THE JOY OF LIFE
Jenni Olson
USA, 2005, 65 minutes
A blend of experimental narrative and documentary, THE JOY OF LIFE combines stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voiceover (performed by artist/actor/butch-dyke Harriet "Harry" Dodge) to portray a San Francisco seldom seen--one of poetry, sex and suicide.
The film is divided into two acts, with an intermission by Beat writer and San Francisco icon Lawrence Ferlinghetti. In the first half, a Midwestern lesbian describes searching for love and lust and self in her new town. Her heartbreak is all the more poignant as it is juxtaposed with images of the early morning empty streets.
In the intermission poem, Ferlinghetti chants about the special quality of the daylight in the city, inviting our minds to wander and imagine the scenes as he reads over a black screen.
The next act is more somber, detailing the morose fame of the Golden Gate Bridge as the number one suicide landmark in the world, and the death of a friend of director Jenni Olson. The bridge is shown from a hundred angles, never boring; it is alluring and melancholy even in the fog. A convincing argument is made for the creation of a barrier on the bridge to prevent suicides, something the city appears uneager to do.
As JOY OF LIFE explores physical and emotional landscapes, one is alternately swept up in the pace of modern life and given breathing room and a time to reflect in the pauses.
Rose Vincelli
Writer/director Jenni Olson has been programming, researching, collecting, creating and writing about gay, lesbian, bi and transgender (GLBT) film since 1986 and is one of the world's leading experts on GLBT cinema. Olson has worked extensively on film festivals, and in 1999 she launced the PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards, the first GLBT online film festival. She also writes about GLBT film for The Advocate, indieWIRE.com,the Bay Area Reporter and other publications. THE JOY OF LIFE is her first feature-length film.
Print Source:
Mat Cote, Frameline
145 Ninth St. Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94103
Tel: 415.703.8650 ext 305
Email: mcote@frameline.org
PRECEDED BY...FLIGHT INTO REDNESS
Diana Weilepp
Germany, 2005, 17 minutes
A walk with famous poet John Burnside along the coast of his native Scotland reveals secrets about the act of writing and his way of looking at the world.
Print Source:
Diana Weilepp, Munich Film School
Heimeranstr. 66
Munich 80339
Germany
Tel: 49.89.54035769
Email: dweilepp@web.de
Sunday 6/19 at 5:30 p.m.
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