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.99 Cent Queer Video Fest
Thirty-five years ago in the heady early days of 1990s New Queer Cinema, the spot to gather in community to view the cutting edge of queer shorts and pop culture was a weekly showcase called the “99¢ Queer Video Fest.” Held in a run-down bar in San Francisco’s Mission district with 99¢ entry, penny popcorn, and $1.50 well drinks, the event featured underground local shorts from an emerging scene mixed with VHS clips from the extant canon of queer classics and scraps of images pulled from TV shows of the time.
The magic ended when the owner sold the bar to straight people, but for 10 months, the Queer Video Fest played to a thirsty crowd of mixed disenfranchised queer folks, eager for on-screen representation and a punk-tinged, safe-sex positive good time.
Many of the filmmakers featured in the programs have gone on to be leading names of the queer cinema and arts movements: Cheryl Dunye, Jenni Olson, Angela Robinson, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, David Weissman, Todd Verow, Barbara Hammer, and more… but most have taken quieter paths, and many are no longer with us.
As part of Frameline’s 50th Anniversary, original curator (and bartender!) Jeffrey Winter of The Film Collaborative assembles a representative sample of the films we were watching back then, some remembered and cherished, some not-so but should have been. And yes, in keeping with tradition, there will be drinks flowing while we watch and celebrate!
Additional titles still to come!
Executive Producer: Jeffrey Winter Producer: David Averbach
Short films showing in this program:
575 Castro St.
Harvey Milk is resurrected in this poignant short, which sets an original audiotape he recorded — to be played in the event of his assassination — in a recreation of his Castro Street camera shop.
976-
A spiritually titillating alternative to phone sex.
B-Girls from Planet Q
The incomparable Mx. Justin Vivian Bond and comedian Mark Davis star in this faux homo promo by the late Jon Bush.
Body
One minute of nonbinary trans bodily exploration, shot in Pixelvision with a Fisher-Price PXL2000, in glorious b/w 15fps 120x90 resolution.
Brother to Brother: An Excerpt from Tongues Untied
The opening 3+ minutes from the seminal documentary on Black gay life, Marlon T. Riggs’ Tongues Untied (1989) uses poetry, personal testimony, rap, and performance, to describe the homophobia and racism that confront Black gay men.
Built for Endurance
A violent gay hustler and his so-called girlfriend attack a man who has been stalking them.
Chickula: Teenage Vampire
In this parody of 1950s horror trailers, a lesbian vampire terrorizes a suburban high school.
Cunt Dykula
In a campy collision of vampirism and queer desire, a lone dyke wanderer must negotiate the terms of survival — and intimacy — with the terrifying Cunt Dykula.
Dyketactics
Heralded as the first lesbian lovemaking film made by a lesbian, Dyketactics reveals Barbara Hammer’s aesthetic connecting sight and touch.
Friendly
James Dean discovers rave culture.
Girls Will Be Boys
A drag king safer sex date.
Ifé
Cruising the streets of San Francisco in her vintage Buick, a charming Black French lesbian shares her butch Casanova philosophy, "You can never experience too many women."
Skullfuck
This one-minute masterpiece oozing with early-90s queer skinhead lust is “more than a one-line joke, a way to countermand the cultural primacy of a rational thought over carnal greed.”
Song from an Angel
Rodney Price, of the legendary San Francisco theater troupe The Angels of Light, gave this incredible performance two weeks prior to his death from AIDS in 1988.
Vanilla Sex
Cheryl Dunye muses on the slang term of the title: is it who you do, or what you do?
This program contains sexually explicit material.
Please Note: Films are listed alphabetically and not in program play order.