The Reel Deal

Diverse local efforts put focus on queer filmmaking

Coverage by Ryan J. Prado

With a vibrant Pacific Northwest backdrop and even more colorful indie atmosphere, the Rose City is known to (pun alert!) lens itself to queer film. From QDoc and the Portland Lesbian and Gay Film Festival to “straighter” staple showcases like the Portland International Film Festival and the upcoming Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (November 11–20), the area’s talented auteurs, movers, shakers, actors, grips and other creatives unspool their efforts throughout the year.

Add to the established mix the just-wrapped annual Portland Oregon Women’s Film Festival (POW Fest) and DIY rookies Shorty Shorts Queer Short Film Festival, set for late November at Q Center. Both relative newcomers have injected a healthy dose of LGBTQ content, and filmmaking, to the celluloid stew—and there’s plenty more where that came from.

Cut, print, read on.

Trans-cending Sound

Portland doc Austin Unbound sees full film release after seven years

Devotees of Portland-based independent film may recall the 2004 release of a truncated documentary exploring the journey of Austin Richey to receive a double mastectomy in San Francisco. Richey, born deaf and female, allowed cameras to accompany him during the weeks prior to and during his surgery, facilitated by first-time filmmaker, and head of Greensoda Productions, Eliza Greenwood. The short film, Austin Unbound, has since been featured at numerous conferences and colleges nationwide.

Now, seven years after shooting wrapped, the fully realized film is ready to premiere in its 43-minute form November 12 and 13 at the Hollywood Theatre. Austin Unbound will screen again November 15 as part of the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival at the Portland Art Museum.

Greenwood had been showing the 13-minute version of the film steadily since late 2004, with Richey accompanying to give presentations and to answer questions. The pair have grown into what they see as a brother-sister relationship, and now that the full film is finished, both report they’re excited to turn the page in a new chapter of Austin Unbound.

I’m thrilled,” said Greenwood, 31. “It’s the moment I’ve been dreaming of for a long time.”

Reaching the end of the production, however, wasn’t without its share of bumps in the road, or differing perspectives on the film’s focus between subject and creator. Greenwood’s newness to both the trans and queer communities in Portland concerned Richey initially. Greenwood works as an interpreter for the deaf community, and has a sister who’s deaf. She graduated with a theater degree from George Washington University, and also attended Gallaudet University, the world’s only liberal arts college for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. It wasn’t until she became immersed in Portland’s queer community, and subsequently worked with Richey as a stage manager for a local comedy night for the deaf, that she opened up to what the trans community was all about.

I had heard the concept of trans, but I wasn’t really out and involved in the gay and lesbian community,” said Greenwood. “I didn’t understand it. Then when I moved to Portland, I met some trans people. Meeting Austin, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. You’re a guy.’”

When she asked me if I would let her make a movie about me, at first I wasn’t quite sure about her boundaries,” said Richey, 38, through Greenwood’s ASL interpretation. “I didn’t really know what she had in mind. I wanted to be cautious.”

The challenge over the years between Richey and Greenwood was conceptual, as well as financial. But to a degree, it was also due to Greenwood’s inexperience. The soundtrack alone—which encompasses nearly the entirety of the subtitled film and features amazing contributions from The Decemberists’ Chris Funk, and songwriter Ashleigh Flynn—took two years to cultivate.

She didn’t give up,” said Richey of the process. “She just kept going and trying to network, trying to find how to make it happen.”

Austin Unbound is most notably not a sensationalist, sorry or sad tale of a genderqueer subject coming to terms with their identity. Nor is it a film about a deaf person’s struggle to acclimate to a noisy world. As Greenwood put it, succinctly and accurately, it’s a “happy trans film,” and that happiness sets Austin Unbound apart from contemporary docs.

Greenwood and Richey do have opposing viewpoints on the “queerness” of the film. Greenwood contends that she shot it from her personal perspective as a queer individual. Richey insists the film is not about a guy in the queer community. Regardless, and with respect to that pseudo-sibling rivalry, the film has provided both its subject and director the chance to educate people curious about both the deaf and trans worlds—and that, after all, is what really matters.

I would hope that people realize that there’s a lot of diversity within our community,” said Richey.

My hope is that everyone who watches the film realizes that Austin is just a regular American guy, and that they feel like they’ve had the opportunity to become friends with him,” said Greenwood.

