KT 091: MQFF Opening Night + Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers
MQFF continues: Eddie's opening night exposé and a rediscovered gem courtesy of Jamie W
Another week, another round of MQFF delights, including Eddie’s account of the MQFF opening night last Thursday night and a review from Jamie Walsh of a 70’s treasure.
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story
Lucah Rosenberg-Lee & Michael Mabbott, 2024
DCP Courtesy:
Classification: CTC
Words by Eddie Hampson
Janet Jackson’s seductive giggles on her album The Velvet Rope – “What you doin’ with your hands that you can’t pick up the phone?” – were cut off as I pulled the headphones from their jack and stepped into ACMI with the explicit intention of chatting up strangers. After gaining entry I slinked around the perimeter of the Swinburne Studio with a glass of the most sparkling Squealing Pig and with my eyes lusting to catch somebody doing something they’ll regret. And it wasn’t hard to find a couple fellow stragglers at the opening night of Melbourne’s Queer Film Festival, held last Thursday the 14th of November.
I fought to hide my grin when my eyes caught sight of someone I like to call ‘The Drug Mule’ sailing across the room. He did the rounds as best he could but I avoided him religiously, buying myself time to set a trap. It was amusing to discover the next day that the twink who had been blushing shyly on his arm was actually a back up invite, but what was most satisfying to me was hitting this grown man who feeds me unmentionables in club bathrooms with a “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” as I scooted past him and his dodgy date to take my seat in the cinema. What a way to cosy in for the impeccable and inspiring Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (2024) and the MQFF’s annual Pitch Pleez competition-winning tearjerker doco-short While We Still Have Time (2024).
But, before all this I got chatting to a corporate lesbain bouncing with pep and zap named Jarly. It soon became clear that Jarly loves to talk and that she was not coping well with the late arrival of her friends. She gasped in horror when I confessed that this was my first MQFF and I guess she surmised that I was a baby gay out of my depths (which was only half true and offensive to dwell on). I did my best to get some gossip out of her – “who is who tonight and they are doing what, precisely?” – and Jarly pointed out a few hot shots but she pretty quickly ran dry on the sordid details much to my disappointment. So, all I could do was quiet down and sip away as I timed the stress-induced swaying back and forth of this lovely stranger who needed to blather on the way someone with collapsed lungs needs life-saving oxygen.
With my back up against the wall I felt free of suspicion – what was it Joan Didion said about nobody looking at journalists? – and alluring at the same time (come on, let me fantasise). I did turn on my side to ask a fellow youngster who came across as another fly on the wall. Their name was Angus, they seemed petrified to be in conversation with anyone at all, but they were serving non-binary in black boots and silver chains. Angus had made a deliberate financial effort to attend the opening night and they were wide eyed and afflicted with butterflies at having made it to their second MQFF. Thursday night had marked on their calendar the start of a notably busy couple weeks of film watching as well as connecting with the queer community.
There were speeches from co-presidents David Micallef and Gail Veal, and the CEO of VicScreen Caroline Pitcher spoke with eloquence in that distinctive variety of diction which characterises corporate elites and ABC presenters and other (often) full of themselves people. The very friendly David Micallef introduced himself to me later on at the bar showing off his own inclination to chat to strangers which was something he also advertised in his speech. But it was the wit of program director Cerise Howard introducing the night’s films that had the gallery in stitches.
What a strong showing we got from Ava Grimshaw-Hall with While We Still Have Time, a story about queer familial reconciliations in the face of tragedy. This short-doco introduced the audience to Ava and her once estranged sperm-donor father who is now battling cancer so that they have to make the most of what may be their final chances at closeness. It was a privilege to be so up close with the very humorous father and daughter duo, and I loved seeing the stunning Victorian mansion where John lives with his partner. I spoke to John’s very urbane partner after the films and complimented his outfit. Dressed in Vivienne Westwood, whom they’d met in London, the pair were formidably fabulous. John and his partner survived through the AIDS crisis and Ava honoured those of the generation lost to the disease but not forgotten. She highlighted the fact that John has been instrumental in ensuring the preservation of those legendary Melbourne AIDS quilts. It was inspiring to meet these impressive old queens and a vital thing to hear about their own ultimate style icons: Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Hardy Amies.
