Events – Page 9 – Dykeumentary

Oska Bright at Scottish Short Film Festival

Posted on March 19, 2017 by krissy

I am proud to have been included in an Oska Bright film program curated by The Scottish Queer International Film Festival and the Glasgow Short Film Festival. This is what we’re fighting hard to achieve. Thanks for putting this together! Oska Bright Film Festival
The Oska Bright Film Festival is the leading international festival of films made by, or featuring, people with learning disabilities. It is produced, managed and presented by a learning disabled team.

HuffPostUK article: It Is Important That People With A Learning Disability Are Seen On Screen And Stage Simply Because We Exist
(from the article linked above) “When I first started acting, I faced a lot of negativity. There was a lot of misconceptions from casting directors that I wouldn’t be able to act a part, or that I would hold up the filming or production schedule because of my disability. They were also worried about how to direct me as they didn’t know how to communicate with me or didn’t think that I would be able to understand what they wanted me to do.”

Leeds Queer Film Fest 3/24-27/2017

Posted on March 12, 2017 by krissy

My movie “Like A Riot” (subtitled) will be leading off the Leeds Queer Film Festival next week. I am super proud to be part of a this festival and appreciate their commitment to accessibility. I was just at the New York Feminist Film Week and so many of us talked about the value of collaboration as filmmakers. It’s so exciting to see curators joining forces, too! Well done. I wish I could be there.

LesbianLives2017 and Older Women Rock!

Posted on March 4, 2017 by krissy

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.

Another screening, and GenderReel this holiday season

Posted on October 17, 2016 by krissy

I’m so pleased when my movies is set out on their journies to increase justice and happiness!

Queer America at University College London
QUEER AMERICA film screenings, 6.15pm 3 November 2016
With all eyes on America’s presidential election, Out@UCL is screening a programme of short films that look at some of the variety of queer stories in America. We’re looking especially at the often marginalised voices within the LGBT+ community, including older people, QTIPOC and trans and genderqueer experiences. Stick around for the Q&A afterwards with some of the directors who, fortunately for us, are in London.
When: 6.15 – 8pm, Thursday, 3 November
Location: Gavin de Beer Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building (entrance on Gower Street)
“Faggotgirl Gets Busy In The Bathroom” will be shown

There is also talk that this video will screen in Australia as a public service announcement at a lesbian film fest, and might be included in the December Boston tour for GenderReel 2016!

“Carol” – in the style of Todd Haynes

Posted on September 18, 2016 by krissy

This will be shown as part of the Women Over 50 Film Festival in Brighton, UK October 1, 2016.

I didn’t like the Haynes’ film at all. No matter how many rain-splattered windows there are, and no matter how beautifully filmed with a surging cello score, the story being told is a schmalty snoozefest about white rich people behaving badly, that even it’s author was embarrassed to claim (Highsmith published it under a pen name). If it was about a straight white couple, it would be both boring amd offensive in its class politics. Like every other movie, no? I saw Haynes’ “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story” 15 years ago, and maybe it influenced my movie-making. So I am disappointed that he chose to make this earnest melodrama.

Women Over 50 Film Festival 2016

Posted on March 1, 2016 by krissy

Celebrating Women In Front Of And Behind The Camera
Women Over 50 Film Festival
At WOFFF we champion the work of older women on both sides of the camera.
Each of the 44 films on offer this weekend (2016) has a women over 50 at its centre on the screen or behind the lens in the core creative team as the writer, director or producer.
We’re hosting an all-female panel event on women in film and a practical workshop for anyone who’d like to have a go at filmmaking but doesn’t quite know where to start.
We’re delighted to have many of our filmmakers with us
at the festival. We’ll be having a short Q & A after each screening so we can hear more about them, their work and their inspiration.
So please sit back, relax and enjoy this year’s WOFFF!
Nuala, Natalie, Hilary, Priscilla and Rebecca
The WOFFF team

Saturday 1 October 2016 18:30Screening 3 | Love, death and legacy
Patience by Robert Hackett (7 mins)
Memorial by Helen Selka (30 mins)
Carol by Krissy Mahan (7 mins)
Old Friends, Out to Pasture by Marlijn Franken (11 mins)
The Wake by Oonagh Kearney (20 mins)

In 2016 we held our second festival. We screened 44 international short films, hosted an all-female panel event and a beginners’ filmmaking workshop. A full festival report will be published soon.

