The ONE Archives Foundation is presenting a new exhibition, titled “I Almost Ran Over Liza Minnelli Today”: Colin Campbell and Lisa Steele in L.A., 1976-77, at the ONE Gallery in West Hollywood. The exhibition will feature a series of videos made by pioneer filmmakers Campbell and Steele in the 1970s in Los Angeles's Venice neighborhood. Campbell and Steele were self-proclaimed “anthropologists studying a very strange culture through its everyday media and manifestations.” Their works explore how the authentic plays with the artifice by studying some of the personas and stories carefully curated within their respective practices as video artists. They produced works like The Woman From Malibu and The Scientist Tapes, which displayed subculture attitudes and queer themes that had only tentatively been explored in media at that point.
The exhibition will be on view July 8-September 23, with a screening at the West Hollywood City Council Chambers from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday and a reception at the ONE Gallery from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. that day. The films on display in the exhibition will be featured alongside a selection of photos, artists’ books, texts, and ephemera, and the exhibit will be guest curated by Jon Davies.
Los Angeles’s world-class LGBT film festival kicks off July 12, with its opening night gala and a screening of the documentary Studio 54. This year’s festival, which features screenings and parties throughout L.A., features more films by women, people of color, and transgender people than ever before. Among this year’s narrative features are Drew Droege’s Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, 1985, Malila: The Farewell Flower, Hard Paint, Mapplethorpe, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Documentary features include Mr. Gay Syria, TransMilitary, Bad Reputation (about Joan Jett), and The Ice King (about skater John Curry). The festival also offers several thoughtfully curated shorts programs as well as screenings of episodic programs and discussion panels.
It’s summertime, which means there’s never a better time to hop in the car and head to the beach belting the Indigo Girls’ “Galileo” with your besties. Now Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, the duo who’ve created beautiful harmonies and impossibly catchy songs together for more than 30 years, have released a double record with the backing of a full orchestra. Indigo Girls Live With the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra breathes a new identity into classics like “The Wood Song,” “Virginia Woolf,” “Closer to Fine,” “Kid Fears,” and many more.
The Indigo Girls are also on tour and playing with symphonies around the country. The record and live performances are not to be missed.
Bears and their admirers know how to party, and the schedule for Bear Week in Provincetown, Mass., certainly proves it: pool parties, beach parties, disco parties, a leather masquerade ball. There are also art shows, religious services, body-positivity workshops, and sports events, along with plenty of time to explore all the sights of P-Town and its environs. Bear Week starts today and continues through July 15; find all the info here.
The work of telemarketers -- who probably hate making the calls as musch as those on the other end hate receiving them -- and the nation's racial and economic divides get satirized in the film Sorry to Bother You from writer-director Boots Riley. Lakeith Stanfield (Atlanta) stars as Cassius Green, a telemarketer who struggles to make sales until he uses his "white voice" (dubbed by David Cross) and then ascends to his company's highest echelons, where he has a chance to become an exploiter of the first order. Newly out actress Tessa Thompson costars as Detroit, a fiery performance artist. Sorry to Bother You opens in limited release today and will be everywhere July 13. Find screenings near you here and watch a trailer below.
Temptation Sundays is the big gay pool party in Las Vegas, and ittakes place every Sunday at the Luxor Resort and Casino. But there's another game in town: the Electric Safari LGBT Night Swim Pool Party, just across the street at the Flamingo Las Vegas. The 15-acre tropical retreat, with a lush waterfall, welcomes nighttime party people every Friday night. The season begins tonight with tunes by DJ Ryan Kenny. Doors open at 9 p.m.; find more info at NightSwimVegas.com.
Is kindnesd a form of protest? This immensely heartwarming documentary about children's programming icon Fred Rogers explores how compassion transitions to social justice. The film also shows that Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, was a true LGBT ally who invited queer people into his life and neighborhood. Rogers's gay costar François Clemmons (known to some as Officer Clemmons) breaks down how Rogers loved and empowered him regardless of his sexuality and how everyone's neighbor believed in inclusivity in its truest sense.