The Mardi Gras Film Event
Feb 25 to March 3, at the AFI Cinema, Paddington
Presented by Queer Screen in association with Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras
Previewed by Kath Tucker
The Mardi Gras Film Event, being organised in conjunction with the month-long Mardi Gras Festival in Sydney, offers a diverse range of films within its week-long schedule. The event includes the Australian premiere of some overseas feature films, as well as the Australian Queer Film and Video Awards.
A range of issues are covered by the festival, from AIDS to difficulties faced by deaf gays and lesbians, to safe sex education campaigns in Aboriginal communities.
Opening night features And the Band Played on, which stars Alan Alda, Lilly Tomlin, Richard Gere and Matthew Modine and was the first major Hollywood studio film to deal with the political, social and sexual elements of the AIDS pandemic. Based on Randy Shilts' book of the same name, the film is particularly critical of the US government, personified by Ronald Reagan, and its inaction in the early years of the epidemic.
The Canadian film Zero Patience deals with the same theme but in an off-beat manner. Director John Greyson said the idea for the film started in 1987, when he was shown a magazine with the headline, "The man who brought AIDS to North America" — the story of the French-Canadian airline steward blamed for bringing HIV to the US. By 1987 cases of AIDS in North America had been identified dating back to the late '60s, yet the establishment media took up the story of "Patient Zero" to such a degree that many now accept the story.
The film features ACTUP activists, whose attitude, according to composer Glenn Schellenberg, "more than anything else made Zero Patience into a musical". This format allows for the use of fantasy, dream sequences, spectacle, leaps of logic, direct address to camera and underwater ballet.
The event also offers a range of lesbian films. One of the most interesting would have to be the collection of works by lesbian film maker Sadie Benning from the US. Benning began producing videos at the age of 15 with a Fisher-Price Pixelvision toy camera, and when she was 20 the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a retrospective of her work.
Benning works often in the privacy of her own room, using scrawled and handwritten text from diary entries to record the thoughts and images that reveal her emerging sexual desires, the longings and complexities of a developing lesbian identity. Her work has been widely screened in the US and internationally since 1990.
From Hong Kong come two films. Naked Killer is billed to rival Sharon Stone et al in a shameless adaptation of Basic Instinct. Kitty, Sister Cindy, Princess and Baby are four kung-fu killers who weave a web of deceit, jealousy and poisoned lipstick as they back-flip and tumble through Hong Kong's central business district. The East is Red tells the story of "Asia the Invincible", who is self-castrated in order to gain kung fu powers and becomes a transsexual lesbian superhero.
Female Misbehaviour, by German film maker Monika Treut, best known for her film The Virgin Machine, explores a series of portraits of "misbehaving women", including a portrait of the infamous anti-feminist Dr Camille Paglia — "Everyone in the world knows that women are the dominant sex. Everyone knows that, except feminists." Then there's "Annie", a born again porn queen; "Bondage", a lesbian S/Mer who explains the "very warm, very safe, very secure" feeling of bondage; and "Max", who used to be Anita Valerio, a lesbian Native American living in San Francisco who embarks on a journey to become a man.
The event includes a variety of other overseas films, and is well worth a look. The Australian content is composed of three sessions of My Queer Career, collections of Australian short films and videos which form part of the inaugural "Australian Queer Film and Video Awards". With the awards presentation taking place on the final evening of the festival, the program offers a rich array of local talent. For information on schedules, ring (02) 332 4938.