Saturday, 12 July 08: Documentary Screening - The Celluloid Closet

21 of June 2008 @ PELANGI PRIDE CENTRE

Screening of "THE CELLULOID CLOSET"

The film is based on the 1981 (revised 1987) book of the same name written by Vito Russo, and on previous lecture and film clip presentations given in person by Russo 1972-82. Russo researched the history of how motion pictures, especially Hollywood films, had portrayed gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters. It was given a limited release in select theatres, including the Castro Theatre in San Francisco in April 1996, and then shown on cable channel HBO.

The documentary interviews various men and women connected to the Hollywood industry to comment on various film clips and their own personal experiences with the treatment of LGBT characters in film. From the sissy characters, to the censorship of the Hollywood Production Code, the coded gay characters and cruel stereotypes to the progress made in the early 1990s.

Vito Russo wanted his book to be transformed into a documentary film and helped out on the project until he died in 1990. Some critics of the documentary noted that it was less political than the book and ended on a more positive note. However, Russo had wanted the documentary to be entertaining and to reflect the positive changes that had occurred up to 1990.

Directed by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Produced by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Written by Vito Russo, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, Sharon Wood, Armistead Maupin
Starring Lily Tomlin (narrator)
Music by Carter Burwell
Running time 107 min.
Subtitles - Yes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celluloid_Closet

As this event is by invitation only, prior registration is required. To sign up, please email [pelangipridecentre at yahoo dot com] to RSVP with your name, contact number and the name/s of your guests.

Date: 12 July 2008 (Sat)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Pelangi Pride Centre - 54 Rowell Road (in Little India)
Cost: $6 (cost of 2 soft drinks and finger food)

Directions to the new PPC:

Come into Hindoo Road from Jalan Besar. Look for tall HDB block 639 at the end of the road. Corner terrace house with grapevines growing. Come in from the back door.

Saturday, 21 June 08: SafeHaven + PPC presents - For the Bible tells me so

21 of June 2008 @ PELANGI PRIDE CENTRE

Screening of "FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO"

Can the love between two people ever be an abomination? Is the chasm separating gays and lesbians and Christianity too wide to cross? Is the Bible an excuse to hate?

Through the experiences of five very normal, very Christian, very American families -- including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson -- we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. Informed by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.

There will be a discussion moderated by Miak from The Free Community
Church, following the screening.

As this event is by invitation only, prior registration is required. To sign up, please email [pelangipridecentre at yahoo dot com] to RSVP with your name, contact number and the name/s of your guests.

Date: 21 June 2008 (Sat)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Pelangi Pride Centre - 54 Rowell Road (in Little India)
Cost: $6 (cost of 2 soft drinks and finger food)

Directions to the new PPC:

Come into Hindoo Road from Jalan Besar. Look for tall HDB block 639 at the end of the road. Corner terrace house with grapevines growing. Come in from the back door.

Saturday, 7 June 08: Documentaries Screening- "Dangerous Living" and "Shalom in the home"

7 of June 2008 @ PELANGI PRIDE CENTRE

Documentaries screening
"Dangerous Living" and "Shalom in the home"

1) Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World

Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World, is a feature-length documentary that explores the immense changes that occurred for gays, lesbians and transgender people living in the Global South. In the last decade of the 20th Century, a new heightened visibility began spreading throughout the developing world and the battles between families, fundamentalist religions, and governments around sexual and gender identity had begun. But in the West, few people knew about this historic social upheaval, until 52 men on Cairo's Queen Boat discothèque were arrested for crimes of debauchery. That explosive story focused attention to the lives and trials of gay people coming out in the developing world and the film chronicles those events.

Dangerous Living opens with one of the Cairo 52 defendant's, Ashraf Zanati, who was tortured, humiliated, beaten and forced to spend 13 months in prison. His simple, but powerful statement sets out the basic theme for the film: "My sexuality is my own sexuality. It doesn't belong to anybody. Not to my government, not to my brother, my sister, my family. No."

Directed by John Scagliotti and Produced by Janet Baus and Dan Hunt. Executive Producer is Reid Williams. Major sponsor includes The H. van Ameringen Foundation.

2) Shalom in the home

"Shalom in the home" is a series about a Rabbi counselling couples with problems dealing with family life.

This particular episode features a lesbian couple who are having issues with one of their 2 daughters. One of the two mums, her father is a civil-rights lawyer, but could not accept her daughter is lesbian. In order to prove to people that gay people are capable of being good parents, she ended up pushing her own daughter too hard.

Without letting on too much - basically this episode focuses on the effects that a homophobic society have on gay people such that the downstream effects can hurt our own children at the end of the day. (This was shown on CableTV in March 2007)

As this event is by invitation only, prior registration is required. To sign up, please email [pelangipridecentre at yahoo dot com] to RSVP with your name, contact number and the name/s of your guests.

Date: 7 June 2008 (Sat)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Pelangi Pride Centre - 54 Rowell Road (in Little India)
Cost: $6 (cost of 2 soft drinks and finger food)

Directions to the new PPC:

Come into Hindoo Road from Jalan Besar. Look for tall HDB block 639 at the end of the road. Corner terrace house with grapevines growing. Come in from the back door.