WPIRG

Friday March 12th
6:15 PM — F**K the Disabled
followed by Q&A with film protagonist Greg Walloch
9:00 PM — Beyond Vanilla

Saturday March 13th
7:00 PM — I Exist
8:15 PM — Luster
10:00 PM — Reel Revolution After Party @ UW Grad House featuring comedy by Greg Walloch and music by DJ (TBA)

Sunday March 14th
7:00 PM — Brother Outsider
9:00 PM — Southern Comfort

Princess Cinema
6 Princess St W
Waterloo

University of Waterloo Davis Centre (DC)
1302 (map)

Part documentary, part concert film and part traditional comedy starring New York stand-up comedian Greg Walloch. The film chronicles Greg’s performances, his life and his daily trips to and from his apartment in Harlem. Add to this mix the fact that much of Greg’s act is based on his being openly gay and disabled, and you have the makings for some of the most timely, provocative, honest and witty material in comedy. Politically incorrect, politically challenging and politically untouchable, Greg Walloch will make the viewer question the term “disabled,” as this gifted performer pokes fun at religion, society, his friends and himself.

followed by Q&A with Greg Walloch

UW DC 1302
(map)

With something for everyone from bondage and fisting to electro-torture, director Claes Lilja goes where your mother hoped you’d never dare. This is an entertaining how-to guide for fetish and SM sex, with advice from 100 devotees.
Guaranteed to make almost anybody squirm with delight, disgust or disbelief, Beyond Vanilla takes you to exactly where it says on the tin. For the curious, the voyeur, or the enthusiast, this is a fascinating journey into the world of high performance sexual athletes, where the boundaries of gay, straight, bi or trans seem almost irrelevant. Lilja’s subjects are academics, doctors, lawyers, pornographers, porn stars, sex workers and fulfilled, freelance hedonists who offer an insider’s view of how to embrace extreme fantasies. Not recommended for those of a sensitive disposition.

“My being queer…and my being Arab…exist together, otherwise they cannot exist at all, and I know they do, because I exist.” – Lina Baroudi

I Exist is a powerful, polished, and timely documentary about the lives of lesbians and gays of Middle Eastern descent living in the U.S. They are Muslims, Jews and Christians; they come from Armenia, Syria, Iran, Egypt and Sudan. Some have only just arrived here, and some are second-generation, but all face the same racism and homophobia from the culture at large, both here and abroad. And often the most devastating homophobia comes from their own families and communities. Yet, for the most part, they are strong, articulate survivors with a firm sense of their own identities. Interestingly, each is shown full-face on camera despite the fact that all are coming out publicly for the first time. From the Sudanese man whose parents tell him they love him no matter what to the Arab woman who lives in fear of physical reprisals from her once-loving brothers, to Maher, only in this country for four months who cannot go home to his beloved Egypt because he would be arrested there for his homosexuality – the interviewees give moving and courageous voice to a part of our community that has been largely invisible.

Waking up after an orgy is only the beginning of an unforgettable weekend for Jackson, a blue-haired, queercore loving ‘zine producer and poet. Jackson thinks he’s in love with Billy, whom he met at the orgy, but Billy just wants to be friends. Enter Jackson’s hunky cousin Jed who is in town for the weekend. Jackson lusts after him, but you’re not supposed to have sex with your cousin – right? Then there is Derek, a ‘normal’ fag who claims he knew the minute he laid eyes on him that Jackson was ‘the One’. Well, Jackson isn’t interested; falling in love at first sight is bullshit – or is it? Set in a world inhabited by cute, alternative guys and a rock star with twisted sexual habits, Luster is a sex-charged tale of unrequited love, a wildly entertaining, gritty look at a queer boy’s adventures in lust, sex – and maybe even love.

No cover, but please make a donation!

Acclaimed at the 2002 Sundance Festival this compelling documentary explores the virtually unknown story of peace activist and civil rights campaigner Bayard Rustin.

A beautiful and charismatic black man, his career was blighted by his arrest on a charge of sexual perversion in the early 50s. In fact he had been openly gay long before it was socially acceptable and was a fearless and adept campaigner. He took a major role in advising Martin Luther King on strategy in the struggles around the Rosa Parks case. He went on later to play a major part in organising the historic March on Washington which galvanised the cause of civil rights in the US. His story is inspiring and the film is rich with the testimony of those who knew and worked with him, including two of his former lovers. Bayard Rustin changed history and paved the way for many other struggles. This is a timely film celebrating his immense and hitherto unsung achievements.

More info on Bayard Rustin can be found at www.rustin.org.

One of the most astonishing and moving films of 2001. With a rare blend of humor, tragedy and romance, Southern Comfort tells the remarkable story of Robert Eads, a 52-year-old wisecracking cowboy who was born female. The film finds Robert fifteen years later, during the extraordinary last year of his life, as he falls headlong into a passionate romance with Lola, a vivacious and magnetic woman who was born male. He is also diagnosed with ovarian cancer, then turned away by more than two dozen doctors who fear that taking on a transgendered patient might harm their practice.

Winner of the Grand Jury Documentary Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.

This year’s festival is still a project of the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group (WPIRG) with support from the UW Federation of Students, Princess Cinema, Generation X, dyketopia, Gays and Lesbians of Waterloo (GLOW), and the Canadian Auto Workers Local 1542.

Rainbow Reels was inspired by our queer/queer-positive friends at OPIRG-Kingston and Reel Out!