records the fictionalized last moments of Chris, a gay man who chooses legal suicide over his deteriorating life with AIDS. Set in real time and never leaving the solitary setting of Chris? bedroom, Roberts? film depicts Chris? self-conceived ritual of dying where he recalls for us his talent as a dancer and his deep love for Val, his lover, who painfully participates in the rite.

5:30 Live to Tell - Sonia: In this poignant tale of unrequited love of the worst kind ? that with a best friend ? a twenty-something Cuban lesbian decides to come out when she returns back home from college.

How He Goes ? Trying to hit it big, a small town band experiences all the trauma imaginable on the rocky road to stardom, with an added twist: two of the male band members are clandestinely sleeping together. Their secret passion has the potential to destroy all the band?s hard work, not to mention a few close relationships.

Live to Tell: the First gay and Lesbian Prom in America: In a story of triumph and affirmation, teenagers from an alternative LA high school stage the first ever, city-wide gay and lesbian prom.

Bent TV: Saalfield, an experienced video producer, is the director of a unique television workshop in Manhattan that allows lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth to produce a monthly program. Mini-dramas, commercial spoofs, pop videos, animation and even poetry have all appeared on this show, as well as hard-hitting segments that explore serious issues.

7:30 Brincando El Charco - An event-filled day in the life of Carmelita Tropicana, a lesbian Latina performance artist who supports herself as a superintendent of a building on New York?s Lower East Side. Tropicana?s experiences wrestling rats an fighting a s a cultural terrorist are recounted in her nightclub performance.

Sightings: This powerful film illustrates the internal struggles of a Puerto Rican lesbian as she explores her cultural identity, community, lesbianism and family relations.

9:30 Fanci?s Persuasion - The night before Fanci?s wedding to luscious girlfriend Loretta, a spell settles upon San Francisco. A Midsummer Night?s Dream for the queer urban world. As power outrages course thought the city. Fanci?s friends and family are catapulted into a tantalizing dream world where magic takes precedent over reality. Things start to fall apart, beginning with the happy couple disagreeing over the guest list. Tensions build and everything comes to a spectacular conclusion at the much-awaited wedding ceremony.

November 6th

7:00 The Trouble with Love - Personally Yours: GWM seeking? The story of a young man?s hopeless search for the love of his life through the personals.

Hooking up: Boys..Beer..and Bedrooms. Follow young men as they go thought the awkward urban ritual of the one night stand.

Romeo?s Flavor: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All The Way. A dark comedy about a young man?s revenge upon his ex-lover on Christmas Eve.

Be My Valentine: In search of a good relationship, seven young men talk about their frustrations in finding happiness when it depends on finding the perfect man of your dreams.

Prauge: follow one man?s journey as he expresses his distress about his newfound love?s departure in a series of letters he plans to send before his beau has even left.

Miguel, Ma Belle: ?Who am I supposed to take care of a dog if I can?t even take care of myself?? Shattered by the recent break-up of his relationship, Miguel and his little doggy embark on an emotional search for independence and strength while Miguel learns to live with HIV.

9:30 Girls on the Edge Beyond/Body/Memory: Poetic, sensuous and erotic, this first film from longtime media artist Neesha Dosanjh flows with a rhythmic succession of images that suggest an Indian woman?s emerging sense of self and sexuality.
Feeling Anything Being Existing: Love, sexuality and chage dominate this three-part experimental film. The essence of experience can not be defined rationally. It can only be apprehended through the senses.

Internal Combustion: Two HIV positive women, one Jewish the other Latina, are juxtaposed in this video that combats the silence surrounding lesbians in the AIDS epidemic. This complex work operates on both a metaphorical and visceral level.

Between These Few Silent Breaths: A streetwalker?s hunt for her biological mother takes a bizarre twist in this short narrative. She has an unusual kind of encounter with mom in mind.

The Story So Far: This stylish black and white film takes its inspiration from the great film noir works of the 1940?s. it inventively combines two plot lines, one concerning a diamond heist and the other charting the ongoing battle between black lesbian activist and their white counterparts.

November 7th

7:00 Enraged and Outrageous - Cruising Headstones: a young man ponders his relationship with his dishonest lover while he himself cruises a cemetery in search of anonymous sex.

