By Rocco Colella
Irene Williams’ sometimes outlandish outfits include a hat made from a toilet lid cover and a bag with a skateboard bottom, so moving it along the sidewalk would be more simple.
“She didn’t understand why the rest of the world didn’t look like her,” said filmmaker Eric Smith.
Williams is the subject of a documentary that was a part of the 21st annual Boston Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Festival which took place at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) this month, gathering many of Boston’s gay and lesbian community.
From May 11 through 22, including a festival postscript Monday night, the museum hosted the events as a “celebration of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues,” MFA officials said. The festival was broken down into men’s and women’s short films, which were shown May 18 and May 20, respectively, at the MFA’s Remis Auditorium.
The postscript event featured a screening of the British film “My Summer of Love,” in which Mona (Nathalie Press), a blue collar tomboy, meets and falls in love with the more pampered and posh Tamsin (Emily Blunt). Press and Blunt also attended the screening and talked to guests.
The six men’s shorts began with filmmaker Eric Smith’s “Irene Williams: Queen of Lincoln Road.” Using a hand-held camcorder, Smith documented South Beach’s Will-iams, an elderly stenographer who made her own colorful outfits instead of buying from stores.
The documentary included a relaxed Williams saying, “I lived in Boston and hated it,” where the audience let out a good-natured boo, but went on to laugh with the colorful “Queen of Lincoln Road.”
The audience reacted positively to the films “Billy’s Dad is a Fudge Packer” and “A Wonderful Day,” which followed Smith’s film. Featuring Alex Borstein (“Family Guy,” “MadTV”) as a lesbian neighbor, “Fudge Packer” pokes good-natured fun at the educational health videos of the ’50s. Filmed in black-and-white, the 15-minute short followed Billy, a young boy who contemplates what his career might look like. Will he follow his father in the chocolate factory business? Or will he observe his wacky neighbors and come up with another interesting career choice?
“Wonderful Day” is a touching story of a closet drag queen who must visit his dying mother in the last minutes of her life. The film’s ending seemed to impact the audience most.
“I almost cried by the end of [‘Wonderful Day’],” said April Frey, a Plainville native and high school teacher in the district.
The seven women’s shorts were shown two nights later to a mostly female audience.
Beginning with “Hummer,” a light, yet somewhat predictable, story about a woman with a crush on her best gal pal, the show also featured three documentaries.
“Mother/Country” chronicles an Iranian Brit’s travel back to her estranged mother in Iran. She must ask painful questions as to why she was sent away to England, and must also bring herself to come out as a lesbian to her mother. “Small Town Secrets” features Katherine Leggett’s struggle growing up with two closet gay parents in rural America. “Butch or Femme” is a sometimes comedic interview piece where a woman asks her friends whether they consider her to be a “butch” (i.e., manly) or “femme” (girly) lesbian.
Both men’s and women’s shorts took creative approaches to the task of filmmaking. The women’s short “The Drive North” uses both animation and Super-8 (cheap, home movie-like film) to tell the journey of two teenage lesbians on the drive to Massachusetts to move into a house for college. The men’s short “I Like Mike” is a music video taking a jab at the image of masculinity in the athletic community. Gay baseball players parade around the diamond and sing about their adoration for the ubiquitous “Mike.” “Listen” is a pen-drawn animation video about a young woman’s fruitless attempts to come out to her mother – after 12 years of attempting.
Seven of the 13 films came from filmmakers in other countries, including Australia, England, and Canada.
The short film presentations at Remis Auditorium, located in the west wing of the museum, was close to being filled to capacity at 400 seats both nights. The festival was co-presented by the Theater Offensive and the Human Rights Campaign.
For more information about MFA Film, visit the Web site at www.mfa.org/film.
