UNC Asheville Hosts GLBTQ Films at Fine Arts Theatre
March 31;
Proceeds to Benefit GLBTQ Studies Conference
In conjunction with
UNC Asheville’s sixth scholarly conference on GLBTQ studies, three films
will be screened at the Fine Art Theatre, 36 Biltmore Ave., in downtown
Asheville on Thursday, March 31. Screenings of “Ruthie & Connie: Every
Room in the House” and “Hummer” will begin at 7 p.m. The screening of
“Farm Family… In Search of Gay Life in Rural America” will begin at 8:40
p.m. Admission is $6 for each screening or $10 for both. All proceeds
will benefit the conference.
“Ruthie & Connie:
Every Room in the House” is a 56-minute film by Academy Award nominee
Deborah Dickson. The documentary follows Ruthie Berman and Connie Kurtz,
who in 1959 were married mothers of young children, living in a working
class Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. In 1974, they left their husbands
and children and moved in together, turning their worlds upside down.
Twenty years later, the Jewish lesbian grandmothers made history in a
landmark lawsuit winning domestic partner benefits for all New York City
employees. “Ruthie & Connie” has won numerous awards, including the New
York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary.
The 10-minute film
“Hummer” by Guinevere Turner follows Casey as she frantically prepares
for a dinner party while telling her friend Bee about Sam, the new girl
she is dating. Sam is great in every way, except for one thing: she hums
absent mindedly. Later, as the dinner party unfolds, viewers see that
Casey tends to get lost in the minutia of life, completely missing what
is glaringly obvious to the rest of the world.
“Farm Family… In
Search of Gay Life in Rural America” is a feature-length documentary
directed by Tom Murray. Rural gay voices are rarely heard, so Murray,
who was raised on a Midwestern dairy farm, traveled across the country
to let men like him tell their stories. Along the way, he encounters a
Wisconsin couple with five children, a cattle farmer who competes in a
Minnesota gay rodeo, radical faeries in New Mexico, Wyoming’s gay pride
celebration and two former lovers who created a gay Moravian hermitage
in Pennsylvania.
UNC Asheville’s sixth
scholarly conference on gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and queer
studies will be held March 31- April 2. The four-day conference brings
together scholars from across the country to explore this year’s focus
on gender differences and cultural resistance. The conference will
feature panels and paper presentations.
Community members who
are interested in attending conference sessions may do so for a reduced
registration fee. For more information on fees and the entire conference
schedule, click on www.unca.edu/glsc.
For more information
about the film screenings, call Lori Horvitz, UNC Asheville assistant
professor of Literature and Language, at 828/251-6590.
Media Contacts:
- Lori Horvitz, UNC Asheville assistant professor of Literature and
Language, 828/251-6590
|
