Mid-to-late summer means one thing to me ... It's film season! Although there are film festivals all year round in Vancouver, between now and the end of September are the ones I look forward to every year: the Queer Film Festival, the Pacific Cinematheque's Film Noir Festival and, at the end of September, the Vancouver International Film Festival. Popcorn and licorice candy abounds!!!
Of all the awesome offerings at the Queer Film Festival (August 11-21) this years, there are a number of transgender and intersex related films and documentaries. So far, I have tix for Gun Hill Road (I'm so excited ... four more sleeps!!!) this Friday and Trans-Generational and Orchids: My Intersex Adventure on Wednesday, August 17. I will post after I have seen each of them, although I sense that these will all be fantastic!
Also, I have always loved the dark, foreboding, existential atmosphere of classic film noir films of the 1940s and 1950s: they say so much about a post-war world where people have lost their moral compass, feel trapped by fate itself and are subject to apathy, angst and a desperation for truth. These films have a lot to show us n'est pas. And such stark, dramatic cinematography influenced by the German expressionist film makers. And the dialogue ... blunt assessments, poignant philosophical credos, innuendo laden one-liners. Anyway, I think I have made my case.
The Film Noir Festival runs, with the exception of a few days in between, from August 4 to August 24 this year (a little earlier than usual). Although the big catch at this festival this year, is the never-been released on DVD Whistler series of B-movie noirs from Columbia Pictures in the 1940s starring Richard Dix. I may get to see at least one of these, but so far I'm down for The Phantom Lady (1944). Again, I will post after I have seen any of these.
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