Let’s Celebrate DIY Movies at the Cinema Museum!

Hello Friends! Please join me at London’s Cinema Museum on 2 March 2023 for an amazing reunion of filmmakers and festival organizers. Look how far we’ve come! Since the first Wotever DIY Film Festival (my first one was 2013) so many brilliant festivals began, many of them connected somehow to the Wotever DIY Film Festival. My fondest wish is that we can all have some time together, and no one will have to be running a festival, we will all just be hanging out.

Here are the details:

2 March 2023  18:00 – 2200  (plenty of time to socialize!)
Cinema Museum The Master’s House, 2 Dugard Way (off Renfrew Road), London SE11 4TH

Photos with Kyla Harris, Tara Brown, Theresa Heath, Charlie Little and Helen Wright at BFI Southwark at the “Busting The Bias Opening Night: Is There Anybody Out There? An Illustrated Talk + ECLECTIC: Shorts Programme, an evening celebrating disability visibility and filmmaking. 3 March 2023. A group photo with 4 people, indoors at an event smiling a the camera, from left to right: Theresa Heath, Tara Brown, Charlie Little and Helen Wright.

Autumn 2020

The world as we knew it is ending, for better and for worse.
Nevertheless, I’m happy to be included a few festivals, and I’m looking forward to seeing what people are making.

Mom and I (as Fisher-Price people) stand in her living room

Here is some news!  I’ve made a new movie this spring, and it will show at festivals this autumn!
It’s called #DaughterFail, and it is the story of Mom’s move into the nursing home, and me trying to make her stay there comfortable – but we were thwarted by COVID-19!

Here is a listing of screenings so far:

September 25, 2020:  The Film Collective, Philadelphia

October 30-31, 2020: WIPE Amateur Film Festival, Berlin

ALSO: For the rest of August, you can watch CAROL in the “Love” program at FilmPride: The Brighton & Hove’s Pride Film Festival.  There is a hilarious interview of me by Deborah Espect in the Q & A link.  Watch me falter!

 

 

 

Sip; Screening #4/ Prison Abolition & Nurturance

Sip; Screening #4/ Prison Abolition & Nurturance
This is a FUNDRAISER for CHEZ STELLA, a local org that provides legal support by and for sex workers!
Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 7:30 PM – 11 PM
Le Cagibi
6596 St. Laurent, Montreal, Quebec H2S 3C6

FOR  FREAKY QUEERS DARLING DEVIANTS & GENTLE FOLK Come watch some gorgeous post-porn with us! The films selected for this screening are centred around the theme of :
PRISON ABOLITION//NURTURANCE CULTURE

What does that mean?
PRISON ABOLITION: the opposite of a system that isolates, punishes and shames as one that occurs in communion and nurturance. We think that reflecting these values in our intimate practices can help create other ways of responding to conflict and abuse within our spaces. So we are screening films centred on:
COMPASSION – COMMUNION – COLLECTIVISM – RECIPROCITY – NURTURANCE – TRUST- HONOURING.

What is Post porn?
In short it was a wave of porn that came about to extend sexual and sensual narratives of what could be considered erotic as well as redefine bodies, fluids and whatever surrounds us. It tends to be freaky, artistic and seeks to carve out space for bodies that are normally pushed aside in intimate practices! It’s about having more control over the creation, about fair work practices and expansion!

This is a FUNDRAISER for CHEZ STELLA, a local org that provides legal support by and for sex workers!

DOORS: 19h30
SCREENING STARTS: 20h00
DJ set by LaFhomme: 21h30
10$ PWYC//NOTAFLOF (No one turned away for lack of funding)

ACCESSIBILITY:
There is a ramp, 5 feet long to go on top of two steps at the height of 11 inches. Door frame is 3 foot 96 inches
Both bathrooms are gender neutral and one is wheelchair accessible.
There is a changing table in one of the bathrooms.
This is not a sober event but there are some tasty non-alcoholic drinks available!

Please message us if we are missing anything in terms of accessibility that could be added here, we would consider it a great help!

