The 16th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival runs from Friday, November 8, through Sunday, November 17, at the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, and at the Halsted Street Cafe, 3641 N. Halsted. Advance tickets can be purchased half an hour before the first show of the day. Tickets are $5 for shows before 6 pm, $7 for shows after 6; discount passes are also available. For more information call 773-384-0048 or 773-384-5533.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8
Beautiful Thing
Hettie Macdonald’s much-acclaimed English feature about three teenagers in a southeast London housing project, recently selected as the second-most-popular film at the Toronto film festival. It opens on a regular run at Music Box next week. (Music Box, 7:00)
Late Bloomers
Lesbian love among high school teenagers is the focus of this 1995 U.S. feature by Julie and Gretchen Dyer. (Music Box, 9:30)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9
Body Without Soul
A documentary from the Czech Republic by Wiktor Grodecki, about the sexual exploitation of youth in Prague. (Music Box, 1:00)
Intimacies
Nikila Cole and Sarah Kerruish direct a one-man play by TV star Michael Kearns and add some documentary material. On the same program, a short film by Mark Ward. (Halsted Street Cafe, 1:30)
Inn Trouble
A U.S. feature by the Argentinean-born Cristina Rey (Change the Frame) about a group of young lesbians. (Music Box, 3:00)
(Re)claiming Identity
Five recent short works from the U.S. and Great Britain. (Halsted Street Cafe, 4:00)
Never Met Picasso
A U.S. comedy about the avant-garde art scene. Directed by Stephen Kijak; with Alexis Arquette, Don McKellar, Margot Kidder, and Georgia Ragsdale. (Music Box, 5:00)
Siberia
A Dutch comedy, set in 1966, about men teaching music and German on a remote Dutch island. On the same program, short works from Belgium and Canada. (Halsted Street Cafe, 6:00)
Everything Relative
A romantic comedy by Sharon Pollack (1995) about seven socialist feminists from a 70s theater group who go to the country for a weekend. (Music Box, 7:00)
Bad Girls: Outlaws, Riot Grrrls, and Punks
See Critic’s Choice. (Halsted Street Cafe, 8:00)
Brit Boys
Two English films. Duncan Roy’s thriller Jackson: My Life, Your Fault (1995) and Ross Crookshank’s On Earth as It Is in Heaven, a narrative about religious repression and erotic fantasies. (Music Box, 9:00)
Boys in the Sand
Wakefield Poole’s famous hard-core feature from 1971. Poole will introduce his film. (Music Box, 11:00)
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10
It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School
A documentary feature by Oscar-winning Debra Chasnoff. (Music Box, 1:00)
Better Dead Than Gay
A 1995 British documentary by Christopher O’Hare about a 26-year-old suicide. On the same program, Sean Weakland’s short documentary Legacies (1995). (Halsted Street Cafe, 1:30)
Neurosia: 50 Years of Perversity
German filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim stages his own death and charts a journalist’s investigation into his murder in a satirical 1995 feature that, judging from the bit I’ve sampled, is very, very funny. (Music Box, 3:00)
Cowgirls, Poets and Kung-fu Dykes
Short works from the U.S. and Canada. (Halsted Street Cafe, 3:30)
Work
Rachel Reichman’s independent feature about a young woman who’s out of work and her obsession with the woman who lives next door; a selection in this year’s “New Directors” series in New York. (Music Box, 5:00)
Butterflies on the Scaffold
A documentary by Margaret Gilpin and Luis Felipe Bernaza about how a group of working-class drag queens in a small town in Cuba have become a respected part of their community. On the same program, Cathy Lee Crane’s short Not for Nothin’. (Halsted Street Cafe, 5:30)
Supergay Shorts
Six short films from the U.S., Italy, and Germany. (Music Box, 7:00)
Tender Fictions
Pioneering lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer’s hour-long autobiography (1995) is by turns serious and insouciant. She describes a childhood obsession with Shirley Temple that was nurtured by her mother, who wanted her to be a child performer–an obsession she seems to demonstrate she’s overcome when she playfully appears as an adult in drag. She also intercuts color shots of herself with black-and-white shots of Peter Jennings, as if she’s being interviewed. But most engaging is the shifting relationship between the film’s images and sounds. At times the sound describes the images, at times theoretical texts by Barthes relate more abstractly to them. These and other shifts keep the viewer active; it’s a film one can never accept passively. On the same program, Deviant Beauty by Tina Keane and Dear Mom by Diane Bonder. (FC) (Halsted Street Cafe, 7:30)
Scream, Teen, Scream
A camp spoof of teen horror by Joshua Rosenzweig, to be shown with five other short films from the U.S. (Music Box, 9:00)
Bijou
An experimental gay hard-core feature from 1972 by Wakefield Poole (Boys in the Sand), who will introduce the screening. (Halsted Street Cafe, 9:30)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11
Red Ribbon Blues
A semicomic 1995 feature by Charles Winkler about an HIV support group. (Music Box, 7:00)
Dirty Laundry
Six shorts from Canada, Japan, and the U.S. by or about Asians. (Halsted Street Cafe, 7:00)
Raising Heroes
A “low-budget gay action-adventure film” by Douglas Langway (1995). (Music Box, 9:15)
Shinjuku Boys
A 1995 British documentary by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams about a cross-dressing women’s club in Tokyo, to be shown with a documentary short by Diane Wai. (Halsted Street Cafe, 9:15)
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12
Where Is My Love?
A 1995 Taiwanese feature by Jo-fei Chen about gay life in Taiwan, to be shown with a short film by David Ottenhouse. (Music Box, 7:00)
Junky Punky Girlz & More
Nine short works from the U.S. and Canada. (Halsted Street Cafe, 7:00)
Rescuing Desire
A 1995 lesbian romantic comedy directed by Adam Rogers. (Music Box, 9:15)
The Art of Cruising Men
A 1995 comic British documentary by Peter Litton. (Halsted Street Cafe, 9:30)
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13
The Midwife’s Tale
A medieval fairy tale from the U.S. about a young noblewoman who falls in love with her midwife; Megan Siler directed. On the same program, an English short film by Louise Wadley. (Music Box, 7:00)
Gay Shorts: Longing and Loving
A dozen short works from the U.S. and Canada. (Halsted Street Cafe, 7:00)
Boyfriends
A 1995 comic English feature about gay relationships, directed by Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger. (Music Box, 9:15)
Indecent Acts
A video by William Parry about British sexual-offense laws, to be shown with another Parry documentary about River Phoenix and a short video essay from the U.S. (Halsted Street Cafe, 9:15)
Twisted
A preview screening of a first feature by off-Broadway director Seth Michael Donsky that retells the story of Oliver Twist in terms of contemporary New York; with William Hickey and Billy Porter. (Music Box, 7:00)
I Shall Not Be Removed: The Life of Marlon Riggs
An hour-long documentary about the late filmmaker by Karen Everett. On the same program, two Riggs videos, Affirmations (1990) and Anthem (1991). (Halsted Street Cafe, 7:00)
Butch Camp
A preview of a “high camp romantic comedy” directed by Alessandro de Gaetano, with Judy Tenuta and Paul Denniston. (Music Box, 9:15)
M.U.F.F. Match
A 1995 English lesbian comedy by Julie Jenkins. On the same program, a half-hour gothic love story from the U.S. by Nicole Conn, Cynara: Poetry in Motion. (Halsted Street Cafe, 9:15)