Outfest 2008: Where Do We Go From Here?

SEX POSITIVE (USA) In America, we want squeaky-clean heroes, humans sans flaws, especially if the hero in question is already the member of a minority group. So it’s no surprise that Richard Berkowitz — a gay reporter turned S&M hustler/crackhead — has been lost to queer history despite being one of the architects of the notion of safe sex. Daryl Wein’s densely packed documentary on Berkowitz’s rise, fall and recovery is a time capsule of a bygone era but also speaks powerfully to a host of relevant issues, from the ways history is shaped and shapes us to the deeply ingrained homophobia that lives in the psyches of so many gay men and affects how their sexuality manifests. It’s a rich, provocative portrait of Berkowitz that also tackles huge questions surrounding queer identity, illness and culpability. (DGA, Tues., July 15, 9:30 p.m.) (EH)

SUGAR RUSH (U.K.) At a generous estimate, you probably need to be under 30 to groove to the first three episodes of this Channel 4 television series about a teenage lesbian Brighton virgin who lusts after her more worldly — and seemingly heterosexual — classmate while fielding her own falling-apart family. Among the brash charms of the show, which is directed at breakneck speed by Sean Grundy and based on the novel by England’s sharpest journalist tongue, Julie Burchill, are spirited performances from its two leads and a production design so colorful, it looks like somebody’s pet parakeet. I could do without the reflexive mother-bashing, though. (DGA, Fri., July 18, 9:45 p.m.) (ET)

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More About

• Fairfax
• Richard Berkowitz
• Jeffrey Schwarz
• GLBT Issues
• Documentary Films

WERE THE WORLD MINE (USA) Tom Gustafson’s flawed take on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream veers back and forth between groan-inducing banality and inspiration. When high school homo and jock punching bag Timothy is cast as Puck in his all-boys school’s production of Midsummer, he stumbles upon a love potion that causes life to imitate art, creating a queer upheaval in his small town. Beneath a trite, simple-minded imagining of what would happen if homophobes were turned gay (most, apparently, would become mincing gay stereotypes), the film struggles to articulate truths about bigotry, justice and longing. When it narrows its focus from big questions addressed through broad strokes to the one-on-one interactions of actual human beings, it taps into a winning sweetness and poignancy. (John Anson Ford Amphitheatre; Sun., July 20, 7:30 p.m.) (EH)

WILD COMBINATION: A PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL (USA) The queer avant-garde isn’t dead — but ironically, thanks to assimilation and rampant commodification, it may be more marginalized than ever. The late musician Arthur Russell, who sought to fuse the worlds of experimental and pop music, embodied the tensions between margin and center, avant-garde and Top 40. In his diverse musical interests — cerebral folk, pioneering disco (Loose Joints’ “Is It All Over My Face”), nascent electronica — the consistent thread was a searching intelligence, an impatience with easy formula. Director Matt Wolf’s documentary is filled with interviews with Russell’s lover and his loving parents, home movies, stock footage and testimonials from folks like Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg. What arises is the portrait of an almost scarily talented man who, even after death, is still ahead of his time. (DGA 1, Tues., July 15, 7 p.m.) (EH)

WRANGLER: ANATOMY OF AN ICON (USA) To scan the gay hookup sites these days is to discover an apparent obsession with appearing “masculine” and “str8-acting,” a throwback sensibility that makes this an ideal time to consider the life and influence of 1970s porn superstar Jack Wrangler, the manliest man of his time. In this entertaining — if overly reverent — documentary, veteran producer turned director Jeffrey Schwarz lets the Beverly Hills–born Wrangler tell for himself how he used his gym-pumped body (a novelty then), construction-worker attitude and unapologetic love of man-on-man action to become the first brand-name gay-porn star, one who eventually crossed over into straight porn, and mainstream fame. Schwarz has assembled an array of witnesses to Wrangler’s life, some of whom appear to still be smitten with this goodhearted superstud and his brand of hypermasculinity. If he were hooking up today, Wrangler’s in-box would be full all day, every day. (Fairfax, Thurs., July 17, 7:15 p.m. and Fri., July 18, 9:30 p.m.) (CW)