Evil Cleric: A confrontation between religious fundamentalists and gay marchers during the 19093 March on Washington.

Jonathan & David: A sensual save sex interpretation of the biblical relationship between Jonathan and David.

Political Funerals: A moving documentary about a bold new movement within AIDS activism which rejects the notion that one should die quietly.

Tear Jerker: A mother?s recurring nightmare about witnessing two young homosexuals sends her into spasms of sexual excitement.

Re Generation; Two gay men of different generations, recall contracting HIV and the stigma that comes with it.

Stolen Shadows: A black and white elegiac remembrance of scenes from the AIDS pandemic.

9:30 Transgender TransgressionsCant Help Lovin? Dat Man: This short is a romp through the life and times of transvestite jazz musician Billy Tipton, who was discovered after his death to be a woman Silly and sweet, this video explores in pseudo-documentary form the notion that billy?s masquerade was the best performance of his career.

The Alaemeda: A lonely artist is haunted by a want to be lover. Are they two, or is she all alone?

On Becoming: A multi-faceted exploration of gender fluidity, this work explores the idea that ?gender is a performance? in both its content and its expression. Features appearances by leading Australian philosopher Moira Gatens, Jasper Laybutt (editor of Whicked Women), and acclaimed American drag-king Elvis Herselvis.

Transgressions: Ruby is married, has three kids, and runs a one-hour photo store. In his spare time, he dresses up with his wife. This exploration of identity helps deconstruct the borders of gender politics.

Men Like Me: A techno-doc which explores the physical and social transformation of Dale Michaels, a female to male trangenderist.

November 8th

7:00 In My Father?s Bed Beyond/Body/Memory: Poetic, sensuous and erotic, this first film from longtime media artist Neesha Dosanjh flows with a rhythmic succession of images that suggest an Indian woman?s emerging sense of self and sexuality.
Untold Truths: Gender and body politics are at the center of this highly personal narrative based on one woman?s determination to control the fate of her own body

In My Father?s Bed: Randa Downs performs her riveting one woman play which recounts her survival of father/daughter incest. Downs recreates therapists and members of her immediate family for a cathartic journey thought memories of fear, shame and anger. The result is a sparsely staged and gracefully realized film about a childhood reclaimed.

9:30 Squishy Does Porn ?I?: Haunted by memory, obsessed with a recurring, enigmatic dream, a writer sits and follows his dreams until the words make flesh what his mid imagines. A beautiful, yet disturbing experimental piece on the obsession with one?s self.

Screamers: Wanting to scream, not wanting to scream. Wanting to be heard ? breaking the sound barrier. A mysterious tale of frustrated screamers unfolds against a backdrop of knife-throwing with a futuristic mind twist.

Squishy Does Porno: ?if sex is so interesting, why is most porn so boring?? This modernday porno parable offers something fresh for every sexual appetite, whether gay, lesbian, bi or beyond.

November 9th

7:00 Lesbian Family TiesBoth of My Mom?s Names are Judy: Kids between the ages of 7 and 11 speak about having queer parents, offering vital insights into lesbian and gay parenting.

Related by Birth: This documentary of an alternative family is a gay and lesbian parenting success story. Theses parents focus on the welfare of their child despite the usual family stresses and the unique societal pressures placed on them because they are different.

When Shirley Met Florence: Two Jewish women reminisce about their schooldays in Montreal. As they walk through the streets of the neighborhood where they shared adolescence, Shirley recalls Florences?s tomboy ways and Florence recounts her passionate crush on Shirley. It is a touching story about friendship between tow women who overcame the legacy of oppressions occasioned by the Holocaust and the homophobic 1940?s.

14Women and A Gold Medal Dream: At the 1994 Gay Games in New York, the Toronto Tygers are determined to win a medal in the fastball category. This video follows 14 women through a battery of sporting competitions denied them in a larger, less tolerant world.

9:30 Bloodsisters This sex-positive documentary is an insider?s view of the San Francisco leather dyke community in all its complexity. From International Ms Leather to Dyke Daddy to the Femme-next=dor, S/M dykes discuss their commitment not only to sexual pleasure and pain, but also to political activism and community service through fundraising. Handleman explores the nature of the intensity of the bonds which exist between these women.

