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icepack By A.D. Amorosi
³ THIS FIRST WEEK of September is about the
EQUAL RIDES: An animated scene from Wren Warner’s Transpass, which chronicles a local movement to influence SEPTA to remove gender-identifying stickers from their transit passes — a policy the company has announced they’ll do away with by 2013.
[ film/lgbtq ]
PASS IT ALONG One doc showing at this year’s Gender Reel Festival uses Philly to further the trans cause. By Shaun Brady
W
Sensitivity continues to be an issue.
✚ Fri.-Sun., Sept. 7-9, $10-$20, William Way Community Center, 1315 Spruce St.,
genderreelfest.com.
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ren Warner started out to make Transpass in order to advance a very specific goal: to influence SEPTA to remove gender stickers from their transit passes. But just as Warner was finalizing the edit on the 16-minute short, the issue at the heart of this issue doc was resolved: in April, SEPTA announced their intention to do away with the stickers in 2013. “At that point it became more of a piece to educate folks, not to educate SEPTA,” Warner says. “Now I’m trying to get it out to festivals to spread the word about trans issues.” Regardless of the fact that it became the rare propaganda piece whose goal was achieved before it was ever screened, Transpass nevertheless raises important points around the public perception of transgender people. The interviewees, mostly from the ranks of Riders Against Gender Exclusion (RAGE), all share stories about their mistreatment and, in many cases, public humiliation at the hands of public-transit employees. Such incidents offer proof that, beyond the seemingly solved problem of forcing riders to identify by gender, sensitivity continues to be an issue. According to Joe Ippolito, chair of the Gender Reel Festival, films like Transpass and others that will screen this weekend can help to remedy that.
“It’s a local film about a local issue, but I think it speaks to an issue that’s broad enough for anyone who lives in any city to relate to,” Ippolito says. “It’s a good example of a grassroots film created by local people taking an issue that’s pertinent to the transgender community and doing something to create some change.” This year marks the second iteration of the weekend-long multimedia festival, which presents film, visual art, workshops and performance art by and about gender non-conforming and transgender artists and issues. This edition will feature 20 films, including award-winning doc Trans, performance artists like Ignacio Rivera and Radium Angels and a free art exhibition co-sponsored by the William Way Community Center ’s LGBTQ Art Gallery. Gender Reel was initially conceived, Ippolito explains, as a response to the lack of transgender representation in more mainstream festivals. That has changed somewhat, but Ippolito insists the festival will continue to evolve to provide an important forum for such ideas. “Gender non-conforming filmmakers and artists are definitely underrepresented in the media and in society in general,” Warner says, echoing the continued necessity for such an event. “So it’s important to have these types of festivals. I think it’s a great way to spread information about these types of issues and have different folks’ stories told.” (s_brady@citypaper.net)
P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R | S E P T E M B E R 6 - S E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 1 2 | C I T Y PA P E R . N E T |
welcoming. Always. There’s the full-court press for the dewy Fringekids eager to shake their Kickstarterfunded tail feathers. There are the leagues of applecheeked, red-eyed, out-of-state students lining up at food trucks, popsicle shops and outside the P.O.P.E.There are untried bands and unskilled DJs hitting the boards and the decks for bellyfuls of PBR. There’s an unseasoned slate of bar owners and restaurateurs ready to swizzle and whisk. We want and await you. And Godspeed, y’all. ³ In my Italian Market neighborhood you will find several of the season’s most highly anticipated nosheries. While the booze-filled Garage and the wiener warehouse Underdogs infiltrate Cheesesteak Row, Eighth Street gets a lift from Growlers (at Fitzwater) courtesy Jay Willard and Jason Evenchik.These veterans of the Starr Restaurant Group and Time, respectively, along with chef Jerry Donahue, a member of the Master Basters team of barbecue wizards, will turn the tall, wide ex-Vesuvio corner into a comfort-food/craft-beer mini-mall, complete with fireside lounges and outdoor seating. (Honest question: on the sidewalk or on the roof?) Further up along Eighth is The Mildred, housed at the onetime location of James (aka the brownest building in Philly). Mikes Dorrisand Santoro — you know the latter as the opening exec chef at Talula’s Garden — have been quietly working to launch the just-off-Christian Euro-inspired eatery with a great wine list and newly reconfigured rooms. ³ Several weeks ago I spoke with Salinas Records chief Marc Oreste about Swearin’,a loud, fast, dirty, thrashing Brooklyn power-pop act on his label that has local ties. Their eponymous debut album was beautiful and brutal and I wanted to know what they had planned for shows when Oreste told me that songwriting singers Alison Crutchfield and Kyle Gilbride,along with the rest of Swearin’, would be moving to Philly in September. That’s now. With that, I guess you could call their gig with Tenement on Sept. 11 at the Golden Tea House our welcoming party. Quick, somebody make Ambrosia. ³ It ain’t sexy, but the topic of the newest Sasha Issenberg (late of Philly mag) book The Victory Lab, about “the secret science” of winning political campaigns. ³ Newer than new, Jiminy Cricket on Bancroft Street in the Western East Passyunk area is looking for its liquor license so it can become a cross between a hipster hot spot and an old-man bar.Word has it that its owner, a mysterioso known singularly as “Louie” (like Khan from Star Trek, or Lêe from Hop Sing Laundromat) has a garage in that same area that he wants to make into a Cha-Cha’razzi 2. Do it, Louie. ³ More loud, fast, dirty, thrashing at citypaper.net/criticalmass. (a_amorosi@citypaper.net)
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