09/23/22, Vol. 13 Issue 13

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WELCOME TO ON FILM

Jim Farmer, Festival Director of Out On Film

In 1987, I was a senior at the University of Georgia. I knew I was gay. Heck, I think everyone who knew me knew I was gay. But I didn’t know if I would ever feel comfortable enough being out. A few years later, I finally had the courage to come out, and a gigantic weight leapt off me.

In Atlanta in 1987, conversely, a group of community activists — including Rebecca Ranson — started Out On Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival. It began as a series of weekend events and stand-alone screenings for films that might not otherwise play in the area. This was a different era, one without streaming services and channels with LGBTQ content. As well, not that many LGBTQ films were being made. Out On Film’s initial foray into programming was successful, and the organization kept on growing, in different hands and under different umbrellas, including SAME, IMAGE and the Atlanta Film Festival.

Thirty-five years later we’re still around, thanks to the work of Ranson and so many individuals who’ve kept the organization going.

I took the reins as festival director in 2008, when the Atlanta Film Festival gave up the festival. It’s been 14 glorious, maddening, demanding, and satisfying years. I had no idea what I was getting into, nor did my husband Craig, who became board chair the year after I stepped in. We thought running a film festival was all fun and games. Little did we know.

going separate ways. Then I went through a period of movies dealing with HIV/AIDS where the main character died at the end (that was the sad reality back then). These days, we can have happy endings and — dammit — we deserve them.

Join us

A lot has changed in the film industry since 1987. I grew up watching movies in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and almost every feature I saw with an LGBTQ character was a negative portrayal. “Cruising” was an early film I watched, and my inner gay boy thought, “This is what I have to look forward to?” “Making Love” was an important film, but its three leading characters wound up all

Some people ask why we still put on a film festival. After all, LGBTQ content can be found all over network TV and streaming channels. The bottom line is that it’s still needed. It’s no secret that the majority of patrons who attend film festivals are aged 35 and over. Why? Because we know the importance of doing so. Many of us grew up longing for representation, for someone we could relate to, and that wasn’t always available. We also grew up in an era where there wasn’t the internet or dating and hookup apps where we could find similar people feet from us. We had to seek out safe spaces.

A film festival is, indeed, an opportunity to see great films from all over the world, and in that sense this year’s 35th annual Out On Film doesn’t disappoint. We have a wonderful lineup. We open Out On Film 35 with a bang: Nicholas Stoller’s Bros, the first romantic comedy from a major studio about

two gay men maybe, possibly, probably, stumbling toward love, co-written by and starring Billy Eichner. Our closing night film is Todd Flaherty’s remarkable Chrissy Judy and we return to in-person awards with the presentation of our Icon Award to the amazing Colman Domingo, a recent Emmy Award winner for “Euphoria.” I am super excited about all these events and others.

But Out On Film is also about the experience of coming together and being with your tribe. The bulk of our patrons come from metro Atlanta, but we do have people attending from around the state and other Southern cities. And with streaming, all over the nation. For many of those people, they aren’t able to be out at home or at the workplace and Out On Film offers them a safe haven. Nothing beats the feeling of someone seeing a film and feeling — for perhaps the first time — that they are not alone, or bringing together patrons who may only see each other once a year at the festival. That is perhaps the most satisfying element of doing what our team does.

To learn more about Out On Film, visit outonfilm.org.

Jim Farmer COURTESY PHOTO

Staff reports

Read these stories and more online at thegavoice.com

The Atlanta Eagle To Reopen By Pride

The Atlanta Eagle will be reopening before Atlanta Pride, according to owner Richard Ramey.

Ramey took to Facebook Live last night (September 8) to announce that the Atlanta Eagle will be making its return in partnership with HV Entertainment, reopening at 1492 Piedmont Rd – the current location of Midtown Moon, which will be closing September 24.

“I hope everybody will come out and thank [the people of Midtown Moon] – the management, the team, everybody that has been there,” Ramey said. “They’ve been part of Atlanta’s gay nightlife for three years.”

While there isn’t a date confirmed for the Eagle grand reopening, Ramey said they will open before Pride on October 8 and 9.

“I can’t wait to welcome everyone to the new Atlanta Eagle,” he said. “We’re going to have our Atlanta Eagle dance floor and everything as we did at the old location … I can’t wait to see everybody come out and enjoy Atlanta’s new nightlife spot that’s going to blow Atlanta away.”

Supreme Court Delivers Temporary LGBTQ Victory in Religious Dispute

Chief Justice John Roberts and conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh voted with the U.S. Supreme Court’s three liberal-leaning justices September 14 to reject a request that would have undermined a New York City law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in public

Whileaccommodations.marking

a temporary victory for civil rights for LGBTQ people, the 5 to 4 vote is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of whether the Supreme Court is inclined to allow entities to evade public accommodation laws by claiming a religious motive to discriminate. That question will likely be resolved by another case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, which has already been accepted for argument before the Supreme Court in

the coming 2022-23 session.

The Supreme Court vote this month came in response to an emergency request from Yeshiva University, asking the Supreme Court to issue a temporary stay on a New York State trial court decision—a first stage of litigation at which the Supreme Court seldom gets involved.

The trial court issued a “non-final order” June 14 that the university’s loose association with Judaism did not qualify it as a religious institution that is already exempt from the law. The trial court then held that the university did violate the non-discrimination law when it refused to allow a student LGBTQ group to meet on campus.

Yeshiva University first said it would appeal the state trial court decision to the next level of state court; but, last month, it abruptly filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who handles such requests for New York, referred the matter to the full court. The majority did not issue an opinion with its order; it simply indicated the university still had “at least two further avenues for expedited or interim state court relief.” So, for now, the discrimination law prevails, and Roberts and Kavanaugh were on the LGBTQ side of that.

ELEVATE Festival to Include Pride Events

This year’s ELEVATE Atlanta festival, sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, is about to be underway! Every weekend from September 16 to October 9, venues across Atlanta will be hosting free events – including two Pride events.

The festival will include a Mayor’s Pride Exhibit at the Mayor’s Gallery in City Hall, from September 16 to October 21.

The exhibition will feature powerful artwork by local LGBTQ artists and art exploring LGBTQ themes, in observance of Atlanta’s pride season. Artworks were selected by professionals from Atlanta’s creative community whose mission was to expand what it means to be an artist who identifies as LGBTQ.

Atlanta Freedom Bands will also be having a concert kicking off Pride week on October 2 from 3pm to 5pm at Westside Park’s Great Lawn. The MetroGnomes Stage Band will kick off the concert with swing and big band favorites, followed by a performance from the AFB Color Guard who will spin, toss, and twirl to heartthumping music. Combined Concert and Marching Bands complete the show with a diverse program including film music, pop tunes, marches and more.

The Atlanta Eagle will be reopening before Atlanta Pride, according to owner Richard Ramey (pictured).

PHOTO BY RUSSELL BOWEN-YOUNGBLOOD

Pride Makes a Safe Return to Piedmont Park

This October, Atlanta Pride makes its longawaited return to an in-person festival after two years of cancellations due to COVID-19. From October 7 through 9, thousands of people from around the country will gather in Piedmont Park to enjoy this year’s diverse lineup of entertainment, vendors, marches, the annual parade, and so much more.