Austin Unbound premieres at the Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy Blvd.) Sat., Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. and again Sun., Nov. 13 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $5 in advance via hollywoodtheatre.org, $7 at the door. The film also screens at 8:45 p.m. Tues., Nov. 15 at the Portland Art Museum’s Northwest Film Center (1219 SW Park). Tickets for the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival run $6-$9. For more information, visit austinunbound.org.

Heeeey Shorty


The long and short of the First Annual Shorty Shorts Queer Short Film Festival

There are short shorts—the bottom butt-cheek-baring Daisy Duke variety, the colorful, perhaps bedazzled kind on display throughout Pride season pomp and circumstance—and then there are shorty shorts, an envelope-pushing idea so inspired it oughta be in pictures.

Brief—yes, short-—pictures.

Enter the first annual Shorty Shorts Queer Short Film Festival, a showcase as much about posteriors as it is about posterity. And protrusions. And, as a certain former Sissyboy puts it, shiny things.

The brainchild of the always affable Fannie Mae Darling (aka Jeffrey Darling) and the über-talented Gula Delgatto (aka Eric Sellers), the inaugural event, slated for November 19 at Q Center, manages to shortlist most everyone: amateur filmmakers, impatient viewers, last-minute joiners.

There are so many other things going on,” said Darling. “Every single day you have seven options, and we realize that people sometimes are like, ‘Look at that shiny thing! Look at that shiny thing!’” He and Sellers conjured up the fest a year ago, aware they’d have to make concessions to the denizens of the fast-paced queer arts world—even now, they’re extending submission deadlines to accommodate the rapid-fire realities of the YouTube Generation.

Of course there’s more to Shorty Shorts than, um, (lack of) length. The event is a night of works from local filmmakers, most of whom are queer. The rules for submission are simple: Keep the film under 10 minutes, and no penetration. Other than that, everything’s fair game.

“I love porn,” proclaimed Darling. “I probably watch porn more than I watch anything else. But there’s a time and a place for that. If it was up to me and Gula, we probably would have penetration. I wanna make people feel a little squirmy, but I don’t wanna make people feel flat-out uncomfortable.”

Q Center will transform from community hub to movie theater for this one-night-only cinema circus, complete with popcorn machine, a black tie-meets-cheetah print red carpet, beer and wine, and performances by Fannie and Gula. Darling says he’d like to build on his arsenal of annual benefits to include Shorty Shorts as a yearly event, much like the upcoming Queer Quistmas. All proceeds from Shorty Shorts go to Esther’s Pantry.

Eric and I kind of have the Portland heart where we know we’re gonna be here for several years,” said Darling. “So we like the whole ‘Let’s get back together again, guys!’ It’s so hokey, but at the same time we want Shorty Shorts to do that every year, too.”

Those who recall Fannie Mae’s infamous wine-fueled video barrage in response to an October 2010 Just Out cover featuring ChiChi and Chonga—and a follow-up also featuring Delgatto—have a pretty good idea of the essence of the videos Darling is looking for. So far, he reports, the short films have been primarily hilarious, with lots of the trashy drag element that Darling helped reinvigorate in town while a member of the legendary Sissyboy troupe. The point isn’t to create a flawless masterwork, but to give everyone the opportunity to be that wine-fueled video vixen. Briefly. Shortly.

“People can overly edit it, but I like them raw,” said Darling. “I think that’s the funniest. In Portland it works because Portland’s so fucking weird. We want all genres, but this year it’s mainly people just kind of going for that funny moment. I think people will expand more [in future festivals].”

Darling and Sellers hope to expand, too, with a full day of films for the next Shorty Shorts.

We have in our mind something a lot bigger than it will be this year,” said Darling. “But it’s baby steps.”

The Shorty Shorts Queer Short Film Festival is Sat., Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Q Center (4115 N. Mississippi Ave.). Admission is $5, or $3 with a canned food donation. For more information, or for submission information, visit shortyshortspdx.blogspot.com.

House Call


Acclaimed Portland filmmaker kickstarts post-production with online campaign

The aftermath of an unspoken tragedy haunts Sarah Dunne (Diane Dalton), and her husband Allan (Randy Schulman) forces a trip to Italy to tend to their fractured marriage. Kelly (Lindsay Haun, True Blood) is set to housesit while they’re gone, and is soon joined by her younger brother Tim (RJ Mitte, Breaking Bad), and her boyfriend Jesse (Blake Berris, Days of Our Lives). Things get real strange, real fast when Jesse suddenly decides to kidnap 8-year-old Adam (Micah Nelson) from the supermarket parking lot, and the boy’s disappearance garners zero media coverage.