There will be someone on site for active listening and trouble-shooting/discomfort sifting.

There will be free catered food by MIDNIGHT KITCHEN to help promote the accessibility of the event.

PROGRAM // PROGRAMMATION

>Baby (8 min), Evie Snax<
A captivating and romantic dreamscape of divine mystic witch Lucifer Rising taking a lavish milky hot bath with herself in the futuristic steam machine. Oozing femininity and sensuality, she grabs your attention and leaves you creamy and wet.

>Morsures (8 min), Jules Delisle<
Portraits rapprochés et intimes des étapes entourant l’acte de mordre et de se faire mordre.

>Shattered (5 min ) Salty Cherie<
How many queers do you need to change a lightbulb? A kinky short film about intimacy and safe spaces

>Dear Babe (3 min) Ethan Folk<
A home-alone-houseboy is hungry, and not just for breakfast. What will daddy think when he reads about the houseboy’s filthy antics?

>Criolo Etérea music video (5 min), Toni Monetti<
Project “Etérea”, a song by the singer-songwriter which video and making of feature representatives from various queer art groups from Brazil, in performances and behind-the-scenes interviews.

>Cirolo Etérea Documentary (9 min), Toni Monetti<

>I am/Yalini Dream (2 min), YaliniDream and Krissy Mahan<
Lankan Tamil Blood, Manchester-Born, Texas-Bred and Brooklyn-Brewed, performs a poem of refugee/migrant love for self and the world, through dance and a hiphop beat.

>Kitchen Talk (5 min), Evie Snax<
A group of 12 Black, Indigenous and People of Color in porn gather to create self-directed content. During the shoot we ended up gathered in the kitchen crying, laughing and holding each other. Here is an excerpt of that conversation.

>Eros (2min), Evie Snax<
In this epic portrait of trans feminine vibrancy and unadulterated creative expression, playful movement artist and dancer Manon Praline explores intimacy through a vulnerable and moving performance. Captured by Evie Snax and set to an ephemeral score by rising Azaadi pop star Kohinoorgasm, this short solo tease will leave hearts fluttering and open to the undeniable intimacy in this conversation between muse and lens. Baby is a story of queer romance, obsession, radical self acceptance, freedom, and lesbionic vanity.

SHOWBIZ – That’s Me

Wow! So i’m not sure if anyone even reads this, but if you know me, you know that i am very happy to just amuse myself by making movies that sometimes even screen at accessible, friendly, feminist and often queer festivals.

My first paparazzi photo!

So IMAGINE MY SUPRISE that my movie about my great aunt will be gracing the silver screen across the WORLD, or at least across an ocean. I will add more later, but here’s what i can share so far:

Here are the festivals and dates:

Leeds Queer Film Festival
50 Years of Queer Cinema
Saturday 16th September 2017 at Live Art Bistro
More details coming soon…

Scottish Queer International Film Festival
We are super pleased to announce that SQIFF 2017 will take place 27th September to 1st October in Glasgow. We return with our packed programme of screenings, workshops, discussions, and parties creating community and pushing boundaries in LGBTIQ+ film and art. This year SQIFF will be bigger and better, taking place across 5 days! Our main venue will once again be the CCA with events at other venues around the city.

LesbianLives2017 and Older Women Rock!

Wow! I had quite the UK run at the end of February. My parody of the Todd Haynes’ film “Carol” found a loving home on screens with the Women Over 50 Film Festival ON PARADE! It was shown at LesbianLives2017 and at the “OlderWomenRock” program, at the Quarterhouse_UK of CQ_folkestone
Here are some screenshots from the lovely and talented and hard working curator, Nuala O’Sullivan.
Screen shot 2017-03-12 at 8.34.28 PMScreen shot 2017-03-12 at 8.40.39 PM

Novmber 2015 Update

Howdy!
I’m very excited about the positive responses my movies have been receiving. It’s a compliment and it is an inspiration to make more. I have some new equipment and I’m so curious and excited about telling wacky stories with new tools.