SAFETY CONCERNS

While Atlanta Pride is making its return, that doesn’t mean COVID-19 is no longer a concern. The Atlanta Pride Committee (APC) is being mindful of the pandemic, as well as the recent monkeypox epidemic, and urges guests to do the same.

We are aware of the high stakes right now given that this is the first festival back in person after two years on hold because of COVID,” Shentoria Cobbs, APC’s Communications and Development Strategist, told Georgia Voice. “The world just looks different right now, so we’re definitely being cognizant of that, encouraging folks to get vaccinated if they’re able to. At the event, masks will be provided, and we will be encouraging folks to wear masks [and] wash their hands. If folks are feeling sick, we encourage people to get tested and stay home. That’s the same for monkeypox as well, just because the events will obviously be a lot of people close to each other. We want to prevent anything from happening if we can.”

Health safety might not be the only concern on people’s minds. Music Midtown, a popular music festival hosted in Piedmont Park every September, was canceled this year — not due to COVID-19, the culprit behind the 2021 cancellation, but because of a new gun ruling that contradicted their policies. An expansion to the Carry Safe Protection Act made it illegal for businesses with shorter-term leases, like Music Midtown, to enforce a gun ban.

However, Atlanta Pride attendees should not fear. While they cannot ban guns from the

event, APC is strongly encouraging “bring glitter, not guns,” and there will be ample security throughout the park to keep everyone safe. Police will be present, but only officers who specifically volunteered to work Pride.

“We will have security throughout the park for the entire festival, as well as a police presence,” Cobbs said. “We’ll have officers present that want to be there; we specifically send out requests for them to volunteer because they want to be there and want people to be safe. There will also be outsourced security. Security will have very obvious T-shirts on, so they will be very

“Obviously,visible.”it’s

very scary to think someone would want to harm folks in a public place,” she continued. “… As per Georgia law, if you’re in a public place you have your Second Amendment right, but we just encourage folks to leave them at home. They’re not needed at the festival.”

WHAT TO EXPECT

After a two-year hiatus, Atlanta Pride is coming back with a bang.

The weekend kicks off on Thursday, October

6 with the Official Kick Off Party at 7:30pm at the Atlanta Contemporary (535 Means St NW). Featured guests including Silky Nutmeg Ganache from RuPaul’s Drag Race, Dotte Com, Drew Friday and DJ Abby Dear, and DJ Esme provide the beats.

During the actual festival, there will be entertainers performing all day on the CocaCola Main Stage. This year’s lineup is stacked with headliners Betty Who, Flo Rida, and Big Freedia. Also featured will be Jax, Brooke Eden, Trinidad Cardona, Chrissy Chlapecka, Neriah, Nouri, Exquisite Gender, Michel Jons Band, MOKSHA, Sophia Dashing, and DJ

ThereCANVAS.willalso

be the SWEET TEA Variety Show, Drag Queen Story Hour and two cabarets. This year’s Shooting Stars Cabaret will showcase 20 to 25 up-and-coming drag entertainers from Atlanta on Saturday afternoon. The Starlight Cabaret is the largest drag show in the Southeast, with 25 to 30 drag performers from Atlanta pulling out all the stops.

As usual, over 300 vendors will be selling goods, food, and drinks as well as sharing

information and education. There will also be the annual trans, bi and pan, and dyke marches on Saturday, the first of which starts at 1:15pm.

Sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt connected to Atlanta will also be on display in the park.

“I think that’s a beautiful way to remember folks that were devastated by that disease and encourage folks to raise awareness of that issue,” Cobbs said. “It’ll be a great physical installation in the park for folks to be able to participate and educate themselves.”

The annual parade closes out the festival. Cobbs said more than 300 entries have been submitted to participate in the parade, and Grand Marshals Gerald Bostock, Valeria Cantos, Gabrielle Claiborne, Paul Conroy, the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative, Renee Montgomery, and Rhea Wunsch will be honored.

In Cobbs’ words, this year’s Pride promises to have “something for everyone.”

To learn more about Atlanta Pride, visit atlantapride.org.

Katie Burkholder

Atlanta Pride parade

FILE PHOTO

A CONVERSATION WITH: Micheal Rice, Director of ‘BLACK AS U R’

Cynthia Salinas-Cappellano

Read the full article online at thegavoice.com.

“Loving the temple you walk in you dance in … and most importantly loving yourself unapologetically and without fear”

— Micheal Rice’s monologue at the closing of “BLACK AS U R” (2022)

“BLACK AS U R” is the second documentary by filmmaker and professor, Micheal Rice, winner of Frameline46’s annual Out in the Silence Award for ‘brave acts of visibility.’

His previous work, “ParTy Boi: Black Diamonds in Ice Castles” (2017) focused on the crystal meth epidemic prevalent among young, queer Black and Latino men — coinciding with the crimes of Ed Buck. Rice is no stranger to starting tough conversations in queer POC communities.

In his latest work, Rice examines the intersections of being Black and queer in a resurgence of mainstream interest in the BLM movement. Rice tracks Black queer people’s involvement in liberation movements back to Bayard Rustin’s March on Washington; Marsha P. Johnson’s involvement in the Stonewall Riots; and the founding of BLM by two Black queer women, Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors. Historically, even though movements for Black liberation have been helmed by Black queer and trans individuals, they are often maligned by queerphobia. “ BLACK AS U R” confronts the marginalization and violence Black trans women face in the Black community.

Rice spoke to Georgia Voice about the inspiration behind the film, intersectionality,

and how he brought attention to the othering of Black trans women with his film.

How does it feel to receive recognition for “BLACK AS U R” at Out On Film?

I haven’t made it to the ‘mainstream mainstream,’ but my name is out there. You’re playing on this fine line of imposter syndrome but also realizing, ‘I do deserve this, and I do deserve to have an agent and all these things.’ … I’m very thankful to God and the spirit of my ancestors for giving me this gift of storytelling … I wanted to tell stories I never heard as a queer Black teen or even in my early 20s … because everything was predominantly white gay and male in media.

[“BLACK AS U R”] can speak to the history of being Black and queer, the history of racism in our country, and what it was like to go through different tiers of persecution from Black trans men, to Black trans women, and as a gay Black man while also having the perspectives of Black people who are professors and have the knowledge and know-how. I’ve never seen that in all of the cinema I researched outside of Marlon Riggs 32 years ago, which were more avant-garde, artistic vignettes of poems but not as direct as [“BLACK AS U R”], which is in a journalistic space.

I didn’t know about Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera because of the whitewashing of history. I knew about James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin, but I didn’t go into depth because I was still searching for myself as a queer person. So how could I follow history when I didn’t even know myself? But when I did, it was important to me to create a film and bring this information to the world from the spirit of a Black person. That’s what makes [“BLACK AS U R”] so special.

What was the dynamic contrast you wanted to create with your childhood experiences as a child in the South with values of faith, family, and football to the interviews with Kiki girls in Greenwich and Philly?