But it was Jackie Shane who shone the brightest on this festive Thursday night. And now that I’ve been introduced to Jackie Shane by watching Lucah Rosenberg-Lee and Michael Mabbott’s Any Other Way it’s no shock at all that she stole the show. She came up in 50s Nashville like her friend Little Richard and the wonderful Etta James but Jackie Shane was too big for a town still steeped in racial and gender rigidity. So, off went the shackles and off to Toronto Jackie Shane went and it was there that she became an RnB sensation selling out theatres for weeks on end. But her double life as a transwoman (and she was actually advertised as a male performer) took its toll and eventually it grew time to disappear entirely. Decades of Jackie Shane’s life were spent in anonymity and seclusion. But her commanding voice rings out and rings true, “I can be my own master in my own world.”
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story packs as big a punch as a documentary can. You’ll find yourself cosying up to listen to this woman of immense self-possession recount her own tales in phone conversations recorded in the final years of Jackie Shane’s life and marvel at the rotoscope animation which looks like paintings come to life with mobility and feeling. Her imagined silhouette burns brightly, glitzy with her landline in hand with bangles jangling and the facelessness of the figure a strange reminder of so many all but forgotten queer icons, shining emblems of pride and power whose erasure we hear tell of but can only imagine as the tears from fall from our eyes.
There could not have been a grander note to kick off opening night than with the lyrical power of Any Other way. But if you happened to miss Jackie Shane’s sultry song, there’s still a lot more for film lovers to look forward to with MQFF 2024’s highlight on ‘Formative Sound and Vision’. So, why don’t you skate around the city for the next couple weeks and while you’re gliding by and making a splash talk to these lonesome girls, and gays and theys after you’ve seen the movie. Who knows? You might find a stranger who is a diva in disguise.
Scarecrow In A Garden of Cucumbers
Robert J Kaplan, 1972
DCP Courtesy: TBC
Classification: TBC
Words by Jamie Walsh
There is an aura of the outre to “lost films” due to their intangibility; if a movie cannot find an audience, surely it must be too much of a certain thing – whether that be brilliance or boredom. The great surprise of the recently rescued and restored musical Scarecrow In A Garden of Cucumbers is how comfortably it slots in among its contemporaries – although that comfort can sometimes turn to lethargy due to a decidedly old-fashioned comedic sensibility that mingles awkwardly with the film's more evergreen delights.
Eve Harrington wants to be a star. Played by Warhol-darling Holly Woodlawn (of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side fame), the wide-eyed young dreamer promises her dismissive suburban parents that she’ll “work, train, struggle and suffer – yes, suffer!” until she makes it big in New York (Captured in its gritty early seventies glory by D.O.P Paul Glickman). Along the way, Miss Harrington meets a rogue’s gallery that stretches from a snivelling Stanley Kowalski to identical twins Baby and Jane Hudson – with a Blanche or two thrown in for good measure. Woodlawn is a winsome lead, keeping abreast of the kitsch whilst never sacrificing Eve’s open-hearted desire for the spectacular. Co-star Tally Brown is a snarling delight, and wrestler Sonny Boy Hayes finds an easy presence in his brief screen time that makes you wish he stepped out of the ring and in front of the cameras more than just this once.
Director Robert J Kaplan can manufacture a convincing Marxian pratfall but struggles to sustain the lightness of touch that enlivens the film's best moments. He isn’t helped by the decidedly mixed bag of songs, the weakest of which slow this breeziest of films down to a glacial pace. That being said, the film's best number, an Old-Hollywood-on-a-dime showstopper, provides the film with its best moment and its raison d'être, as Woodlawn gleefully belts out the refrain “You are what you are if you think that you are”. Stardom and self actualisation are one and the same for Eve — and she’ll remain a star whether there’s an audience or not.
21 Nov - 27 Nov
NOTABLE SCREENINGS
KT listings co-boss Andrew Tabacco’s favourite filmmaker (sorry Jerzy Skolimowki) Jasper Caverly has two films screening at MQFF on Saturday. Please check them out.
Pleasure
Jasper Caverly, 2024
+
Hold Still
Emily Dynes (prod. J. Caverly)
Both screening as part of the MQFF Australian Shorts Package on Sat at ACMI.