For a film to be eligible for submission to WOFFF it has follow one of these two simple rules. The film has to have a women over 50 at its centre OR have a woman over 50 in the core creative team (writer, director or producer)

Our next festival is in 2017 in Brighton. So we hope to see you beside the seaside with us soon!

Novmber 2015 Update

Posted on November 1, 2015 by krissy

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.

Wotever DIY FIlm Festival 2015 – Day 2

Posted on September 3, 2015 by krissy

Saturday started with breakfast with (the Danish boi band) New Male Privilege so I knew it would be a good day. I traveled together with my gracious hosts Jac and Angie of Looking at You Productions to the filmmaker’s networking event that they sponsored. I met some great people and had a good lunch before heading downstairs to the smaller theatre at The Cinema Museum, where the program I was in was held.

The event description reads: “22nd August 13.30 Film and Q&A with filmmakers.
Space, Place, DIY: A Three-way Retrospective of Bev Zalcock and Sara Chambers, Val Phoenix and Krissy Mahan
Ideas of community and place have rarely been as pertinent as they are now as we witness the turbo-gentrification of urban areas and rapid loss of queer spaces. In this retrospective, some of our favourite, DIY, lesbian or queer-identified filmmakers explore connections to space, place and time and depict the complex relationship between female or queer bodies and the urban or pastoral environments. In particular, these films embody an ultra-DIY ethic and experimentalism which forms an inspiring example of what can be achieved on little or no budget.”
I was honored that my films got such attention, and preparing for the Q & A made me carefully consider what the heck I am doing with my movies. When I make them, they seem pretty immediate, and this was the first time I presented them as a “body of work” – the 4 films selected (by their programmers) were “Until Justice Rolls,” “The Genesis of Butch & Femme,” “Starlite Stays,” and “Memoir, My Dykeumentary.” I attended the screening dressed as Faggotgirl, and of course had her with me.
My favorite film of the program was Bev Zalcock and Sara Chambers are Barrelstout Productions (formerly Pitbull Productions)’s Dayglo (You Know You Know), shot on Super 8, UK, 2011, 03:00 “Made in memory of Poly Styrene singer & songwriter, once of the punk band X Ray Spex. Poly’s music has always inspired us for its spirit of feminism & liberation; we’re particularly fond of ‘Oh Bondage Up Yours!’ The film’s soundtrack features her biggest hit, and uses an abstract array of vivid colours, some of which are made by painting food dyes on to the film emulsion.” Beautiful and hilarious.
The discussion after the movies was interesting and fun. We filmmakers had great discussion and the audience asked us thoughtful questions. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, and i even enjoyed it.

After the program, we went outside and had some beers, and I had the chance to connect with Digital Desperados, who came to London for a screening of their “Best of Glitch” (more on that tomorrow). They are brilliant and friendly and we even went to dinner together before the evening program! I felt really cool.

