CinéFemme - Annakarinaland

Is there anything Diana Rigg can't do? From James Bond's wife to a veteran stage actor in love with a lesbian drug addict, this actor has proven her versatility and extraordinary acting craft time after time. At the London Old Vic through November 24th, All About My Mother is a dramatic rendition of Pedro Almodóvar's cult film about a mother who loses her son in an accident, fathered by the transsexual Lola. And just to prove that the attempt to dramatize the film on stage was approved, Aldmodóvar was on hand at the opening nite in London with Penelope Cruz and Cecilia Roth on September 4th, along with quite a few queer folks. Listen to upcoming review of play on October 24th for Movie Magazine International, San Francisco.

Jeanne Moreau was guest at the Swedish Film Institute on October 6th to honor Ingmar Bergman. She revealed a story about letters to Bergman sent after an unhappy love affair with Louis Malle. They planned on making a film called Monstrous Love, but when Bergman was arrested for a tax violation the film never came to be. Upcoming review of Long Live Bergman Weekend in Stockholm and interview with Jeanne Moreau on Movie Magazine International, San Francisco on October 17.

September 21, 2007 Dear Sister! There is no one that I have met that so much embodies the North American spirit than you: fun-loving and compassionate, generous and hard-working, courageous and outrageous. You had all these wonderful qualities in spades. And your light never went out. You were a constant fountain of vitality giving to Sweden your gifts, and wherever you went in the world. As you became more and more Swedish, you gave the culture a polish and shine that we will all miss. A wonderful and enchanting light has gone out, but your radiance will always be here in this country. I am so honored to have you as a friend since the 1980’s and to keep in touch with you through the years on our journeys. I know we missed our roots in the States but we both loved Sweden and Swedish women and that is pretty close to heaven, I think we both agreed. We made this wonderful journey to Stockholm at almost the same time and stuck together through the years. You made it a point to remember...

The Brave On e directed by Neil Jordan stars Jodie Foster and its her best performance since Silence of the Lambs , 15 years ago. Truly this film puts her out there again, conjuring up memories of the tough girl in Taxi Driver who walks the streets of New York as a precocious preteen. Only this time she is cleaning up the streets of New York, instead of Robert De Niro's "You talking to me?"- Well she doesn’t say that exactly. But when a pimp calls her a Super -"Expletive", she lets him know that he has just met his own private hell. Erika Bain and her boyfriend Naveen Andrews played by David Kirmani --- take their dog for a walk in the park at night. What’s the harm? There are people sitting on park benches. Well, three street thugs decide to take their dog, brutally assaulting Erika and beating her boyfriend to death. As they assault the young couple the men film the attack. Erika wakes up in intensive care after spending weeks in a coma, thereby missing the ...

Rita (Rainy) Chan Creighton, 1951- 2007 Dual national USA/SWEDEN, LGBT ACTIVIST, FRIEND Thanks for the energy, the activism, the support, the friendship through so many years in Stockholm , Rainy. We were the few dual nationals in Stockholm since the 70's and it was always fun to meet you. Thanks for the Holly Near concert, and bringing women's culture to Sweden through the years. Thanks for your motorcycle - your travels in Japan and Europe were truly inspirational. You touched so many people's lives. Thanks for being active with immigrant women's issues and the first Feminist Party in Sweden F! You caught the flowers at my wedding and were blessed in love many times over all over the world. You were humble and never held a grudge and stood by me all through the years. You will be sorely missed. "Is That You Hortense?", our film from 1997, will forever immortalize your humor and joy for life.

Frameline went out in grand queer cinema style after eleven days of screenings and at the end of San Francisco Pride. Andrea Sperling received the Frameline 2007 Award , citing her influences including Maya Deren. Sperling has produced several award winning gay and lesbian films such as But She's a Cheerleader , and works with Power Up , a LA lesbian entertainment film organization for writers, directors, and producers. Her partner Jamie Babbit closed the festival with her new feature Itty Bitty Titty Committee , also produced by Sperling and aptly named for a young radical feminist group that spray paints institutions and billboards to get women to resist the media campaigns for silicon implants. And a few other things. Like demonstrating against gay marriage - because "marriage is fundamentally a patriarchal institution", earmarking historic town statues that celebrate racists or to create new statues of women who changed the world, like Angela Davis. On hand...

Frameline has earned its reputation as a vital festival for queer film. In recent years the agenda has grown to incorporate not only lesbian, gay and bisexual films but transgender subjects. Still the strongest and most economically viable venues are for gays and lesbian, the films that are most heavily attended. Its a huge population out there, and films like Starrbooty (Mike Ruiz) starring Ru Paul, and Nina's Heavenly Delight ( Pratibha Parmar , UK) were some of the the biggest heavy hitters at the festival. Ruiz wacky blaxploitation film puts supermodel Starrbooty (Ru Paul) on the trail of an evil woman selling body parts. Parmar who has turned towards features after a successful oeuvre of documentaries tells the story of love between a woman from Glasgow who becomes an Indian restauranteer and one of the staff. Programmers from festivals all over the world such as Sweden ( Göteborg ) , France ( Cineffable and Paris Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Brazil ( Mix B...

Its the largest parade of its kind in the world, and over a million spectators and participants lined the streets of San Francisco.The previous day Pride event was no minor event with over 20,000 women in the annual Dyke March walking through the Mission up to the Castro district. The theme of the march was "Health Care for All". Pre-march entertainment was held at Delores Park including the outstanding vocalist Vickie Randle as special guest. In the evening the Castro became a huge block party. Mayor Gavin Newsom was at the head of the June 24th Pride parade, following of course about 400 dykes on bikes, the parade's official starting event. The three and half hour event heralded lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders in all walks of live: teachers, parents, police, firemen and the IT industry and parents and friends of gays and lesbians PFLAG. Happy PRIDE DAY San Francisco!