I needed to see more than myself ... I felt I needed to see Black trans women, Black queer women [Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors], and conversations with Black women like Dr. Charlene Sinclair as a professor and her experience in sociology and organizing and Professor Roberson of the New School … I wanted a collective of voices, which is why I included myself — initially I had another subject to tell the experience of a gay Black man but then they dropped out. I had the same story, and it hit home for me.

I decided to hone in on the aspects of transitioning for a Black trans man and Black trans woman [as well as] the intersectionalities of [myself] growing up in the church in Texas, my home life in the church, ballroom community, and sex work. I [have been] in New York since I was 21.

What attention do you think this doc has

brought to the othering Black trans women face in the Black community? How are the girls after doing this documentary? It has opened the doors for Aphrodite, Nellie is focused on dance and people are contacting her for guest spots on TV shows, Palmer is getting music gigs, and Goldie is rapping more but she was already on a trajectory upward before the film. We flew them out to San Francisco, and they were just taking everything in. They saw the name of their film on the marquee and Aphrodite was crying, because she thought she would be in the Bronx all her life. Her story is helping people now.

“ BLACK AS U R” will be screened at Out On Film at 7pm Sunday, September 25 at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema. Order your tickets at outonfilm.org. You can view the “ BLACK AS U R” trailer at

Directorblackasur.com.forstage and film, producer, and choreographer Micheal Rice can be found at michealrice.com or on Instagram @ micheal_rice.

Micheal Rice, Director of ‘BLACK AS U R’ COURTESY PHOTO

GAY MEETS GOD IN DOCUMENTARY ‘WONDERFULLY MADE’

Adalei Stevens

Out On Film, Atlanta’s gay film festival, celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. One of the can’t-miss films is “Wonderfully Made” — LGBTQ+R(eligion), a featurelength documentary meets fine-art project that examines the anti-LGBTQ viewpoints of the Catholic Church and the lack of diversity and queer representation within religious spaces and art. Emmy winner and LGBTQ activist Yuval David and his husband, Mark McDermott, take on the arduous task of including queer voices and faces in religious artwork and analyzing the complicated relationship between the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ

David’scommunity.directorial and creative abilities, for which he won an Emmy earlier this year in the Talent: Program Host/Moderator/ Correspondent category for his short-form series One Actor Short, are on full display in Wonderfully Made. The project took nearly four years to complete and highlights the importance of representation and inclusivity within religious spaces.

McDermott was David’s inspiration for the film. McDermott’s Catholic faith was important to him, but he felt it failed to positively represent his sexual identity. David saw this as an opportunity to create religious art that would include his partner and the LGBTQ community.

“Art is the form of advocacy that is [not only] for my husband but for anybody that is, like him, searching for that representation,” David told Georgia Voice.

“It was very hard to find a high art, fine art representation of an LGBTQ Jesus. We wanted to create something like all of the iconographies that are seen on the walls of churches ... on the walls of galleries and art museums.”

—LGBTQ activist Yuval David

“There is a lacuna throughout art history and religious art” depicting nonheterosexual, noncisgender, nonwhite religious iconography that needs to be corrected, according to David.

“It was very hard to find a high art, fine art representation of an LGBTQ Jesus,” he said. “We wanted to create something like all of the iconographies that are seen on the walls of churches … on the walls of galleries and art “Admittedly,museums.”I

don’t do anything small,” David joked. In response to his husband, McDermott spoke on the evolution of the project, “[what] started as a 10-minute documentary short to a massive art project with a huge collaborative team to a 95-minute feature-length documentary,” touching on the anti-LGBTQ views from the Catholic Church, including the 2016 Pulse shooting in Orlando and the lack of support from the Church at that time.

“Catholicism has a rich history of social activism,” David said. “There is a passionate group of individuals working inside the church

to minister to the LGBTQ community. I wanted to hear their stories, and understand the challenges that they face.”

Some of the most outspoken figureheads – like Bryan Massingale, the only openly gay Black Catholic priest in the world, and Father James Martin, S. J., American Jesuit priest and writer — appear in the film to explore the relationship between the LGBTQ community and the Catholic Church.

In the film, Massingale describes the damage that lacking representation in religion has done: “If we can’t imagine ourselves in the image of God, then that does irreparable spiritual harm to us.”

Anti-LGBTQ sentiments from the Catholic Church and its members have long plagued the lives and safety of members of the LGBTQ community. Even the most progressive of his rank, Pope Francis, has seemingly mixed beliefs on LGBTQ rights and the community.

It should come as no surprise that the film will spark controversy.

“It might ruffle feathers before they even see it,” David said. The Catholic Church has both passively and actively condemned homosexuality, citing homosexuality as the issue, not pedophilia, in regard to the sex abuse committed by the clergy in the Catholic Church, kicking out transgender members who are waiting to receive communion, and refusing to acknowledge the sanctity (and legality) of marriage between two members of the same sex.

The request for inclusivity and acceptance of LGBTQ people in religious spaces has always been controversial, but Wonderfully Made creates the opportunity for these two unlikely identities to blend. The fine art photography project depicts nine models of various races, sexualities, and gender identities as some of the most recognizable images of Jesus. The images will be available to view following the screening at wonderfullymadefilm.com.

Wonderfully Made screens Saturday, September 24 at 5pm at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema and will be available for streaming the same day.

‘Wonderfully Made’ PUBLICITY PHOTO

OUT ON FILM FESTIVAL REVIEWS

Read the full reviews online at thegavoice.com.

BEST OF FEST

CHRISSY JUDY

October 2, 7:30pm, Out Front Theatre Company; virtual It’s rare, but occasionally you’ll see something at Out on Film that’s so original and made with such skill by a hot new talent, you’ll think you’re at Sundance. Out On Film ends on a high note with “Chrissy Judy,” the first feature by writerdirector-producer-editor Todd Flaherty. Did I mention he also stars as Judy, half of a pair of underappreciated New York drag queens? Judy and Chrissy (Wyatt Fenner) are the kind of besties who promised to marry each other if they were still single at 30. When the time comes, they push the deadline back to 40, but Chrissy has a serious boyfriend who invites him to move to Philadelphia with him. This introduces Judy to a new kind of loneliness, and he tries different ways of coping. The black-

and-white cinematography and score of jazzy standards — many sung live — suggest early Woody Allen; and like Allen, there’s enough comedy that it may be a while before you take the story seriously. There’s certainly more than one possibility for a line like, “When did you start acting like all these people we used to make fun of?” If Flaherty doesn’t have an Oscar by the time he’s 40, I’ll marry him (and I don’t think my present husband has to worry)!

RECOMMENDED

IN FROM THE SIDE

September 24, 7pm, Midtown Art Cinema

Though not technically a superhero movie, “In from the Side” is the work of an emerging superhero: Matt Carter. He’s the film’s writer, director, cinematographer, editor, a producer, composer, performer and a few miscellaneous credits — a possible record for multitasking. Usually such an effort results in a small-scale, low-budget film, but this one has a broad scope and excellent

production values. It also has a plot, a gay love story concerning rugby players. The allgay South London Stags have an A Squad and a B Squad. Mark (Alexander Lincoln) is the MVP of the latter. Warren (Alexander King) is returning to the A team after being sidelined with an injury. Each is in a longterm relationship, which complicates things when their initial hookup leads to more and more involvement, and they have to hide it from their teammates and everyone else they know. Carter writes himself into such a corner I can’t imagine an ending that would be completely satisfying, but most of what comes before is as good as anything you’ll see in this or most other LGBTQ festivals.

