Breaking Fast
This is my traditional moment to mourn the passing the Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival. It’s the third year in which we sadly go without one of our community’s greatest cultural experiences, one that had endured over three decades. Of course, this year would have been different. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic there would neither have been the grand gala opening at the Oriental Theater with its pre- and post-parties attended by Cream City’s queer who’s who, nor a week’s worth of new LGBTQ films and videos screened at the UWM Cinema.
But, in our quest for assimilation, and no doubt due, in great part, to the realities of funding, politics and the logistics of putting on a film festival even in the best of times, we have to acknowledge the loss and accept what we have instead, namely, the 2020 Milwaukee Film Festival’s GenreQueer category that this year includes a whopping 25 films.
The number represents an over four-fold increase compared to the Festival’s 2019 schedule. Thirteen of those make up two “shorts” programs: GenreQueer Shorts and GenreQueer Shorts: Experimental Visions. These new additions, perhaps added as a nod to the popular Shorts programs of the LGBT Film/Video Festival, are unlike those familiar evenings of men’s, women’s and trans’ shorts of yore. Rather than dedicated to a particular gender identity, MFF’s selections focus on universal queer themes with each program’s films offering a full range of LGBTQIA+ inclusion.
The remaining dozen features include documentaries, comedies and dramas covering the width and breadth of our identities, generations, cultures, relationships and other queer specific dynamics. Among the documentaries are Jean Rainin’s Ahead of the Curve about the history of lesbian life-style magazine Curve, and Posey Dixon’s Keyboard Fantasies, the history of unsung Black trans artist-composer Glenn Copeland. In the realm of fiction, the spectrum includes selections by both American and international directors. The latter includes representatives from Hong Kong, Brazil, France, Kazakhstan and Canada. Their common denominator, of course, is the universality of queerness.
Naturally, the subject matter is just as diverse. The comedy Breaking Fast by Mike Mosallam offers a look at the convoluted life of a gay Muslim American, while Twilight’s Kiss by Hong Kong director Ray Yeung presents the secret sexuality and love between a two senior men. Matthew Fifer and Kieran Mulcare’s Cicada explores an interracial bisexual relationship, while a tale of teenage lust, faith and sexual awakening find its setting in a Hebrew school in Olivia Peace’s Tahara. Unusual settings are matched by some similarly quirky situations. In Daniel Wierman’s The Gift, a thoughtful wife gives her husband a man as a present. Meanwhile, Chris Coats’ short Content delivers a classic scenario of the innocent photo model getting “more than he bargained for.” I haven’t seen the film but I suspect if you are or have ever been a photographer or a model, you may experience a déjà-vu moment.
So, while we may not have the all the trappings of the now sadly defunct LGBT Film/Video Festival, there’s certainly no dearth of queer cinema to enjoy at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival.
