http://queermutinynorth.wordpress.com/

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Leeds 2nd Queer Film Festival

22-26 September

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Five evenings of queer cinema…
come for gender bending cinema that makes you think, queer trash and horror in the campest of settings, features that take us beyond the queer ‘scene’, take in some history and current struggles in the queer world, documentaries and talking heads on gender identity, shorts and amateur queer cinema.
This is a program put together from films we’ve been donated and could manage to get hold of there are many more films we would have loved to have shown, particularly more from the world outside of Western Europe
and North America. While putting together this program we’ve had many discussions, questions and criticisms about these films and others we considered showing, and although we feel all these films are of value to be shown, we welcome you to come along for debate and discussion on the ideas shown on screen at this film festival, or to get in touch to give us your views.

Queer Mutiny North is a DIY collective that puts on free queer events and gatherings in the Leeds area.
All film showings are free, donations are welcome but there will be no obligation; everyone welcome.

Queer: Defies definition, rejects restrictive gender and sexuality binaries, all inclusive and non exclusive, fluid and changeable, anti-heteropartriachy.

Money raised is going to Bent Bars,a letter writing project for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, gendervariant, intersex, and queer prisoners in Britain. For info about bent bars: http://www.core.org/joomlaindex.php/bentbars
At a secret location… text xxxxxxxxxx to get text updates, or to sort out
sleeping space if you’re coming from out of town. email queermutiny[at]gmail.com

W E D N E S D A Y – OPENING NIGHT
6pm Still Black: A portrait of Black Transmen (77mins, Kortney Ryan Zieler, USA)
Documentary dealing with issues of race in trans communities as it explores the lives of six black transender men. The film challenges traditional notions of black masculinity,sexuality and identity.

Food 7.30
8.30pm Paris Is Burning (1990, 78 min, dir Jennie Livingston)
Filmed from the mid to late 1980s, this film chronicles the ball culture of New York City. In a community predominantly made up of gay and transgender African American and Latino men, balls are flamboyant competitions where contestants must ‘walk’ and be judged in strict categories (Luscious Body, Town and Country, Military, Upcoming Pretty Girl). The uproarious glamour of the balls is depicted in contrast to the poverty, racism,homophobia and violence endemic in the contestants’ lives. Internationally acclaimed by the mainstream on release, dissenting voices have criticised the film as exploitation of a predominantly African American and Latino subculture by a white filmmaker, and dissected the fetishized version of white femininity aspired to by contestants. “Paris Is Burning is a film that many audiences assume is inherently oppositional because of its subject matter and the identity of the filmmaker. Yet the film’s politics of race, gender and class are played out in ways that are both progressive and reactionary.” – bell hooks

We’re showing this film alongside Tongues Untied and bell hooks’ essay Is Paris Burning? with the aim of creating an engaged and critical viewing.

10pm Tongues Untied (1989, 55min, dir: Marlon Riggs, English)
Contemporary to Paris Is Burning, Tongues Untied blends fiction, documentary and personal testimony in an attempt to depict the nuances of gay black identity in 1980s America. Marlon Riggs stated that the film aimed to “…shatter the nation’s brutalising silence on matters of sexual and racial
11pm Fenced OUT, ( 20mins, USA)

“Imagine that you finally find a place where you feel comfortable, a place where you are just another friend, not just another freak. Imagine there is no where else to feel normal.” Fenced OUT movingly documents the struggle of LGBTQ youth of color to save the Christopher Street pier in New York, home to many homeless gay youth, from redevelopment and gentrification. The filmmakers uncover past generations of queer peoples’ fight for use of public spaces at Christopher Street and the piers and the increasing displacement, violence, and criminalization experienced by LGBTQ youth of color.

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T H U R S D A Y

7pm Binding Words .(2007, 75min, Self produced by Cynthia Arra and Melissa Arra, FRANCE)
This thoughtful, philosophical film gives unique perspectives on personal gender identity, and the oppression faced by trans and genderqueer people in France.

8.30pm Two-Spirit People (1991, 20min.Dir. Michel Beauchemin, Lori Levy & Gretchen Vogel USA).
An overview of historical and contemporary Native American concepts of gender, sexuality and sexual orientation. This documentary explores the berdache tradition in Native American culture, in which individuals who embody feminine and masculine qualities act as a conduit between the physical and spiritual world

9.30pm Maggots and Men (2009, 54mins, Cary Crononwett, USA)
An experimental historical narrative set in post-revolutionary Russia, retells the story of the 1921 uprisingof the Kronstadt sailors with a subtext of gender anarchy. A thoughtful homage to Soviet silent era directors and artists of the Russian avant garde, the film explores themes of reinvention, revolution,community, and corruption.

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F R I D A Y

6pm Cruel and Unusual (2006, 66mins, Janet Baus Dan Hunt,USA)
This award winning documentary makes an unflinching examination of transgender women in men’s prisons. Ashley, Linda, Anna, Yolanda and Ophelia describe their experiences undergoing inhumane and humiliating treatment including rape, violence, solitary confinement and denial of medical care.