JIMMY IN SAIGON

October 1, 2:30pm, Out Front Theatre Company; virtual Filmmaker Peter McDowell plays detective to learn how his older brother Jimmy lived and died in Saigon in 1972 at the age of 24. They were the oldest and youngest of six siblings in a Catholic (naturally) Illinois family. Despite claiming to be a conscientious objector, Jimmy was drafted in 1969 and sent to Vietnam at the height of the war. After being discharged he chose to go back to Saigon — “for hedonistic pleasures,” he wrote. He said he was close to a young woman and lived with her family. When he died, “heroin abuse” was blamed. In 2010, Peter started working on this film to resolve

unanswered questions. He went through Jimmy’s letters and sought out people who had known him. In 2016 he went to Saigon in search of Jimmy’s return address, the number of which had changed, and his “girlfriend,” who had moved to America. But he didn’t quit. Besides letters and photos, Peter has amassed an impressive number of clips — from old home movies to period news and scenic footage. He’s also interviewed family and friends to paint a slowly evolving portrait of the brother he lost when he was five. It’s a moving story, well told, with an executive producer credit for gay writer and advice columnist, Dan Savage.

MANSCAPING

October 1, 5:45pm, Out Front Theatre Company; virtual Where in the world can you go for a haircut without worrying about encountering hypermasculinity, racism, homophobia or transphobia? Manscaping is an hourlong portrait of three LGBTQ people from Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Sydney who have provided different answers to that question.

Devan Shimoyama overcame his childhood fear of barbers by creating collages about haircuts, applying jewels, glitter and other objects and materials to his paintings, winding up with exhibitions in New York and Washington DC.

Transman Jessie Anderson opened Big Bro’s

Steve Warren

‘Chrissy Judy’ PUBLICITY PHOTOS

Barber Shop, where trans people are especially welcome and understood and can buy clothing items otherwise available only online. While losing his own hair, Australian fetishist Richard Savvy started cutting other men’s as the Naked Barber. He also produces porn, but knows how to keep his professions separate. Director Broderick Fox smoothly juggles his three subjects as we find out more about each and the types they represent. I was surprised by how much I learned, when I thought I knew everything. Florida politicians might be surprised to see what kind of “grooming” queers really do.

PAT ROCCO DARED

September 25, 9:15pm, Midtown Art Cinema; virtual Almost three seconds pass in this biography of gay filmmaker/activist Pat Rocco (1934–2018) before we see nude male genitalia. There will be a lot more. Rocco began as a nightclub entertainer. Out from adolescence, Rocco started making gay films in 1967. They were love stories with lots of male nudity, but no erections or graphic sex — someone labels them “cockdanglers.” Rocco, who lived in L.A., became active in what was then the gay movement and documented various events in California, hanging with such heroes as Rev. Troy Perry (shown in historical clips and recent interviews) and the late Harvey Milk. He spent his last 46 years with life partner David Ghee. There’s a wealth of LGBTQ history on display here in addition to the dangling cocks. There are moments when it might have been assembled better, but it’s worth the effort to try to take it all in. And lest you question Rocco’s skills as a boundary-busting filmmaker, there are scenes from a love story set against the 1976 L.A. Pride celebration with an ending that brought tears to my eyes.

WHEN TIME GOT LOUDER

September 26, 7pm, Midtown Art Cinema

My early reaction to “When Time Got Louder” was that soap opera fans, which I am not, will find it soaper-doaper. It didn’t take me long to get caught up in the genuine drama of writer-director Connie Cocchia’s debut feature. She’s annoyingly trendy in shredding the timeline over a dozen years while concealing until the last few minutes the nature of the event that

brought Kayden Peterson (Jonathan Simao) to the hospital with head injuries. His family is interrogated by a woman who turns out to be a social worker. The Petersons haven’t had an easy time raising 17-year-old Kayden, who has a severe case of autism and can’t be left alone. His parents (Lochlyn Munro, Elizabeth Mitchell) have largely relied on his sister Abbie (Willow Shields), but she went away to college a few months ago and has just returned for the holidays. At college she started dating Karly (Ava Capri), who doesn’t appreciate Abbie not being out to her overstressed family. Performances range from good to great, most notably Simao’s. It turns out he has Asperger’s syndrome in real life, giving him insight into Kayden’s condition without most of the handicaps. Despite my issues with the continuity, I can’t dispute the film’s dramatic impact.

FLAWED BUT INTERESTING

ALL MAN: THE INTERNATIONAL MAN STORY

October 2, 5:45pm, Out Front Theatre; virtual Once upon a time, gay men who could afford it bought trendy clothes from the International Male catalog. The rest of us just looked at the pictures. Gene Burkard founded the magazine/catalog after leaving the Air Forc. He was interviewed extensively for this film before passing away in 2020. Masculinity began to be sexualized (no one says “exploited”) by Cosmopolitan and Playgirl in the early ’70s. Burkard found he could sell sexy underwear to gay men through the mail, but when his inventory expanded, he was surprised to find his clientele included

more straight men who wanted to look like the models (and women who wanted their men to) than the gay men who wanted the models. After AIDS took many of his staff, models and customers, Burkard gave up and sold the business to Hanover Direct. Narrated by Matt Bomer, the film doesn’t have the smoothest flow, but you’re never far from some interesting comments, because everyone had their own take on IM. And of course, there are those photos.

NELLY & NADINE

September 28, 7pm, Midtown Art Cinema; virtual Elements of “Nelly & Nadine” could have made this true lesbian love story the best film in the festival, but because of the way they’ve been assembled — presumably at the will of director and co-writer Magnus Gertten — it’s the most frustrating instead. The tale is presented like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. The unidentified narrator, possibly Gertten, tells how he researched to learn the identity of women prisoners of Nazi concentration camps from photos taken after their release.

We’re 20 minutes into the film before the women are connected. Nelly and Nadine became lovers at Kreuzberg or Ravensbrück, camps where they were imprisoned in 1944, and except for a year or so after the war (we don’t learn how they found each other again), they were together until Nadine’s death in 1972, living mostly in Caracas. Much of the story is told through Nelly’s journals, which are beautifully written and read (in French, subtitled here) and illustrated with the trove of photos and film from her archive, as well

as WWII stock footage. Those parts are so wonderful it’s a shame to interrupt them with recent interviews. While Gertten omits or buries details, his attempts to be arty only damage a story that’s already a work of art; but the film you can piece together in your head while watching is worth the effort.

