A QDoc Is Born

[May 30th, 2007]

"This is an experiment to see how much focusing specifically on documentaries will alter the way people see them," says director David Weissman. "I think the experience of seeing movies as a group with a group of queer people is so much more powerful than staying at home and watching a documentary."

Weissman, who's best known for his 2002 film The Cockettes, is also the co-founder of QDoc, Portland's first queer documentary film festival. Actually, make that the first queer documentary film festival in the nation, and the second in the world after Australia's queerDOC. And while this weekend's event at the Clinton Street Theater is an American original—"We want this to become an event of national stature," says Weissman—it's also a bonding experience for Portland's gay community.

"Portland lacks a queer neighborhood that is common in so many other cities," says Weissman. "So it's hard to get a critical mass of gay people together outside of a bar. Because we're seeing our festival as a social event, not just a cultural event, we hope that we can create that kind of critical mass in an environment with a deeper shared resonance."

QDoc's resonance comes with a slate of 11 films. From the festival's opening-night feature Red Without Blue (7:30 pm Friday, June 1), a story of two babies born as male identical twins who become adults of different gender, to Hot and Bothered (4 pm Sunday, June 3), a double bill covering how gay and lesbian porn emerged, QDoc has appeal for the entire queer family. Here are three films that offer a sampling of QDoc's variety.

No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon

Cozy as an oven mitt, this movie—by lesbians, for lesbians, about lesbians—is as endearing as it is slow. It follows the emergence of female activism in the LGBT movement through the workings of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. Most informative revelation: This dynamic duo founded the Daughters of Bilitis, perhaps the first lesbian-rights organization, in 1955. Even more intriguing is that men are as sparse in this film as in the feminine-hygiene aisle at the supermarket. 2 pm Saturday, June 2.

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

This study of Jack Smith—the godfather of performance art and an early influence on Andy Warhol and John Waters—is dynamic, colorful and weird. Mary Jordan, who also served as writer and producer, directs this exquisite exposé by balancing narrative and inquiry. In erotic overtones and exotic textures, this film recounts the controversial filmmaking that Smith undertook, which was more wildly provocative and groundbreaking than any John Waters film or Sissyboy performance. A definite must-see of the festival. 9 pm Saturday, June 2.

Juchitán Queer Paradise

Women run the open-air markets. Gay men raise children. A man is not considered a man until he sleeps with another man. So is the wonder that is the Mexican town called Juchitán de Zaragoza. Though Juchitán opens with a scene of men fucking, this charming film is about everything but sex, focusing on the intersection between the town's cultural enigmas and how it produces its queer inhabitants. Though gritty and sloppy in direction, the entertaining view of the three men it profiles (a teacher, a hairdresser and a shop owner) is something fresh for the American eye. 2 pm Sunday, June 3.