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Gay And Lesbian Film Festivals Are Better Than Ever

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=1vvzyPMa82I%26hl%3Den_US%26fs%3D1%3Fborder%3D1

“Howl” with James Franco, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.

“I don’t think we’re in Cannes anymore, Toto.” I said to my little black terrier who is actually named Molly. Indeed, I don’t think we will ever go back to just a handful of world renowned film festivals attended only by elite film people, dictating what the rest of the people all over the world might get a chance to watch.

While Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca and others remain very influential, they are not the only shows in town anymore. Mainstream film festivals have burgeoned into the hundreds worldwide, with thousands of films submitted for acceptance. The development of GLBTQ Film Festivals have kept pace, expanding to over 100 festivals in 2010. And, in the US and Canada, many were held to coincide with Pride celebrations in June.

One of the oldest and largest GLBTQ Film Festivals is the San Francisco “Frameline 34″ which listed over 260 film titles for this year’s event held June 17-27. Their 2009 attendance was over 60,000 people. The 2010 Nashville GLBTQ Festival (started as The Sinking Creek Film Festival in 1969) was held for 8 days in April this year and had 2000 submissions from 86 countries.

The Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, held in Toronto in May, and one of the most prestigious and best attended in the world, listed screenings for 177 GLBTQ films. They counted attendance this year at over 35,000. The growth has been huge, with attendees both elite and ordinary and not only from the gay community but also many from the straight world who are interested and supportive. I will not be tapping my feet together in red shiny shoes with any desire to go backwards.

In looking through the lists of award winners, two in particular caught my attention. The first, “Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride” directed by Robert Christie, has won awards in Montreal, in Toronto, at the Q Cinema in Fort Worth, and also at Fairy Tales in Calgary. While it is not the top winner, those who watch it will not forget it and may even be motivated to take further action. Human Rights issues are at stake, there are links to resources on the film’s website.

The trailer (below) alone is powerful in reminding us that Pride is to be celebrated not only between participants and spectators, but for those people who cannot stand up for themselves. Director of the Vancouver Pride Festival , Ken Coolen, made the film because he had an emotional response to another human rights film which made him want to take action.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9241135&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1



The film begins in Vancouver, Canada and goes to Sao Paulo, Brazil; Moscow, Russia; Zurich, Switzerland; NY City, United States, and Colombo, Sri Lanka. There is a clear message presented through images of beauty, joy, humor and also a terrifying sense of danger in the different political atmospheres. There is also a Facebook page: Beyond Gay The Politics of Pride.

The second film is one that I hope will become an American favorite. “The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls.” Directed by Leanne Pooley, it has won awards at over 16 festivals including Best Documentary in Toronto. It is about two talented and funny women who think of themselves as performers, but unwittingly become crusaders and political activists leading the GLBTQ movement in New Zealand.

Part of the way they accomplish this, is that everyone falls in love with them, and they manage to completely love themselves and everyone back. During an interview, one of them says that their parents are in the film talking about how it was difficult, but afterall OK to have lesbian daughters.

These two show that being lesbian is part of what makes them more than OK, both lovable and amazing. There are also several videos of the pair performing on Youtube.

Other notable films on my list so far include: “Howl” (above) directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (with James Franco); “Eyes Wide Open” directed by Haim Tabakman; “The Secret Diary of Miss Anne Lister” directed by James Kent; and finally the Peruvian film: “Undertow” (below) written and directed by Javier Fuentes-Leon. Some are being shown at both GLBTQ and mainstream International Festivals.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=flHnF2RWC5E%26hl%3Den_US%26fs%3D1

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‘Disgraceful’: ICE Slammed After Allegedly Pepper-Spraying US Congresswoman

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U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) is accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of pepper-spraying her in her face while she was at a local Tucson, Arizona restaurant.

Rep. Grijalva in a video on social media said she saw about 40 mostly-masked ICE agents at a restaurant she frequents weekly.

The agents were “in several vehicles that the community had stopped right here, right in the middle of the street, because they were afraid that they were taking people without due process, without any kind of notice.”

READ MORE: Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

She said that the community was “protecting their people” when she was “sprayed in the face by a very aggressive agent,” and “pushed around by others when I literally was not being aggressive.”

“I was asking for clarification, which is my right as a member of Congress,” she continued. “So, once I introduced myself, once I did, I assumed that it would be a little calmer, but there was literally only one person that was trying to speak to me in any kind of civil tone, and everyone else was being rude and disrespectful, and I just can only imagine if they’re going to treat me like that, how they’re treating everybody else.”

Congresswoman Grijalva said she saw “people directly sprayed,” including “members of our press” and staff members.

She blasted President Donald Trump, saying that he “has no regard for any due process, the rule of law, the Constitution — they’re literally disappearing people from the streets.”

Critics slammed the agents’ action.

READ MORE: Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) wrote that Rep. Grijalva “was doing her job, standing up for her community.”