TWO EYES

September 29, 9pm, Midtown Art Cinema; virtual The whole film is a jigsaw puzzle that lets you piece together three stories spread over 152 years. Even more puzzling are the gender and sexuality of some characters, which may be revealed or change as the film sometimes flows, more often jumps from one tale to another. In Montana in 1868, British artist Dihlon (Benjamin Rigby) leaves his wife and kids to follow a Native guide, Jacy (Kiowa Gordon), in search of his muse. In 1979 in Barstow, California, Gabryal (Uly Schlesinger) becomes a native guide of sorts for newly arrived foreign exchange student Alasen (Jessica Allain), until she takes the reins and guides him through life. In Wyoming in 2020, Jalin (Ryan Cassata) is depressed after a breakup and struggling to earn his male pronouns. A nonbinary trans therapist (Kate Bornstein) tries to help him and eventually helps us tie the stories together. The title comes from a variation on the idea of twospirit Indigenous people, saying that some see the world through one eye as a male and the other as a female. Nakhane Touré, as a friend of Alasen’s, provides the film’s best music and some of its best acting. Much of “Two Eyes” is enjoyable, but sometimes it seems to require more effort than it’s worth.

‘Nelly & Nadine’ PUBLICITY PHOTO

‘MAMA BEARS’ AND THE IMPORTANCE OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Syd Clark

Every year, the “Out On Film” film festival collects an array of movies created to detail and document the lives of gay and transgender individuals. One of the many incredible films featured this year is the documentary “Mama Bears,” directed by Emmy award winner Daresha Kyi. “Mama Bears” highlights the importance of love and family in the pursuit of growth and understanding. Detailing the stories of different Christian mothers, “Mama Bears” is a brutally honest documentary that depicts the road to learning about, accepting, and eventually advocating for your children.

“Mama Bears” is more than the title of this emotional documentary. It’s also the name of a cohort of Christian mothers with children within the LGBTQ community. This cohort began as a small group on Facebook in 2014 and since then has taken off. The founder of the group, Liz Dyer, “dream[ed] that she could start a private Facebook group for moms of LGBTQ kids and those moms would end up helping to make the world a kinder, safer, more loving place for all LGBTQ people to live,” according to the group’s website realmamabears. org. These Christian mothers who were willing to question and challenge the beliefs that were instilled in them are what inspired director Daresha Kyi to begin documenting this story.

“I read about these women who had made this radical transformation from conservative Christian to LGBTQ activists, and I was inspired,” Kyi told Georgia Voice. “I like to make films that are inspirational.”

Kyi is no stranger to the Mama Bears organization. Stepmother to a son who belongs to the LGBTQ community, Kyi told Georgia Voice that she joined the group because she witnessed “what can happen to someone whose parents don’t approve of them because of who they are.”

The documentary details the stories of three different mothers who have grown up in very religious Christian households and passed this religion on to their children. All three of their stories highlight their will to put their love for their children first to understand, help them become the best they can be, and advocate for their rights. Mothers Kimberly, Sara, and Tenita all have their own stories that involve changing their preconceived ideas for the betterment of their children.

Kimberly Shappley, the mother of a transgender daughter, wasn’t always the trailblazing advocate and activist she is today. Once her daughter began expressing that she was a girl, she wasn’t sure what to make of it. But once Kimberly’s daughter started talking about not wanting to be on Earth anymore, Shappley said she knew she had to choose between “a dead son [or] a living trans daughter.” This inspired her to examine her beliefs and science, and she said that “when you really get down to the truth of both, they actually don’t conflict.” The love Kimberly has for her daughter encouraged her to rethink her previous beliefs and formed Kimberly into an award-winning activist.

Sara, the mother of a gay son, was distraught

when her son first discussed bringing a man home. She said she had to “reexamine everything that we believed, and why we believed it” and “needed to hear from someone that shared my faith, it’s okay to search this out.” After communicating with another mom, she was introduced to the Mama Bears Facebook group. This moment sparked her journey from a mother who disapproved of homosexuality to an advocate and supporter of LGBTQ individuals across the country. She took another step and created an organization known as “Free Mom Hugs,” whose mission is “empowering the world to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community through visibility, education, and conversation,” according to its website

Tenitafreemomhugs.org.isthemother

of Tammi, a lesbian woman. Tenita and Tammi’s story contains

multiple layers. We follow Tammi’s selfacceptance journey and her mother’s road to the beginning of understanding. Tenita still hasn’t entirely accepted Tammi’s sexuality. However, Tammi says, “I can see [my mother] changing. I still see her actions come back to a place of love and acceptance.”

The most important message this movie carries is the power of parents’ love and its ability to cause a transformation for even the most devout Christians.

“A lot of people are not willing to undergo that kind of radical transformation,” Kyi said, “so I find it inspiring that these women would do that out of love.”

“Mama Bears” premieres on September 27 at 7pm at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema. For tickets, visit outonfilm.org.

Kimberly (left) and Kai Shappley PHOTO BY KELLY WEST

OUT ON FILM FESTIVAL IN REVIEW

she is destined to have bad luck.

Read the full reviews online at thegavoice.com.

BEST OF THE FEST

MARS ONE

September 25, 1pm, Midtown Art Cinema; virtual President Bolsonaro’s election in Brazil sets the backdrop of Gabriel Martins’ “Mars One,” a film that paints a delicate yet despairing portrait of the Black workingclass family known as the Martins. The father of the family, Wellington (Carlos Francisco), works with a young leftist as a maintenance man at a condo resort. His son Deivinho (Cícero Lucas) secretly aspires to become an astrophysicist and join the Mars One mission. The older sister, Eunice (Camilla Damião) holds a secret desire too: she discovers her identity as a lesbian when she falls for another young woman. All the while, the mother Tércia (Rejane Faria) is shocked by a traumatizing event that convinces her

The genius of Martins’ direction and writing slowly unveils itself over the course of the film. Long, static shots of Wellington and Tércia become the gateway through which Bolsonaro’s far-right policies unravel a serene family environment. But Martins also recognizes that individual lives change independently of larger societal trends: Deivinho was always going to find his own interests, and Eunice was always going to be a lesbian, regardless of Bolsonaro. Still, the exploration of involvement in inter- and intraclass struggles, of being queer in a conservative country, of being a woman in a world that fails to take women’s issues seriously, of being a dreamer without the funds to realize these dreams — Martins manages to develop all these themes with the utmost authenticity, heart, and intellectual prowess. Everything ends up culminating in a resounding ending that shows how the pureness of familial love can bring people through the worst of times,

even if the re-emergence of fascism makes us all wish to escape to Mars.

