MIX: The 14th New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival will run November 15-19 at Anthology Film Archives (2nd Ave. at 2nd St.) and the Two Boots Pioneer Theater (Ave. A at 3rd St.). This year the festival will present over 100 titles, including 38 New York and 27 World Premiere screenings. As one of the largest showcases for experimental film and emerging makers, MIX will show work from Hong Kong, France, Italy, Mexico, Brasil, India, Germany, Canada, Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. Filmmakers premiering their work in this year's line-up include: Ira Sachs, Patty Chang, Stephen Winter, Deborah Edmeades, André Hereford, Stephen Kijak, Ricardo Nicolayevsky, John Bruce, Kathy High, Pierre-Yves Clouin and Ximena Cuevas. A major highlight of the festival will be a revival screening of the underground epic, Thundercrack (1975). Directed by Curt McDowell with a screenplay by George Kuchar, the film stars Marion Eaton as a passionate, yet mysterious farmhouse matron and Kuchar himself as one of seven libidinous strangers trapped in a raging thunderstorm. In 1976, Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "With tongue bulging in cheek, McDowell and Kuchar use the B movie haunted house format of people taking refuge in a remote, mysterious house on a rainy night as a framework for a marathon exploration of sexual and psychological aberrations". The film will be screened on Saturday, Nov. 18 at Midnight as part of The Midnight Sexy Horror Picture Show series, which will showcase scary queer date movies during the run of the festival. As the visibility (and viability) of short film has increased via web-based distribution, many of the makers MIX has championed have flourished. In keeping with our mission to be the leading venue for innovative gay and lesbian cinema (in all formats), we are pleased to inaugurate the Innovations Feature Series with feature length work by MIX alumni Liza Johnson, Ned Ambler and Todd Verow. Along with the newly establish MIX Innovators Award (presented in the spring), this marks a new phase in programming and presentation for MIX. A third side-bar series, ACCESS, explores digital media. While film and video makers have been transforming themselves into "DVmakers", audiences have often been left wondering what the real implications of this new technology and visual products will be. This series provides audiences and makers with a focused opportunity to "access" the future of cinema. Programs include a new installment of The Queer Online Digifest (co-produced and presented by popcornq.com) and HUGE, an all-original program featuring commissioned digital shorts by an array of New York directors. Inspired by the Dogma phenomenon, curators Justin Tan and Byrd McDonald have invited artists to interpret the word "huge" in three minutes using a digital camera and editing equipment. MIX's ongoing international collaborations will be represented in three shorts programs. One each from sister festivals MIX Mexico and MIX Brasil, which demonstrate the latest in gay and lesbian film production in these countries. A third program will be dedicated to the uncovered filmed portraits by Mexican filmmaker Ricardo Nicolayevsky. Made on Super 8mm in the 1980s, when the filmmaker lived and worked in New York City, these mesmerizing films will receive their first public screenings in New York. Featuring images of his intimate friends and colleagues including video virtuosa Ximena Cuevas and the incomparable Michael Musto. Focusing on the Festival's 2000 theme, "Launch Pad: The Future of Cinema and Sexuality," a special animation program will present recent accomplishments in this popular area of filmmaking. Transrendered will include short animated works using techniques ranging from advanced digital technology to hand-cranked, hand-processed 35mm. There will also be a "Timewarp" Video Installation Program in the Gallery at Anthology, featuring several innovative new video works in a futuristic viewing environment. Launching the festival will be its annual salute to short film, this year entitled Rocket Fuel. The program will include New York premieres by several prominent artists including Pierre-Yves Clouin, Patty Chang and Kathy High and will be followed by a gala after-party. The Festival's closing night event, PRODUCT, will take place at FUN (30 Madison St. at Pike St.). A morphed rendition of Product, a pop/sub-cultural digital video magazine, the event provides access to a world of plastic surgery, publicists, fashion designers, groupies, rock stars, steroids and disco dollies via total-immersion video projection, DJ sounds and live performance.
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