MQFF
Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers
Robert J. Kaplan, 1972
Screening Tonight 8:30pm
Where in the Hell
Laramie Dennis, 2024
Screening Tonight 6pm
The Summer with Carmen
Zacharias Mavroeidis, 2023
Screening Friday
Black Pride Shorts
Various Artists
Screening Friday
The Beautiful Summer (La bella estate)
Laura Luchetti, 2023
Screening Friday
Young Soul Rebels
Isaac Julien, 1991
Screening Friday
Zero Patience
John Greyson, 1993
Screening Saturday
Australian Shorts and Awards
Various Artist
Screening Saturday
Power Alley
Lillah Halla, 2023
Screening Saturday
Miseriecordia
Alain Guiraudie, 2024
Screening Saturday
Life Is Not a Competition, But I'm Winning
Julia Fuhr Mann, 2023
Screening Saturday
Life Is Not a Competition, But I'm Winning
Julia Fuhr Mann, 2023
Screening Saturday
We Forgot to Break up
Karen Knox, 2024
Screening Sunday
This is Ballroom
Juru, Vitã, 2024
Screening Sunday
Duino (Closing Night)
Juan Pablo Di Pace, Andrés P. Estrada, 2024
Screening Sunday
Matinees
Lee
Ellen Kuras, 2024
Screening Fri, Sat, Sun
No screening this week
AFW presents: Sandy Ding and Jangwook Lee - 2 x 16mm
8pm Tuesday 26 November
The Brunswick Green, 313/315 Sydney Road, Brunswick
16mm projection. $10 tix on the door.
ASTOR CINEMA
BFF24: Ratcatcher
Lynne Ramsay, 1999
Screening Tonight 7:30pm
The Zodiac Killer
Tom Hanson, 1971
Screening Tonight 9:30pm
Hey Folks, It’s Intermission Time
1992
Screening Saturday
Red Beard
Akira Kurosawa, 1965
Screening Saturday
Heat
Michael Mann, 1995
Screening Saturday
The Song Remains the Same
Peter Clifton, Joe Massot, 1976
Screening Sunday
The Wizard of Oz
Victor Fleming, 1939
Screening Sunday
The Big Lebowski
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 1998
+
Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder, 1944
Screening Sunday
John Wick
Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, 2014
+
Mad Max
George Miller, 1979
Screening Monday
BBBC CINEMA (GALLERYGALLERY BRUNSWICK)
Closed until 2025
MQFF Screenings
CHINATOWN CINEMA
Venom: The Last Dance (Chinese Subs)
Kelly Marcel, 2024
Screening Daily
To Gather Around
Xunzimo, 2024
Screening Daily
CINÉ-CLUB (Carlton)
Coming back in some variety soon
Terrorvision
Events
Check sites for rep titles
Release
Wicked
John M. Chu, 2024
Screening Daily
No Other Land
Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, 2024
Screening Daily
Grafted
Sasha Rainbow, 2024
Screening Daily
Here
Robert Zemeckis, 2024
Screening Daily
Saturday Night,
Jason Reitman, 2024
Screening Daily
Lee
Ellen Kuras, 2023
Screening Daily
A Different Man
Aaron Schimberg, 2024
Screening Daily
Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot, 2024
Screening Daily
From Hilde, With Love
Andreas Dresen, 2024
Screening Thursday
Memory
Michel Franco, 2023
Screening Daily
Theres Still Tomorrow
Paola Cortellesi, 2024
Screening Daily
Cat Video Fest
Will Braden, 2024
Screening Daily
The Apprentice
Ali Abbasi, 2024
Screening Daily
Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat, 2024
Screening Daily
Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe
Maurice Pialat, 2023
Screening Friday
Kneecap
Rich Peppiatt, 2023
Screening We, Thu, Fri
I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun, 2023
Screening Daily
Sasquatch Sunset
Nathan and David Zellner
Screening Monday
Strange Darling
Jacqueline Lentzou, 2024
Screening Friday
Longlegs
Graham Verchere, 2024
Screening Friday
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
Liu Jia, 2024
Screening Wed, Fri
The Critic
Craig Armstrong, 2024
Screening Wednesday