“Pepper-spraying a sitting member of Congress is disgraceful, unacceptable, and absolutely not what we voted for. Period,” he added.

“This is unacceptable and outrageous,” observed Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. “Enforcing the rule [of] law does not mean pepper spraying a member of Congress for simply asking questions. Effective law enforcement requires restraint and accountability, not unchecked aggression.”

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, “quite the beginning for Grijalva, who wasn’t seated for weeks, [cast] the decisive vote to get the Epstein files, and now has apparently been pepper sprayed in the face by immigration agents.”

Also calling the action “outrageous,” U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote: “We are Members of Congress with oversight authority of ICE. Rep Grijalva was completely within her rights to stand up for her constituents. ICE is completely lawless.”

“First they tackle a sitting Senator,” noted U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). “Now they’re pepper spraying a Representative. It’s clear ICE is spinning out of control. We will hold the agency accountable.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

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Warning Signs Flash as Trump Slump Raises Fears of 2018 Blue Wave Rerun: Conservative

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A well-known conservative commentator has a warning for the Republican Party: take action now or face a repeat of the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost 41 House seats in a landslide. And this time, he says, the Senate could go to the Democrats as well.

Award-winning writer and journalist Bernard Goldberg reminded readers at The Hill that in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, “Republicans got walloped … and a good chunk of that had President Trump’s name written all over it.”

Trump’s “approval ratings were in the low 40s, and independents — the folks who usually decide elections — had seen enough. They broke hard for the Democrats,” Goldberg noted. “Now here we are, staring down 2026, and you can almost hear history clearing its throat, getting ready to repeat itself.”

READ MORE: Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

Goldberg noted that Trump’s approval rating is currently the lowest it’s been this term.

“Among Republicans, his support dropped from 91 percent right after the 2024 election to 84 percent last month. Among independents, it cratered — from 42 percent to just 25 percent.”

“If the trend continues,” he warned, “Republicans could be headed for another blue wave — and this time, it could wash away not just the House majority, but control of the Senate too.”

Why?

“It’s the economy — still,” he wrote.

“Trump is out there saying the economy is humming. Biden said the same thing before him. But voters didn’t buy it then, and they’re not buying it now. Why? Because it’s not GDP numbers that matter. It’s affordability,” Goldberg noted.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

That’s a word that President Trump continues to call a “con job,” while his own administration tries to claim he is focused on.

He pointed to a Karl Rove Wall Street Journal column and wrote: “The Republicans may have ‘avoided disaster’ in Tennessee, but the result should be a wake-up call for Republicans. He’s right.”

Goldberg asked: “will anyone in the Republican Party actually pick up the phone?”

“Because if Republicans don’t wake up — and fast — they’re going to find out the hard way what happens when you keep rerunning the same movie and expecting a different ending. To lose in 2026, all they have to do is nothing. And right now, that’s pretty much what they’re doing.”

READ MORE: Trump Urges Judge Aileen Cannon to Keep Jack Smith Report Secret

 

 

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Trump: Democrats Are Plotting ‘Total Obliteration’ of Supreme Court

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President Donald Trump is claiming that the top priority of Democrats is the “total obliteration” of the U.S. Supreme Court. His remarks came just hours after SCOTUS gave Republicans a 6-3 win along partisan lines, in the form of approving Texas’s redrawn mid-decade congressional maps that could help add five GOP-held seats to the U.S. House of Representatives. A lower court had ruled the redrawn Texas maps were likely racially biased.

Although there are different ways to measure, one study by Court Accountability this fall found that the Supreme Court has ruled in Trump’s favor 90% of the time.

“Most of these wins for the president came from the court’s ‘shadow docket’ slate of opinions — where the court has typically, in the past, only ruled on administrative measures,” according to Truthout. “However, in recent years, the Supreme Court has been making announcements on cases, issuing injunctions or allowances of actions to remain in place, that have the same effect, essentially, as a final decision.”

READ MORE: White House Touts Trump’s ‘Track Record’ on Affordability

On Friday, the president declared that the “Democrats number one policy push is the complete and total OBLITERATION of our great United States Supreme Court.”

“They will do this on their very first day in office, through the simple Termination of the Filibuster, SHOULD THEY WIN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS,” he wrote.

Trump has strongly advocated for Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster.

“The Radical Left Democrats are looking at 21 Justices, with immediate ascension,” he wrote, claiming that Democrats would more than double the current size of the court.

“This would be terrible for our Country. Fear not, however, Republicans will not let it, or any of their other catastrophic policies, happen. Our Country is now in very good hands. MAGA!!!”

Some court reform advocates have suggested the Supreme Court be expanded to 13 justices, one for each of the thirteen U.S. Courts of Appeals.

READ MORE: Trump’s Ballroom Seen as ‘Key Evidence’ He’s Out of Touch as Cost of Living Spikes

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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