What follows in House of Last Things is a dramatic thriller inspired by the emergence of repressed memories and haunting imagery, a grown-up screen scare that digs deeper than horror clichés.

I enjoy putting the audience in a position of feeling that they’re at home in a genre, but every time they think they’re in a place that’s familiar, it takes you somewhere else you haven’t been,” said the film’s writer-director, Michael Bartlett.

In his first U.S. project since moving back stateside from Germany, Bartlett’s newest film is bound to draw attention. He made a name for himself as a filmmaker with The Little Girl Who Fell From a Tree, which won the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival Best Editing Award, among numerous other honors, upon its 1998 release.

While currently in post-production at Southeast Portland’s Indent Studios, the film is finished save for sound design and music, the costs of which Bartlett hopes to offset with a Kickstarter campaign. The fundraising goal of $22,000 must be met by November 15 to be successful.

Shooting on House of Last Things was finalized in October 2010, with breathtaking contributions by cinematographer Ken Kelsch (Bad Lieutenant). As post wraps up, an intense trailer is viewable at the project’s Kickstarter page, and Bartlett has his fingers crossed that a full release will happen soon.

I could imagine that within six to eight months, we might be able to see this in the theater,” explained Bartlett. “That’s less dependent on us and more dependent on [getting a] distributor, and finding the right moment to bring it in. Timing is everything.”

For more information, visit houseoflastthings.com. To donate to the Kickstarter campaign, search “House of Last Things” at kickstarter.com.

A Del-uge of Donovan

New pilot puts “post-camp” spin on family sitcom

When Sissyboy founder Mark “Zebra” Thomas teamed up with co-writer John Camacho and director Devan McGrath for a TV sitcom pilot, all three knew it was going to be something altogether different. Their creation, Delusional Donovan, will screen at Mississippi Studios Saturday, November 12.

Delusional Donovan follows the daily life of 8-year-old Donovan Summers (Dylan Hill), witness to a traumatic event that has left his reality a swirl of colorful visions. Starring Lee Kyle as Donovan’s drag queen mom, Splendora, and former Portland resident-turned-Mattachine matriarch Amber Martin as her partner, the show challenges conventional, family-oriented sitcoms.

Thomas hopes to sell the project to a content-hungry network, and says he feels network TV is ready to take on the more adventurous programming of the Internet.

TV has become more raw now that anyone with a camera can post crazy things online, and TV has to compete with that,” explained Thomas.

Thomas and Camacho prefer to dub the project “post-camp”—a concept they mulled over during the show’s development.

We’re still working with those classic camp ideas such as drag queens as mothers, or lesbians with mullets, but we are adding another layer to these often two-dimensional and offensive characters,” said Thomas. “Delusional Donovan gives heart and complex emotions to characters that in the past mostly made potty jokes.”

For more information, search “Delusional Donovan” on Facebook. The pilot screening takes place Sat., Nov. 12 at Mississippi Studios (3939 N. Mississippi Ave.). A red carpet reception begins at 6 p.m., with screenings at 7 and 9 p.m. Admission is on a $5-$10 sliding scale.

Southern Exposure

Heart Breaks Open hits Stumptown as part of Northwest Filmmakers’ Fest

In the Billie Rain-directed, Basil Shadid-produced indie flick Heart Breaks Open, Jesus (Maximillian Davis) is a suicide counselor and queer activist who learns he’s contracted HIV following an infidelity. Tortured by the prospect of coming clean to his longtime partner Johnny (Samonte Cruz), Jesus hits the bottle and the pills until his self-destruction is curbed by Sister Alysa Trailer (Brian Peters), a member of Seattle’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Heart Breaks Open, filmed on location in the Emerald City, uses improvisation and non-actors to create a documentary-like feel. But whereas some features dealing with HIV-positive characters focus on the frequent message of prevention, Heart looks at a more unique struggle.

We wanted to explore the complex realities around an individual who tests positive through decisions that don’t align with their own values,” explained Shadid. “This is just one story of one person who contracts HIV. What’s universal about the film, however, is the story of someone who wrestles with their own shadow side.”

Heart Breaks Open screens with Austin Unbound at 8:45 p.m. Tues., Nov. 15 at the Portland Art Museum (1219 SW Park), as part of the 38th Annual Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival. Tickets are $9, $8 for students/seniors/museum members. Visit festivals.nwfilm.org/nwfest38, and for more information on Heart Breaks Open, visit heartbreaksopen.com.

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