RECOMMENDED:

SWALLOWED

September 29, 7pm, Out Front Theatre; virtual “Swallowed” is about a drug run that goes from bad to worse to downright vile. This passion-project horror film by Carter Smith follows aspiring gay porn star Benjamin (Cooper Koch) and his close friend Dom (Jose Colon) as they get wrapped up in a smuggling job that Dom opts into so that he can send Benjamin off to LA with money for his first porn shoot. However, things quickly get out of control when Dom’s supplier Alice (Jena Malone) forces Dom and Benjamin to swallow the mysterious merchandise in order to keep it concealed. “Swallowed” is a film better experienced without knowing much about it, so I will stop describing it here. But what I can say about the film is that its thriller and body horror elements become incredibly compelling as it nears its end. This is thanks to stellar performances by the doe-eyed Koch and Colon (names that feel almost purposefully chosen by the casting director) and Andrew W. Lewis’s beautiful yet claustrophobic cinematography. But perhaps the best thing about Carter Smith’s film is that it serves as a nasty, campy reminder that

BLACK AS U R September 25, 7pm, Midtown Art Cinema; virtual Following the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020, documentarian Micheal Rice faced a difficult reality: only seven days after the murder of George Floyd and only 10 miles from his vigil, a transwoman named Iyanna Dior was beaten by a group of Black people while fighting to enter a convenience store so she could capture her potential murderers on camera if she died. This propelled Rice to make “BLACK AS U R” and investigate the roots of homophobia and transphobia within Black communities despite the importance of LGBTQ people in the Black liberation movement. Rice’s film is often harrowing in its authentic, direct approach to documenting bigotry and its tragic consequences on Black queer lives. His amazing direction further emphasizes the pain experienced in Black trans lives, especially; the portion on Chocolate and her dreams of becoming a famous television star is one of the most heart wrenching scenes I have ever seen in a documentary. But the best facet of “BLACK AS U R” is that despite all the hate spewed toward LGBTQ and Black

Fletcher Varnson

men will create strange rituals and situations as excuses to be intimate with one another.

‘Mars One’ PUBLICITY PHOTOS

people, Rice finds a way to reconcile queerness with Blackness as well as present a beautiful hope in the possibility for a Black liberation movement in which all Black lives matter.

EL HOUB

September 26, 9pm, Midtown Art Cinema

Writer and director Shariff Nasr’s dreamy style sweeps viewers into a flowing tale of memory and identity in “El Houb.” At the center of this family drama is Karim, a gay Moroccan man who locks himself in the literal closet of his parents’ home so that his religious family will listen to him as he comes out of the figurative closet. Those outside the closet denigrate Karim and, worse, pretend he isn’t there. Karim in the closet is stuck with himself, however, which means confronting past traumas and mistakes he’s made in his secretive life as a gay man.

The performances in “El Houb” are stunning in both their cool, Kubrickian quality and their emotional depth. Larhzaoui is a true anchor as Karim, giving the most tortured performance I’ve seen since Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea. Nasr’s direction works in tandem with these unique performances, creating a harsh dreamscape that verges on becoming a nightmare at points. But however mean the film can become toward Karim, Nasr manages to remind the audience that “el houb” means “the love” in Arabic and that there is always a potential to learn and grow with a bit of listening and patience.

FLAWED, BUT INTERESTING

INTENTIONALLY ERASED

September 26, 7pm, Role Call Theatre; virtual

The power of “Intentionally Erased” lies in its simplicity. Kimya Motley’s lean 60-minute documentary dissects the discrimination against transgender women by men within the Black community through a Socratic seminar: by sitting three Black transgender women down with three Black men and having them discuss the trans experience. The clarity and pathos with which Breonna McCree, Bryanna Jenkins, and Cate’a Thailand Warr speak on their lives as trans women keeps the film as engaging as it is informative. Equally interesting are the revelations the men have about themselves as they learn from these women. Their seemingly

well-meaning but indifferent attitude toward trans people is slowly unveiled to be socially ingrained transphobia (save for one of them who has a secret past). The surprise, pain, and desire to change that washes over these men at this revelation is at once hurtful and hopeful. However, “Intentionally Erased” is held back because it fails to explore beyond the seminar. If the runtime were longer and the seminar participants were re-contacted, the film’s impact would be stronger and its contents more engaging.

FRAMING AGNES

October 1, 2pm, Out Front Theatre; virtual Agnes became a crucial part of American trans history after anonymously participating in Harold Garfinkle’s gender research study at UCLA in the 1960s as a trans woman. However, Agnes’s fame has come to overshadow the stories of other trans people from the same time and place. Director Chase Joynt attempts to right this wrong with his documentary, Framing Agnes, by looking beyond the historical frame that centers Agnes and peering into the lives of other trans people who participated in Garfinkle’s study.

Joynt embarks on this endeavor by blending reality with artifice, reenacting transcripts of the interviews from Garfinkle’s study with trans actors. This approach captures the performativity of gender while simultaneously recognizing that neither Joynt nor historians can fully know the participants of Garfinkle’s study from just the transcripts. That said, Framing Agnes becomes absorbed with the modern-day actors and their thoughts about their “characters” more so than the actual people the film is based on. This ultimately undercuts Joynt’s honorable effort to bring

light to these forgotten lives, leaving Framing Agnes in a state that is both righteous and upsetting. Still, the film has a lot to offer with its ambitious, playful attitude toward the documentary as a form that cannot go unrecognized.

DISAPPOINTING

YOUTOPIA

October 1, 4 pm, Out Front Theatre; virtual For better and for worse, Scout Durwood’s musical comedy is a digital, cracked-up-onsugar nightmare. This campy film follows the fictional Scout Durwood (played by the real Durwood), a Los Angeles millennial who is dumped by her girlfriend before accidentally becoming a cult leader. The already insane situation only leans further into the absurd when her cult members begin to be abducted by aliens, some of whom look strikingly similar to Scout’s friends and herself.

In some parts of “Youtopia,” the audience is greeted with an interesting, idiosyncratic look at the vapidity of modern culture and the general lack of direction characteristic of young millennial life. However, most of the film’s thematic explorations are muddled by Durwood’s direction and writing. In particular, the songs of “Youtopia” function less like the expressions of characters’ emotions, as they do in most musicals, and more like YouTube music videos interjecting the story with millennial mantras. While this choice does play into the film’s themes about the modern age, it comes with the added effect of obfuscating the story, as the songs have little to do with what is going on plotwise. This ultimately makes “Youtopia” hard to follow and its campy aesthetic difficult to enjoy. That said, if you

like a film with fun music and insane visuals, Youtopia could be for you.

MILES FROM NOWHERE

September 27, 9pm, Midtown Art Cinema; virtual Written and directed by Atlanta-based filmmaker Jono Mitchell, “Miles from Nowhere” follows the titular Miles (Seth Dunlap) as he attempts to reconnect with his two childhood friends, Sammy (Shane Howell) and Victor (Cristian Gonzalez), during a cabin retreat after receiving a cancer diagnosis. However, Miles’ attitude toward life and others is as cancerous as the disease inside him. This doesn’t help Sammy and Victor, who want to use this trip as an opportunity to tell Miles they have been in a gay relationship for the past three years.

Despite how powerful the themes of death, cancer, and friendship can be, the drama of “Miles from Nowhere” never really takes off the ground. While Miles is supposed to serve as a difficult character audiences reluctantly identify with, Sammy and Victor are similarly difficult to enjoy because of how self-centered they are, which leaves the audience with no one to truly care for. This issue is only made worse by how Miles expresses his emotions in strange, inauthentic ways. He chops wood at learning his friends are gay and howls at the moon when Victor reaches a breaking point; such moments call for a clarity and precision of emotion, but these overly dramatic gestures undercut these potentially powerful scenes. The concoction of unlikable characters and unrealistic emotions in Miles from Nowhere ultimately prevents the film from being truly dramatic despite its subject matter being a great vehicle for affecting filmmaking.

