For obvious reasons, gays and lesbians have been forthright in their discussions about their sexual preferences and attractions. Interracial couplings have always carried with them myths, judgments, and projections stemming from stereotypes that live in American culture. In the case of white-on-black desire, the cultural matrix provides a particularly rich gumbo of racism, historical oppression, master/slave scripts, and individual efforts to escape or acknowledge the stigma of “jungle fever.”This personal documentary explores the filmmaker’s attraction to Black men through autobiographical narration and interviews with other like-minded men as well as one black man who talks candidly about being the object of white desire. A filmed discussion conducted by the
Southern California chapter of Black and White Men Together sheds further light on the subject. Larger cultural themes of racism, contradictory histories, Mandingo fantasy, and artistic representation are broached through a montage of film clips, interviews, and dance. The opinions expressed won’t always be politically correct, but they will provoke discussion. Along with: work in progress screening “Congo Cabaret” is an adaptation of an episode from gay writer Claude McKay’s then-bestselling novel, Home to Harlem. Set in a small nightclub, this scene presents the little-known figure of a “wolf” (a masculine gay man) and features the performance
of a Bessie Smith song, “Foolish Man Blues,” which refers in a joking manner to “a mannish acting woman and a skippin’ twistin’ woman-acting man.”Discussion with the filmmaker will follow the screening.
Blog
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Prewinkle Cinema
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OpenScreening
ATA’
s Open Screening is the only monthly open submissions screening in the Bay Area. Get your work out there!The first Thursday of every month we have an Open Screening. An Open Screening is where we invite local filmmakers to show their short subject films (under 15 mins.). It is a free event and you can either screen a film or just be a member of the audience. Either way it is FREE. It is a great place to network, if you are a filmmaker, crew member, actor or a fan of local films. Please let us know if you would like to screen something. We love films and would love to see yours.
Submissions: Label all tapes w/ name, contact, title and length. Mail to: Open Screening, 992 Valencia, SF, 94110. 1-2 weeks advance submissions strongly recommended. If not, just walk in before the show. Maximum length: 15 min. Formats: Digital File (PC or Mac), DVD, miniDV/DV-cam, VHS, beta, 8mm and 16mm. For 8mm and 16mm films give us advance notice.
Door opens at 7
contact: programming@atasite.org
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The Dogs and Crocodiles, Sunlamps (Gallery Opening)
Artist: Michelle BrandemuehlBio:Michelle spent her formative years in Wisconsin where she studied painting and received her BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She now lives and works in San Francisco making paintings. Michelle has been a resident of the Edward F. Albee Foundation in Montauk, NY and has exhibited her work in Chicago, Brooklyn, New York City and San Francisco.Statement:My work is a conversation about the whatness of people, places and things. I rely on restraint and minimal form as a point of entry, exploring the relationship between subtlety and the sublime. I’m interested in the qualities of opposites and how two opposing forces hold the same space, as examined through my choice of materials – the grit of spray paint on linen, black on white, the defined lines of the rectangle and the soft glow of fog. The object responds to and changes based on these contradictions. The materials and structure I choose form an emotional architecture, creating a dialogue with the viewer that invites them to explore these paradoxes. My recent work explores the idea of landscapes in outer space: using the vantage point of looking through a window, the border framing this other world, questioning what we think we see and the possibilities that lie in the unseen.Site:Instagram:@michellebrandemuehl