- Short talk about the Bent Bars project and prison abolition. -

7.30pm–food

8.30pm Unveiled (2005,100mins,Angelina Maccarone,Germany, Eng subs)

Facing rape and death for having a relationship with another woman, Fariba Tabrizi flees to Germany where she seeks asylum.
Tragic circumstances create the opportunity to assume a new identity coupled with a new gender. With time a love affair develops between Fariba and a female coworker. With a convincing performance by Jasmine Tabatabai, the film is intimate

10.30pm The Edge of Heaven (2007, 122mins, Fatih Akim, Germany/Turkey,german, Turkish, English)
Three interconnected stories are played out as the characters travel between Germany and Turkey, influenced by chance encounters and missed connections. Gripping while slow paced and thoughtful.

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S A T U R D A Y

- come dressed up!!

12pm re-showing of Tongues Untied and Paris is Burning (see Wednesday opening night for details)

3pm Queer Beograd (2006 16 mins, Serbia) Part documentary, part art film, Queer Beograd documents the festival of the same name held in Belgrade in 2005. Clips from workshops, demos, concerts and parties give an authentic feel for grassroots queer events.

London Queeruption, Queeruption 4 (2002,18mins,Laetitia LeChat, London)

A visit inside the festival and its collective organisation…performance, music, interviews and loads of improbable hairdo’s.

Queeruption London 1998

Historical footage from the first queeruption, footage filmed from a film screening of queeruption 1 at queeruption 4!)

Saluting the National Erection

Israeli queer resistance to the occupation...and an 11ft cock.

Popcorn!!

4.30pm This Filthy World. (2007,86 mins. Dir:Jeff Garlin.USA. English)

"A one-man show by the anointed "Pope of Trash" queer cult director John Waters detailing the hilarious yet touching exploits of his real Baltimore band of deviants that made up his film entourage, plus his rude and shrewd observations and critiques of the banalities and ediocrities of modern life. If you thought trash culture was thoughtless and meaningless, think again.

6pm food +Popcorn!!

7pm Desperate Living (1977, 90 mins. Dir: John Water)

"Desperate Living is a Work of True Trash Art, one of the Trash Trilogy alongside Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, this film stars Mink Stole as a delusional suburban housewife who goes on the 1am with her maid. Exiled to Mortville; land of criminals, nudists and sexual deviants; they become part of a conspiracy to over-throw the tyrant Queen Carlotta. Warning: contains scenes of extreme per-version and incredibly offensive language.

8.30pm Moralists’ Instruction Musical: The Revolutionary Conduct (2010, 25min, dir: Lasse Langström, Leo Palmestal) Swedish, Eng subs

An ‘instructional musical’ following a gang of queers as they deal with heartbreak, oppression and idiot straight boys in bars. With sparkly outfits, dance routines and moderate violence.

9pm Otto, Up with Dead People (2008, 94 mins, Bruce La Bruce, Canada/Germany, English)

Political gay zombie porn movie. Otto is a confused young gay zombie with memory problems; he goes in search of the truth in the seedy underground S&M clubs of Berlin. He meets crazy avant-garde lesbian filmmaker Medea and her girlfriend Hella who encourage him to star in their political horror porn movie (up with dead people). Throughout the film his memory returns slowly and he goes in search of the life he previously had.

Popcorn!!

Late night porn...

Christian Porn (5mins, Berlin)

Who ever thought Christianity could be so rewarding? Hilariously irreverent trashy DIY porn.

Tour de Pants (2008, 40 mins, Luke Woodward, USA)

At the first ever Tour de Pants bicycle race dirty racers pound much more than concrete, as they compete for the grand prize- the golden panties. Queer Porn featuring a multi-gendered cast.

More porn to be confirmed...

 

S U N D A Y

1pm Discussion space. (some ideas to discuss are the stereotypes in otto and paris is burning.)

3pm Boy I Am (2006, 72mins, Sam Feder and Julie Hollar, USA)

Discusses the issues and connections between transgender FtM people and the lesbian feminist community. This documentary dares to ask many of the questions that bubble beneath the surface of the queer community surrounding trans and feminism, while following the stories of three transmen as they undergo surgery.

4.30pm One in 2000 (2006, 27mins, Ajae Clearwa, USA)

A documentary exploring intersex lives from a variety of perspectives. Going beyond issues of gender and medical treatment, it deals with

5pm Working On it (2008, 50 Min, Sabina Baumann, Karin Michalski Switzerland, german,eng subs)

Working On It deals with the interplay of multiple aspects of identity –gender, sexuality, race and nationality. Queer activists, artists and theorists in Berlin reflect upon how this effects the way they are seen –and treated – by others as well as how they define themselves.

POPCORN!!!

6pm Ma Vie en Rose (1997 88mins, Alain Berliner, Belgium, French with Eng subs)

Ludvic deals with family, neighbours and friends persistence in treating him/her as a boy, de-spite his/her insistence that he is a girl and will grow up to be a woman.

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