West Hollywood, California (Thursday, March 5, 2009) - LGBTIQA cinema is coming to life...moving beyond enema jokes, serial dating and endless club scenes into a thoughtful, more engaged dialog that is queer-centric yet somehow, more inclusive and interesting. 
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Some of the true highlights include the short films in the series, screening this weekend in Hollywood. Queerer Than Thou is an absolute hoot, and director Ramses Rodstein keeps the pace brisk and snappy.
This eight minute short follows an early evening in West Hollywood, where trans is the new norm, and guessing one’s original sexual identity becomes an intriguing game as our cast of fabulous characters enfolds before us in a special ordinariness.
The obligatory climax dance scene features a glittered cheerleader that is still burned indelibly in my mind.
My favorite film of the series would mos def be DISH, a Downey based short urban tale-soon to be developed as a feature-that follows the afternoon exploits of the adorable Israel, a creation of writer/director Brian Harris Krinsky.
Israel is of the Lost Generation, those young sexting, self-absorbed Narcissies, the ones with the perfect helmet hair, layered in long spikes, of indeterminate ethnic origin, but most likely latino, who spend their time with their buds, discussing sex and the promise of sex to come.
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We should be nervous about watching the sex talk of a couple of cute fifteen year olds, but this clever, tasteful and captivating film hits all the right notes, taking on profound issues without ever preaching.
Director of photography Tom Camarda makes the surrounding cityscape sunny yet lush, and DISH is emblematic of a California of today, a Wassup Rockers/Elephant hybrid with its own identity.
Since this review is now longer than the actual film, I’ll move on.
El Abuelo plays as an art piece, a short of great beauty, like a captured still photo circa 1983 come to life.
Director Dinco shows us the simplicity of Joe Jimenez, author of the seminal Chicano performance piece Homeboy Beautiful (and Other Things I’ve Nearly Forgotten But Am Throwing Punches Not to Forget), ironing his cholo uniform- wifebeater-into the perfect icon of a subculture.
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This black and white film gives us Joe in voiceover, reading from his poem that his ironing is a dedication to his intent to capture the interest of his first love of another man. It’s quietly powerful and unique.
Most of the buzz around this Fusion Fest would have to be the the Bunim/Murray production Pedro: The Movie.
MTV Films brings us the important story of 1994 Real World star Pedro Zamora, the queer activist who bravely laid his life bare for the world to see, a man with AIDS who did not flinch, did not hold back and did not allow others to limit his destiny and life.
MILK writer and handsome new gay icon Dustin Lance Black co-writes this story with the brilliant Paris Barclay, and the film is destined to be this year’s Milk or Brokeback Mountain.
Much more than a bio-pic, anyone who lived through this time will be moved to see scenes unfold that most of us have already lived through, and some have died during.
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Pedro: “I had this really great thought, that it doesn’t matter whether I die of AIDS, or I survive:
In the big scheme of things, what matters most is that I stood up and I was counted. I said I’m a person living with HIV, and this is who I am.”
Moving stuff.
The cast is pitch-perfect, and Pedro: The Movie is a must-see for those who lived it in those years and for those young kids today who think they are bulletproof and immortal.
See “Outfest Announces 2009 Fusion Lineup”
for the complete schedule of events.
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