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The Ottawa Citizen is gay for Stonewall Uprising

andrewlapointe — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:45:40 +0000

Stonewall Uprising is a new documentary about the growing gay rights movement in the late 60s that included a major riot outside the Stonewall, a New York City gay bar that was raided by police until one night in the summer of 1969, when its patrons refused to be thrown out and arrested because of their lifestyle.

This revealing film premieres Friday August 27 at 9:30pm, and also plays August 28 and 30.

Here’s Jay Stone’s fabulous review from the Ottawa Citizen:

Closeted life before Stonewall

Documentary captures a time when being gay was illegal

BY JAY STONE, POSTMEDIA NEWS AUGUST 27, 2010 8:03 AM

STONEWALL UPRISING ***

Directed by: Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

Rating: adult themes

Playing at: Mayfair Theatre, Aug. 27, 28, 30

On June 28, 1969, the New York City police raided a gay bar in Greenwich Village called The Stonewall Inn. It was the kind of place where you wouldn’t want to drink the beer, but it was the only bar in town that allowed men to dance together.

Police raids were common in those days: homosexuality was illegal in every state but Illinois, and it was widely considered to be a “mental defect” that could be cured by electroshock therapy, sterilization, castration, or lobotomy. At Atascadero State Hospital in California — “the Dachau for queers,” they called it — homosexuals could be treated with a drug that made them feel like they were drowning. It was chemical waterboarding.

No one seemed to care much about these things. In the documentary Stonewall Uprising, a record of the riots that followed the 1969 raid (and based on the book Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, by David Carter), there are excerpts from TV shows of the day, such as a CBS Reports investigation called The Homosexuals, in which Mike Wallace says, “The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in, nor capable of, a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage.”

A 1951 public service announcement called Boys Beware dramatizes the seduction of innocent young Johnny by an older man who shows him pornographic pictures to convert him to the cause.

But on that day in 1969, something strange happened. Instead of going along with the raid, the gay men at the Stonewall fought back, eventually forcing the police to barricade themselves in the bar. Several days of rioting and arrests followed, and the result — in the words of a Village Voice journalist named Lucian Truscott IV — was “the Rosa Parks moment” in the fight for gay rights, an act of resistance as important as the day when a black woman refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus.

“That night, the police ran from us,” Truscott says. “And it was fantastic.”

Stonewall Uprising is something of a scattershot document, mostly because there is little public record of what happened that night: it wasn’t deemed newsworthy enough to film, and newspaper reports were sketchy and buried on inside pages. Filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner interview dozens of witnesses and participants to flesh out what happened, and while the talking heads paint a vivid picture of chaos in the Village, we never get to know the people well enough to form a connection. The empathy is mostly with the cause itself.

Still, that makes for interesting viewing, and while Stonewall has been examined in previous documentaries (Before Stonewall in 1984; After Stonewall in 1999), Stonewall Uprising fills in the middle nicely. Most engaging is its examination of life of the 1950s and 1960s, when young men and women came to New York to meet other gay people and to actually have sex with some of them. They had no access to hotels, however, so this often took place in public washrooms or parked meat trucks, another popular spot for police raids. “There was no such thing as ‘being out,’ ” says author Eric Marcus. “There was no ‘out.’ There was just ‘in.’ ”

And while there is frightening testimony about how gays were hunted down to be beaten up, or worse, the scariest moment takes place in a 1967 TV interview with a gay activist. He says only radical gays want such extreme rights as adoption and marriage, adding that, while he had homosexual experiences when he was younger, he doesn’t do that any more because it’s not his “cup of tea.” It plays like a sad combination of fear and denial, just like a lot of it was for gay people before Stonewall.

KILLER63 part V

josh — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:11:59 +0000

This is somewhat unbelievable to me, but Killer63′s fifth year is on the horizon. So again, I’m starting to get the word out to filmmakers who are interested in submitting a short horror film to be screened as part of our mini one-night film festival at the Mayfair.

The screening will go down on October 16th. The date was initially set a bit later in the month, but we’ve got some great things ahead in October that out packing up our calendar tight with exciting Halloween themed treats.

Past years films have ranged from live action to animation, from serious to comedic, documentary, music video, puppets, slasher, zombies, ghosts, vampires and even stuff more bizarre.

For further information on the event, feel free to contact me here through the Mayfair blog, or check out the Killer63 Facebook page or batturtle.blogspot.com.

Ip Man comes to the Mayfair

andrewlapointe — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:17:08 +0000

If you love Hong Kong and martial arts cinema, you owe it to yourself to come see IP MAN starring Donnie Yen.

This Friday August 13 at 9pm, the Mayfair proudly presents IP MAN, the incredible true story Bruce Lee’s master and his endurance during the Japanese occupation of China in the 1930s. The film plays August 13, 14 & 17. IP MAN 2, the exciting sequel co-starring Hong Kong film legend Sammo Hung, plays August 17! Don’t miss it!

Watch the IP MAN trailer

Roller Girls + Mayfair = Awesome

josh — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:30:28 +0000

The Mayfair is glad to welcome both teams from the Rideau Valley Roller Girls back to the theatre for the Ottawa premiere screening of Hell on Wheels. An epic Texas based roller derby documentary about the women who resurrected the sport into the rock n roll fueled punk format that spawned the current cult craze.

Join the Slaughter Daughters and the Riot Squad on Sunday April 11th at 9:20 for another exclusive Mayfair movie event.

