Reeling: The 25th Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival continues through Sunday, November 12, at Chicago Filmmakers and Columbia College Ludington Bldg. Tickets are $7-$10, $5-$8 for members of Chicago Filmmakers; for more information call 773-293-1447.
RJack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis “Maria Montez gave socialistic answers to a rented world,” declared underground filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist Jack Smith (1932-’89) in a statement that was reportedly printed and handed out at his funeral. It’s to the credit of Mary Jordan’s documentary that whatever else it overlooks, it makes that pronouncement comprehensible. Smith was a visionary anarchist artist whose pansexual and exotic utopian fantasies yielded only two finished films, Scotch Tape and Flaming Creatures, the first of which is mentioned only in Jordan’s final credits. He resisted commodification by continuously reediting his other films and reworking his live performances–a dazzling legacy that influenced everyone from Warhol to Fellini to John Waters. In some ways Smith’s art became commodified only after he died and his estranged sister gained control over his work, though that did lead to this documentary, a fascinating introduction to his special world. 94 min. (JR) a Chicago Filmmakers, 8 PM.
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Boy “Package” Nine shorts about adolescent romance, fear, and longing. 94 min. a Columbia College Ludington Bldg., 1:30 PM.
Mom Costars Julie Goldman and Emily A. Burton are much better served by this road movie than by their last feature together, The D Word (2005). Burton plays a buttoned-down video producer who wants to be a broadcast journalist but makes ends meet by conducting man-on-the-street interviews for a marketing firm; Goldman is her camera operator, a gregarious, easygoing lesbian. The story is shapeless and its ending disappointingly cliched, but the women’s travels from one assignment to another are filled with observational humor that makes this video a watchable vehicle for two likable actresses. Erin Greenwell wrote and directed. 70 min. (AG) a Columbia College Ludington Bldg., 5:30 PM.
R Homoeroticism in the Avant-Garde The two Kenneth Anger masterpieces on this program of shorts mix worshipful fetishism and self-parody. Fireworks (1947) is a sadomasochistic fantasy in which even the light patterns have a phallic force, as in a shot of a gang of sailors set against a black background. Scorpio Rising (1963) is a paean to bikes and bikers and the power seen in a motorcycle or the reflections in a belt buckle. Among the other four works, Curt McDowell’s honest if somewhat muddled Confessions (1971) begins with a moving long-take confession to his parents about his sex life, and James Broughton’s Hermes Bird (1979) is one of the most ludicrous films ever: a cock in profile gradually gets erect as Broughton’s voice intones, “Holy acrobat…sacred firebird.” 116 min. (FC) a Chicago Filmmakers, 3 PM.
