Editors note: As we move more toward an online news format site, we've started to bring in some other talented people to help us cover other areas of the news on which some of us may not spend much time. One of those areas is entertainment, including movies, music, DVDs and other mass-consumables. Marlon Wallace is a hell of a talented writer, who publishes in a handful of newspapers on the east coast. We managed to con him into writing for us, and he graciously agreed to go along. You'll be able to read his stuff here on a regular basis. This time, the entire article is on this, the front page - Chris.
the new chitlin circuit
October 11, 2007 - Arkansas Tonight
Ebony magazine, the leading African-American magazine, doesn't like the term "Chitlin Circuit." It'd prefer instead the name "Urban Theater Circuit." I don't suppose then that the Advocate, the leading gay and lesbian magazine, would much appreciate the phrase "Faggot Circuit."
Hope I'm not Isaiah Washington'd, but a little history first. Bigotry and discrimination, nothing new, a generation ago, were aimed squarely at blacks, and if you were of the dark persuasion, and were an actor, singer, comic or musician, you couldn't perform at certain theaters and venues in the United States. The small list of theaters in major cities across the country where blacks could step on stage and entertain were dubbed the "Chitlin Circuit."
While bigotry and discrimination against blacks have lessened to near complete absence, Tyler Perry is one example of those who still use the Chitlin Circuit to put out in America's ether material content that might not be so easily embraced by the mainstream, or, that best fits that black niche group.
It's very similar to the original intent behind film festivals. Of course major film festivals today like Venice, Cannes and the Toronto Film Festival have all been hijacked by the major movie studios and are now used mainly to promote the studios' prestige pictures.
For example, a ton of great foreign films played in competition last year at the Cannes Film Festival, but I'm sure anyone who was there would tell you that all the buzz was all about "The Da Vinci Code." This year, a similar thing happened in Venice as Warner Bros drowned out the noise of any other smaller movies, as it built a lot of hype for the premiere of its Brad Pitt western "The Assassination of Jesse James."
However, there are some stalwarts like the Sundance Festival or even the new Tribeca Film Festival that still recognize that their platforms were originally about springboarding independent films and indie filmmakers, and offering a podium for those who might not so easily get a microphone in the mainstream.
With the proliferation of so many cable and satellite channels, there's a better chance of niche groups or minorities of whatever stock getting an outlet to express themselves, but even with the multitude of HBO and Showtime channels, there's still a group of films that the majority of people will not see in any regular programming schedule, that will never get played at a major multiplex, that you would have to either search online to find, or browse the special interest section of some large metropolitan video store in order to see.
And, when it comes to films, it's not like with black movies, or movies about African Americans. Those movies just aren't being made, at least not in an any abundance that could fill two-week-long festivals in all of the top ten largest cities in the U.S. every summer.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, that occur in America every year. Almost every town from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean has its own film festival. It's to the point of ridiculousness, but it does provide a voice to those who would otherwise be voiceless, and many filmmakers travel with their movies to as many of these fests as possible.
This is called the Film Festival Circuit, and in this circuit, these fests are pretty open to accepting anything, anything short of snuff films, from shining cinematic gems to shames to the silver screen, but even out of the Film Festival Circuit, in the late 80s and early 90s, there were those who saw a minority excluded, and so a Chitlin-like Circuit was created within that Film Fest Circle.
Merely for provocative reasons, I'm going to call this offshoot of the Film Festival Circuit, the "Faggot Circuit." Gay films or films that are solely about gay people every year are created in abundance, but the masses know nothing about them, and these are films that aren't sexual, sick or perverted in any way, but are instead regular, normal, everyday films just with gay people as the stars.
Some of which have been some of the best films I've ever seen and whose filmmakers should have access to bigger resources to do even more best work. Instead, they're relegated to this Faggot Circuit, which does satisfy its niche audience, but according to PlanetOut.com, there are about 150 lesbian and gay film festivals, at least one in every major American city, some going on two decades in existence, and all of them growing in power and money. So, why are their films or their filmmakers being ignored?
This week, October 11 to October 20, Washington, DC's gay and lesbian film festival, known as Reel Affirmations will open its doors for the 17th year. The Lincoln Theatre in DC's historic U Street district, which has traditionally been a stop on the Chitlin Circuit, is playing host to the gay films there. It's almost like, it takes one to know one.
VIA
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