FILM 1999: THREE TO TANGO

FILM 1999: THREE TO TANGO

TRIVIA: This movie had the distinct honor of earning 5 Bags of Popcorn from renowned movie expert, Gregg Turkington of "On Cinema" fame.

FILM 1577: THE MASK YOU LIVE IN 

Explores how our culture's narrow definition of masculinity is harming our boys, men and society at large and unveils what we can do about it.

FILM 1493: VALENTINE ROAD

On February 12, 2008, in Oxnard, California, eighth-grade student Brandon McInerney shot his classmate Larry King twice in the back of the head during first period. When Larry died two days later, his murder shocked the nation. Was this a hate crime, one perpetrated by a budding neo-Nazi whose masculinity was threatened by an effeminate gay kid who may have had a crush on him? Or was there even more to it? Looking beyond all the copious news coverage of this tragic event, Valentine Road tells the story of two victims: the deceased and the murderer. With keen insight, the film connects the human wreckage of Larry's and Brandon's troubled lives-both physically abused, both from broken homes, and both searching for a sense of belonging.

FILM 1365: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH

TRIVIA: The footage of Hedwig on The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1996) was shot when "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" was just an off-Broadway musical as a promotion for the show. When Rosie O'Donnell holds up the Hedwig CD, it is a copy of the original off-Broadway cast recording.

The story depicted in the song "Origin of Love" is from Plato's "Symposium," in which Aristophanes gives a speech about love being a product of the need to reunite with one's other half after being split into two, as punishment for conspiring to usurp the gods of Olympus.

Before it was a film and a musical at the Jane Street Theater, John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask created the character "Hedwig". Mitchell donned drag for the first time speaking in character and telling Hedwig's story between songs, written and played by Stephen Trask. This was the first "drag performance act" that had a storyline, live singing and a live band with original material.

FILM 1148: BOYS DON’T CRY

TRIVIA: Hilary Swank won the lead role of Brandon/Teena after hundreds of other actresses had been considered and rejected over the course of three years. She told director Kimberly Peirce that, like her character, she was also 21 and came from Lincoln, Nebraska. But she was fibbing, and when Pierce later confronted her with the lies, she responded, "But that's what Brandon would do."

To prepare for her role, Hilary Swank lived life as a man for at least a month, including wrapping her chest in tension bandages and putting socks down the front of her pants much the same way that Brandon Teena did.

When Hilary Swank was living as a man to prepare for the role of Brandon Teena, her neighbors believed that the young man coming and going from Swank's home (Swank in male character) was her visiting brother.

Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies." (In the description for the list, the magazine stated, "These are movies about which you could say, "That's Not Entertainment." They're not "rides" or "diversions." They are galvanizing experiences that place squarely in your face all the stuff Hollywood usually presumes you go to the movies to get away from. Films that rearrange your head, that challenge your bedrock ideas about life and love and the big sleep. Consciousness-expanders, in other words, but rarely in a pleasant way. Thank God for them.")

Diane Keaton originally considered directing with Drew Barrymore in the lead.

Three of the supporting actresses in the film (Chloë Sevigny, Alicia Goranson and Alison Folland) actually auditioned for the role of Brandon.

Film 1090: (A)sexual

Facing a sex obsessed culture, a mountain of stereotypes and misconceptions, and a lack of social or scientific research, asexuals - people who experience no sexual attraction - struggle to claim their identity.