Time

Wed Nov 7th:

Thurs Nov 8th

Friday Nov 9th

Saturday Nov 10th

2:30 PM

Monkey's Mask

7:30 PM

Burnt Money

Burnt Money

Monkey's Mask

Princesa

9:30 PM

Princesa

Drift

Milan’s seedy red-light district, the world’s largest market for transsexual prostitution, provides the backdrop for this unique Cinderella fable. Fernanda, a nineteen-year-old Brazilian transvestite, longs to undergo a sex-change operation, find an ideal husband, and lead the life of a normal middle-class housewife. On the streets of Milan, she transforms into “Princesa”, a stylish and alluring prostitute. When handsome client Gianni succumbs to her charms and offers her the means to realize her dreams, Princesa is forced to reexamine the person she hopes to become.

Winner of the Best Foreign Film Award at Outfest, this film is a provocative and moving exploration of love, community, and the journey toward self-acceptance. Sharply observant of the social dynamics of Milan’s street life, director Henrique Goldman relies on  an extraordinary cast of mostly nonprofessional actors – many of whom are well-known transvestites in Italy – to tell a story of lives crowded at the busy intersection of gender and class.

Based on the acclaimed novel in verse by Dorothy Parker, this erotic thriller accompanies Jill Fitzpatrick, a street-smart private detective, into a world of literary rivalry, seduction and murder. Investigating the disappearance of a young female student, Jill is instantly drawn to Diana, an alluring and sexually aggressive poetry teacher. As the two women embark on a steamy affair, the case takes a dark turn. Blinded by passion and enmeshed in Diana’s elite intellectual underground, the detective fails to see the mounting menace until her own life is in danger.

Director Samantha Lang’s Sydney emerges as a stylish city of glittering, duplicitous surfaces, and her sapphic sex scenes, set to the lush sounds of Groove Armada, are pulse pounding. As Diana, audience favorite Kelly McGillis (The Accused, Top Gun) is unabashedly sexual.  Susie Porter (of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode Two) creates an alternatively tough and tender detective who deserves her own movie franchise.

Accompanying his boyfriend Joel to a party, Ryan, an Asian-Canadian screenwriter, meets Leo,  an aspiring novelist and college student. As the two writers converse, Ryan becomes infatuated, imagining that Leo is the one person who can completely understand his intellectual and artistic passion. Unable to sever this visceral connection, Ryan ends his three-year relationship with Joel, ignoring the fact that Joel loves him unconditionally. Out on a limb, Ryan leaves home one fateful morning and drifts into three different possibilities of a love triangle.

Following in the tradition of such films as Sliding Doors and The Mexican, indie-favorite Quentin Lee’s latest offering allows the audience to see how a character’s life would have turned out had they made different decisions.  This structure provides some fascinating twists and ample opportunity for Lee’s ruminations on the nature of desire and attraction. Shot on digital video, the film has a rough documentary appearance, adding extraordinary aesthetic depth.

Drift