by R.J. Beaumia
ROYAL OAK – What a great way to celebrate an indictment: Watching a fantastic movie last Friday with a bunch of queers at Royal Oak's Main Art theater.
It was the closing night of the fourth annual Reel Pride Michigan Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the gravity of a particular political moment wasn't lost on anyone in the audience, or the people onscreen for that matter.
Jeffrey Montgomery, executive director of the Triangle Foundation, which sponsors Reel Pride, mentioned the troubles of Republicans in Washington when he told the crowd, "Some indictments were handed down today…" The cheers and the applause were, as to be expected, loud.
Montgomery has said that Reel Pride acts as an important cultural showcase for Michigan's LGBT community and is a critical component of Triangle's "relentless political and policy activism." The festival's closing presentation proved this with Triangle putting its money where its ideological mouth is.
The eponymous subject of the festival's closing film, the documentary "Left Lane: On the Road with Folk Poet Alix Olson," was a welcome and appropriate guest at the Reel Pride finale as was the film's director Samantha Farinella. These are two people who not only understand that the personal is political; they are both literally on the road taking that message to audiences across the country.
When asked what she thought of the indictment counts against Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Olson said, "I don't think there were enough of them… I'm so enraged by so many things that are happening but the indictments today were nice."
Farinella, who is Olson's manager, filmed the performance poet over the period of a year as the two toured nationally. "Left Lane" documents that journey and also proves handily that political protest as entertainment doesn't have to be limited the deadly mirthlessness of Joan Baez.
Olson's performance showstopper "America on Sale" combines an auctioneers lingual dexterity and energy with the stinging cultural commentary of a beat poet.
Make no mistake, though; Olson is a serious political activist and commentator. She was a protest professional from her earliest memory. "I used to sit on my dad's shoulders at protests," she said.
Olson is intelligent and very talented, gracious and respectful of the talent of others. She has wonderful philosophy that is sort of an angry optimism and while she can appear demure in public when not performing, when it's time to deliver the goods everyone had better step aside.
As luck, good luck, would have it, Olson is also a lesbian. She supports the LGBT community and celebrates it. Her appearance at Reel Pride and festivals like it seems to be a calling for her. "The only way to save yourself is to have fun with people you have a camaraderie with," Olson said.
Farinella, also a smart, articulate, and political lesbian, shows signs of being a fantastic filmmaker. She said she felt the most important task she wanted to accomplish with "Left Lane" was to expose everyone to Olson and her message. "Just get it done and get it out there," she said.
She also doesn't mince words, which is refreshing and even encouraging to a LGBT audience. While so many high-profile people and organizations seem to making the grave mistake of kowtowing to religious organizations and softening their rhetoric, Farinella revels in being abrasive. "I'm not of the Gandhi ilk," she said. "I think we need to get out there and confront everyone."
Confrontation is what seems to be missing from contemporary queer dialogue. By bringing Olson and Farinella to Reel Pride, Triangle Foundation proved that not only is confrontation essential and enlightening, it can also be entertaining while delivering a message within the community and outside of it.
Triangle provided an excellent, balanced program this year with films that put a lot of emphasis on the realities of LGBT life. It was particularly good to see that one series was devoted to gay male body issues. Showing "A Bear's Story" on the same night as "Do I Look Fat?" was an affirming diptych for the self-esteem of those who are big and hairy or like them that way.
This year's Reel Pride proved to Michigan's LGBT community that consciousness raising doesn't have to be dour.
