CINEMAROSA’s premiere screening program for 2015 includes monthly presentations of award winning independent documentaries, fiction and experimental works in collaboration with filmmakers, producers, distributor and other organizations. When possible, every screening program counts with the participation of the makers and shakers of LGBTQ community in NYC and beyond. CINEMAROSA Calendar includes: Spring (March to June), Summer (July and August), Fall (September to December), and Winter (January and February). CINEMAROSA screenings take place at the Queens Museum, 3 - 6 PM every Third Sunday of the Month.
SPRING 2015:
Sunday, May 17, 3 PM
CINEMAROSA, the monthly Queer film series of New York City celebrates its monthly screening presentations with films from Mexico and India. The special anniversary presentation includes the screening of Música Ocular (Eye Music) directed by Mexican filmmaker José Antonio Cordero, and the short film from India, Big TIme: My Doodled Diary directed by Sonali Gulati.
After the screening, join us for an informal gathering to make a toss for our 10th Anniversary!
MÚSICA OCULAR (Eye Music)
Dir. Jose Antonio Cordero
Mexico, 2012, 95 min.
"Musica ocular" is the first feature film in Mexican Sign Language. It was mainly created by filmaker Jose Antonio Cordero and a group of young Deaf after a two year film workshop leaded by the filmmaker. During a visit to a seashore Jose Antonio came across Eric, a young villager who tried to communicate with him using sign language. At that very moment he realized that himself (and not Eric) was a disabled person. By learning Sign Language Jose Antonio discovered what he thought was a very deep link between this visual means of communication and that of cinema (especially in silent films). The director decided to confront both challenges through making Eric and his friends live the moviemaking experience.
Jose Antonio Cordero is a mexican theater director, filmmaker and video artist. His first film "The fourth house, a portrait of Elena Garro" was nominated by the Mexican Film Academy as Best Documentary in 2002. He has directed the long feature documentary "Bajo Juarez, the city devouring its daughters" that was part of the World Competition at Sundance 2007, IDFA 2007 and won the first prize at Cinesul 2008, San Diego and Chicago Latino Film Festivals that same year.
BIG TIME: MY DOODLED DIARY
Dir. Sonali Gulati
India, 2014, 11 min.
“ As a South Asian woman living in the United States, I have found myself keenly interested in the politics of “representation” in mass media. I find myself drawn to the kind of self, subject, and subjectivity portrayed in film. These are issues that I have grappled with and continue to explore in my own creative work. I am most interested in making films that create a stronger presence for diverse, under-represented, and silenced voices. My work fuses art and politics from a place of passion for activism and determination towards social change. I often ask myself: Why this film? Or more importantly: Why am I making this film? As a result, my work is driven by deeply personal motivations that strive to strengthen the connection between myself and my work as a filmmaker.”
Sonali Gulati is an independent filmmaker, a feminist, grassroots activist, and an educator. She is an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Photography & Film. She has an MFA in Film & Media Arts from Temple University and a BA in Critical Social Thought from Mount Holyoke College. Ms. Gulati grew up in New Delhi, India and has made several short films that have screened at over three hundred film festivals worldwide. Her most recent film I Am has won 12 awards and continues to exhibit extensively in the film festival circuit. Gulati has won awards, grants, and fellowships from the Third Wave Foundation, World Studio Foundation, the Robert Giard Memorial Fellowship, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship, the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), VCU School of the Arts Faculty Award of Excellence and most recently a grant from the Creative Capital Foundation.
Sunday, April 19, 3 PM
CINEMAROSA, the monthly Queer film series of New York City continues with its Spring 2015 screenings at the Queens Museum. On Sunday, April 19th, 3:00 PM CINEMAROSA presents the program "Consentual" featuring award wining independent films "Age of Consent" a collaboration project by local filmmakers Charles Lum & Todd Verow, and "Transvisible" by Peruvian West Coast based filmmaker Dante Alencastre. The program will premiere the short "Been Too Long at the FAIR" by Lum and Verow.
About the films:
Age of Consent
Dirs. Charles Lum & Todd Verow
USA, 2014, 88 min.
The story of the HOIST, London's first and only Gay SEX Fetish Bar, coincides with the history of AIDS, gay gentrification, and the ongoing struggle to decriminalize homosexual activity in the United Kingdom. It includes interviews with barmen, patrons, trans-men, human rights activist Peter Tatchell and AIDS emeritus Dr. Joseph Sonnabend. It contains explicit sex, as it's subject insists.
Transvisible
Dir. Dante Alencastre
USA,2013, 60 min.
The inspiring and intimate story of renowned Los Angelesbased. Transgender Latina activist Bamby Salcedo, who turns personal life challenges into the very basis of her social activism, giving voice and visibility to the multiple overlapping communities (transgender, immigrant, youth, HIV+ and LGBT communities) that her life has touched.
BEEN TOO LONG AT THE FAIR
Dirs. Charles Lum & Todd Verow
USA, 2015, 7 min.
The FAIR Theater in Jackson Heights, Queens is one of the oldest continuously running gay establishments in New York City. A loyal patron reveals the history of the FAIR and how it managed to stay open and serve it’s gay clientele while most other New York City porn theatres closed. His recounting of erotic encounters there over 35 years reminds us to keep our gay histories living.
Sunday, March 21, 3 PM
CINEMAROSA’s premiere screening program for 2015 includes the presentation of award winning documentaries Growing Old Gracefully: The Transgender Experience directed by Minnesota based filmmaker Joe Ippolito, Trans Lives Matter! Justice for Islan Nettles directed by New York based Nigerian filmmaker Seyi Adebanjo, When You Look at Me directed by Diana Bejarano, and I Am (Hear) directed by Olympia Perez with producer husband Sasha Alexander, and the special presentation of the animated documentary Dating Sucks: A Genderqueer Misadventure directed by Sam Berliner.
About the films:
Growing Old Gracefully: The Transgender Experience
Dir. Joe Ippolito
USA, 2014, 37 min.
Documentary that looks at the experiences of aging trans and gender non-conforming people. For the first time in history, cohorts of trans/GnC people are entering their 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. As a result of this, aging trans and GnC people are starting to confront a range of issues, such as health care concerns, housing/legal issues and financial struggles, within a culture that remains largely transphobic. Additionally, the documentary explores areas where aging, sexism, racism, classism and transphobia intersect and captures the history of the modern day transgender movement. Throughout the film, trans activists, practitioners, researchers and experts are interviewed and the life stories of three trans identified individuals profiled in greater detail.
The screening of Growing Old Gracefully: The Transgender Experience is made possible by Gender Reel Productions.
When You Look at Me
Dir. Diana Bejarano
USA, 2014, 7 min.
Trans Lives Matter! Justice for Islan Nettles
Dir. Seyi Adebanjo
USA, 2013, 6 min.
Dating Sucks: A Genderqueer Misadventure
Dir. Sam Berliner
USA, 2013, 12 min.
The special screening presentation of this short documentary animation is possible directly through the generosity of filmmaker Sam Berliner.
I Am (Hear)
Dir. Olympia Perez
USA, 2014, 14 min.
