Three Dollar Bill spotlights Gay club movies in April

Three Dollar Bill spotlights Gay club movies in April

by Nick Ardizzone - SGN Staff Writer I LOVE THE NIGHTLIFE! FILM SERIES APRIL 10, 17 AND 24, 7 PM NORTHWEST FILM FORUM 1515 12TH AVE $10 Upon its theatrical release in 1980, William Friedkin's Cruising was met with protests by the Gay community. In the film, Al Pacino plays a straight cop who must infiltrate New York's Gay bars to find a murderer preying on leathermen. Friedkin's portrayal of the Gay lifestyle as a frenzied, violent underworld of explicit S&M earned the film critical revulsion and a place in history as an exploitative milestone in cinema history, to be dissected by the documentary The Celluloid Closet and Boze Hadleigh's book, The Lavender Screen. Some critics say the Gay community's reaction was overblown, but Friedkin's directorial touches - such as inserting "subliminal" frames of Gay pornography into a graphic murder scene - seemed threatening enough that fliers were distributed in New York Gay bars about the film, reading "This is not a film about how we live; it's a film about why we should be killed." None of this puts a damper on Jason Plourde's enthusiasm for Three Dollar Bill Cinema's screening of Cruising as the first entry in its "I Love the Nightlife!" April film series. Every Thursday night in April, a movie focusing on Gay bars, clubs, and nightlife will be shown at the Northwest Film Forum. Plourde, programming director for Three Dollar Bill Cinema, said the idea for the series came from nostalgia for Gay bars of yesteryear and a pining for films which had Gay bars as the central setpiece. The controversial Cruising, which screened last night, fit the bill. "I don't know that it's offensive," Plourde explained to the Seattle Gay News. "It's controversial in the way people see it. I think that in some ways, the film's misunderstood. It's supposed to be somewhat shocking." Plourde pointed out that Friedkin filmed in real New York Gay bars, often using bar patrons as extras. "You can take it for the good or the bad," he said. "There are points of the film that feel exploitative, but there're also parts of the film that are really authentic and, I think, true to people at that time." "We are no longer living in a time when Cruising is the only film that represents Gay characters or a Gay nightlife," he pointed out. Proving his point are the other three films rounding out April: Liza Minnelli in Cabaret, Candy Darling and Fannie Flagg in Some of my Best Friends Are..., and Frank Sinatra in The Detective. Each screening will be followed by an evening of drinks at a local bar which echoes the theme of the film. A night at The Cuff followed Cruising, meet at Purr after Cabaret April 10, visit Madison Pub after Some of my Best Friends Are... on April 17, and hit Martin's Off Madison following The Detective on April 24. Drink specials will be available to ticket holders. "I'm interested to see what sort of mix of audience we'll have," Plourde said. "We're going to have a very Gay audience, but I think there're a lot of other people out in the community that are gonna want to see the films, as well. With Cabaret, a lot of people have seen that in their home on DVD, but seeing it on film on the big screen is gonna be great." Plourde is thrilled to be showing 1971's Some of my Best Friends Are..., a Christmas story set exclusively in a Greenwich Village Gay bar that remains unavailable on video or DVD. As for 1968's The Detective - a thematic precursor to Cruising - Plourde says "I think people will be surprised how progressive Frank Sinatra is." Of course, with only four screenings, most Gay films didn't make the cut - The Village People's Can't Stop the Music came close - but Plourde has to be stern. "It's tough. We put on a four-week series and we'd love to do more, but there's always next year." Plourde's love for movies is apparent from his excitement over the April film series. "I'm thrilled to provide an opportunity for people to see archival films, to revisit cinema in our past," he said. "It's important to see the latest and newest Queer films, but at the same time remember there's some interesting work that gets forgotten and I think is worth re-examining." Tickets for the films are $10, $9 for Three Dollar Bill Cinema members, and series passes are available for $32.