Brother Outsider - The Life of Bayard Rustin

If you know Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr or Malcolm X then you should know who Bayard Rustin is. Bayard Rustin was an advisor to Dr. King. Rustin was not only an organizer of the historic Civil Rights March on Washington, DC, Rustin was the architect of the legendary march and the place where Dr.King delivered one of the most celebrated speeches in the history of spoken language.

Brother Outsider - The Life of Bayard Rustin is an amazing documentary of another invisible man - an openly Black gay American man who championed the civil rights movement for all of us. This documentary outlines and unfolds the life of a man who truly was ahead of his time and a real visionary. Long before Dr. King and Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin sat down on a bus and refused to abandon his principles and morals in order to allow a white person to sit.

Bayard Rustin's invisible presence is what continues to set us all back as a nation by selecting not to recognized the truth. The truth is Bayard Rustin is an unsung American hero we have selected to forget, chose not to remember or honor mostly because he was not heterosexual. Times are changing. Today we can examine outsiders' input to shaping a better nation and world.

Bayard Rustin is definitely someone to know and Brother Outsider - The Life of Bayard Rustin is the perfect introduction.

Arranged

Just watched an amazing film - Arranged. What a delight! How did Arranged not garner tons of indie press and awards? The acting alone was stellar. Arranged is about two first-year teachers in the classroom in Brooklyn, NY. One is Orthodox Jewish and the other is Muslim.

When a kid in their classroom question whether a Jew and a Muslim can be friends, the two women are thrust into a new friendship. A friendship with more in common than not. The bond builds as they are both in the process of arranged marriages right in Brooklyn.

Future stars, Zoe Lister-Jones and Francis Benhamou, shine as young first generation Americans balancing culture, ethnicity, self-identity, family, gender and career with the more Americanized idea of diversity. Definitely a film Hollywood will remake with bigger names and less genuine.

I love this film and so will you - arrange to see it.

Women Without Men

For me, summer is always the worst time to enjoy the movie going experience. With tentpoles and blockbusters, it's like finding depth in Jerry Bruckheimer creation, direction in a Michael Mann vehicle or vision in a Ron Howard piece.

Imagine my delighted to find Women Without Men. Women WIthout Men is an Iranian film directed by Iranian woman (Shirin Neshat) following the lives of several women in 1950s Iran during the 1953 American CIA coup of the democratically elected government of Iran, based on the novel of the same name from Shahrnush Parsipur.

The women without men are four (4) women whose story interconnect through their treatment by Iran men, family, society and their journeys and retreat to an orchard, accessed by a broad and empty road, with a magical garden without men.

One women is Zarin, a young prostitute. Zarin runs away from a brothel and is later seen furiously rubbing her body raw in a public bath. She speaks not a single word in the whole movie, and that is the most effective condemnation of the society in which she lives and thus creates a powerful presence.

It is a very beautiful movie and shot wondrously. There are a few scenes where I was in awe of the cinematography. The acting is superb. The casting is right. The storytelling unfolds gradually and without condemnation.

Although I wonder what life and the world would be like with: MEN WITHOUT OIL AND WOMEN and perhaps ego.

My New Favorite Film - Brief Encounter (circa 1945)

From a chance meeting on a train platform, a very handsome, middle-aged married doctor Alec (Trevor Howard) and a sweet suburban housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) enter into a quiet yet passionate love affair, meeting every Thursday at a small café at the station to play out their romance. Brief Encounter is based on a Noel Coward play, director David Lean (of Doctor Zhivago fame) explores the thrill and pain of an illicit romance in 1945 Britain.

Subtle yet emotional and definitely from another era, Brief Encounter is timeless in the age-old struggle over morals and extra marital affairs. The brilliance of Brief Encounter is the movie does not focus on the extra marital affair. Rather, it focuses on a chance encounter between two very nice and like-able people who connect organicly and are attracted to each other but have lives that cannot work together. From her living room sitting with her husband, through voice-over we learn all about Laura's brief encounter with Alec.

Shot in black and white, the shadows, both literal and figurative are cunning and remarkable while the newspaper blowing about Laura and Alex's feet as they try to sneak a kiss in the train station adds a modern reality in tune with the current obsession with illicit affairs. However this relationship is natural and nearly perfect. Brief Encounter is a riveting love story where the words spoken are so elegantly and draws the audience into a brilliant space where passions may not be fulfilled. This movie explores love between a man and a woman in its purest form.

Unfortunately, you don't see movies like this one anymore. Celia Johnson is amazing and her performance garnered her an Academy Award nomination. Today's actresses should watch her carefully. Everything about her performance is precise. Not one thing out of place nor predictable. It is refreshing to watch a film in which the actors must hold the movie together as opposed to special effects.

