Love, Lust and Good Old Fashioned Romance
Reel Affirmations 2009
Review by Kristina Campbell
Rating: 
(3 out of 5)
Saturday, 10/24/2009, 3:00 PM
Shorts presentation, $10 at Flashpoint
LOVE IS IN the air throughout this eclectic collection of short films saluting lesbian romance in its many forms.
There’s the geeky form in Evelyn Everyone (), an Australian offering about a shy and presumed straight 33-year-old woman who decides to explore the scene in the online community Second Life and ends up in a lesbian nightclub being pursued by a woman. While the initial experience is merely virtual, she’s able to parlay her newfound confidence into some important life changes.
There’s the mature form, illustrated by the beautifully sparse story in Downstream (Im Fluss) (), narrated by a Swiss lesbian couple of 30 years who discuss their life together and what it would be like without each other. On the fictional side, there’s the long overdue reunion in The Premiere (Premieren) (), where a love affair shelved decades earlier sparks anew when two women meet again.
The slightly stalker-ish form makes an appearance in Remember the Eyes (), where a woman sits in her car and watches another practice martial arts, which leads to a conversation, a date, a surprise, and an unnaturally intense discussion about how the two could navigate spending their lives together — all on the first date.
There’s the lusty in At Home (A Domicilio) (), which has barely any discernible plot, but has plenty of skin and some Spanish poetry. And for the reconciliatory, there’s A Work in Progress (), where two ex-girlfriends assigned by their mutual agent to work together on a lesbian-themed script emerge with a series of thinly veiled stories about getting back together. “How does it end?” one asks the other. “We’ll worry about that later,” she’s told.
The youthful gets a nod in Girl Talk (), in which there’s more than you’d think to one high school student’s coyness about the hot date she had over the weekend, and in Trophy (), where a teenager finds a clever and steamy way to get back at her dad for his engagement to a woman who’s barely older than she is.
And then there’s the somber, portrayed in White Fire (), when a young woman attends her lover’s funeral, is rejected by the family, but finds a way to respect the wishes of the deceased.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
