Arts & Entertainment
March on Washington Film Festival boasts stellar queer content
Hybrid format features films, panel discussions, theater, and VR lab
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Kevin Kodama, a 26-year-old, queer, Asian-American filmmaker, was saddened and angered by the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic. Then, he was a student studying film at San Francisco State University. āOne of my professors encouraged me to channel my feelings {about the hate crimes} into a short film,ā Kodama told the Blade.
Kodama took his professorās advice. He wrote and directed āShikata Ga Nai,ā a poignant, compelling fantasy romance, set in a Japanese concentration camp where a lesbian couple attempts to reconcile their relationship as ghosts.
Kodama is one of the many filmmakers, theater legends and civil rights heros whose work will be showcased and honored at the March on Washington Film Festival (MOWFF) 2022 from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2.
MOWFF, in a hybrid in person and streaming format, will feature films, panel discussions, theatrical performances and the first-ever VR {virtual reality} Equity Lab in the Nationās Capital.
From its honorees to its emerging filmmakers, the Festival has a strong queer quotient.
In its 10th year, the Festival celebrates African-American legends of theater and film who have advanced civil rights. Its theme this year is āSTORY, STAGE & SCREEN.ā To purchase tickets to the Festival, click here.
MOWFF was founded in 2013 on the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington. Now in its 10th year, the Festival uses the power of film, music, scholarship to tell untold stories of theĀ unsung heroes of the American Civil Rights movement. The Festival shares these narratives to connect the past to the present and the future. For information about the Festival go to: marchonwashingtonfilmfestival.org.
MOWFF is committed to highlighting stories at the intersection of racial and LGBTQIA+ justice, David Andrusia, executive director of the Festival, told the Blade.
āWe want to correct stories that have been mistold,ā Andrusia, who is gay, said, āToo many are silenced and kept from telling their stories.ā
This year, the Festival will bestow the John Lewis Lifetime Legacy Award to Rep. Barbara Lee, a founding member and a Vice Chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and the Chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus.
MOWFF2022ās other honorees are George C. Wolfe, Tony-winning director of āAngels in Americaā whose upcoming film āBayard Rustinā celebrates the gay rights legend, and pioneering lesbian publicist and producer Irene Gandy, a two-time Tony Award-winner.
Lewis, Wolfe and Gandy will be honored on the Festivalās opening night.
Gandy, 78, is glad that MOWFF is being held now. āSo that young people can learn about and remember Black community activists and artists whoāve fought for civil rights,ā she told the Blade.
Itās important that people not forget that Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson and other artists were part of the 1963 March on Washington, Gandy said. āWe have to honor the legacy and continue the activism of these artists,ā she added.
Gandy doesnāt go into meetings thinking āIām Blackā or āIām gay.ā āThat deafeats everything for everybody. It crowds all the good things out.ā
Thereās a long way to go, but things are changing, Gandy, who for over 50 years has been the only Black female press agent member of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers (ATPAM).
āThere are more Black shows now ā with Black actors and produces,ā she said, āwith more Black managers making decisions.ā
In addition to being a groundbreaking press agent and producer, Gandy is a fashionista. In 2008, she became the first female press agent to be immortalized with a Sardiās caricature. Known for her furs, in 2015, Gandy launched
a signature collection featured in āVogueā and her Lady Irene Fur line debuted earlier this year.
On a recent evening as she walked out of a theater on to Broadway, Gandy had an awesome encounter with a father and his five-year-old child. āThe child was trans,ā she said, āthe child was biologically a boy. But when the Dad called him by a boyās name, the child said āIām a girl.āā
āThis little, trans person didnāt know who I was ā that I had won the Tonys,ā Gandy said, ābut she said to me āI love your style!āā
If they know who they are, everyone has a story to tell, she added.
The stories to be highlighted at the Festival include āMaurice Hines: Bring Them Back,ā an intimate portrait of the trailblazing Black entertainer; āMankiller,ā a documentary about Wilma Mankiller, who became the Cherokee Nationās first Principal Chief in 1985; and āThe Defenders,ā about lawyers who fought for civil rights in Mississippi in the early years of the civil rights movement.