November 10th

6:30 Black is?Black A?intThis is Marlon Riggs? last film, completed by his crew after his death due to complications of AIDS. Riggs has always addressed the issues involved in being black and gay in a confrontational but invariably sensitive way. His works Tongues Untied and Color Adjustment have reached both gay and straight audiences, and have aired on P. Typical of Riggs? work, this film shows passion, intelligence and mastery. Many noted African-American figures such as Bill T Jones, Angela Davis, Essex, Hemphill, Bell Hooks and Cornel West share their artistic, intellectural and personal experiences.

8:30Pretty Deadly DykesBlond Fury: This humorous and wacky story follows two trashy New Jersey housewives in search of their supposedly kidnapped husbands. Their adventure leads to more than their sleazy husbands as these pistol packin? blondes develop a strong bond that expands the limits of friendship, Who loves whom in this big haired spandex road movie?

Ding Dong: Who is killing and then making over homely women? That?s the question two ambitious and snoopy investigative reporters try to answer as they follow a trail that leads them to ?Pretty Girl Cosmetics.? Theses two will do anything to solve the case and break the story on the ?Make-over Murderers? ? including spying on Honey and Slim, two highly successful door-to-door cosmetic sales ladies that seem to be hiding more than a few blemishes. Lesbian serial killers have never been more luscious in this outrageously campy spoof that is sure to keep you laughing.

10:30 Black Sheep Boy: A voyeuristic exploration of the thrill inherent in looking at and eroticizing boys barely on the edge of being legal. Wallin delves into the current fascination with white Jockey briefs as objects of desire in the context of Sex, Love and AIDS in the ?90s. Boys, fresh from the streets and from all walks of life, undress before your eyes both as objects of desire and as seductive rulers of what is within their BVDs.

A Place in the Sun: From the director of Caught Looking and North of Vortex comes this moody film, tense with desire. Illias is a bored 35-year-old Athenian who falls in love with Panagiotis, a muscular 18 year old refugee from Albania. The two have absolutely nothing in common but that doesn?t stop them from embarking on an emotionally lopsided, doomed relationship. The boy isn?t above taking what he needs from gay men, using force if needed. Allowing his passion to overrule his logic, Illias becomes an accessory after the fact to one of Panagitotis crimes and gets caught in a web of desire from which he cannot escape.

November 11th

2:30 Queers AbroadMoscow Fags: Can fags be free in Moscow? Can democracy eradicate Russia?s hatred of homosexuals? Can two Russian men and their American lovers build a relationship in a country which persecutes them and deems them outcasts? With firsthand accounts of homosexual prisoners and footage of public actions to legalize homosexuality. Poselski documents the grim reality of being gay in present day Moscow.

8 Ball: Using a series of vignettes, multilingual commentary and voice-over narration, a sensual Caribbean tale of love, rich in story and visuals, is disrupted by the revelation of the HIV status of one of the lovers.

Happy Gordons: A passionate study of what it means to be a Paddy queer on the aul sod and in New York City. Being queer in Ireland was once a crime, and many gays and lesbians emigrated. Now Ireland has some of the most liberal laws in Europe, while New York queer activists must demonstrate to march in the St. Patrick?s Day parade.

4:30 Porcaria/LimitesLoosely translated as ?piggery,? this scandalous sex farce is set in the ?Little Portugal? area of Toronto, circa 1969. Joaquim and Amalia Quinteriro are just your aveage young immigrant couple, drawing blood over money matters and overdosing on culture shock. A love triangle of unusual proportions. Porcaria demonstrates a total lack of resistance to the charm of the ?new world? that has the fish jumping off the walls!

Limites: An intimate excursion into the work of internationally known male nude photographer, Peruvian Carlos R. Quiroz. Based in Montreal, Quiroz?s work has been featured in magazines such as Mandate, Honcho, Blueboy, Manner, Euroboy and Prowler, among others.

6:30 Go For It Grrrl! the Fight: Exposed at last, a woman boxer takes aim at stereotypes

What is a Line: A dark comedy about an angry, recently uncoupled lesbian, riding a train (and an emotional roller-coaster) as she mulls over the details of her breakup.

Skin-es-the-si-a: A scrambling of the cultural codes of female movement by juxtaposing images from the work of performance artist Hannah Sim with images of Sim working as a nude dancer in a peep show.

