Twin Cities Pride and Gender Reel Minnesota present three amazing nights of free film screenings and Q&A’s – 4/5, 4/12 and 4/26. All films will be shown at Sateren Auditorium on the Augsburg College campus in Minneapolis.
4/26/17: Film Shorts.
7:00 PM -8:00 PM — From dating calamities and bathroom mishaps, join us for a fun filled hour of film shorts featuring some of the funniest flicks to premiere at Gender Reel in the past 6 years. Films include: Dating Sucks: A Genderqueer Misadventure (12 min), Crazy Hot (10 min), The Heartbreak of VD (13 min), Cover Up (11 min) and Faggotgirl Gets Busy In the Bathroom (4 min).
8:15 PM to 8:45 PM — Coming Full Circle: The Journey of a Transgender Korean Adoptee (29 min).
HuffPostUK article: It Is Important That People With A Learning Disability Are Seen On Screen And Stage Simply Because We Exist
(from the article linked above) “When I first started acting, I faced a lot of negativity. There was a lot of misconceptions from casting directors that I wouldn’t be able to act a part, or that I would hold up the filming or production schedule because of my disability. They were also worried about how to direct me as they didn’t know how to communicate with me or didn’t think that I would be able to understand what they wanted me to do.”
My movie “Like A Riot” (subtitled) will be leading off the Leeds Queer Film Festival next week. I am super proud to be part of a this festival and appreciate their commitment to accessibility. I was just at the New York Feminist Film Week and so many of us talked about the value of collaboration as filmmakers. It’s so exciting to see curators joining forces, too! Well done. I wish I could be there.
This week I’ve had the pleasure and honor of being included in the New York Feminist Film Week, a festival with a lineup of incredible films and filmmakers. The event is at Anthology Film Archives in NYC.
I am part of: Program 2: BODIES (International Women’s Day Wednesday March 8, 2017 at 6:30.
Joey Carducci (formerly known as Gina Carducci), Nona Faustine, Sasha Just, krissy Mahan, Patricia Silva and Mila Zou
I didn’t like the Haynes’ film at all. No matter how many rain-splattered windows there are, and no matter how beautifully filmed with a surging cello score, the story being told is a schmalty snoozefest about white rich people behaving badly, that even it’s author was embarrassed to claim (Highsmith published it under a pen name). If it was about a straight white couple, it would be both boring amd offensive in its class politics. Like every other movie, no? I saw Haynes’ “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story” 15 years ago, and maybe it influenced my movie-making. So I am disappointed that he chose to make this earnest melodrama.
“Faggot Girl Gets Busy in The Bathroom”
Dir. Krissy Mahan, USA, 2016, 03:39
World premiere: Specially commissioned for WDIYFF 2016
We’ve been showing Krissy Mahan’s work since 2012 when Faggot Girl, Mahan’s disability-rights campaigning, alter-ego superhero, first burst on to our screens. Since then, Faggot Girl has crusaded relentlessly for greater accessibility for all body types, arguing that access is a queer issue. We’re delighted to commission Faggot Girl Gets Busy in the Bathroom for this year’s festival, in which our fearless hero/ine demonstrates why public bathrooms are a crucial frontier in the fight for equality (and can also be great spots to hook up in, too).
“Like A Riot”
Dir. Krissy Mahan, USA, 2016, 02.00
Krissy Mahan is back again this year with this wonderful short in which puppet Sophie Mayer hangs out with Campbell X’s puppet self. The two super heroes embark on a campaign to deal with the white, male overkill prevalent in the film industry. And what better way to incite a riot to the soundtrack of London-based punk band Big Joanie?”
( WWDIYFF 2016 program notes )
“Like A Riot” 2m
Dir. Krissy Mahan, USA, 2016
“Like anyone who grew up with the Muppets and Fraggle Rock, I have always wanted to have a puppet self. And of course I want my puppet self to hang out with Campbell X’s puppet self. Krissy Mahan has made it happen!” Dr. Sophie Mayer
( SQIFF 2016 program notes )
FaggotgirlWho could have guessed how surreal things would actually become when I first put “As Surreal As It Gets” on my website 15 year ago? I am glad that I have a body of work that stands in opposition to the status quo, and hopefully uses joy and goodwill to challenge white mainstream complacency in the face of such deadly threats to vulnerable people.
Here’s a rundown of some of my activities this summer, and some festivals coming up in the fall. (In reverse order of things happening.)
