DOXA at 20
Vancouver’s film festival opened my eyes to the beauty and power of documentary cinema. I’m forever grateful.
Dorothy Woodend is culture editor of The Tyee. Reach her here. SHARES On the eve of DOXA’s Documentary Film Festival’s 20th Anniversary, the festival’s former director of programming Dorothy Woodend, seen here in 2015 in front of a still from
Monsterman, reflects on the good, the bad and the kinda kooky of two decades of documentary cinema.
Photo courtesy of DOXA Documentary Film Festival.
Twenty years ago, documentary films were for nerds. Not cinema snobs, but even nerdier types turtleneck-wearing, herb-tea drinking, no-fun folks. The cinematic equivalent of bran, documentaries were for people who lectured about the Oxford comma, watched PBS exclusively and started every sentence with the words, “Well, actually…”
To help mitigate the stress students at the University of Kansas are feeling as the semester comes to an end, as well as celebrate queer students in the community, the Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity has a myriad of events scheduled this month, embracing the month of âGaypril.â
Gaypril, a play on the words âgayâ and âApril,â is a dedication of the month of April to queer members of the KU community. The month is full of LGBT events, including two Queer Coffee hours, a screening of the film âParis is Burning,â a gay brunch and the lavender graduation to celebrate LGBT graduates.
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New Book Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance
Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance by Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes has just been published by University of Michigan Press (2021).
[I love the cover, which features great photo of the outstanding performance artist Freddie Mercado. As soon as we get more information of the cover art, we will share!]
Description:
Translocas focuses on drag and transgender performance and activism in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. Arguing for its political potential, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes explores the social and cultural disruptions caused by Latin American and Latinx “locas” (effeminate men, drag queens, transgender performers, and unruly women) and the various forms of violence to which queer individuals in Puerto Rico and the U.S. are subjected. This interdisciplinary, auto-ethnographic, queer-of-color performance studies book explores the lives and work of cont
As the 1990s approached, films began to offer more positive portrayals of LGBTQ people, often as the loyal best friend/confidante, with characters beginning to be more fleshed out, having lives rooted in their sexuality but not necessarily ruled only by it (i.e.
Fried Green Tomatoes, 1991). Straight society could identify with the queer search for happiness despite facing oppression and traditional values (i.e. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, 1994).
One remaining taboo was public displays of affection and intimacy, especially two men kissing. That hurdle would be overcome in the 2000s (and even lampooned in the 1998 indie
Sean Coleman Made His Dream of Housing for NYC’s Trans/GNC Sex Workers Come True
Courtesy of the subject
In the middle of a frigid COVID February in the Bronx, Sean Coleman found himself playing a strange new role in his already remarkable life: de facto building superintendent. Due to the cold, the pipes had burst in the elevator of the 16-unit transitional residence he’d recently opened with $440,000 of New York City Council funding. The residence is for transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) current and former sex workers over age 25. Housed in a brand-new building, the residence is named SWITCH, which stands for Sex Workers Immediate Temporary Comprehensive Housing.