Fifteen years ago, gays and lesbians were flocking to LGBT film festivals simply for the thrill of seeing ourselves onscreen in what was a flourishing time for independent queer film and video. You needn't go much further than your local multiplex or your television to know that things have changed.
Pop culture has done its part in embracing various forms of the queer identity. As a result, the excitement that surrounded the "new queer cinema" of the early '90s has faded as images of gay men and lesbians on the big screen have become somewhat passé.
What has emerged is a much more inclusive and refined form of the genre that refuses to be pigeonholed, as shown by this week's Queer Takes series at Walker Art Center. The Walker's version of the LGBT film festival brings to the Twin Cities four features, five documentaries and three revivals that otherwise would never have much of a chance here in flyover-land.
Wednesday The series begins with Spanish hilarity and French sophistication. Taking cues from Pedro Almodovar and Alex de la Iglesia, Juan Flahn's "Boystown" (7 p.m.) is as dark as it is funny. A slick real estate agent makes it his personal mission to eliminate old women from the upwardly-mobile gay Madrid neighborhood of Chueca, by any means necessary. Flahn is not afraid to poke a little fun at the gay community with fiery dialogue and not-so-subtle characters.
Equally rich but conversely elegant is the highlight of the series, Jacques Nolot's "Before I Forget" (9 p.m.). This intelligent and dignified portrayal of an aging hustler is part autobiography, part poetry. With failing health but instinctually active libido, Pierre (played by Nolot) intellectually debates not only his fate, but his will. The stunning final shot left me breathless with its humility, beauty and simplicity.
Thursday This evening's trio of documentaries (all free) should serve as required viewing in a year that no doubt will have some strong rhetoric about what is and isn't a family. The Oscar-winning short "Freeheld" (7 p.m.) underlines some of these issues and why the vote in California is so important to gay and lesbian couples. Dying of cancer but steadfast in her attempt to secure the rights of her partner to her pension, a New Jersey policewoman fights for what many take for granted.
OutFront Minnesota will host a discussion afterward, followed by two more shorts: "Pariah" and "On the Downlow" (8:30 p.m.).
Friday Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" might have made intersexuality a bestselling phenomenon, but rarely do you see the subject treated so sensitively onscreen as in "XXY" (7 p.m. Fri.) from Argentina. Alex is a 15-year-old free spirit who may be comfortable with her gender ambiguity, but is finding it increasingly clear that society is not. As friends and family members come to terms with Alex's situation and the choices she faces, the film is willing to ask the not-so obvious question: Should she have to choose?