‘Framing Agnes’ PUBLICITY PHOTO

A PARABLE DECREPITUDEOF

Cliff Bostock

I have begun to despair at how much my life has become a cliché of decrepitude. I just had surgery to remove a cataract. I’ve had three sets of MRIs to probe a mystery of my brain. My neurosurgeon fears that something really bad is going to happen. I assure him that it already has. I’m talking about my seemingly total loss of inhibition around other people.

There was, for one recent example, the case of Our Lady of the Pickup. I was driving through Cabbagetown on my way to Bomb Biscuits when she almost hit me twice, soaring through stop signs at two different intersections. As it happened, I ended up behind her in the Krog Street Tunnel, which was backed up. I sprang out of my car and knocked on her truck window, which she lowered. I started a tirade when I noticed a child in the passenger seat. My oratory mellowed a bit as I told her that, fine, go ahead, kill me, but what about your child? Don’t you care about your child, for god’s sake?

She looked at me with drooping eyelids, said, “She’s not my child,” raised her window and directed her gaze straight ahead. There was a crucifix dangling from her mirror.

My greater problem is the complete unbridling of sarcasm, which is my family’s first language. It allows the speaker to utter vitriol cloaked in humor that totters and stumbles with age. Recently, standing endlessly in line, I turned to a complete stranger to stage-whisper, “I guess the COVID supply-chain blockage has forced CVS to hire elementary school dropouts.” Sometimes it occurs to me that I’ve been rude, and I apologize, as I did in this instance.

But the dramatic apology only reinforces my status as a crazy old man. The young cashier’s feelings were genuinely hurt.

A restaurant employee graciously explained to me recently that my problem is timing. I had engaged in my usual sarcasm, but he and his boss took me seriously, really seriously. I explained I was joking. He said: “You needed to smile 10 seconds earlier to let us in on the joke.” I long for my friend Jeff who moved away years ago. He called himself my translator. Whenever we were out and I started riffing sarcastically to a stranger, he’d literally step in to fill the relatively infrequent 10-second gap that has become my norm.

But arterial blockage also paradoxically comes with largesse. Because forgetting so much unmoors you, you can get new answers to many of the important questions of your earlier life. I had a seriously profound example of this recently at Bomb Biscuits, where I was headed the day I met Our Lady of the Pickup. Owner/chef Erika Council has become nationally renowned for her biscuits. They are truly magical — not just for their taste, but also for their palpable, mysterious evocation of everything wicked and sublime in Southern culture. The café, located in Irwin Street Market across from Krog Street Market, is open 9am to 2pm Thursday through Sunday. Most order takeout, but I always hog one of the four or five tables all by myself. The staff is wonderful, and customers are always in a good mood. These biscuits are curative.

During my last visit, a family of five sat at the table next to me. The three kids were young and seriously adorable, especially the constantly smiling preschool daughter.

Dressed something like an angelic ballerina, she was the most radiant human I’ve seen in a long time. I told her she was beautiful and complimented her parents — another crossing of my usual boundaries — and switched from watching porn to TikToks on my iPad so I could more comfortably eavesdrop.

The kids began firing random questions — about the meanings of words, the existence of things — at their father, who answered them with obvious pleasure. Without even thinking, I blurted “What is god? Does god exist?” He laughed and looked me in the eyes, deeply, and said, “Yes, he does. He really does.” This was darshan in a biscuit café. I once thought I’d answered this question, but it returns with aging. The man looked completely open, inviting me to further questioning, but I looked away. I apologized for interrupting. “I want you to rest assured

that god is real,” he said. They soon left. Was he a pastor?

I felt quite unsteady lifting my gigantic biscuit stuffed with actual, bona fide country ham like my uncle used to cure. It was our breakfast every Christmas morning. My mother and her six sisters also cooked it many times during summers at the beach. I yearned for my mother. A woman about my own age broke my reverie by suddenly appearing at my table. “That was quite sweet,” she said. I told her I was embarrassed. “I know,” she said, “We want to know what happens next, right?” I looked up, and she had vanished.

Cliff Bostock, PhD, is a former psychotherapist who now offers (slightly confrontational) life coaching based on imaginal psychology: cliffbostock@gmail.com.

PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / ALEKSANDRA KOVAC

A FIRST DAY

It is a quirk of the calendar that autumn is a period of firsts in many respects. Traditionally, the season welcomes students to the first day of class, while for others it augers the beginning of a new job following the summer doldrums — or in one unique case, the passing of one’s royal mother.

But this isn’t about King Charles III or the end of the Elizabethan era. Rather, I want to give a bit of stoic encouragement to my gentle readers to seize each day as if it is the first (and only) day you’re given. As the ancient philosopher Epictetus wrote, “For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person’s life.” I love that he calls it the “art of living,” because how we build and prepare our day is eminently important to the beauty I hope that we can each create.

This notion of the first day is something that

has been brought into stark resolution for me this past month. My husband and I live in Paris, and in an effort to inspire the world of possibilities into the next generation, we offer an all-expenses paid immersion into our daily life here in France to any of our nieces and nephews who enroll in college and succeed in their studies. To date, we’ve had four beneficiaries come and join us over the years, and this year another of our nieces arrived at the end of August to experience la vie en rose.

Having just graduated from fashion merchandising at a state college in Oregon, our niece had never been out of the United States and the idea of coming to the center of fashion and style was truly a dream come true for her. She has been documenting every moment of her visit, writing in her journal each evening all the “firsts” she’s had — whether trying escargot on her first day as we sat at one of our favorite Parisian cafes, or rabbit ragu at an Italian osteria in Milano during a quick long weekend visit via high-speed train (another first). During our conversations together as we wended our ways through the Palais Royal or the Luxembourg

Gardens, I gently prodded her into pushing the boundaries of what is her comfort zone and to continue to try new things, listen to new music (she’s enjoying French rap), read about other subjects, and to consider how diverse stimuli can stir creativity and enrich our lives.

We’ve sat in the shade under carefully trimmed plane trees in view of Marie de Medici’s palace and people watched, savored a simple espresso in view of the magnificent Duomo, and had a thrill meandering through the Yves Saint Laurent museum. Of course, it is easy to opine about squeezing the beauty and vibrancy out of each day we’re given when living in a city like Paris, but she is starting to see how she is going to carry on when she returns to the United States in a few days. Now she is rethinking her assumptions about living out in the suburbs and wanting to try to find an apartment that is close to mass transit. While in the past she enjoyed taking strolls with her mom when she was home, now she understands that walking whenever possible is not only healthy but opens up the possibility of

discovery and interaction that riding in a car can rarely provide.

The simple habits of life that can transform one’s perspective can be acquired at any age. She has commented on the significant difference in diet between America and France and is amazed that she can easily find healthy (and delicious) choices for a lunch and also reward herself with the occasional pastry delicacy. Changing the focus of the day to the art of living, instead of the American “work, eat, and sleep, repeat” model can be done in a myriad of tiny ways. It involves slowing down, putting away the iPhone for a bit, and enjoying moments of solitude even when amid a big city.