That evening I attended the program “The Personal Is Political.”
22nd August 19.30 @ Cinema Museum
“The Personal is Political is a fact most queers live with every day, especially if facing intersecting oppressions such as race, gender or disability. These films are about a politics that is both individual and universal in how it isolates and unites us. It’s about queer people of all identities finding their own way in the world, whether it’s through dance (Private Dancer, He’s the Greatest Dancer), music (I’m Not Your Inspiration), sexual exploration (Push Me), telling your story (Bedding Andrew) and ultimately through each other; in friendship (MingMong – about coming of age and rejection), family (Guao) and loved ones. These films showcase queer people’s explorations within this.”
Faggotgirl made her World Premiere in “Faggotgirl In Winter,” and my favorite movie was “Private Dancer -Catwalk” dir. Henri H Hiltunen, Sweden. As soon as I saw it I wanted to watch it again. I also loved “A Rabbit’s Tale,” dir. Rachel Shenton, UK, 2015 4:04 WORLD PREMIERE – and that movie is going to friggin’ Cannes Short Film Festival! Respect. I met Rachel and Becky on Thursday night because their movie “Morgan” was part of the Wotever DIY Film Festival at The British Film Institute on Thursday. After that program, we all went upstairs to catch the performance of New Male Privilege and a group from I think Sweden but I can’t find the name just now.
Angie, Ingo and Naomi from Planet London and I all went out to dinner after the program and had a lovely time.

(In this photo you can see Tanya Wol, Nosheen and Cloudberry of Digital Desperados, the other filmmakers in this program Barrelstout Productions, Val Phoenix and many of the kind people who attended. Thank you!
And here’s a photo from Saturday night, with the discussion led by festival programmer Stephanie Goldberg.

Wotever DIY FilmFest 2015

Posted on July 23, 2015 by krissy

Full site with program and info here!

Here are the programs that include my movies:
Thursday, August 20, 2015 at the British Film Institute (yes, you read that right)
“The Wotever DIY Film Festival (WDIYFF) presents a selection of the most memorable low and no-budget queer film from the last three years. Hilarious, tragic, sexy, angry, serious or playful – these diverse shorts reflect a multitude of perspectives from within the LGBTQ community. Celebrating queer creativity, expression and innovation, the WDIYFF proves you don’t need a huge budget to produce a great film.”

The BFI Southbank printed schedule.
I am excited and happily terrified that Kayleigh O’Keefe will be in this program, I admire her so much. In a world where art is more a commodity that a site of public engagement and critique, O’Keefe ‘holds our feet to the fire’ (or wherever she’d like them to be) with brilliant humor. I love her. I hope the BFI is a little afraid of what we might concoct to disrupt “business as usual” at such an important cultural institution.

Saturday, August 22, 2015 1:30pm at the Cinema Museum
Space, Place, DIY: A Three-way Retrospective of Bev Zalcock and Sara Chambers, Val Phoenix and Krissy Mahan
Films and Q&A with filmmakers
“Ideas of community and place have rarely been as pertinent as they are now as we witness the turbo-gentrification of urban areas and rapid loss of queer spaces. In this retrospective, some of our favourite, DIY, lesbian or queer-identified filmmakers explore connections to space, place and time and depict the complex relationship between female or queer bodies and the urban or pastoral environments. In particular, these films embody an ultra-DIY ethic and experimentalism which forms an inspiring example of what can be achieved on little or no budget.”
(I’m not sure which films will be shown but I’m sure Faggotgirl will be scorching the screen at least once…)

Saturday August 22 7:30pm @ Cinema Museum
The Personal is Political
“The Personal is Political is a fact most queers live with every day, especially if facing intersecting oppressions such as race, gender or disability. These films are about a politics that is both individual and universal in how it isolates and unites us. It’s about queer people of all identities finding their own way in the world, whether it’s through dance (Private Dancer, He’s the Greatest Dancer), music (I’m Not Your Inspiration), sexual exploration (Push Me), telling your story (Bedding Andrew) and ultimately through each other; in friendship (MingMong – about coming of age and rejection), family (Guao) and loved ones. These films showcase queer people’s explorations within this.”
“Faggotgirl in Winter” is part of this program, in which Faggotgirl tries to walk down an icy sidewalk and board a bus on cold New York morning.
I hope I get to meet Sandra Alland, Curator / Disability Liason of “Cachin Cachan Cahunga!”
Cachín Cachán Cachunga! is an independent Scottish arts company that produces visual, recorded and live art by intersectional LGBTQ+ people.
CCC is dedicated to producing high-quality artistic works about and by trans*, intersex and queer people – with an added emphasis on people who also identify as migrant, minority ethnic, racialised, people of colour, working class, working poor, Deaf, ill, crip and/or disabled. We mentor and collaborate. We encourage risk-taking and experimentation.
Cachín Cachán Cachunga! is committed to producing accessible arts events for both audiences and artists. We aim to provide level access, Braille, large print, audio description, film subtitling, surtitling, BSL interpretation, and quiet space. We celebrate intersectional identities, and encourage both emerging and established artists from our communities to develop their practice in a safe yet artistically challenging environment.

