by MATTHEW HAYS

Two thousand and six marks the 19th year for Montreal’s queer film festival, Image+Nation. As usual, it’s a mix of the strange, sublime, sexy and outrageous, a reflection of recent cinematic meditations on the topics of gender and sexuality. As well, fest organizers have thrown in a few old gems to remind us that the more things change outfits, the more they stay the same. What follows are a few highlights.

Spanish and Canadian queers are no doubt feeling a sense of camaraderie, given the Pope’s recent denouncement of both countries for their legalization of same-sex marriages. This year’s opening film is a reflection of Spain’s changing mores: Reinas (Queens) is a hilarious, critically lauded comic melodrama about the chaotic build-up to four gay marriages. Almodovar alumni Carmen Maura and Betiana Blum star in this tribute to pre-nuptial mayhem, directed by Manuel Gomez Pereira.

Rejuvenating the musical genre is director Richard Wong with his Colma: The Musical. Three high-school graduates do their best to navigate their way through the excruciating conformity of their suburban neighbourhood—and do so through song and dance. An inspiring antidote to Hollywood’s recent spate of attempts at reviving the genre. There’s plenty of eye candy in the ludicrously cheesy-but-fun Dante’s Cove, the TV series that has gays, lesbians, bisexuals and even straight people intermingling in this Southern California coastal community. It’s 90210 for the bent set. And God, don’t—but don’t—miss the chance to see Bob Fosse’s brilliant 1972 musical Cabaret on the big screen.

Non-fiction filmmakers again provide some of the most enticing fodder at Image+Nation. With Camp Out, Larry Grimaldi and Kirk Marcolina offer an intense and unforgettable glimpse into the lives of young gays who are trying to reconcile their faith in a Christian God with their homosexuality. These youth attend a Christian camp where it’s okay to be gay—but still have trouble overcoming the religious right’s message that they’ll burn in hell for eternity. In Do I Look Fat?, Travis Mathews examines eating disorders in gay and bisexual men, a phenomenon more widespread than initially thought. Mathews grappled with an eating disorder himself, and it shows—this astute film is informed by an insider’s perspective. Malcolm Ingram takes us into the incredible world of the gay underground in the U.S. deep south in Small Town Gay Bar. Exec produced by Kevin Smith, this film shows us the importance such institutions have played as a survival technique for gays in conservative and isolated parts of the continent. As well, Montrealers will have another chance to see Eye on the Guy: Alan B. Stone & the Age of Beefcake, Philip Lewis and J.F. Monette’s doc about the late local photographer’s legacy and double life.

Transgressions and toilets

Excellent short films are also screening, including Queer Spawn, Anna Boluda’s doc about children who grew up with queer parents, Pretty, Gay and Available, Chris Johnson’s alternately witty and touching meditation on dating, and It Takes 2 to Tango, Miriam Ginestier’s riff on silent moviemaking.

But aside from the screenings, the most important events at this year’s Image+Nation surround the launch of local queer author and Concordia film studies prof Tom Waugh’s latest book, The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas (McGill-Queen’s Press), his exhaustive examination and analysis of Canada’s queer film and video milieu. Waugh has been a tireless crusader for Canadian, Québécois and queer cinemas, and here the three intersect. On Saturday, Nov. 18, at 1 p.m., a round table discussion will be held, “Transgression in Canadian and Quebec queer cinemas,” featuring panellists John Greyson (Lilies), Patricia Rozema (I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, When Night is Falling), Michel Langlois (Cap Tourmente), Anne Golden (Big Girl Town) and Dayna McLeod (How to Fake an Orgasm), and moderated by author and Concordia prof extraordinaire Chantal Nadeau. The panel will be followed by Waugh’s lecture, “Love in the Place of Excrement: Toilet Sex in Canadian Cinemas,” at 3 p.m. And finally, the book launch itself, at 4:30 p.m. All of these three events will take place on Nov. 18 in the De Sève Cinema in Concordia’s Library Building (1400 de Maisonneuve W.).

The Image+Nation Film Festival runs from today, Nov. 16, until Nov. 26. Info: www.image-nation.org

Teenage kicks

>> Todd Stephens on his lusty adolescent comedy Another Gay Movie

by JOHN CUSTODIO

Here’s something to think about: How did Todd Stephens pitch Another Gay Movie? It can’t have been an easy sell. What did he say?

“I want to make the gayest film ever made, no holds barred”? (He really did say that.)

“Sucking, fucking, rimming, fisting, you name it. It’s gonna be hot!” (Okay, he probably didn’t say that, but he should have.)

“Enemas, butt plugs, poppers, glory holes—I’m gonna show it all.” (And he did! He showed all those things and more: penis pumps, scat, inadvertent incest.)

Now imagine the reaction of your average studio exec. Could it have been anything less than shock? Stephens, after all, is best known for writing the sensitive coming-out drama, Edge of Seventeen. I like to think he revelled in the dismay of potential producers a good, long time before delivering his coup de grace: “It’s a teen comedy.” Ha! Take that, you homophobic Hollywood closet-case!

That’s not how it happened, of course, but the very thought of someone shilling a film with a spiel like, “It’s John Hughes meets Falcon Video” is, you have to admit, hilarious. American Pie meets Cumming of Age? Stop, my ribs.

So how do you pitch a film about four gay high school friends who, upon graduation, make a pact to have anal sex before the end of their last summer together? With great difficulty, apparently. Stephens had to negotiate his way out of his first option deal—the original producer, after swearing he wouldn’t, tried to get Stephens to clean up the film’s sexual content. To maintain creative control, Stephens had to scramble to cobble together a team of independent investors. “I’ve had it with censorship in America,” he told me. “One of the reasons I made this film is because I wanted to push buttons, shake things up a bit.”

But of all things to channel your subversive energies through, why a teen comedy? Stephens may be spoofing the genre, but his fondness for it is evident throughout. “I loved Porky’s,” he said. “Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles—all those films. I was a horny teenager, so I totally related. I just wish there had been something like Another Gay Movie out there for me.”

Insider knowledge

But would he have understood it, I wonder. Some of Another Gay Movie’s most hilarious set pieces, like the scenes featuring gay porn superstar Matthew Rush and Irish comedian Graham Norton, require more than a little insider knowledge of gay male subcultures. “You’d be surprised how much teenagers know,” Stephens responds. “My boyfriend’s a high school teacher—he’ll tell you: teenagers watch Queer as Folk, they’re on the Internet.”

What about straight audiences? Would they get this film? “We did this test screening at a college in Philadelphia. Nobody in the audience knew anything about the film. Five people walked out at the title credits. Only half the audience stayed for the whole thing. But you know what? That’s fine. I made my film for a gay audience. Crossover success would have been nice, but ultimately, I don’t really care if straight people like it or not. I decided there and then not to waste any marketing effort on them.”

Even gay audiences have their naysayers. “I’ve had people tell me they think my film sets the movement back by 20 years, that I make it seem like sex is all we’re about. And I know they’re just ashamed of some of the practices I depict. But most of the audiences I’ve been with really enjoyed it. They laughed a lot, which was my main goal. The way I see it, those who are really evolved love it—self-haters don’t. I’m joking, of course, but that’s kind of the way I feel.”

Another Gay Movie shows at the imperial on Monday, Nov. 20, 9 p.m. For more information, see www. image-nation.org

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