Ten down one to go...

The end of another Vancouver Queer Film Festival is almost upon us. In the first ten days of the Festival we have seen a total of 13 movies (not including all of the shorts). By the end of tonight's finale we will have scratched only the surface of the 71 movies screened.

Day ten saw us at another double-feature and in true Film Fest style the two movies could not have been any different from each.

First up, Half Life by debut director Jennifer Phang. We had such high hopes for this one as a "fusion of science fiction and domestic drama". Unfortunately it simply didn't deliver. In our usual post-movie discussion the five of us that watched it together all agreed that we simply didn't "get it". On reflection though, I'm wondering if perhaps we all didn't "get it" or simply didn't care enough about the movie and its characters to expend the energy in figuring it out. A big disappointment for all of us although the animated scenes were simply scrumptious. 2 out of 5.

The second of this double bill was Sissyboy, a documentary about the Portland, Oregon shock-drag group of the same name. Another first-time filmmaker Katie Turinski explores the group's history as it embarks on its final West Coast tour before disbanding. At times both very funny and indeed very shocking, Sissyboy was definitely the better of the two films this night with a resounding positive response from the five GayVancouver.Net (Gay Vancouver Online) gaymigos that attended the screening. Personally, my only disappointment with the movie was the lack of balance in the number of interviews with each of the twelve members of the troupe. 3 out 5.