Last week, I was lucky enough to catch some of Reeling 29: The Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival, and I wasn’t disappointed. The 10-day festival ended on the 13th and offered a wide variety films from many different countries. Although I wish I could have seen more of the festival, what I did catch was entertaining, diverse, and memorable. While many feature length films were presented, my first Reeling experience was two short programs: Her Beautiful Disaster and Goodbye My Lover, each containing five brief yet touching pieces. So start keeping tabs on the Gay and Lesbian section of your Netflix queue or watching for festivals in you area, and look for these titles- they’re worth the wait.
Her Beautiful Disaster
Birthday
Directed by Jenifer Malmqvist, Birthday is a Polish/Swedish production that manages to grab the audience in a brief amount of time with its rich character connections and quick pacing. The short yet layered film tells the story of Sara (Asa Karlin), who, along with her young daughter, has planned a birthday party for her wife Katerina (Lotten Roos). However, the party goes awry when discoveries are made about Katerina and the sperm donor of the wives’ next child. The two leads are deeply moving in their portrayals, especially Karlin, who stands out as the betrayed Sara. The lakeside setting is beautiful, and the ending is satisfying without giving too much away.
One Night
Laura Jean Cronin’s One Night is a quick, suspenseful short that, while predictable, still carries an impact. The lead character, portrayed by Lezlie Moore, wakes up in her bed covered in bruises, and a series of flashbacks proceeds to explain how she got that way. The audience can probably work that out on its own, but it still makes for an engaging and discomforting piece. The actors aren’t the best out there -- Moore is properly expressive until words get involved and her performance becomes forced and unnatural. All in all, One Night does a realistic job of portraying a devastating and all too common experience.
Hammerhead
Sam Donovan’s Hammerhead (UK) was a personal favorite of mine, mostly for its upbeat and quirky nature that set it apart from the other shorts. Hammerhead tells the story of Boris, a young boy whose love of hammerhead sharks has him jumping in fish tanks at the aquarium where his mother and her girlfriend work. Tension builds until Boris’ inability to cope with his parents’ divorce and mother’s new partner is finally confronted during his birthday party. Hammerhead is the perfect example of short and sweet, offering a fun little soundtrack by Tara Creme and an adorable performance by Rielly Newbold as Boris. It was a nice change to see this situation from a child’s perspective, and the ending left me happily satisfied, which, considering the often depressing nature of the other films, I seriously appreciated.
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Guignol
Dana Turken’s Guignol is about a violent, cultish theater company called Grand Guignol in which the company’s leader, Renata (DeLane Matthews), has a deadly - and somewhat sexual- grip over her lead actress, Mila (Clara Couturier). The one solid highlight is Couturier, whose portrayal of Mila has a fascinating and medieval intensity. Unfortunately, the plot seems muddled with symbolism that never serves to make a clear point, or, if it was, went completely over my head. In Guignol’s favor, the tone was so different from the other shorts that it was always engaging to watch- I just wish there had been more of a coherent payoff.
Three Minutes
Although at first I thought it took place in a laser tag arena, Jenn Garrison’s very brief Three Minutes actually occurs in a “war ravaged city” in which lovers meet briefly to forget their sorrows. Luckily for the audience, this is expressed in a beautifully shot and choreographed dance sequence that was certainly one of the more memorable moments of the whole program. Linda Borini and Brigitte Hagerman portray the two lead lover/dancers with grace and fluid style, and the backup couples are just as impressive. Since it was so lovely I wouldn’t have minded if it had gone on a bit longer, but I was perfectly satisfied with myThree Minutesexperience.
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