LADY TROJANS (USA) Bell Biv Devoe’s classic ’90s hit “Poison” is cheekily played a few times in Elizabeth and Annameekee Hesik’s densely packed documentary about the baby-dyke drama that fueled the Lady Trojans, a champion girls basketball team in early ’90s Tucson, Arizona. At times, the film is confusing because it mirrors the tangent-laden talk of friends who make nonlinear conversational leaps, and it may take the viewer a moment to track what’s going on. Part of the confusion, though, lies in keeping track of who was zooming whom on the team. Emerging from the dramatic re-creations, copious home-movie footage and present-day interviews, however, is an engrossing look at fledgling lesbian sexuality shaped by heartache, puppy love, sexual coercion and more than a little wistful regret. (Fairfax, Sat., July 11, 4:30 p.m.) (EH)
MISSISSIPPI DAMNED (USA) Its title nods hard toward Nina Simone’s incendiary protest song, “Mississippi Goddamn,” and its soulful, often heartrending depiction of damaged, dysfunctional Southern blackness (cycles of sexual abuse and domestic violence, poverty, and substance abuse) is shaded with more than a little of The Color Purple. But writer-director Tina Mabry’s based-on-a-true-story tale is filled with lovely visual details (a simple cutaway to a dead fly is poetic in context), and such deeply drawn, wonderfully acted characters (there’s not a bad performance in the ensemble) that even those who quibble with elements will likely be moved by what is ultimately a story of spiritual resilience and hard-won victory. (DGA, Tues., July 14, 8 p.m.) (EH)
It Came From Kuchar
Lady Trojans
Still Black: A Portrait Of Black Transmen
Two Spirits: Sexuality, Gender And The Murder Of Fred Martinez
Related Content
More About
STILL BLACK: A PORTRAIT OF BLACK TRANSMEN (USA) Kortney Ryan Ziegler’s documentary has racked up countless accolades on the festival circuit for its straightforward look at the world of black transmen, but what makes it powerful are its subtle subversions. Largely a point-and-shoot affair that simply lets its subjects analyze and contextualize their own realities, Still Black eschews the language of academia, which has swamped too many conversations around transgender identity. The film moves to the cadences of a working-class minister and his wife, and to the (admittedly clichéd) flow of a spoken-word artist, among others. More importantly, as the title makes clear, these are men who have not fled or allowed themselves to be driven from their racial identities as they have (re)created themselves. (REDCAT, Sun., July 12, 6:30 p.m.) (EH)
TWO SPIRITS: SEXUALITY, GENDER AND THE MURDER OF FRED MARTINEZ (USA) In terms of craftsmanship, Lydia Nibley’s documentary is rudimentary and could be refined in its editing, sound and pacing. But its core tale of the brief life and brutal murder of teenager Fred Martinez, and how his Navajo culture supported his queerness, is so riveting that the viewer forgives the film’s technical weaknesses. Nibley cuts back and forth between assorted talking heads (Martinez’s mother; community people who knew him; fellow Navajos), who detail their culture’s sophisticated, ancient-but-visionary beliefs about gender, giving us a crash course on Navajo history and culture while illuminating the struggles of Martinez, whose detailed murder and mother’s grief are devastating. (Fairfax, Thurs., July 16, 7:15 p.m.) (EH)
