[This article appears in the current April|May issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
When it is easier to watch a movie on a mobile phone than to head out to a theater, Wicked Queer, Boston’s long-running, ever-relevant LGBT film festival, understands that its mission is to provide something that can’t be accessed through the Internet or on any device: a unique experience to view films from around the world, and hear from the filmmakers behind them, in an atmosphere of community and camaraderie.
Running March 29 to April 8 at venues around the city, Wicked Queer, at 34, is among the oldest LGBT film festivals in the country. Opening night festivities at the Museum of Fine Arts begin with the U.S. premiere of the Finnish LGBT romance, “A Moment in the Reeds,” with director Mikko Makela in attendance.
The film had its world premiere at the 2017 BFI London Film Festival, where it got shining reviews. It’s about Tareeq (Boodi Kabbani), an architect and Syrian refugee struggling to adapt to life in Finland. He’s hired to help renovate the lake house belonging to the family of Leevi (Janne Puustinen), who has just briefly returned home from studies in Paris. “A Moment in the Reeds” has earned comparisons with the recent “God’s Own Country” for its story of two men thrown together by circumstance who develop a deep connection in a short time.
A similar storyline in a wildly different film comes from Japanese actor-director Koichi Imaizumi’s explicit romance “Berlin Drifters.” It’s about two Japanese men in Berlin, each seeking genuine connection in his own way, who come together and drift apart over the course of a few erotically charged weeks.
Two documentaries will screen after their world premieres in February at the prestigious Documentary Fortnight at New York’s MOMA. “Parental Rites” from director Jules Rosskam is a first-person essay film that examines physical and sexual abuse in a contemporary Jewish American family, with the filmmaker’s queer and transgender identity at its core. According to MOMA, “As filmmaker Rosskam and his partner, Alex, retrace a 1974 road trip taken by Rosskam’s parents, photographs, audio recordings, home movies, live action and colorful animation are combined, collage-like, to evoke the psychoanalytic journey of memory retrieval and trauma recovery—as film and filmmaking become part of the healing process.” James Nadeau, Wicked Queer’s executive director, describes the film as “amazing and beautiful.”
Also fresh from MOMA is “Mr. Gay Syria” from Turkish filmmaker Ayşe Toprak. It depicts the challenges of being gay in the Middle East and the harsh realities of refugees. The film focuses on the relationship between Husein, an Istanbul barber yearning to escape to Europe, and Mahmoud, a gay rights advocate who helps asylum seekers. Both share the dream of participating in the Mr. Gay World contest, representing the LGBT community across the Muslim world.
It’s not surprising that several films in this year’s festival reflect the glaring global plight of immigrants and refugees from both personal and political viewpoints. Wicked Queer will present a panel talk on queer immigration featuring local experts, along with a screening of Myriam Fougère’s documentary “Feminista.” It’s a road movie that tracks the 2015 trip Fougere took with a group of young activists, traveling from Turkey by the way of the Balkans, to Italy, Spain and Portugal, and how the experience affected the group personally and politically.
There are lighter films, too. One is “Pinsky,” from Newton native Rebecca Karpovsky, who co-wrote the script with director Amanda Lundquist and shot it in Boston. Karpovsky plays a 26-year-old Sophia Pinsky, whose girlfriend breaks up with her on the same day that her grandfather dies. With her life unraveling, she moves back to Boston and into the home of her overbearing Russian-Jewish grandmother. As Sophia tries to make it as a stand-up comic, she must deal with her meddling grandmother’s attempts to fix her up with eligible men.
“The Ring Thing,” directed by William Sullivan. is about a lesbian couple, Sarah and Kristen (Sarah Wharton and Nicole Purcell), whose commitment is tested after Sarah accidentally proposes to Kristen while on vacation in Provincetown. The mixup sends both women on separate journeys of figuring out her expectations for the future.
Anyone who recalls 1989’s disastrous Oscar telecast opening number, with Snow White, Rob Lowe, dancing tables and chairs, and cameos by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, won’t want to miss “The Fabulous Allan Carr,” director Jeffrey Schwarz’s (“I Am Divine,” “Tab Hunter: Confidential”) documentary portrait of the showman responsible for that infamous Oscar night. The film charts Carr’s rise to mega-producer during the 1980s, with projects that ranged from “Grease” to “Can’t Stop The Music” and “Grease 2.” There’s also archival footage of Carr’s legendary parties, in an illuminating, hilarious portrait of a showbiz legend.
“The Fabulous Allan Carr” is one of several documentaries about queer icons in this year’s fest. The acclaimed “Susanne Bartsch: On Top,” from gay filmmakers Anthony Caronna and Alexander Smith, explores New York City club culture through the influence of nightlife legend Susanne Bartsch. The film takes its title from Bartsch’s famous Tuesday night parties at Meatpacking district club Le Bain, where gender-queer figures such as RuPaul Charles, performance artist Joey Arias and transgender pioneer Flawless Sabrina found their identities and careers. The directors will be at the screenings.
Commemorating the life and death this past September of LGBT icon Edie Windsor is a new film, “Edie Windsor: To a More Perfect Union,” which traces Windsor’s landmark fight, while well into her 80s, for marriage equality. The documentary offers parallel stories of Windsor and her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, who argued United States v. Windsor before the U.S. Supreme Court and won. In a groundbreaking ruling, the high court declared a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional in a 5-to-4 decision.
For tickets and more information, go to the Wicked Queer website.
