Heartstone ###-1/2
Festival organiser Antoine Leonetti stated that this film was one of his standout favourites this year. The film slowly tells the story of teenage flames going up in smoke. Set in rural Iceland, we settle into the lives of Thor and Kristjan, played stoically by Baldur Einarsson and Blær Hinriksson, as they spend a summer shedding childhood and entering teenage years amidst home turmoil, adolescent angst and homosexual urges long repressed. As the summer continues, two school gal pals turn into something more until an outing with one of their fathers to collect seagull eggs no less, leads to a near tragedy. This prompts love to flow in such a way that it’s hard not to remember your own mushy childhood. Still, I’d have excised at least 30 minutes of this sweet but, at times, painfully long experiment.
The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin ####
So far I can most certainly say that the documentary selection of films at Fire!! Mostra Internacional de Cinema Gai i Lesbià is always on point and frankly one of my personal favourites during the ten-day affair. Maupin got his start as a writer for the Associated Press, Pacific Sun and San Francisco Chronicle, detailing the weekly exploits of a group of varied individuals. This series of updated logs called ‘Tales of the City’ started him on the road to success and also heralded him as a hero of the LGBT community, as it was he who carefully sifted through the windmills of change that have beset and freed the community since the Seventies. This documentary takes a fantastic step-by-step approach to not only his story, but how his life chronicled the times. Like Prince said 30 years ago, it’s a sign of the times! Great stuff.
Chavela ####
The impact that Chavela Vargas had on Spanish-language music, women and Latina lesbian identity, in particular, cannot be understated. But it was while I was watching this film that I began to understand the impact she had not only on Mexican folk music but also on the way many Mexicans view and quietly respect/admire women who go against the grain of society’s ideals. This is a woman who was dressing like a man, singing love songs to women and producing hit after hit…in the Forties and Fifties! This film starts in 1991, works its way back to her humble beginnings and finally moves forward to 2012 here in Spain, just before she died at the age of 95, redeemed and esteemed. Beautiful!
Center of My World ###-1/2
Adapted from the novel of the same name, the simple surmise would be main character Phil (Louis Hoffman) returning from French summer camp to the open arms of his best friend Kat (Sven Jung), his mum and his twin sister. There is a maudlin sense of family energy running throughout the film, mostly from said relatives, but when Phil meets new kid Nick, his world is turned right around and secrets start to reveal themselves in a series of over-dramatic yet impactful scenes. To be sure, this is a tad over-the-top but certainly a film that will strike a chord with young adults.
Tom of Finland ###-1/2
Touko Laaksonen (Pekka Strang) is a decorated officer, who returns home after a harrowing experience serving his country in World War II, but all the while immersed in a secret life of valour and gay dealings amongst officers. In Helsinki, peacetime proves to be just as odd, but when Laaksonen branches off into the art-porn world, things take a turn for the strange. It’s his turning to homoerotic art as the Seventies and Eighties unfold, where success finds him. The film is not as sensual as one might presume, and while it offered its share of skin, it failed to highlight the energy of the culture that surrounded his artistic depictions until the very end. The picture is engaging but equally annoying for that fact. Still, it was nice to see a biopic made on one of gaydom’s biggest yet lesser-recognised artists. Is illustrated porn art? You decide!