By Autumn Rendall
The annual Houston Cinema Arts Festival returns to screens this November 14–18, boasting a programming lineup teeming with films made by and about LGBTQ people. “We wanted every single side of the spectrum to be represented,” says Michael Robinson, Houston Cinema Arts Society marketing and communications manager. “Not just, ‘Oh okay, cool, we have the one queer film.’ It really was making sure [queer identity] was something that was represented in a lot of different avenues.”
On Saturday, November 16, two step your way to Rice Cinema to see Brokeback: A Shorts Film Program, the festival’s celebration of “queer yeehaw.” The program showcases 50 years of queer “cowpeople”—a gender–neutral form of cowboy and cowgirl—from lesbian cowgirls in Barbara Hammer’s Death of a Marriage, to queer Tejano content in Adrian Garcia Gomez’s La Mesa. The screening will also include the rarely-seen Queers N’ Steers, a short documentary on the gay rodeo scene in Texas, as well as a reading from local playwright and Spectrum South writer Josh Inocéncio. “[This compilation] shows how there is this innate cowboy culture that can exist, but it’s not divorced from the aesthetized Hollywood version,” Robinson says. “There’s also this weird interplay between the two.”
‘Brokeback: A Shorts Film Program’ will include the rarely-seen ‘Queers N’ Steers,’ a short documentary on the gay rodeo scene in Texas.
The festival gets experimental on Sunday, November 17, with its series Around the World in a Day: Experimental Cinema Now, also at Rice Cinema. The program includes the film The Giverny Document by Ja’Tovia Gary, a black lesbian filmmaker who was named one of Filmmaker Magazine‘s 25 Filmmakers to Watch in 2017. In her film, Gary explores the creative virtuosity of Black femme performance figures while reflecting on the safety and bodily autonomy of Black women. Gary, who is also a member of the New Negress Film Society, will be in attendance at the screening.
Ja’Tovia Gary’s ‘The Giverny Document’
Closing down the festival on Monday, November 18, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is the Houston premiere of director and screenwriter Céline Sciamma’s historical drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Set in 18th-century France, the film tells the story of the young daughter of a French countess, who develops a mutual attraction to the female artist commissioned to paint her wedding portrait. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the winner of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival’s top queer prize, the Queer Palm, and is the first film directed by a woman to win the award. “This is the movie that I’ve been waiting for my entire life,” Robinson says. “[From] the craft to the intention behind it, [Sciamma] really made this period piece queer and through the feminine gaze from start to finish.”
Céline Sciamma’s ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’
The Houston Cinema Arts Festival began in 2008, following the realization that Houston did not have a prominent film scene at the time. This year’s festival is the first under the Houston Cinema Arts Society’s new artistic director, Jessica Green, who joined the Society’s team following her tenure as cinema director at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, New York. “Her entire way of thinking is not just about how a film is made, but who is making it and what stories are being told,” Robinson says.
Under Green’s direction, this year’s festival has a particular focus on local talent, Robinson notes, in an effort to showcase the immense variety of skills and projects the Houston film community has to offer. “For us, that’s part of growth,” Robinson says. “That’s part of giving local artists opportunities that they might not have at other festivals. It’s a way to also really highlight new creators in Houston.”
To view a full schedule of the weekend’s films and to purchase tickets, visit cinemahtx.org.