Gender Reel 2015
I’ve screened movies at GenderReel every year it’s existed – that feels really cool especially since GenderReel has been growing, and gaining more recognition every year. My movie “1987, Summer” is part of this year’s traveling festival. The only screening left in 2015 is in Houston, Texas. I have a special place in my heart for the film community in Texas. At AGLIFF‘s “My Gay Movie” in 2004, “Faggotgirl Does Austin” won “The Weirdest Movie Jenn Garrison Had Ever Seen.” I treasure that award.

Scottish Queer Film Festival: Queer Women In Love
“This November and December, SQIFF is taking part in BFI Love with two programmes of films and events. Queer Women in Love is a diverse and exciting selection of films by and about lesbian, bisexual, and queer women with events across the UK. I Do? considers queerness and marriage marking the one year anniversary of changes to the marriage law in Scotland.”

BFI/Scottish Queer Film Festival’s Women in Love: The Virgin Machine
November 10, 2015
The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, Scotland
“The Virgin Machine”
In this early film by director Monika Treut, wannabe writer and journalist Dorothee leaves Germany for San Francisco searching for her long-lost mother and some insights into the ailment known as love. Encounters with male impersonator Ramona, charming bohemian Dominique, and purveyor of lesbian erotica, Susie Sexpert, result in liberating adventures in sexual self-discovery. When Dorothee surfaces a little dazzled on the wilder shores of the city’s lesbian community, she has discovered her sexuality…and left her illusions of romance behind.

Screening with short films “Fingers” by Sandra Alland, and “1987, Summer””Fingers” features a British Sign Language (BSL) poetry performance by Alison Smith about love, longing, and the sexiness of touch. “1987, Summer” is about a a baby dyke who has landed in a gay resort town during the AIDS crisis. She plays softball, goes clubbing, sleeps with lots of women, and learns about who she is and what she wants.
Part of BFI Love, in partnership with Plusnet bfi.org.uk/love

It is such an honor, and so humbling, that my movie will be screening on World AIDS Day 2015, because it is about me and my friends trying to figure out the world as gay men were dying around us. We were kind of blaming ourselves AND feeling guilty AND trying to not get AIDS AND trying to figure out a political response AND trying to be young, gender-non-conforming people when we had no analysis of gender or trans issues or sexism generally. We did all of that badly, I am sad to say. But I want to talk about that, and see how far we all still have to go on those issues, including a comprehensive response to AIDS.

WORLD AIDS DAY 2015
BFI/Scottish Queer Film Festival’s Women In Love – Go Fish
December 1, 2015
Dundee University Feminist Society.
Room 3G02 within Dalhousie Building.

Go Fish:
Max is a too-cool-for-school young lesbian woman stressing over the fact she hasn’t had sex for ten months. After first dismissing hippy, excessive drinker of tea Ely, Max goes on a date with her, leading to a long-term mutual infatuation and a ‘will they, won’t they’ romantic trajectory. A collaboration between Guinevere Turner (The Watermelon Woman, Itty Bitty Titty Committee) and Rose Troche, Go Fish features a supporting cast of lesbian waifs and strays, including Ely’s sex addict roommate Daria and Max’s roommate Kia, whose girlfriend Evy has been kicked out her home by her homophobic mum.

Screening with short films “Dyketactics” and “Summer, 1987.” “Dyketactics” by Barbara Hammer is a sensuous, bold look at women’s desire and sexuality from a seminal lesbian filmmaker. “Summer, 1987” by Krissy Mahan is set in summer in the late 1980s when a baby dyke has landed in a gay resort town during the AIDS crisis. She plays softball, goes clubbing, sleeps with lots of women, and learns about who she is and what she wants.
Free. Donations will be taken for World AIDS Day.