Lizzie Borden's Born in Flames from 1983 was shown at Frameline LBGT Festival . Special guest, Hillary Hurst who plays the first captain of the women's army in the film appeared at the screening and spoke about the making of this cult classic. Considered radical already for its time, Born in Flames evokes the spirit of 70's feminism, because it actually began production in 1976, according to Hurst and was seven years in the making. (When more funds became available shooting continued with a second captain - Honey ). The film is set in the future after the socialist revolution in the USA! The socialist party is ineffective however and still unable to provide jobs or stop violence against women. So a women's army is formed, a grass roots movement that patrols on bicycles and intervenes when women are being sexually assaulted or harassed on the subway (Dana Johnson) . The film weaves the connections between of racism, sexism and classicism into a powerful futurist...

Susan Stryker is a well known transsexual activist in San Francisco and is one of the most vocal on the Frameline decision. Stryker has both supported the Frameline decision to pull The Gendercator , that Frameline was not an appropriate venue , and also believed it was important to screen it. This letter appeared in Left in San Francisco. Susan Stryker Says: "I obtained a copy of the film, viewed it, and corresponded with Catherine Crouch before making any comment. I decided to support this petition because Frameline, as an LGBT inclusive organization, is not the appropriate venue for this sort of work. The film expresses a long-familiar anti-transgender polemic: the idea that transsexuals are anti-gay, anti-feminist political reactionaries who collude with repressive social and cultural power; furthermore, that transsexuals are complicit in the non-consensual bodily violation of women. The ideas in the film echo the rhetoric of Janice Raymond’s Transsexual Empir...

For the first time in 31 years, Frameline, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival in San Francisco (June 14-24), has taken an invited film out of the program. The Gendercator (USA 2007) has been pulled for being "transphobic", originally scheduled for screening on June 15th . Protesters brandishing picket signs stood outside of the Roxie Theater with tape over their mouths. The artistic director of the Frameline festival, Michael Lumpkin, appeared at the opening of the screening to explain that the decision to "OUT" Catherine Crouch's The Gendercator (USA 2007) came about due to pressure from the transgender community and underlined that "the decision to remove it was the correct one". Frameline programmer Jennifer Morris also stands by the decision claiming that the publicity released on the film by director Catherine Crouch and on her own website is "transphobic". Frameline's press release on May 22: ...

The third Queer Women of Color Film Festival kicked off June 8 in San Francisco for a three day run, a festival that amazingly is free of charge. The inaugural night featured a presentation of filmmakers with work on the subject of immigration. And yes we do have our "Dykeback Mountain", (Laurie Koh,"Where's Our Dykeback Mountain? LGBT media at the crossroads", The Magazine of Film Arts Foundation July/August 2006 ). This is it, the films that defy mainstream and are the deep tributaries, according to Jewel Gomez, Village Voice critic, author of The Gilda Stories and guest panelist of the festival. Which is to say, shorts. But not short by any means. And the executive director of the festival Madeleine Lim and development and events manager T. Kebo Drew made us all feel at home, inviting us to meals in the foajé and a upstairs fundraiser with the filmmakers and sponsors before the evening program. Lim is a Bay Area filmmaker and trains queer women of col...

The National Queer Arts Festival kicks off this weekend with a QBall from 6 to midnite at the at the Queer Cultural Center in San Francisco. Look forward to a month of events from June 1 to 30th and over 300 artists in over 50 venues. Where else but San Francisco can this manifestation occur, the mecca of the LGBT univerise - worldwide. At the ball, Nedra Johnson will launch the release of her newest CD Nedra, a 2006 OUTMUSIC Award winning, mix of R&B, funk, rock and gospel. Some of the headliners for this year's arts festival are comedian Marga Gomez and graphic artist Alison Bechdel. Gomez will present her latest show on June 30th Marga Gomez & The Boys with special guests Kenny Yun (winner of Russian River Comedy Competition) and Ronn Vigh (a male Joan Rivers, seen on Last Comic Standing.) Gomez will also include a quick study of Pride 2007. Alison Bechdel, cartoonist/writer of the beloved comic Dykes to Watch Out and Fun Home will do a public reading on June 6th...

San Francisco´s most prestigious lesbian rights gala was held on May 12 at Fort Mason with valet parking, black tie and evening gowns. The dinner and dance with rope and trapeze acts was a fundraiser for the National Center for Lesbian Rights with entertainment by Montuno Groove and the Twilight Vixen Ruvue. Emcee Kate Clinton awarded Martina Navratilova the Voice and Visibility Award, for demonstrating extraordinary commitment to strengthening and empowering the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Also honored at the gala was the gay British NBA player John Amaechi. The NCLR is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education.

One of the directors in town for the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival is Zoe Cassavetes , daughter of the legendary independent film duo John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. Her new feature, Broken English , stars Parker Posey as Nora Wilder, a 30-ish woman in Manhattan who is looking for "the relationship". She is cheered on by Audrey, Drea de Matteo, who is in a "boring" five year marriage. Nora seems to fall fast, confusing attraction with love and has a lot of baggage from her past that requires prescription medication. One day she meets Julienne (Melvil Poupaud whose film Melvil was selected to the 2006 Cannes Fortnight) equally shipwrecked after girlfriend moves into new relationship as soon as they hit NYC. A trip to Paris under the pretext to find the "bon vivant" when he leaves town is made, at least initially, but Cassavetes surprises us all. The 30-ish helmer reveals, " I didn't want to make a romantic comedy, its j...