Midwestern Hospitality: An intriguing look at an amorous encounter between two women, which begins with their meeting on an El train.

Lesbian Bed Death: Myth or Epidemic?: Winner of the audience award for best fiction short at the LA Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, this amusing video takes a ?Nightline? ? style look at the condition known simply as LBD ((lesbian bed death); an all too common lesbian malady.

Airport: The provocative exploits of a group of young women as they explore sexual desire among the bathroom stalls in an airport

8:30 Trevor & Other Boys? Shorts Achilles: Using puppets modeled on classical Greek sculptures, this overtly sexual animated film tells the story of Achilles and his lover Petroclus.

Black Sheep Boy: A voyeuristic exploration of the thrill inherent in looking at and eroticizing boys barely on the edge of being legal. Wallin delves into the current fascination with white Jockey briefs as objects of desire in the context of Sex, Love and AIDS I the ?90s. Wallin?s meditation on underwear and solitude eroticizes and reveals what separates the men from the boys!,

Frank?s Cock: A dazzling, dangerous and extremely explicit split screen assault on love and AIDS that juxtaposes Madonna?s Erotica, Sex Ed films and gay porn with a tour-de-force turn by Vancouver actor Callum Renney.

Trevor: Gay adolescent angst is the subject of this disarmingly funny Oscar-winning short. Thirteen year old Diana Ross-obsessed Trevor has a crush on his hunky basketball playing pal Pinky. When the whole town finds out, Trevor plunges into despair only to emerge with lip-syncing defiance.

10:30 Chicago?s Own: Video BlowoutTuesday Night Dream: Two beautiful men meet in bed. The Fight: Exposed at last, a woman boxer takes aim at stereotypes in this experimental video short.

Memories of Charmers: A tribute to a little art deco bar in Chicago called Charmers, which over the last 60 years has gone from trendy club to neighborhood tavern to flamboyant gay bar.

Behind the Magnolia Curtain at Camp Sister Spirit: This documentary captures a climatic week at Camp Sister Spirit, an inspirational retreat for women in Alabama that has come under attack from nearby residents, who have gone so far as to offer their own money towards the camp?s destruction.

IDI: An eleguy to the sexual intimacy shared by a young black man and the video maker who is white.

I Confess: The memory of a sexual liaison between a Catholic priest and an altear boy drives this deconstruction of the debate surrounding man/boy love.

November 12th

12:30 Panel: Making a Gay FilmWriter/Director Mark Bessenger and co-producer Josef Steiff will be on hand to ?tell all? about the making of Rhapsody. Bessenger?s gay take on classic tragic love stories of 40?s and 50?s Hollywood melodramas. Bessenger and Steiff will share film clips and anecdotes to tell how the ?made in Chicago? Rhapsody (and other independent lesbian and gay films) are conceived, financed, produced and sold. Free admission 2:30 Gay Lives & Culture Wars: A look at gay and lesbian youth and their relationships with their families, set against the harsh propaganda being delivered by the religious right.

Just As I Am: An astounding portrait of the power of family. Dwayne, a young man with AIDS, courageously decides to talk with teens about the facts and fallacies of this disease, a condition which would take his life only weeks after this program was taped. The producers also included Dwayne?s mother, father and brother through interviews taped with them after Dwayne?s passing. The resulting combination is an emotional tribute to the power of love, ironically coming from the heart of Jesse Helms country.

4:30Rude Boys Roughly CutPlaying Poseidon: do you have an inexplicable obsession with a film from your childhood? Playing Poseidon is an autobiographical look at the filmmaker?s childhood fixation with The Poseidon Adventure and his resultant imprinting on one of the film?s starts, Shelly Winters. This hilarious film essay takes us on a journey into the obsessive psyche of a filmmaker fascinated by a thrilling world in which people dangle precipitously from table on the ceiling!

Forsaken: A retired priest reminisces on the past in this visually rich film, which tells the story of lost love. Through a series of poignant flashbacks, we see a young man forced to chose between corporal desire and religious faith.

Roughly Cut: To circumcise or to not circumcise? Roughly Cut takes a look at masculinity, cosmetic surgery, and cultural aesthetics while examining the practice of neonatal circumcision and the cosmetic restoration of foreskin.

