Your bisexual cheat sheet for navigating the movies at Outfest

July 9, 9:41 AMBisexuality ExaminerMike Szymanski

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One of the bisexual must-see movies at this year's Outfest

Any movie out there that has even a remote bisexual storyline is a rarity. Every film festival I've covered, I always try to look out for a few that might have something that could be of interest for those of us who swing both ways. I'll be giving you some summaries of the best and the worst that I've come up with, and the definite must-sees.

Outfest, the oldest continuous film festival in Los Angeles, and one of the most well-known GLBT festivals in the world, has 182 movies being shown and premiering over the next two weeks from more than 25 countries in Hollywood. The festival is kicking off in downtown Los Angeles on July 9 and the next two weeks will be filled with Galas, special free seminars and edgy programming. A lot of celebrities go there to the parties (Benjamin Bratt, Lisa Kudrow and the new "Chaz" Bono as a man, not a woman, are among the stars listed at coming to the opening Gala.

I've personally covered most of the Outfest movies over the past 27 years, and even talked on some of the panels in years past. At one time, they were much better about breaking out movies of "bisexual" interest, but the program guide seems to have dropped that category in the past few years, even though one of the sponsors over the past two years has been the American Institute of Bisexuality, founded by the late Dr. Fritz Klein.

This year, AIB is sponsoring "The Bro Job" shorts series which is an outrageous collection of shorts for straight and bisexual boys—and all the gays who love them.  The series includes: an office pickup gone wrong, a scavenger hunt gone right, a couple friends trying to fill an afternoon (among other things) and a teen crushing on his girlfriend's dad.

In "Awakening" ("En Forelskelse" in Denmark, where it's from) a guy finds himself unexpectedly attracted to his girlfriend's father, and goes through a sexual awakening that will cause a seismic shift in his approach to both life and love. In the German short, "The Prince," two girls spend their summer in Rome, looking for a prince, who's a bit flamboyant. There's "Bi-Definition" with a tag line that may seem offensive, but sets up a competition of who's the most gay bisexual. Then, there's "Mano-A-Mano" is a funny short about two guys competing to become the best gay sex operator.

In "A Mate," from Finland, a guy named Pera asks his friend to do something kinky in the bathroom, but Pera's wife comes home a bit too soon. In "The Watch," from Argentina, two guys find a surprise connection during an impromptu sleepover, and in "Clearing the Air," an out gay guy asks a co-worker out on a date and gets a surprising answer.

That's the bi-sponsored program, like the movie "Bi the Way" that AIB sponsored at last year's festival (and which I have a cameo in as a media pundit.) But there are other bi movies to be on the lookout for, as well as just other entertaining films I've seen already at other film festivals, or seen in advance.

Other Bi-Themed films . . .
(If you don't catch them at Outfest, then definitely catch them when they're released!)

"TO FARO" (pictured above) features an androgynous woman in Germany who is mistaken as male and poses as Miguel.



"HOLLYWOOD JE T'AIME" (pictured to the right) is not truly bisexual, but it is certainly gender-bending, and when I saw it at the Los Angeles Film Festival, it was one of my favorite movies of the two weeks! Directed by Jason Bushman, it's a sweet, campy love story that explores gay life in Silver Lake. An older drag diva and a young sexy trans hooker make the gay Frenchman who comes out to be an actor in Hollywood question his own prejudices and thoughts about gender identity. Chad Allen is also wonderful as a grizzled HIV-positive drug dealer who lives life rather freely, and falls for the French guy, too. This one is a major must-see.

"THE BABY FORMULA." Ripped right out of the headlines of today, two ladies want to have a child but without a man. They

"CHOOSING CHILDREN." Academy award winning director Debra Chasnoff co-directed "Choosing Children" which is a restoration of a 1984 documentary which was one of the first to show gay men and women raising children. Because of the passage of Prop 8, forbidding same-sex unions, this film is even more timely and poignant today.

"FIG TREES" by Canadian film artist John Greyson (his stuff is always gender-mixed and provocative), this mixes the stories of AIDS activists with a fictional plot about bi writer Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson.

"DARE." Out bi actors Sandra Bernhard and Alan Cumming play roles in this movie about a world of three young people. "Phantom of the Opera" starlet Emmy Rossum plays a character who finds herself in a triad with her best friend played by handsome Ashley Springer, and she seduces the hot new guy in town, played by Zach Gilford, but then the two guys steal a kiss together and that sends them all into a world of confusion. This is the closing night Gala movie with a star-studded cast.

"GIVE ME YOUR HAND" (pictured left) is a pan-sexual story of twin brothers (played by real-life twin brothers Alexandre and Victor Carril) in this French story. Their road trip together deals with their individual sexualities and is certainly going to make audiences uncomfortable.

"AMERICAN PRIMITIVE." Tate Donovan and Adam Pascal (from "Rent") play cabinet makers. One of the guys has teenage daughters, and they keep their budding relationship a secret from the girls.

"DROOL" is called a cross between "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Thelma & Louise." It's a story about a woman with an abusive husband and ungrateful kids who ends up getting close to her new neighbor, until the neighbor's husband walks in on them and drops dead.

"LION'S DEN" is a story about an girl who murders her abusive boyfriend and then finds love in an Argentine jail for women.



Others with bi subplots include "Rivers Wash Over Me," "Hannah Free" and "Chef's Special." I saw "Chef's Special" at the San Diego GLBT film festival two months ago, and it's a very funnny French farce about an arrogant chef who has to deal with his two children after their mother suddenly dies, but then falls in love with a famous soccer player who's in the closet.

"Beautiful Darling" about Andy Warhol superstar Candy Darling and "City of Borders" about gay/bi life in the Palestine and Jerusalem world also have bi content. "Prodigal Sons," "Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen" also cross major gender bounda"Two Spirits: Sexuality, Gender and the Murder of Fred Martinez" also explore bisexual identities.

"Greek Pete" shows the stories of London rent boys living in a house together, and some of them think they're hetero, of course.

"Two Spirits: Sexuality, Gender and the Murder of Fred Martinez" (pictured right) delves into a real-life murder of a Navajo youth. It's a completely senseless murder by a man who wanted to go out and "bug-smash" a gay guy and picked this 16-year-old "two-spirited" youth who possessed a balance of masculine and feminine traits. Those kind of people are considered shamans or spiritual guides in Native American cultures.

Retrospectives from the past that will be shown in Outfest will include Gregg Araki's "The Living End," Isaac Julien's "Young Soul Rebels" and "Party Monster" that stars Seth Green and Macaulay Culkin.

The other Shorts programs, "Fusion Shorts," "Women on the Verge" and "Queerer Than Fiction: Documentary Shorts" all have bi themes in them as well.

No matter what, there's going to be a lot of stuff for people of any persuasion to be "curious" about.
                  

Below see a Slide Show of the best Bi Movies at Outfest, and two clips from the movies, a dramatic documentary, and a fun romance.

TWO SPIRIT

HOLLYWOOD JE T'AIME