Painted Lips and Lolly Licks lineup revealed!

ian driscoll — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:59:02 +0000

Enough teasing! It’s time to finally reveal the lineup of films for the second annual Painted Lips and Lolly Licks film festival.

Whet your appetite here – then come see the films (and some of the filmmakers) in the flesh on Feb 12, starting at 9:30 pm.

(And yes, you must be 18 years of age or older to attend.)

Trashing the Mayfair

ian driscoll — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:50:38 +0000

Often, we get promotional materials for the films we’re showing (posters, trailers, postcards, etc.). Just as often, though, we don’t. Many films show up with no support. We do our best to get the word out, but it can be an uphill battle.

The distributors of Street Trash (playing Friday, Feb . 5 at 11:15), however, came through with flying colours this month. We just received the vintage lobby cards below, and couldn’t wait to share them with you.

Enjoy!

Check out a bevvy of reviews, both positive and negative, at the Movie Review Query Engine.

Cut.

Seeing Avatar? See Crude. (CNN says!)

ian driscoll — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:25:03 +0000

James Cameron’s Avatar is getting all kinds of praise from all kinds of places, including CNN’s Tom Charity.

Charity suggests that, if you’re going to see the Terminator director’s latest, you’d do well to give yourself some context by going to see Joe Berlinger’s Crude, as well:

Dramatically, [Avatar is] simplistic. But if you look around the world at the devastating impact of oil companies on indigenous populations, you have to concede that Cameron has a point. A double bill with Joe Berlinger’s documentary Crude might be in order.

And guess what? Crude is playing now, here. You have until Dec 23 to catch it, and then it’s gone from Ottawa.

Avatar will probably be around a little while longer.

(Read CNN’s full review of Avatar here.)

Cut.

KILLER63 IV LINE-UP REVEALED!!

josh — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:12:41 +0000

16 Projects from 11 filmmakers! Ranging from under 60 seconds in length to a whopping 22 minutes! Featuring local Ottawa talent, & shorts from the far off lands of Calgary and Montreal! Vampires, Zombies, Aliens, Torture, Elvis, Puppets, Cartoons!!

(listed alphabetically by director…)

Massacrator – Pierre Ayotte

You & Your Friends – Jeff Campbell

Fallacy of Man, Saturday Morning Cartoons – Chris Chitaroni

Hostile Entities, Revival, Hel-Away – Matt Fincer / Creepy Puppet Projects

Snare Off (music video by The Love Machine) – Luca Fiore

Ronald, One Percent – Michael Anthony Horrigan

Legend of the Bonesetter – Brett Kelly

Alex Vampire Hunter – Al Kratina

The Morning After of the Living Dead – Josh Stafford

Ghost Town, Bleed On – (music video by Liminal State) – Kyle Thomas

Dead Pussy – Steve Villeneuve

Friday – December 18th – 9:15PM
One night only!
Only at the Mayfair!

What's the matter? Everything.

ian driscoll — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:12:10 +0000

The Mayfair isn’t just a place for people who love movies – it’s a place for people who make them, too.

That’s why, Thursday, November 12 at 6:30 PM, our Filmmakers in Attendance Screening Series welcomes high school teachers-turned filmmakers Enrico Lappano and Olga Antzoulatos, who will introduce and discuss their documentary about the mysteries of quantum mechanics, The Matter of Everything.

Vincent Van Gogh once said, “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” Lappano and Antzoulatos started putting small things together three years ago to make a 10-minute short to inspire their students. They ended up with a feature-length documentary which celebrates the small by exploring the mysterious world of quantum mechanics, the science of matter, space and time.

In the film, Lappano and Antzoulatos speak with leading physicists and visit the Fermilab, one of the world’s largest particle accelerators, where some of the newest quantum research is taking place. Describing the Fermilab as a kind of time machine, scientists there are able, through research into the smallest building blocks of matter, to look back at what happened during the Big Bang. They reveal a world more unified than ever imagined.

Quantum mechanics is, as Lappano and Antzoulatos note, “the most battle tested theory in history,” providing us verifiable answers to our deepest questions. Today, with great advances in quantum-related technology, like the Hubble Telescope, scientists are able to do much more. However, as Lappano and Antzoulatos also explore, with great knowledge comes great responsibility. They hope that, above all, the film will inspire viewers to learn more about the quantum world and deepen their appreciation for the beauty and wonder of nature.

The screening is followed by a (from the sound of it very necessary) Q&A with the director and Carleton University particle physicist Prof. Alain Bellerive.

I’ll be there.

Cut.

Tonight terror is on the menu!

josh — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:23:26 +0000

Low budget indie horror has a long and storied history in film. There are endless examples, some of them successful, some of them legendary.

Whether it’s Roger Corman or Lloyd Kaufman.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Halloween.
Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activities.

Ottawa as a city itself has quite the tradition in the past few years of indie horror offerings from local filmmakers. The latest will premiere at the Mayfair this Friday night (appropriately enough…the 13th). Brian Singleton (‘Forest of the Dead’) returns to the genre with ‘Werewolf Fever’.

A delivery driver for the Kingburger Drive-In is attacked by a vicious creature along a deserted road. Monstrously transformed, he descends upon the Kingburger, forcing his co-workers into a bloody battle for survival against their former friend…now, a Werewolf!

“It’s babes, brawn and burgers versus fur, fangs and fury in this gory, action-packed monster thriller!”

Old fashioned horror movie fun this Friday the 13th at 11PM.
Filmmakers, cast and crew in attendance.

For more information check out: www.werewolffever.com and Werewolf Fever on Facebook.