Part of SQIFF presents: Queer Women in Love, a season of films by and about lesbian, bisexual, and queer women. Part of BFI LOVE, in partnership with Plusnet bfi.org.uk/love

BFI/Scottish Queer Film Festival: Queer Women In Shorts
December 15, 2015
The Royal Vauxhall Taver, London, England
Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF) in collaboration with Wotever DIY Film Festival and Bar Wotever presents a selection of shorts from SQIFF’s Queer Women in Love season, featuring films by and about lesbian, bisexual, and queer women. The line-up includes a range of styles and ideas relating to the theme of love from Barbara Hammer’s innovative 1970s lesbian experiment Dyketactics to Ami Nashimoto’s vegan, gluten-free date nightmare-comedy Dinner For Two, via queer filmmaking legend Cheryl Dunye’s very first film, Janine, and activist Krissy Mahan’s 1980s-set gay beach town dramedy, 1987, Summer.
With an introduction from SQIFF’s Helen Wright.

This is how accessibility, and information about it, is done well!
Tyneside Cinema is accessible for wheelchairs. Each of the Tyneside’s Cinema’s screens have power assisted doors and dedicated spaces for wheelchair users. If you specifically require tickets for the wheelchair spaces available in our auditoria, you can contact Box Office on 0845 217 9909. There is high contrast signage throughout the building, complete with braille. Tyneside also uses the Phonic infrared headset system to provide amplified sound in their screens. Headsets are available for this service from the Box Office on the ground floor and Tyneside Bar on the third floor.

My trip to Wotever DIY Film Fest (part 1)

IMG_8546 My Flickr photostream of the trip.
Ok so that was one of the best weeks of my life. The organizers, the venues, the films – all were beyond my highest expectations. Here’s a little about it, and I’ll write about the films next.

As many of you know, i was raised in an emigrant culture that was actively opposed to the continued occupation of the Northern Counties of Ireland. You may interpret actively opposed however you wish. (I wonder what my grandparents would think of this whole Scotland vote thing?) So going to London was something i carefully considered. I asked the organizers if they could help me find a couch, even though i know they would be totally busy. Wow, they hooked me up with not only a couch, but with two lesbian filmmakers with a lovely home! Bonanza!!! i couldn’t have had more gracious, generous hosts if i had dreamed them up. I’ll always be grateful, and hopefully always be friends with Jackie Nunns and Angie West of Looking At You Productions (They even were a sponsor of the film fest.) IMG_8520

IMG_8420 Here are Ingo and Katie from Planet London, one of the festival sponsors. Here is Planet London’s review. Here is a review from Kayleigh O’Keefe, she made one of my favorite films in the festival, Flabzilla. Hers is my favorite kind of movie, one that Goes For It. It is the reason i like DIY better than big studio stuff. Kayleigh O’Keefe makes exactly the art she wants to make, and Flabzilla doesn’t give a fuck about your opinion. #FierceSexyCool

The Wotever DIY Film Fest is part of the Wotever World utopia. Last year they showed Faggotgirl Does(n’t) Do The MTA, and this year they expanded the event to four days and two venues, the Cinema Museum and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. What a thrill. The Cinema Museum was a magical dream come true. It was a place where Charlie Chaplin lived as a child, and exhibits artifacts, memorabilia and equipment that preserves the history and grandeur of cinema from the 1890s to the present day. On Sunday night, they even showed Chaplin’s film The Adventurer the same screen where my video had just been projected. I was so proud.
The last night’s venue was the historic Royal Vauxhall Tavern. There was screening of the Defiance program, followed by a party with DJs Hug The DJ and DJ Matheaser. hug the djdj malteazer

The curators of the festival were Theresa Heath and Tara Brown. Every program was strong and well-conceived. I wonder if the programs could be shown together again somehow, I really appreciated how they were organized.

Tara Brown Here we are heralding Tara Brown, Faggotgirl and i are clearly very happy as we have all arms enthusiastically up!

IMG_8339 Here we herald Theresa and Leanne Furneaux. Leanne was at every venue long before the audience, and long after. Leanne was doing the work that I usually do at events, so i have a special appreciation.
IMG_8370And Stephanie “Gives Good Blurb” Goldberg, who wrote the all the descriptions for the festival program.

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