The 17th Chicago Lesbian & Gay international Film Festival runs from Friday, November 7, through Thursday, November 20, at the Music Box (through November 13) and Chestnut Station (November 14 through 20). Advance tickets can be purchased at Chicago Filmmakers, 1543 W. Division, between 10 am and 6 pm on weekdays, and between noon and 5 pm on Saturday; same-day tickets can be purchased at the venue box office starting a half hour before the first show of the day. Tickets are $7 except for opening night, which costs $25 (including a reception); a party following the 9:15 screening on Thursday, November 13, costs $15, which includes the film. Discount passes are also available. For more information call 773-384-5533 or the festival hot line at 312-409-5553.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8
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Said to be the first film dealing with homosexuality, this short, silent German feature by Richard Oswald, written in collaboration with sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, stars Conrad Veidt as an exposed homosexual who’s victimized by blackmail. Jim Steakley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison will give an introduction. (3:00)
Green Plaid Shirt
Unremittingly coy yet engaging in a silly kind of way, this comedy about young NYU graduates negotiating love and careers in Manhattan is intended, according to director Victor Mignatti, as an antidote to cynicism. Best friends Marc, an actor, and Cynthia, an overweight, rich shopaholic, become roommates in a Greenwich Village dump that they transform overnight with an avant-garde decorating job worthy of a magazine spread. From this citadel Marc ogles the local men, searching for his “perfect ten,” while Cynthia wallows in neuroses and schemes for the job of her dreams, assistant to Tina Brown. Marc’s friend Robert, a nerdy songwriter who has the hots for Marc, is doomed to play the court jester in their lives. Mignatti’s take on romance, primarily gay romance, is of the mush-for-brains variety, and his male characters while away the time in starry-eyed contemplation of the mostly inaccessible objects of their lust until false values fall away moments before a happy ending. In the press kit Mignatti, who spent five years directing television commercials, is quoted as saying, “I wanted to put a movie into the world that spoke to the romantic idealist in all of us.” Somehow Broadway Damage speaks loudest to the teenage sap in all of us. (Barbara Scharres) (9:15)
A 1996 U.S. documentary by Tami Gold and Kelly Anderson about three homosexuals who struggle to overcome job discrimination–a public library clerk in New York City, a Chrysler engineer in Detroit, and a former employee of Cracker Barrel. On the same program, Daniel Baer’s 1996 Horse Dreams in BBQ Country. (1:00)
Women Make Movies: New Lesbian Work