I was able to catch my friend Saul in Philadelphia, and he let me record him and Veronica talking about Informe-SIDA. They tell the story of how their HIV/AIDS information service began — in Texas, where consensual gay male sex was illegal, and there were no health services in Spanish. That is just the kind of history that I try to make sure doesn’t get lost. I hope someone will make an even bigger/better record of their important and lifesaving work. I started Dykeumentary as a way to make a record of people, especially my queer friends, in their own words, and owned by them.
I am working on my first commissioned movie! Wotever DIY Film Festival, based in London, asked me to make a Faggotgirl short to play at their 2016 festival, happening the DIY Space For London September 3-4, 2016 — an accessible venue! I’m flattered and I am happy that I have made a movie that addresses the issue of bathrooms AND accessibility. Everyone has bathrooms on the brain because of the hateful North Carolina HB2 bill, and I figured while we are thinking about bodies in bathtrooms, why not use the political will of this moment to make sure truly ALL bodies enjoy the privacy and accessibility of public restrooms?
My movie “Like A Riot” was chosen to show at Wotever DIY Film Festival on 3-4 September 2016, and the Scottish Queer International Film Festival, in Glasgow, Scotland on September 29 – Ocotober 2, 2016, to be shown as part of their feminist shorts program. Hilarious. They sent me laurels and everything. I wish I could go, I’ve always wanted to visit Scotland.
This weekend,“Faggotgirl Does(n’t Do) The MTA” showed at GAZE International LGBT Film Festival in Dublin, Ireland, as an example of Wotever DIY films. The WDIYFF has been doing an outstanding (and international) job of promoting DIY film, and I am very appreciative of their work. I’m happy that something I made showed in Ireland, because both sides of my family emigrated (unhappily) to America from Ireland in the 20th century, as Roman Catholics from the British-controlled northern counties. I hope they are all having a good laugh and a drink that their great/granddaughter is poking fun at oppressive abuses of power.
There was also this big lezbo camping fest, LFEST, that i absolutely MUST go to one day, and Theresa Heath curated the film tent. She showed “The Genesis of Butch and Femme” and reported that the audience laughed at all the appropriate places!! Triumph! Here’s a blurb about how LFest went.
AND “Until Justice Rolls” was shown in Scotland as part of “Queers In The City” curated by SQIFF. “A selection of shorts looking at the relationship of LGBTQ+ people to cities. In depicting anonymous cruising, lamenting gentrification, showing cities as a backdrop to loneliness and personal pain, and creating comedy subversion of urban imagery, these films recognise the unique place of queers in the city space. Featuring work by both international and local artists plus a filmmaker Q&A”
“Until Justice Rolls” was an Honorable Mention at the Superhero Film Festival, but other than that, I’ve been rejected from 23 film festivals. Becky and Ellen laugh at me every time I am sad to be rejected, and now that its happened so many times, I understand what they were saying. WDIYFF
Celebrating Women In Front Of And Behind The Camera Women Over 50 Film Festival
At WOFFF we champion the work of older women on both sides of the camera.
Each of the 44 films on offer this weekend (2016) has a women over 50 at its centre on the screen or behind the lens in the core creative team as the writer, director or producer.
We’re hosting an all-female panel event on women in film and a practical workshop for anyone who’d like to have a go at filmmaking but doesn’t quite know where to start.
We’re delighted to have many of our filmmakers with us
at the festival. We’ll be having a short Q & A after each screening so we can hear more about them, their work and their inspiration.
So please sit back, relax and enjoy this year’s WOFFF!
Nuala, Natalie, Hilary, Priscilla and Rebecca
The WOFFF team
Saturday 1 October 2016 18:30Screening 3 | Love, death and legacy
Patience by Robert Hackett (7 mins)
Memorial by Helen Selka (30 mins)
Carol by Krissy Mahan (7 mins)
Old Friends, Out to Pasture by Marlijn Franken (11 mins)
The Wake by Oonagh Kearney (20 mins)
In 2016 we held our second festival. We screened 44 international short films, hosted an all-female panel event and a beginners’ filmmaking workshop. A full festival report will be published soon.
For a film to be eligible for submission to WOFFF it has follow one of these two simple rules. The film has to have a women over 50 at its centre OR have a woman over 50 in the core creative team (writer, director or producer)
Our next festival is in 2017 in Brighton. So we hope to see you beside the seaside with us soon!
This will be shown as part of the 
Who could have guessed how surreal things would actually become when I first put “As Surreal As It Gets” on my website 15 year ago? I am glad that I have a body of work that stands in opposition to the status quo, and hopefully uses joy and goodwill to challenge white mainstream complacency in the face of such deadly threats to vulnerable people. 
