Films and Panel Look at Contemporary Media and Sexuality

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 17, 2003 –“Looking Queer,” a film series and panel discussion about contemporary media and sexuality will take center stage in Williamstown the week of April 21. Williams College and Images Cinema are co-hosts of the event.

On April 21, 22, and 23, Images will screen new, previously unreleased, queer-themed work produced or curated by “Looking Queer” panelists, who will participate in a panel discussion at the theatre on April 26 at 1 p.m.

Featured films include “A Soldier’s Girl,” “The Politics of Fur,” and Muslim and Middle Eastern Queer Films, an extraordinary program of short films by and about queer experiences in Middle Eastern countries. Screenings will run as a triple feature each night beginning at 6:30 p.m. (Call Images for exact show times.) The screenings and panel discussion are free, but donations to the cinema will be accepted. Tickets can be reserved by calling Images Cinema at (413) 458-5612.

The Showtime production, “A Soldier’s Girl,” is based on the true story. Directed by award-winning director Frank Pierson, the film stars Tory Garrity. Soldier’s Girl recounts the story of Barry Winchell, a 21-year-old private first-class who fell in love with Calpernia Addams, a beautiful trans-gendered nightclub performer. The movie details their relationship against the growing animosity of Winchell’s roommate, Justin Fisher. Fisher ignites anti-gay sentiments in the barracks, ultimately leading to Winchell’s death. The film recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will air on Showtime.

Laura Nix’s lesbian dark comedy “The Politics of Fur” is the comedic story of Una, a woman who lives with her pet tiger cub Baby and her manservant Dick. Her erotic liaison with a wanna-be rock star named B. triggers the demise of all her major relationships in this feminist re-working of the melodramatic film genre. Una attempts to shape her love interest into a successful pop star, but B. resists domestication, destroying Una’s fragile chain of command. In an act of defiance, B. has her way with one of Dick’s hustler boyfriends. Una throws out her lover, houseboy, and tiger in a fit of rage. When her mother arrives in a surprise visit, Una finds herself terribly alone and is finally confronted by her misshapen priorities.

Muslim and Middle Eastern Queer Films includes powerful short films set in Lebanon, Iran, Palestine, and in the Middle Eastern diaspora. Too long invisible within western communities as well as their own societies, lesbian, gay, bi and trans Middle Easterners give voice to their complex truths as they relate their histories in the series of films and videos in this program. The program includes films by Tawfil Aub Wael, Diyan Achjadi, Akram Zaatari, Kouross Esmaeli, and Mitra Farahani.

On Saturday, April 26 at 1 p.m. at Images, panelists will discuss the role of media representation of bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgendered people. The panelists will be Gene Falk, Showtime executive in charge of the emerging gay cable network venture; Los Angeles-based independent writer/director Laura Nix; and Ioannis Mookas, co-curator of Muslim and Middle Eastern Queer Films and director of the MIX New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival. Liza Johnson, filmmaker and assistant professor of art at Williams, will moderate the discussion.

Falk runs Showtime’s Digital Media Group, and was as a founding member of the national board of directors of GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), one of the country’s leading gay civil rights organizations. He is leading Showtime’s effort to launch a GLBT cable channel. He is responsible for Showtime’s video-on-demand and interactive television initiatives, broadband strategy and content, new channel development, investments in new media companies. Wired Magazine has twice named him one of the most influential executives in the industry. He received his B.A. from Williams and his M.B.A. from the Wharton School.

Nix is a co-founder of the production company Automat Pictures, and has produced and directed numerous special edition DVDs for major studios, including the feature-length documentary “Whether You Like It or Not: The Story of Hedwig.” She has co-directed for HBO’s “Real Sex,” and was the associate producer of the feature documentary “The Celluloid Closet.” “The Politics of Fur” was awarded Best American Narrative Feature at last year’s Outfest in Los Angles.

Mookas is co-curator of Muslim and Middle Eastern Queer Films, and has been executive director of MIX: New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival. Mookas was previously the organizer and programmer of the Thessaloniki-USA Film Festival of Balkan cinema. His documentary video productions include “Only Human: HIV-Negative Gay Men in the AIDS Epidemic and Peer Education” and “Not Fear Education,” both of which have screened internationally. He has contributed to Afterimage, Cineaste, The Independent Film & Video Monthly, and the Millennium Film Journal.

These events are part of the college’s Pride Days events and the 10th anniversary of the Dively Committee, which sponsors BGLT events at Williams.

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Published April 17, 2003