My Day One at Frameline Film Festival 2012: “Whistlin’ Dixie: Queer Sounds, New South”, “Mississippi: I Am” and “Mystery Date”

Every avid moviegoer has their favorite comfy spot.  Their go to seat that continually pulls them towards it, like a first-grader’s tongue does upon spotting an open jar of paste.  That might not be the most appropriate simile to help accent my point, but it was the first one I thought of, and being that I’m writing this post at 2 in the morning, it’s the one I’m sticking with. Where was I?  Ah yes, the comfy spot.

My comfy spot is usually in the first or second row.  I enjoy sitting there mostly because that’s where I can easily become immersed with what I’m viewing without any peripheral distractions.  Oh sure, there are those few times that I have been known to settle for a seat further back, or even off to the side on the dreaded aisle, but that only happens when I am accommodating a family member or a friend.  However, there is one section of the theatre that I will never intentionally seek out.  One section where if asked to sit there by a friend, family member or Michael fucking Caine that I will not sit in.  I’m talking about that god forsaken last row.

With that being said, for this entire festival I plan to force myself to resist those instinctual tongue-to-paste urges of mine – which have been steering my buttocks towards the front row for over the past decade  – and will be taking up residence in the back of the house.  That godforsaken last row.

Tonight’s films, from which I took in from the rear (pun most definitely intended in honor of this festival) were Meredith Heil‘s Whistlin’ Dixie: Queer Sounds, New South, Harriet Hirshorn and Katherine Linton‘s Mississippi: I am, as well as the shorts program, Mystery date.  Click on the jump for reviews