Sunday August 23 1:30pm @ Cinema Museum
Act Up
My dear friends and apartment-mates, YaliniDream and JenDog Lonewolf, collaborating as DreamWolf, made a video of their performance poem “I Choose Peace.” This is included in this program. I helped with some camera work (on the roof of the building we live in).

Sunday, August 23rd 7:30pm @ Cinema Museum
INTERGEN
“Representing the different stages of queer life, and how generations relate to each other, these films look at what it is to grow up queer, to find your place in the world, to look back with regret, or forward with unexpected opportunity, to experience new adventures whatever your age. From childhood memories of Re(Trace) and teenage musical obsessions of A Melodrama in Four Parts to new beginnings between erstwhile friends (Milkshake & Memories) and the age-old lust of old-age (End of Season Sale), these stories span the time of your life.”
My video (the most ambitious I’ve attempted) “1987, Summer” will be screening in this program.
I am thrilled that I will be showing in this progam with Jac Nunns and Angie West – Looking At You Productions. They’ve been on the film festival circuit this year with their film “Female Masculinity Appreciation Society” and I’m eager to see their new work.

I am proud to write that my movies have been accepted into this festival. I am thrilled that the event is held at The Cinema Museum. This is an accessible space, and the building also functioned as a family shelter for Charlie Chaplin when his family was destitute. I admire his films.
I am also struggling with what is the appropriate response to the week’s events in the USA. I wonder if taking care of my mom and making movies is enough of a moral/ethical use of my time as a white American. Black women’s bodies have always been mutilated by the state and the people protected by the state, and these days no one can deny this historic and current fact (anymore).

Summer 2015 Update

Posted on July 20, 2015 by krissy

Wow! The summer is heating up and I am so excited about jersey tomatoes, the women’s world cup, positive responses to my movies, and the beach.

Three of my movies have been accepted to be screened at the Wotever DIY Film Fest in London, UK. I’m super excited about that! Also I hear that something i made will also screen at the British Film Institute on August 20, 2015. I hope that my Irish ancestors will be getting a good laugh out of that, along with the audience. I’ll make a separate post about this great festival as the program is finalized, as well post links to the movies. I’m pleased to say that all 3 movies are captioned, and I hope to do a live descriptive narration if they let me– that was such fun last year.

My movie “Summer, 1987” has also been chosen as part of the touring “Gender Reel Festival.” I have been part of that film festival a few years now, I am proud to say. I am happy that the world seems to be understanding the difference between sexuality and gender expression. I think the movies are a great way to help people learn in a non-threatening environment. GenderReel will include a screening in Philadelphia, and at New York University again in the spring.

Now i just need to get a bar in Gloucester City that will let me take over the televisions…

My dear friend Paula Ioanide’s book The Emotional Politics of Racism: How Feelings Trump Facts in an Era of Colorblindness Is available now, and it’s been getting rave reviews. I am blessed that my cover art is part of such an important project.

All this success wouldn’t be possible without the support and nurturing of my mentors, and I remain deeping endebted to all of them. Of note most recently is Theatrical Jazz: Performance, Ase, and the Power of the Present Moment
by Omi Osun Joni L Jones.

Also, Sharon Bridgforth and Omi will be the IDEX Artists-In-Residence this year as well.

So many blessings, so much to be grateful for.