IFFNOHO Preview: the documentaries

GAZELLE: THE LOVE ISSUE
GAZELLE: THE LOVE ISSUE

Artistic Director Nicholas Goodman has programmed an especially strong slate of documentaries at this year’s International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO):

  • IFFNOHO is showcasing the LA premiere of Gazelle: The Love Issue LA premiere as the festival’s opening night film on Thursday, April 28, and it’s a sure-fire crowd-pleaser.
  • The Cross of the Moment helps us understand the bleakness of the “or else” if we fail to stall or reverse climate change. The IFFNOHO screening is the world premiere of this absorbing and important film.
  • Peter Miller’s documentary Projections of America reveals the story of American-made World War II propaganda films, designed to reassure the soon-to-be-occupied Europeans. “Propaganda” is a sinister word, and the surprise in Projections of America is how indirect, subtle and superficially benign these slice-of-American-life movies were.
  • The most popular of the propaganda films in the Projections of America series, Autobiography of a Jeep, has its own separate screening at IFFNOHO.

The International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO) runs from April 28 through May 1, and here’s the entire festival program.

GAZELLE: THE LOVE ISSUE

GAZELLE: THE LOVE ISSUE
GAZELLE: THE LOVE ISSUE

I challenge anyone to watch the first one minute of the absorbing documentary Gazelle: The Love Issue without wanting to see more of Gazelle Paulo and his art.  Gazelle’s art defies easy description – an unusual combination of fashion and performance art.  He dresses, models, takes photos of others and has turned his photo blog (FreakChic.com) into the magazine Gazelle.  In Gazelle: The Love Issue, director Cesar Terranova gives us the unvarnished Gazelle, with glimpses of the most personal aspects of his life and relationships.

Gazelle creates striking clothes and makeup that project ideas and feelings.   Descriptions like “drag queen” or Gazelle’s own understated “dressing up to go out” are totally inadequate and misleading.  Whether it’s funny or disturbing, this stuff is real art, more avant-garde than campy.  And as art must be to be good, Gazelle’s is ever evocative.

Spending 94 minutes with Paulo is pretty easy because he’s so gentle and humble despite his flamboyant, even exhibitionistic, behavior.  He’s an island of genuine kindness in a sea of snark and bitchiness.

The International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO) is showcasing the LA premiere of Gazelle: The Love Issue as the festival’s opening night film on Thursday, April 28, and it’s a sure-fire crowd-pleaser.