Joan Rivers Documentary

Opening at the Little Theatre in downtown Rochester this weekend is JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, one of my favorite documentaries from my film festival travels this season.
A couple of filmmakers, Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, followed the comedian for a year giving the audiences a look at the life and career of a truly hardworking woman. Today, most people know Joan if at all as an almost caricature-like poster child of plastic surgery and for her borderline tasteless jokes thrown at celebrities during red-carpet events. This film reveals a businesswoman who needs to, almost pathologically, keep her calendar booked with comedy gigs and such to maintain her lavish NYC lifestyle and to support her staff and dependents. Most importantly, the documentary shows us, the viewers, a very funny woman -- from her humble beginnings as a struggling act whose "revolutionary" writing and comedy style paved the way for the likes of Roseanne Barr and Kathy Griffin, up to her triumphant success as a reality star in Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice." But beyond the laughter, we are introduced to a complex and interesting human being. I truly cried and laughed when I saw this film in Toronto a couple of months ago. And she totally gained my utmost respect.
The film premiered at Sundance last January. Since then, it has screened at various international film festivals. While technically not a GLBT film, I seriously considered it for ImageOut 18. Our audiences would have truly enjoyed it. But now I'm glad that Rochester will get a chance to see it anyway. And I recommend you do.

~MG

Sundance Film Festival

The movies and festivities start today at the popular winter indie filmfest, Sundance. There are a handful of LGBT titles in their lineup including some high-profile titles that I'm pretty sure will have a theatrical release soon.

HOWL, starring James Franco, centers around the young Allen Ginsberg but also touching on the obscenity trial the artist faced due to the publication of his poem, HOWL. This is the narrative feature debut of award-winning documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (Word is Out, The Times of Harvey Milk, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Celluloid Closet, Paragraph 175).

The Kids are All Right stars Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as lesbian lovers whose two teenage kids try to find out who their biological father (played by Mark Ruffalo) is. Of course, familial complications ensue.

Based on the novel by Nick McDonell, Twelve is a chilling chronicle of privileged urban adolescence on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. If that isn't enough to remind you of TV's Gossip Girl, the film also stars Chace Crawford. Not sure how gay the film is but one of the characters definitely is. And very fashion forward at that.

There are also promising documentaries about the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and Joan "can we talk?" Rivers.

But the film I'm most excited to see is Undertow (Contracorriente). It looks very intriguing and definitely sexy. I can't wait to see it. Check out the trailer here.

It's also interesting to note that one of the short films in the lineup is Raw Love (Amor Crudo) which had it's East Coast Premiere at ImageOut 2009 last October.

Many people always ask me if I go to Sundance. The answer is no. It's too close to Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival in February) and I only have a very limited budget and can only spare so much of my precious vacation time from my actual day job. The GLBT selection has always been pretty limited at Sundance and whatever big titles they have end up either showing at Berlinale or being available at the European Film Market anyway. So it all works out. But maybe someday.

~MG