Eyes of the world

Editing the brand-new Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture gave film-studies professor David Gerstner the chance to play student for once. "I discovered ways, all around the world, that people are approaching being queer," he says. "And filmmaking is a big one."

Now Gerstner, who teaches at CUNY's College of Staten Island, wants to share his knowledge with others. The professor will do just that for two weeks at the Museum of Modern Art, where he's co-organizing "Another Wave: Global Queer Cinema" with MoMA's Charles Silver, Ocularis program director Thomas Beard and New York filmmaker Jim Hubbard. It's the second part of a series that began in July with a focus on Asia and continues now with more of an eye on Latin America, North America and Western Europe, in forms ranging from narrative to experimental.

"I approached all of my consultants on the encyclopedia and they sent me ideas," Gerstner says. He then recruited Silver, an old friend, and the two of them brought on Beard and Hubbard to brainstorm. They knew they wanted a mix of cultures represented, as well as different film formats. And they chose to home in on the specific period of the late 1980s through today. "Most of international queer film begins to really unfold then," Gerstner explains. "The works are so new, in fact, that the analysis, study and historical positioning of them is just starting."

Selections are far-reaching. There's Ulrike Ottinger's Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia, a 1989 German epic about seven women travelers who meet onboard the Trans-Siberian Express—a sort of lesbian Lawrence of Arabia. From France and the Ivory Coast comes Woubi Chri (1998), considered to be the first documentary in which gay Africans describe their culture. Bomgay, from 1996, is a collection of shorts about being gay in India, while Madame Sat—director Karim Ainouz's 2002's film festival hit—explores the rough-and-tumble life of a legendary Brazilian drag queen.

Gerstner explains that the foursome of organizers was careful to include only surprising selections from the U.S., like Venus of Mars, a 2003 documentary. Directed by Emily Goldberg, this is the story of a male-to-female transgender glam-rock singer who lives in Minneapolis with her wife of 20 years. "It looks at transgender issues in a very complex way," Gerstner says, "so we thought it was a significant U.S. film to show."

A major body of American work will come from Hubbard, the New York filmmaker and MIX Festival founder who has created hand-processed, expressionistic shorts since the 1970s. In addition to curating shorts programs for "Another Wave"—one on AIDS and another on cross-cultural experiences (Chinese in Canada or Jews in the U.K., for example)—the celluloid talent will introduce a program of his own shorts. Hubbard will use them to illustrate what he believes is one of the most effective genres of truly queer cinema. "When I first started making films, it was through experimental work, because it was where you had the freedom of expression to say what you wanted," he recalls. "It's grassroots, and it's from the community. It's that community that's missing in mainstream filmmaking."

Hubbard's shorts include "Elegy in the Streets," a 1989 silent work that memorializes a friend through the power of AIDS demonstrations, and "United in Anger: A History of ACT UP," a work-in-progress that aims to document the activist group through a series of more than 150 interviews.

It's just another piece of what curators trust will be an inspirational festival. Says Gerstner: "I hope this series will allow other filmmakers from around the world to know that these films can be shown."

"Another Wave: Global Queer Cinema" runs Friday 1--September 16. Click here for full times and listings.