After his meeting with his professor, Kodama had the idea of doing a story set in the concentration camps where Japanese Americans were interred during World War II.
āItās a way of bridging the history of anti-Asian policies of that time with the anti-Asian racism and hate crimes of today,ā he said.
Queer people who were interred during the War had to be closeted. āFor most of the decades after the War, queer people were left out of stories told about the camps,ā Kodama said.
āBecause of homophobia ā discomfort with queerness,ā he added, āpeople didnāt talk about it. Same-sex couples had to pass as friends.ā
āShikata Ga Naiā was filmed on the site of one of the camps ā Manzanar in Inyo County, California (a National Historic Site run by the National Park Service). āOne of the nice things about my film is it will get people to talk about it {queer people in the camps} who havenāt talked about it.ā (The film will be shown at MOWFF as part of the Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competitions.)
Derrick L. Middleton, a talented, 35-year-old, Black, gay filmmaker, uses his art to tell stories.
Middleton, born in Harlem in New York City, knew as a little boy that he was different. āI wasnāt yet labeled as āgay,ā but I felt like I didnāt fit in,ā he told the Blade.
āIt felt unnatural to try to be masculine in the way I was expected to be,ā he added.
He, like other Black queer men, ran up against hyper-masculinity, when he went to a barbershop.
āBarbershops are critically important to the Black community,ā Middleton said, āI want to honor them.ā
When Black people were enslaved, one of the few things they could learn was how to cut hair, Middleton said. āWhen they were freed, owning a barbershop was one of the few businesses they could run,ā he added.
But, heteronormity rules in many Black barbershops. Subtle or overt anti-queer slur often make you feel unsafe if youāre queer and Black in a Black barbershop.
āI had already come out to my family and friends,ā Middleton said, ābut I felt, to be safe, I had to go back into the closet when I went to a the barbershop.ā
One day, he became angry and scared when he went to a Black barbershop. āThe barber told me that he didnāt cut hair for sissies,ā Middleton said.
He was so frightened that he couldnāt think of anything to say and ran out of the barbershop.
Out of this experience, Middleton made āShape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershop,ā an eye-opening, engrossing, moving documentary short about the stories of himself and other queer Black men in Black barbershops. The film premiered in 2016 at the White House and was awarded the Grand Prize for Emerging Documentary by the March on Washington Film Festival.
āI never thought that I, a boy who grew up in Harlem, would get an award at a White House ceremony when the country had a Black president,ā Middleton said, āIt was a dream come true.ā
This year, Middleton has been selected for a VR Equity Lab and Fellowship. His work will be showcased in the Festivalās VR Equity Lab. Middletonās VR Equity Lab project āShape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershopā (The Series). The series is a spinoff that takes viewers on a journey to barbershops from different countries in the African Diaspora, using 360-degree video and animated interactive scenes to give viewers an immersive experience from the perspective of LGBTQ people.
āI hope that the Series will be mainstreamed on a platform like Hulu or Netflix,ā Middleton said, āso that people who arenāt able to access it through VR will be able to see it.ā
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The 2024 New York City Pride Parade wound through the streets of Manhattan and past the historic Stonewall Inn on Sunday, June 30.
(Washington Blade photos by Daniel Truitt)
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The fourth annual Fredericksburg Pride march and festival was held at Riverfront Park in Fredericksburg, Va. on Saturday, June 29. The event began with a march around downtown Fredericksburg beginning and ending in the park.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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Covering Fredericksburg Pride for @WashBlade . City Council member @WillMackintosh speaking: pic.twitter.com/tDdVD2IVsM
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) June 29, 2024
Photos
PHOTOS: Goodwin Living Pride
Senior living and healthcare organization holds fourth annual march at Falls Church campus
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The senior living and healthcare organization Goodwin Living held its fourth annual community Pride march around its Bailey’s Crossroads campus in Falls Church, Va. with residents, friends and supporters on Tuesday, June 25. Following the march, a drag brunch was held with performances by drag artists of SADBrunch: Crimsyn, Sapphire Dupree and Evon Dior Michelle.
(Photos courtesy of Goodwin Living)
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