Scenes from exhibition

Friendly Doc update:

These days when you want something, there’s usually a way to get it. In terms of media, whether it’s a song, episode, book, or movie, you can download it, steal it or buy it on Amazon. But when it comes to seeing a film (one that isn’t a new release) in actual cinematic quality, this is not the case.

As the release of the Autumn calendar approaches, we encourage you to keep this in mind. When you’re looking through to see what’s interesting, what’s lame, what’s unfamiliar, and you’re weighing your workload against cinematic exposure and other free time activities—the opportunity to experience CASTLE IN THE SKY or PINK FLAMINGOS (or any other of this quarter’s 80+ incredible titles) in the immersion of a theater, it does not come often.

Notes from a festival programmer: Filmmakers, please stop being so cavalier about using the words "homo" and "fag":

I can AND will defend a director and writer’s use of any word. Language is as much an artistic tool as the camera itself.

What is not always defensible is the why a word was used. Which can be easy to parse at times and at others can be muddy and convoluted. And sometimes there is no why. Again, it comes down to choice.

What becomes incredibly difficult to defend is when any creator demonstrates a continued lack of understanding and empathy, especially when they have ultimate control over the worlds they are creating. As Spike put it later, “[Tarantino] says he grew up on Blaxploitation Films and that they were his favorite films but he has to realize that those films do not speak to the breadth of the entire African-American experience.”

Tarantino never seemed to truly acknowledge that it would be natural and right for folks to be offended when he used the word “nigger”. He’s defensiveness at times signaled almost an unwillingness to take responsibility for what he had written and created.

Spike on the other hand, never really acknowledged that Tarantino’s worlds are specific and were never meant to speak to or replicate the African-American experience. At least not the African American experience that existed outside of a certain genre of films. A genre that, while reflected the themes and issues of African-Americans, never claimed or aimed to be realistic. Tarantino has repeatedly noted that some of his movies are meant to exist as a heightened reality in an alternate universe he’s called the “Realer Than Real World Universe”. Others exist in the “Movie Movie Universe” and these moves are much more like comic books and films.

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We receive films that have women calling each other “bitches” and “ho’s”, black men and women calling each other “nigga” and LGBT characters calling each other “fags” or “dykes”. Over the years we have programmed some of those films with no reservations and with no concerns.

But, the number of film submissions over the years that have had straight characters casually calling each other “fag” and “homo” has been troubling. Yes, it’s true that people straight and gay call each other “fag” or “homo”. However, just because one replicates an event, big or small, in a film, in a book, or on stage, doesn’t mean that replication has verisimilitude. It doesn’t mean that replication gets deeper to the ideas, themes and undercurrents that those events represent and what led to those moments to begin with.