Gearbits - November 2010

Sponsored by the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival
Thursday, November 4, 2010
7:00pm

UWM Union Theatre, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee, WI
Admission is $5.

Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival's inaugural monthly screening event.

FOREVER'S GONNA START TONIGHT
Michelle Lawler's acclaimed documentary about San Francisco living legend Vicki Marlane, America's oldest professional transgender entertainer. FOREVER'S GONNA START TONIGHT chronicles this rowdy upstart's remarkable experiences that include her Minnesota farm boyhood; her stints as a cross-dressed rollerskater and as a hoochie-coochie girl working the carnival sideshows circuit in the 1950s; the wild years of San Francisco in the 1970s, when she reigned as "Toast of the Town"; and her legendary performances at Aunt Charlies, where she continues to perform today. Marlane's singular story, the stuff of tall tales as befits a living legend, is full of laws broken and boundaries crossed and is all the more winning because of her ambitions and daring. (54min., 2009)

Directed by Michelle Lawler, and produced by archivist Kim Klausner and filmmaker/historian Susan Stryker

See the trailer here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=encWdlmc7jg).

Read more about the film here (http://www.forevertonight.com/).

AND

QUEENS AT HEART (1965)
This piece of documentary ephemera, recently restored by the Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation, offers, in its rare pre-Stonewall portrait of four male to female transsexuals, a history of American transgender life and of American media attitudes. Made by the Southeastern Pictures Corporation for mainstream audiences, with an eye towards exploitation, QUEENS AT HEART nevertheless startles, and shines, with the risky and moving testimony of these commanding women.

Jenni Olson, the film historian who discovered this footage, offers, "Of course it is extremely significant for us to be able to look back and see this rare portrait of 4 pre-op transsexuals being so candid and courageous in the years before Stonewall. The power of film for bringing us face to face with our forebears is absolutely incredible. I think the film is especially remarkable for how candid and brave the women are in expressing themselves so vulnerably when we can tell that the film was produced more as an exploitation film than as a serious documentary."

QUEENS AT HEART also includes some rare, vivid footage of mid-1960s New York City drag balls.

And please note: QUEENS AT HEART screens thanks to the efforts of the Outfest Legacy Project and courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

FOREVER'S GONNA START TONIGHT & QUEENS AT HEART will screen only once -- Thursday, November 4, at 7pm, at the UWM Union Theatre.

The films are presented by the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival with the UWM LGBT Resource Center and UWM Libraries.

Co-sponsored by the UWM Union Theatre and Equality Wisconsin, the screening is co-presented by FORGE and PrideFest.