If your anywhere near Cambridge in Massachusetts in the next few days, make tracks to Harvard. No, not to become a student (!) but to check out some of the amazing archival queer film prints from the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collections.
Olson is an an acclaimed experimental filmmaker. In her singular, first-person essay films she reflects on butch identity, love and longing, politically significant histories and cinema itself—all toward an artistic vision she describes as a “completely impossible and yet partially successful effort to stop time.”. Her remarkable 16mm urban landscape essay films have been widely acclaimed for their unique approach to cinematic storytelling.
From Nov 15 -19, Olson presents a very special two-part series at the HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE. The first part showcases a selection of amazing archival 35mm, 16mm and Super 8 LGBTQ film prints from the HFA’s Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection ranging from vintage feature films to ephemeral educational shorts to classic movie trailers to home movies. Since most of this material is otherwise unavailable, these shows present a rare opportunity to view an eclectic array of materials amassed over the course of
Olson probably knows more about queer film than anyone we know. Her nearly forty-year career as a film collector, archivist and queer indie film industry veteran. (In 2021 she was recognized with the prestigious Special Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival for her decades of work championing LGBTQ film and filmmakers.) The second part of the series offers a retrospective of Olson’s own work as an acclaimed experimental filmmaker. In her singular, first-person essay films Olson reflects on butch identity, love and longing, politically significant histories and cinema itself—all toward an artistic vision she describes as a “completely impossible and yet partially successful effort to stop time.”
The highlights of the series include Olson’s curated vintage 35mm trailer programs: Neo Homo Promo and Afro Promo, offering a whirlwind ride through LGBTQ and Black film history respectively, as they also revel in the joy of the ultimate cinematic three-minute art form. Two programs of shorts showcase such highlights as the now legendary, but previously lost 1967 short, Queens at Heart—which Olson unearthed and worked with the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project to have restored—and an excerpt from a 1955 filmed therapy session with a gay man, The Case of Mr. Lin (featuring the pioneering psychiatrist Dr. Carl Rogers). And don’t miss the opportunity to see two unbelievably wild, queer features never available on DVD or the Internet: Sandra Bernhard as a bisexual seductress golf pro in Dallas Doll (1994) and Pamela Adlon as a teenage girl who gets her wish to be a boy in the 1986 comedy Something Special (Willy/Milly).
November 10 – 24 From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection Details of the Full Program HERE
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