Like My Brother
Sal Balharrie, Danielle MacLean, 2024
Screening Mon
DOGMILK DEGUSTATIONS: @ Miscellania
Coming back soon
EXPERIMENTAL FILM CLUB
Listings coming soon
Done for now, will return soon
GAY24 (Bar Flippy’s)
No screening this week
HITLIST (9 Gertrude St, Fitzroy)
Shut for now
LIDO / CLASSIC / CAMEO
Events
British Film Festival 2024 - Until December 6
Jewish International Film Festival – Screening at all Moving Story Cinemas
Program here
General Release
Gladiator II
Ridley Scott, 2024
Screening Daily
Wicked
John M. Chu, 2024
Screening Daily
No Other Land
Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, 2024
Screening Daily
The Pool
Ian Darling, 2024
Screening Daily
Here
Robert Zemeckis, 2024
Screening Daily
Paris, Texas
Win Wenders, 1984
Screening Daily
Saturday Night,
Jason Reitman, 2024
Screening Daily
Lee
Ellen Kuras, 2023
Screening almost everywhere
Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot, 2024
Screening Daily
Like My Brother
Sal Balharrie, Danielle MacLean, 2024
Screening Daily
The Apprentice
Ali Abbasi, 2024
Screening Daily
A Different Man
Aaron Schimberg, 2024
Screening Daily
Joker: Folie à Duex
Todd Phillips, 2024
Screening Daily
The Critic
Craig Armstrong, 2024
Screening Daily
Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat, 2024
Screening Daily
OVA CLUB
No screening this week
THE MELBOURNE CINÉMATHÈQUE (ACMI)
The Last of England
Derek Jarman, 1987
Screening Wed 13 Nov
+
The Garden
Derek Jarman, 1990
Screening Wed 13 Nov
TOP OF THE HEAP (Tramway Hotel)
No screening this week
No screening this week
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY: SCREENING IDEAS
No screening this week
PALACE BALWYN / BRIGHTON / COMO / KINO / PENTRIDGE / MOONEE PONDS / WESTGARTH
Events
British Film Festival – Until Dec 6
Program here
General Release
Gladiator II
Ridley Scott, 2024
Screening Daily
Wicked
John M. Chu, 2024
Screening Daily
No Other Land
Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, 2024
Screening Daily
Memory
Michel Franco, 2023
Screening Daily
Here
Robert Zemeckis, 2024
Screening Daily
Saturday Night,
Jason Reitman, 2024
Screening Daily
Lee
Ellen Kuras, 2023
Screening Daily
Theres Still Tomorrow
Paola Cortellesi, 2024
Screening Daily
Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot, 2024
Screening Daily
Goodrich
Hallie Meyers-Shyer, 2024
Screening Daily
The Apprentice
Ali Abbasi, 2024
Screening Daily
Joker: Folie à Duex
Todd Phillips, 2024
Screening Daily
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat, 2024
Screening Daily
A Difficult Year
Olivier Nakache & Éric Toledano
Screening Daily
Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola, 2024
Screening Daily
My Old Ass
Megan Park, 2024
Screening Daily
No screening this week
No listings this week / click link above to see what’s on (their site too hard to list)
Beats Working: A Music Doc Fest
Dogs in Space
Richard Lowenstein, 1986
Screening Tonight
Free Party: A Folk History
Aaron Trinder, 2023
Screening Fri and Sat
The Most Australian Band Ever
Jonathan Sequeira, 2024
Screening Tue and Wed
Pulp: Life Death and Supermarkets
Florian Habicht, 2014
Screening Sunday
Dig XX!
Ondi Timoner, 2024
Screening Wed
Regular
We’ll Call You Jim
Anna Marino
Screening Sat
You Should have Been Here Yesterday
Jolyon Hoff, 2024
Screening Sat and Sun
Gladiator II
Ridley Scott, 2024
Screening Wed, Sat, Sun
Lee
Ellen Kuras, 2023
Screening Fri and Mon
Voices in Deep
Jason Raftopoulos, 2021
Screening Sat and Tue
A Different Man
Aaron Schimberg, 2024
Screening Wed
UNKNOWN PLEASURES @ Thornbury Picture House