Today is a gift. It is all that we are assured of, and how we use it is up to us. Challenge yourself to break out of your routine and try something new. Maybe it is as mundane as driving a different route to the grocery store than you usually go or trying your hand at a new recipe. Be creative. It doesn’t have to be French snails.

Tourists and locals sit on chairs and walk in front of a large building in Luxembourg Gardens. PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / JUST ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPHER

Buck Jones

LINDA BLOODWORTH-THOMASON REVISITS

‘DESIGNING WOMEN’ WITH NEW PLAY

Jim Farmer

It’s an understatement to call Linda BloodworthThomason television royalty. Her early writing career includes such landmark series as “M*A*S*H,” “Rhoda” and the pilot for “One Day at a Time,” but it’s her work as the creator of “Designing Women” that has forever endeared her to the LGBTQ “Designingcommunity.Women”ran

from 1986 to 1991 and was set at Sugarbaker & Associates, an interior design firm in Atlanta. Dixie Carter (Julia Sugarbaker), Delta Burke (Suzanne Sugarbaker), Annie Potts (Mary Jo Shively) and Jean Smart (Charlene Frazier Stillfield) were the perfectly cast actresses at the core of the comedy. Thomason has decided to revisit the characters with “Designing Women 2020: The Big Split,” opening at Horizon Theatre next week. In it, the central foursome is battling relationship issues as well as COVID-19 and the presidential election of that year.

She wrote the play while she was bored during the pandemic, Bloodworth-Thomason told Georgia Voice

“I had so many emotions about things that had gone on during [that time], and I kept wondering what Julia and Suzanne and everyone would have to say about [them],” she said. “When I would talk to others, they’d have the same thoughts.”

This new version premiered as a coproduction that played at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock where Bloodworth-Thomason and her husband Harry grew up. The productions broke

box office records — during COVID in the winter and in a red state — to begin its journey. “That made us feel not smug but comfortable,” Thomason said.

When she created it, she didn’t know if the series would be successful, but had high hopes.

“You never know,” she said. “Most of us have as many failures as we do successes. I did have a lot of faith in this one because I took control instead of being a hired gun.”

At the time, she was working on a pilot for an actor that she really wasn’t interested in. She called up the head of comedy of CBS one day and said she didn’t really want to

work on the pilot and wanted to come over and tell them what she did want to write.

“I am friends with Dixie, Delta, Jean and Annie, and I want to write a show for them,” she recalled saying. “That was an overstatement — I barely knew them. I didn’t tell them I was doing it either. I said, ‘I don’t care what they do for a living, I just know I want to write the dialogue and they are going to say the words.’”

The president of CBS agreed to shoot a pilot. Once the show began airing, Bloodworth-Thomason was surprised at how the LGBTQ community took to it. She started getting fan mail and later won

awards from LGBTQ events.

“We had total unbridled love and support,” she said. “Reincarnations of some of the speeches are online and played in gay bars every night. It meant the world to me. I don’t like to see any group of people not recognized and marginalized. In my little town nobody ever admitted they were gay. So that was pretty fulfilling to understand these women had unleashed courage in — in particular — a lot of young gay men who identified with [these women]. I’ve had years of young gay men coming up to me telling me they would watch [some of the speeches] with their parents and tell their family, ‘I’m gay.’ It makes me cry.”

“Designing Women 2020: The Big Split” is directed by Heidi Cline McKerley. Both she and Thomason feel that this new take on the characters will attract both original fans of the show and newer audiences. According to McKerley, the series is iconic for a number of

“Whenreasons.the

show was on, the way these women were portrayed and the way they were written was unique, especially for the amount of iconic women in one scene,” she said. “Here, you had multiple women, and it was a combination of intelligence, women speaking their mind, [great] fashion. It was the right combination at the right time.”

Serving as the dramaturg for the production is Topher Payne, who for more than a decade has played Julia Sugarbaker in various area “Designing Women LIVE!” events. His participation in the production makes Bloodworth-Thomason very happy.

“Designing Women 2020: The Big Split” opens at Horizon Theatre on September 30 with an open-ended run.

‘Designing

THE RANCID RISE OF QUEER-ANON

Ryan Lee

A gun-wielding man in a rainbow wig being arrested at Dairy Queen after threatening to kill liberals and restore Donald Trump to the presidency made me rush to my friend’s social media page to make sure he wasn’t in custody. I once thought only conservatives were damned to lament how “Q-Anon Turned Our MeeMaw into a Vampire Hunter,” but a queer fringe has begun amplifying conspiracy theories and viciously maligning the progressivism for which they ought to be grateful.

They are caricatures of privilege, primarily white gay men and lesbians who pretended to be concerned about civil rights when they were merely interested in removing barriers that isolated them from their kinfolk and caste. With those barriers gone, they are eager to re-assimilate — and overcompensate by attacking the liberalism that brought dignity and equality to their lives as queer Americans and defaming those with whom they once feigned solidarity.

My friend was a hero in the fight against the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and a generous donor and vocal advocate for marriage equality. Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court validated his same-sex union, he declared the LGBTQ movement complete.

Any goals beyond the two that benefited him were radical and perverted, and his attacks on LGBTQ woke-ism soon exploded into a raging denunciation of cities, Democrats, and any other symbol of leftism. His most consuming obsession is transphobia, whether posting debunked allegations about a Boston clinic for transgender youth (a false narrative that has led to bomb threats against the organization) or suggesting “Drag Queen Story Hour” is a grooming operation meant to steer toddlers toward genital surgery.

He wars against an imaginary “Great

Replacement” in which gay and lesbian children (and even tomboys) are duped into believing they are actually transgender, then fast-tracked onto an irreversible course of hormone treatments and medical operations. Advances in transgender rights and visibility have convinced him gender-bending is chic, homosexuality is passe, and all the “kool kidz” are swapping pronouns and chopping off body

Undoubtedly,parts.

the sexual and gender exploration of today’s youth is subject to influences and outcomes beyond what any prior generation has navigated. While it’s not surprising for these new dynamics to be portrayed as a hellscape by someone in his sixties without any discernible familiarity with young people or their trends, it’s disappointing for him to regurgitate the bigoted fatalism expressed when acceptance of homosexuality was re-orienting childhood development.

Upon recognizing my attraction to other boys at age six, I simultaneously learned those desires were prohibited in mid-1980s America. I explored my sexuality with peers of both sexes while assuming I would marry a woman, but by my late teens LGBTQ advocacy had introduced the potential of being gay without being miserable.

Coming out as a gay male was as functionally irreversible as the procedures in my friend’s transphobic fever dreams. Any take-backsies to heterosexuality would’ve been doubted by potential female partners and fellow gay men, and it’s now widely illegal to attempt to convert a young person who identifies as gay.

The struggles related to sexual orientation and gender identity are hardly identical, and it’s not blasphemous for a gay man to wonder about age restrictions on medical transitions or have concerns about fairness in high school sports. However, we share enough similarities, history, and adversaries with our transgender brothers and sisters to make it obvious that going turncoat is conduct unbecoming.