TIFF Cinematheque
CHOCOLATE BABIES
Dir. Stephen Winter | USA | 1996 | 83m | English
Canadian premiere of 4K restoration
In-person Q&A with director Stephen Winter
TIFF Cinematheque New & Restored — June 21, 2023 at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3
In this entertaining yet fiery political satire ― director Stephen Winter’s daring debut ― a powerful team of sharp-tongued Black drag queens, an HIV-positive Black woman, a trans chanteuse, and a soft-spoken queer Asian activist stage a series of surprise attacks on New York City’s conservative officials, who are believed to be collecting secret lists of HIV-positive individuals for nefarious purposes. When their plans are jeopardized and enemy lines are crossed, the group begins to lose sight of their mission and loyalty to each other.
Chocolate Babies was seemingly lost to the world after a regrettably brief festival run in the late ’90s. Despite its critical acclaim, it did not receive proper distribution until 25 years after its premiere. Now, the film’s themes of racial discrimination and lack of support for those who are most vulnerable feel just as urgent and impactful, if not more so. As the promotional material for the film proudly exclaims: “Chocolate Babies are phantasmagoric! Chocolate Babies are ubiquitous! And Chocolate Babies are angry!”
Bearer of Light: The Films of Kenneth Anger
TIFF Wavelengths Presents — January 10, 2024 at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 4
Kenneth Anger, the legendary mystical filmmaker, began his career with a literal bang in the 1947 short Fireworks. The film was a revolutionary portrayal of gay desire that put the filmmaker at the centre of his own painful sexual awakening and marked the beginning of the American gay avant-garde movement. Anger made films about queerness, Satanism, pop culture, and occult mythology. Although he produced over 30 films in his lifetime, many were lost or destroyed, fuelling myth-making opportunities for Anger to embellish his own elaborate biography. In Anger’s films, one must reinvent the self in extravagant ways to reject heteronormative society. However, these reinventions often evoke a darker side. Characters dress as hyper-real, campy personas, transforming into drag versions of Hindu deities (Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome) and fetishized, leather-clad Nazi bikers (Scorpio Rising). His transgressions and political provocations courted controversy and scandal over the years, making his work and legacy a knotty but vital conversation to have. Anger was a master of dreamy imagery and pitch-perfect needle drops, inspiring filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, and Ari Aster. This homage includes five films from Anger’s iconic Magick Lantern Cycle, revealing him as a bearer of both light and darkness.
Playing as a part of this programme:
PUCE MOMENT
Dir. Kenneth Anger | USA | 1949 | 6m | 16mm print
Though Anger is well-remembered for exposing the scandals and secrets behind the glitter of Hollywood in his tell-all book Hollywood Babylon, this film of his celebrates all that is shiny and new. Multi-coloured gowns flutter past the camera like curtains opening to welcome viewers to the show. A beautiful woman appears and prepares for another day in Tinseltown accompanied by her Borzois.
FIREWORKS
Dir. Kenneth Anger | USA | 1947 | 15m | Restored 35mm print
Anger’s earliest surviving work explores the homoerotic fantasies and nightmares of a closeted 17-year-old. The Dreamer, played by Anger, seeks sexual satisfaction in unlikely places, only to be engulfed in sadomasochistic encounters with the wrong crowd. This highly original work is the first explicitly gay narrative film in the United States, for which Anger was charged with obscenity.
EAUX D’ARTIFICE (WATERWORKS)
Dir. Kenneth Anger | USA | 1953 | 13m | 16mm print
A pun on the French word for fireworks (feux d’artifice), Eaux d’Artifice is the antithesis of the sexual frustrations and violent outbursts seen in Fireworks. A mysterious woman dressed in 18th century clothes wanders through the Villa d’Este to the tune of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”. Sensuous waterworks erupt from fountains, freely flowing in a triumphant release of pleasure.
SCORPIO RISING
Dir. Kenneth Anger | USA | 1963 | 29m | Restored 35mm print
One of the most widely-seen and influential experimental films of all time, Scorpio Rising follows a gang of gay Nazi bikers preparing for a night out. A carefully-curated soundtrack of 1960s pop songs amusingly contrasts the debauchery.
INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME
Dir. Kenneth Anger | USA | 1954 | 38m | 16mm print
Gods, deities, and mystical beings are cordially invited to a masquerade party. Shiva wakes and embarks on a psychedelic journey as he is joined by other holy figures. Vivid colours bathe the participants in saturated hues as they mingle in orgiastic rituals.
Set in Argentina in 1965, Burnt Money follows the true story of the precarious relationship between two men, Nene and Angel, whose fiery bond is tested after a botched bank robbery.
Known to everyone as “The Twins” for their inseparability, Nene and Angel hide their secret love affair from the outside world. When they are recruited for a seemingly straight-forward heist, the robbery turns bloody, and Angel is wounded during their escape. Laying low in Uruguay and awaiting an uncertain future, Nene’s lustful urges and Angel’s deteriorating mental health endanger both their love and their lives.
With echoes of Bonnie and Clyde and Thelma & Louise, Burnt Money anchors its hard-boiled true-crime narrative with the tender, melancholic portrayal of two men whose love is bound together by the blood, sweat, and tears of a life spent on the run.
BURNT MONEY
Dir. Marcelo Piñeyro | Argentina, Spain, Uruguay | 125m | Spanish
35mm print courtesy of TIFF’s Film Reference Library
TIFF Cinematheque Special Screenings — June 5, 2024 at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 4