Reeling: The 24th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival runs Friday, November 4, through Saturday, November 12, at Chicago Filmmakers; Columbia College Ludington Bldg., 1104 S. Wabash; Landmark’s Century Centre; and the Music Box. Tickets are $10, $8 for members of Chicago Filmmakers. A schedule for the current week follows; for a complete schedule visit www.chicagoreader.com.
R Night Watch
Like Tipping the Velvet, which screened at last year’s festival, this is a BBC drama adapted from a novel by Sarah Waters, who writes historical novels with lesbian characters. Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) shines in a key supporting role as a poor Victorian woman who takes in foundlings and raises them as her own, though most of the screen time goes to a supremely treacherous love triangle involving a ruthless con man (Rupert Evans), a hardened street girl who becomes his accomplice (Sally Hawkins), and their mark (Elaine Cassidy), a gullible young woman who will inherit a fortune on her 21st birthday. More grim than its predecessor, this is tastefully mounted but encompasses too many twists of fate to give its characters enough attention. Aisling Walsh directed. (JJ) Screening in two parts, each about 90 minutes; the second screens Sun 11/6. (Landmark’s Century Centre, 8:00)
SATURDAY 5
Generation Q
Karen Duthie’s intriguing 2004 documentary video profiles Michelle Dumaresq, Canada’s reigning female downhill mountain bike champion, who spent her first 20 years as a man before having gender reassignment surgery. Competing across Canada on the amateur women’s racing circuit, she provokes antipathy among fellow bikers, who insist that she retains superior strength from having been male. Dumaresq is collegial yet doggedly determined to compete as a professional someday. Also on the bill: Judith Cobb’s video short Tomboy, which profiles several women who identify more strongly with the male gender than with their own. Total running time is 77 minutes. (JK) (Chicago Filmmakers, 3:30)
