First Amendment Saturday!

What a day of extraordinary documentaries! The Betrayal, Larry Flynt:The Right To Be Left Alone, and Strange Culture made this Saturday in the grand Michigan Theater a visual, emotional, thoughtful, anger producing day of film. Ellen Kuras spoke about her 23 year saga of making her first directorial feature about the life of a Laotian/American family. Larry Flynt, still flanked by body guards (and frankly who wouldn't be after being shot in the spine) spoke of his continued fight to uphold the most precious document of the American people-the Constitution. And Steve Kurtz told us about his Kafkain nightmare, that still goes on, with the FBI i.e. The Bush government.
Bottom line: stay involved, donate to the ACLU or the Center for the Constitutional Rights, check out Steve Kurtz. Do Something!

Queer Realities: Fact and Fiction!

Thursday night has come and gone, but not forgotten! My hope in doing this program is to show the diversity of our stories, connected by our otherness and our humanity, which is what it ultimately all about. So you ask, Debra, how did it go?
The OUT Night at Ann Arbor Film Festival was a complete success! Thanks to an earlier time slot this year, we oversold the house. We laughed, we sighed, we cried, and we laughed again! Thanks to all the filmmakers who generously allowed their films in this program. Thanks to the local AUT Bar, owners and festival supporters Keith and Martin, for their continued emotional and financial support. Thanks to my host dyke family, Astrid, Gila, Fred and Gerta (the last two are dogs...) for their putting up with my 2 am arrivals after a night of unbridled film going and after-partying... And of course, thanks to the fantastic Ann Arbor Film Festival and their community for welcoming me and the gay community into theirs. It is a rare thing indeed to have a LGBT component of a general interest festival, and not one that I take for granted.

Multiplying Eyes Panel

This panel rocked, even if I do say so for myself! I was the moderator to a group of intelligent, knowledgeable and good looking people! The room was filled with attentive, smart and good looking people eager to learn and participate!
from Right to Left (!) Bob Alexander of Indie Pix(indiepixfilms.com), Chris Holland of B-Side (bside.com, Brooke Keesling animation filmmaker-Boobie Girl/instructor at College of Creative Studies, Mitch Levine of The Film Festival Group(filmfestivalgroup.com).
Thanks to Christen McArdle for putting this stellar panel together!

Ann Arbor Opening Night FABU

What a lovely evening! The Art Installation, the movies, the wine, the women!
Ann Arbor Film Festival is off and running. This is a poor foto of the ever lovely, ever articulate director of the festival, Christen McArdle. Her cogent opening address was a thank you and a call to action, all without raising a dew of moisture.
The evening of shorts ranged from the creatively humorous to the weighty. All were top notch including I Met The Walrus, which actually was nominated for an Oscar!
I am running out to moderate the first panel, with some heavy hitters...more on that later....(see filmfestivalsecrets.blogspot.com/) for more on this subject.

The Blog Against Theocracy

It seems that this country is incapable of following its own rules. We have this fantastic document (The Constitution...) that lays out the basic rights and responsibilities of its citizens,and still people want to forget it except when it is convenient (2nd A. and gun owners-love it, but Freedom of Speech? Only Ok if is my speech --but we don't want to talk about sex or show its many manifestations...especially "the perverted". Separation of Church and State? Only when its YOUR church; not the christian church, of course....)

So if you want to rail against the theocracy support the arts, support NGO's, make noise, be a thorn in the side, fight for impeachment of Bush and Cheney, get rid of non-profit status for churches to weed out the fakes, be yourself.

I have a head cold and this is probably looks like words to me but may not be. My apologies to the 3 people that might read it.

Back!

Here we go: films! The 46th Ann Arbor Film Festival! All attendees will be able to blog to their hearts content, and now you can hear my special POV. It will be exciting and perverse, of course. You would expect no less. All 3 of you! Here is a picture of the Michigan Theater where all the fun will happen. Of course there will be lots of parties too.

Time is a many splintered thing...

It is incredible that so much time has passed since my last post. I am in awe of people who do this daily.
I went on a cruise with a bunch of Air America's Randi Rhodes fans...to Alaska. It was a trip (well duh, it was a trip). Alaska is beautiful and it is amazing to be on a large ship. We had some of the best weather possible-came back with a little color! The lefties on the ship were fun and spirited. We ate dinner with a very nice hetero couple from San Diego. The "we" I am referring to is myself and my 85 year old father. I was pleased to find quite a few gay and lesbian fans among the 200. Randi was not really available to talk with, but it was still enjoyable to know that she was aboard.
MY RANT: The most important thing for people to do now,in my mind, is to fight the complacency and ignorance of most Americans. It is easy for these people to accept whatever bullshit the Republicans throw at them; fear of impending terror event (which is inevitable, the need for war in Iran, the weakness of the Democrats, the need to suspend the Constitution, higher taxes for the middle class (Alternative Minimum tax)fear of the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA...or maybe something new. We must throw ourselves behind the Democratic candidate, whomever it may be, and fight fight fight. I refuse to give this country to the right wing. Perhaps the youth will realize the load of crap they have been sold,and the fact that buying things does not make people happier, prettier or smarter. (It just makes them in debt.) They will have to wake up to the fact that they have to be a part of making this world better,and not just their own pocketbook. But some call me a dreamer....
Anyone in LA this weekend and want to support some funny broads, ck out the Broad Humor Film Festival in Venice. broadhumor.com
Its cheap and funny!