SpringFest, the Philadelphia Film Society’s annual showcase of new films, has been expanded to 7 days this year. Running April 17-24, the program will give moviegoers the chance to sneak preview some upcoming films, including the hotly anticipated gay drama, “On Swift Horses.” In addition, various shorts, features, and documentaries, many by local filmmakers will be screened.
A handful of films by LGBTQ filmmakers with Philadelphia connections will play in various short programs this year. Here is a rundown of some shorts to catch at SpringFest.
“The Chewing,” by trans director Grayson DiRienzo, is a student film made as part of a class at Drexel University. This amusing comic horror short deals with misophonia (the dislike of certain sounds), as Dylan (Ranita Lawrence Bell) just wants people to chew quietly, and with their mouths closed. After she breaks up with one noisy-mouthed girlfriend, Dylan may have found a perfect match with Sara (Lexi Stranix), but can her happiness last?
DiRienzo explained the genesis of their film in a recent email. “I wanted to tell this story in a way that really homed in on the uncomfortable feeling the main character is [having] while allowing the love story to develop in a way that is natural to any straight love story. I think it’s important for people in the LGBTQ community to see representation on screen without the story needing to revolve around the fact that it’s gay.”
Moreover, they explained about the film’s copious close-ups of chewing mouths, “I have to give credit of this idea to my cinematographer, Evan Moreau. We wanted to make the chewing feel overwhelming to the audience so this was the best way to get that effect. Filming these close ups were difficult because we had to have the actors stay really still while over exaggerating their chewing.”
“Dave and Larry,” written and directed by out gay filmmaker Daniel Rosendale is told in a mockumentary format. Inspired by Rosendale’s own reflections on being closeted for most of his life, the film, shot at Tattooed Mom and other area locations, addresses what he called, “the process of self-consumption” as Dave (Charlie Nicolini), a bad comic ventriloquist chases success at any price. After he leaves his boyfriend, Tyler (Adam Furgal), and starts to take drugs, Dave’s behavior grows increasingly more disturbing and makes the documentary film crew feel unsafe. On the plus side, the ventriloquist does start to headline some shows.
Rosendale wants “Dave and Larry” to comment on what he describes as, “the uniquely queer experience of being self-destructive in service of demolishing yourself into something you’re not, or not meant to be. Running away from a loving partner because something or someone else is insisting that you’re wrong for being with them, for being who you know you are.”
The filmmaker takes a voyeuristic approach to telling this story and includes scenes featuring night vision. His goal is to make viewers uncomfortable as they watch Dave become more self-destructive.
Rosendale says the mockumentary style provides, “a way to engage with the audience and remind them that they are supposedly watching a real person in real life.” Ultimately, the filmmaker hopes that his film “will inspire queer people to defy the oppression around them, to halt their own self destruction, and understand the true sources of their contentment: their true identities and their unapologetic relationships.”
Out gay writer/director Cory David Bortnicker makes an auspicious film debut with his gripping short drama, “My Name is Jonas.” The title character (Bortnicker) is a gay man and meth addict who enters rehab and recounts “how he got to where he is.”
Bortnicker explained that his short is inspired by his own struggle with crystal meth addiction in the chemsex subculture of New York City.
“For many users, myself included, it can lead to psychosis. During one of these experiences, I met another meth user who suggested that I read the Book of Jonah. The next day, in a detox center in New Jersey, I did. And that’s when I got the idea to tell a story about a modern-day prophet — a modern Jonah — who is a drug addict sent on a mission from God to save humanity from its own growing addiction to technology. Through the story of Jonah, I hope to tell a story that humanizes the experience of addiction and also provokes questions about what it means to have a spiritual experience in our age of so-called enlightenment.”
“My Name Is Jonas” opens with Jonas using meth before he enters rehab, then in rehab, as well as flashbacks to Jonas first trying crystal meth. Yet it is a pointed and darkly funny monologue that Jonas delivers, along with some striking visuals, that makes the film so compelling.
Bortnicker recalls, “The monologue was very fun to write because it gave me an opportunity to tell parts of my own story in a creative and funny way, while also becoming a mouthpiece to talk about all the ways Big Tech have started to enslave us. Performing the monologue was also very fun — it is fun to play crazy! Especially if you believe, in your heart, that you’re actually not crazy at all. It’s sort of a delicious place to be.”
“Secret Menu Beauty Pageant” is an inventive film cowritten and codirected by the nonbinary Frankie Campisano and SG Egan, a transwoman. The film is, according to Campisano, “A lightly fictionalized depiction of my experience growing up in North Carolina and reflecting on how I’d spent more years of my life working for minimum wage than not.”
The story, told by three subsequent narrators (David Elliot, Janice Lynn Sykes, and Fred Harris), is about the discovery of a secret menu at a fast-food joint called Burgers ‘n’ Such that leads to an unusual beauty pageant.
Campisano explained, “We knew fairly early on that the narrator’s voice would change with each sequence to signal the film’s gradual tonal shifts and challenge the audience’s perceptions as new performers were introduced. In a more traditional narrative film, you are hearing multiple voices through dialogue. In ‘Secret Menu Beauty Pageant,’ the audience hears a new voice every act break to sustain the hypnotic allure.”
They continued, “The voiceover narration and the quasi-first-person point-of-view visuals become like an ouroboros as one informs the other. Sometimes we’re showing imagery that reflects what we’re hearing from the narrator, other times it’s a deliberate juxtaposition. The mixed media, DIY aesthetic offered a lot of creative license to introduce new visual elements as we go further down the Burgers ‘n’ Such rabbit hole.”
While more quirky than queer, viewers who watch “Secret Menu Beauty Pageant” will find much to appreciate.
For tickets, theater info, and showtimes for SpringFest, visit https://filmadelphia.org/springfest/.