The Dead Part of You: A story about three twenty-something brothers attempting to live together in a one bedroom apartment in New York City. Pathological behavior, homophobia, alcoholism and the pressures of living with AIDS all help to create a swirling environment which eventually ends in the brutal murder of one of the brothers.

6:30I Became a Lesbian & So Can You The Haircut: A short film about a woman who recalls specific life shaping events from her childhood while having her haircut.

Novices: Growing up Catholic and surrounded by young beautiful nuns, two women recall their childhood crushes on these women of the cloth.

More Than a Paycheck: More Than a Paycheck chronicles the issues and problems a journeywoman faces in a straight-male dominated vocation.

Sheller Shares Her Secret: Sheller gets her revenge!

I Became a Lesbian and So Can You: How to become a lesbian and change your life for the better! Outstanding personal testimonials in this lesbian infomercial answer the question ?Do lesbians recruit??

Kiss the Boys and Make Them Die: The social ast of loving women becomes channeled into narratives of incest, desire for the mother, loss of the father, separation from the family, death and self-destruction

8:30Judy Tenuta Goddess Party a world premiere video performance created by the Goddess herself at an AIDS benefit in Austin, Texas. Also known as ?In Goddess We Trust? this hysterically funny hour-long program shows off Tenuta at her outrageous best!


Ted Shen, Chicago Reader November 10, 1995

"Audiences in this country really haven't seen films in which two men fall in love, just as heterosexual couples do," says Mark Bessenger, who recently finished shooting Rhapsody, a locally produced independent feature about a gay romance. "In Rhapsody we take the relationship at face value. These are regular guys with normal emotional dilemmas. I believe America is ready for a more realistic take, not only the angry shockers from the new queer cinema."

When Bessenger wrote the script back in '86, he didn't expect it ever to be made. "We were still in the dark ages," he says.

Bessenger grew up in a religious, conservative home in southern Indiana. "Naturally I was repressed and tried to date girls," he explains with a soft chuckle. One of his obsessions was--and still is--monster movies. He started making Super-8 shorts when he was 12. "Perhaps you can say I identified with those creatures rejected by society." He came to Chicago in 1985 to pursue an MFA in filmmaking at Columbia College. Four years ago, with enough practical film production experience under his belt and about $25,000 raised from family and friends, Bessenger made his first feature, "a horror-action-martial-arts movie" in Super-8 called Ninja Zombie. It went straight to video. After such films as Parting Glances, Longtime Companion, Go Fish, and The Living End paved the way for box-office acceptance of movies with gay themes, he sensed the timing was right to dust off his old script.

"What we need is to show the varieties of same-sex relationships," he says. "Most gay-male films tend to be about AIDS or drugs, which push the envelope of convention further in one direction. Or the drag-queen type that deals with an exotic subculture. Only in lesbian films do we see genuine relationships." Bessenger says Rhapsody is an old-fashioned romance in the tradition of Hollywood classics. "In a lot of ways it's similar to a wholesome Rock Hudson and Doris Day vehicle, with its share of uplifting piano music and heartbreaks."

About a year and a half ago Bessenger raised enough money from the local gay community and his family (his parents still don't know the subject of the film or that Bessenger is gay) to launch Rhapsody into production. He recruited local actors Nic Arnzen, who's gay, and Dan Paxson, who isn't, as the lead characters. "I had wanted someone more macho for Paxson's role," says Bessenger, "but he turned out just fine. He gave the lines a lighthearted feel. And he didn't have qualms about the love scenes. He was only concerned with frontal nudity."

Two weeks into the shoot, Bessenger found himself overextended, and he shut down the production. He then approached Josef Steiff about being the film's coproducer. The two knew each other from Columbia, where Steiff has taught script writing since '88. Steiff, who's also gay, says films like Rhapsody are "necessary to desensitize audiences. In the 40s and 50s Hollywood movies showed couples sleeping in separate beds. Now couples are seen having graphic sex. The same should hold for R-rated, gay-themed movies." Steiff eagerly joined the crew, and last March the camera started rolling again. With expenses at $65,000 and editing costs still to come, Bessenger trekked to Hollywood in July with hat in hand. "There are plenty of gay executives out there who are friendly to the project," he says, "but I got the standard answer that any independent producer would get: "We can't help you finish it, but bring it to us when you're done."

Tags: Film, American, 1995