Saturday, June 24. 2006IFC - Independent Film Cowardice
"In celebration of Gay Pride, IFC is airing back-to-back gay-themed films every Sunday night at 10 and premiering the new IFC Documentary, 'Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema' by acclaimed filmmakers, Lesli Klainberg and Lisa Ades, on Sunday July 16 at 10pm..." Yippee! the flicks they'll be airing will include: Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, Boys Don't Cry, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, High Art, and Love and Death on Long Island. Wow - look at IFC being all indie and taking such great risks! We should all be so happy and thankful that they're going to air movies about our lives...well, lives kind of like ours. And they're doing it iin the middle of the night on Sundays in July at 10 p.m., after Gay Pride month has passed in a time slot far, far away from primetime when everyone will already be in bed resting before facing another manic Monday. And the movies they're showing! I love our most mainstream gay movies, don't you? The ones that attempt to fit into traditional narrative form and feature movie stars. I hate those crappy actual independents with their incomprehensible plots, vulgar humor, and weirdo camera work. Oh, and IFC, if you've been too busy patting your own "progressive" back -- yes, I am being facetious, disingenuous, sarcastic, and just plain bitchy.  This isn't a Gay Pride Celebration. It's practically a Gay Shame Celebration. Four hours of programming while everyone is sleeping? Programming that is barely challenging (even though, I actually like all of those films -- don't get me wrong)? This is all we can expect from an independent movie channel in the year after Will & Grace has aired in primetime, Queer As Folk and The L Word are favorite shows of middle American teenage girls, and we catch oodles of real life queers in reality shows from The Real World XXXVIII and The Amazing Race Season 9 Buh-jillion? And where are the real queer indie filmmakers? Give me a Gregg Araki Teen Apocalypse Trilogy movie -- Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, or Nowhere. Give me Derek Jarman's Caravaggio or Blue. Get John Waters to represent with some Pink Flamingos or Pecker. Throw in a little Frisk, Chutney Popcorn, Die, Mommie, Die!, and Vampyros Lesbos, and I'm good to go. And give us a decent time slot, bitches. We are not the red-headed step child of American independent film. In fact, the queer market was a huge part of the revitalized interest in independent movies in the '80's and '90's. So keep your uninspired yawn of a shame fest, and if anyone wants to see some real queer independent movies, let me know. Maybe I'll have a little living room film fest of my own. Trackbacks
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This is merely a festival using the films that IFC currently has in license - a tv network can't just say 'I want to play this movie for this festival' and make it happen.
#1
on
2006-06-26 11:19
But apparently they can say "let's use the LGBT community to push our tired old movies that we have in current license". If they really have to use this tired old programming then they shouldn't go around sending press releases trying to make themselves look so kind and inclusive when they're clearly just using the community to make money on old movies they have on hand.
In any case, they know when gay pride is well in advance an can either license some new programming (I'm sure they can put it in rotation after) or I'll bet they already have some of the one's this writer mentioned but are just going for the lowest common denominator based on their own predjudices of the queer community.
#1.1
on
2006-06-26 12:30
Kiki,
In addition to anonymous' respone, your comment begs the question: why doesn't IFC have these other queer independents under license? Don't we expect an independent film channel to be more daring? And if this is just the programming they have on license, that I have to agree with anonymous, because I don't want to be an afterthought. Gay Pride is the same time every year, if they can't plan ahead and get some worthwhile programming then I certainly am not going to plan on making them part of my viewing schedule. Lastly, the time slot. There's nothing anyone can say to make me think the time slot if okay. If they were airing FRISK and felt they couldn't go it until Sunday at midnight I'd understand that, but Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss? WTF?
You're right about knowing in advance when Pride is...that is true.
However, IFC is not ad supported and therefore not necessarily 'making money' off the community like you said, just trying to expand their viewership. I happen to like the line-up and I think they're good watches for people that perhaps haven't / wouldn't watch this genre of films before.
#2
on
2006-06-26 14:40
I like IFC films and frequent their theatres often. However, just because they're not "ad supported" doesn't mean they don't want to make money. You say they want to expand their viewership and I'm sure that's very true but the reasons are probably much more complciated than they may seem. Once you understand who owns them it may become clearer why it's probably not out of the goodness of their hearts. Remember ads are not the only way to make money (e.g. distribution and subscription fees).
In the spirit of full disclosure we should probably mention that according to the the IFC website they are "...a network of Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of Cable Systems Corporation." Rainbow Media owns everything from an an advertising sales company to Madision Square Gardens and Radio City Music Hall to the New York Rangers. Cablevision Systems had $5 Billion in sales in 2005.
#3
on
2006-06-27 00:00
Corporation, true - that fact is hard to escape...they are definitely in it for the cash. The individual networks are responsible for making their own revenue and such. FYI, the theater and the network are owned by the same company, but are hardly the same business.
I agree with some things you are saying, but I'm not in the licensing and scheduling business so I can't really debate anymore. I'm a friend anyway kiki
#4
on
2006-06-27 13:04
one more thing - the time slot...please note, 10pm is Eastern - the block begins @ 7pm Pacific...that doesn't suck that bad...
#5
on
2006-06-28 11:19
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IFC is having a little Gay Pride Celebration! Aren't we grateful? Here's an exceprt from their press release:
