Frameline previews

Have you noticed that current film festivals are awash with documentaries. Consider: Frameline gave me three films to review. Two of them were docs. The only narrative flick in the bunch looks intentionally like a documentary. In fact, it could be easily called a docudrama.

So here are the three films I saw. Even if there is little fiction, and a lot of fact, all three films are worth watching.

A Queendom

I never saw anyone with the courage of the courage @genamarvin (born male), living in Putin’s Russia, and frequently dressing and living as a woman (her preferred gender). She goes into a grocery store dressed very femininely and is thrown out. And she doesn’t just protest about gender issues. She goes outside to protest against the Ukraine war, and when she dresses like she does, the police will go after the “weirdos.” She is truly a heroine. In the cinéma vérité style, Queendom has no narration.

Queendom will play only once at the festival. That will be at the Castro, on June 15, 2023, at 1:00 PM.

B+ Anhell69

As I watched this extremely frightening film from Colombia, I often thought that the festival made a mistake by putting this into the documentary section. By the end, I finally realized that this was truly a work of fiction. A young man tries to make a film about the horrible things that have happened recently in Colombia. The narrator is trying to create a documentary about how LGBTQ people are treated by the government. And as the narrator interviews possible actors, the people working in the film begin to disappear.

Anhell69 will be screened at the Castro on Wednesday, June 14, at 11:00pm. Director Joseph Wilson and producer Stephen Carruthers will be there for a Q&A.

You can also stream the film from Saturday, June 24 to Sunday, July 2.

B Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn

I’ve seen a lot of documentaries about a new, left-leaning politician. They’re all pretty much the same, and the only thing that makes them different is the candidate. Kenyatta is going for an important job: a seat in the senate, and for Pennsylvania, a major swing state. What more, Kenyatta is not only black, but gay. To make it obvious, he marries his boyfriend during the campaign.

You can see Kenyatta at the Castro on Thursday, June 15, at 3:30 PM. You can also stream the film from Saturday, June 2 to Sunday, July 2.