Brief Encounter is truly one of the great movies of all time, and I am happy to have stumbled across it. IT IS MY NEW FAVORITE FILM! You will want to watch it now. PLAY PRESS!

FLICKERIA COMES TO SIZZLE MIAMI

FLICKERIA.COM presents at the upcoming 2010 SIZZLE MIAMI:

Created in 2010, Flickeria.com is a film and distribution production company created by filmmaker Kirk Shannon-Butts. Best known as an emerging LGBT film director (Uptown, Black Enterprise, SGL Weekly, Clik, OUT Magazine, L'Uomo Vogue, Attitude, Pan African Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Frameline) for his groundbreaking debut feature film BLUEPRINT, Shannon-Butts makes his first appearance at SIZZLE MIAMI with a rough cut of his new film DONE.

DONE was shot in Paris, FRANCE in April 2010 about the B.B.B. phenom in the Parisian gay scene. BBB is the term for Black (Black), Beur (Arab) and Blanc (White) gays boy. DONE takes place in the rapidly gentrifying 18th Arrondissement and surrounding sites including the Louvre, Montmartre, Chateau Rogue, Barbes Rochechouart all in the city of lights -- Paris.

FLICKERIA.com is currently developing two (2) more movies: The Pain Session and James Earl Hardy's (BBoy Blues) The Day Easy E Died.

Founded in 2002, Sizzle Miami has quickly grown into the nation's most foremost LGBT event during the Memorial Day Weekend. For five (5) sizzling Miami days, beginning on Thursday, May 27th, beautiful people from all over the United States, North America, Europe and the Caribbean will convene in sunny Miami, Florida to celebrate life.

Join FANS OF DONE at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fans-of-DONE-Paris-Short/105714852794847?ref=ts

Who is the LUCKY BASTARD?

My favorite professor in Film School was a tall, lanky, long-haired, acute young teacher and filmmaker named Everette Lewis. Yesterday I watched Everette's new film Lucky Bastard. It was very entertaining. The characters were a bit twisted but this characterization seems to be the returning theme to Everette's films and characters.

Lucky Bastard is the story of a young, cute, successful architect named Rusty (Patrick Tatten) who meets a mysterious drifter Denny played brilliantly by a sexy and damaged boy-next-door (Dale Dymkoski). After a chance meeting at a convenience store as Rusty searches for a bottle of wine - which Denny eventually locates and selects for Rusty, Rusty and Denny are coupled up after a little tryst in the restroom.

Denny opens Rusty up to a strange new world - shortly after Rust's boyfriend leaves town. Denny is immediately likable and not because of his biceps and low hanging designer jeans. With ease, Denny is able to say all of those little bedroom low light naughty things that most could barely emote in a whisper and his ability to be honest about his deepest emotional issues is so unhumanlike that before he can allow Rusty to response he cuts it all off. His construction ends - no more bricks or glass. Rusty is swept up and into a whirlwind and wants to love and renovate Denny and ultimately himself. In the end, we really can only help ourselves beyond cash, gifts, trips and kisses we present to others.

Lucky Bastard is a wonderful addition to the LA indie film genre as Everette's color palette is one where Los Angeles has been placed under a very light gray filter - all the harshness is there but a little less severe.

The Opposite of Sex!

Last week I re-started my Netflix account and queued up. Yesterday, I returned from New York to see my red envelop waiting for me. My happy and eager little fingers quickly separated the perforation and DRUM ROLL. My feature film is The Opposite of Sex. The Opposite of Sex is a great little indie film with a terrific cast and great story.

A 16 year old Louisiana girl, Dede Truitt (Christina Ricci), abandons her newly widowed mother and runs away with her one testicled boyfriend to her homosexual school teacher half-brother, Bill (Martin Donovan - pretty amazing). The perky teenager immediately starts coming on to her half brother's sexual partner Matt (played wonderfully by the sexy and lanky Ivan Sergei).

Dede ends up pregnant and disappears to Los Angeles with the no longer gay boyfriend Matt. The whole affair blows into scandal, exposing Bill, revealing the true father of Dede's lovechild, and introducing one of Matt's ex-lovers, causing much media attention. As the situation snowballs, the only person who sees what Dedee is up to is Bill's sexually frustrated acid-tongued sister-in-law Lucia (Lisa Kudrow).

Apparently The Opposite of Sex was to be a indie break-out role for Kudrow. However it is Miss Christina Ricci who steals the WHOLE SHOW and her narration of the story is wickedly funny.