NewEnglandFilm.com

With its college-town atmosphere and variety of venues and things to do, Northampton, MA, is an ideal host for a film festival. The Northampton Film Festival is wonderful to attend, but don’t forget to put it on your submissions list next year, either; this one is only going to grow. In keeping with "NoHo’s" recent honor as the number one small arts town in the US, as well as with its other claim to fame–as the "Lesbianville of the North"–the Western Mass. town incorporated a gay and lesbian film series into its fifth annual festival in November. Here are a few you might have missed, but are well worth tracking down:

"Sum Total" by Sonali Gulati

If you’re having difficulty squeezing a meaningful message into your five-minute film, get your hands on Sonali Gulati’s "Sum Total." An experimental video with mathematical metaphors and a haunting score by Sheila Chandra, the piece uses captions over images in slideshow fashion to illustrate and decry racism, homophobia, sexism, injustice, and the nature of prejudice itself. With successive subtitles like "One Indian woman," "Plus a lesbian," "Minus obedient, dutiful wife," this video is a reminder of the powerful Nike ad in which young girls say, "If you let me play sports…" Well thought out and well executed, this color video has a black-and-white heart, and unlike most videos, "Sum Total" is an excellent read. By mixing facts with creative interpretation to make a point and to open minds, this short sums it all up.

"love, death, & cars" by Broderick Fox

You might say Broderick Fox’s "love, death, & cars" is a 20-minute guilt trip. The heterosexual protagonist is uncomfortable at the reappearance of an old friend into his life. As the story unfolds through visually striking flashbacks from a desert road trip the two took, we discover the men once kissed before going their separate ways. This incident has haunted one of the men because for him it was true love, the other because he refuses to acknowledge his impulses of yesteryear. There is humor and beautiful imagery in this short about unrequited love and blurring lines. However, there are also awkward pauses that make it appear as if the two lead actors are struggling to remember their lines. This breaks the illusion enough that the viewer might no longer care that the gay man has cancer and has come back for closure to the kiss that has burned on his lips for years. The lesson for filmmakers here is to cast wisely, but the premise of the film and the lush flashback photography make Fox’s short a worthwhile view.

"Boy Next Door," by Carl Pfirman

The stomachache viewers get after laughing for 13 minutes is a welcome ache, courtesy of the "Boy Next Door." Carl Pfirman uses quick cuts and camera POVs creatively and effectively in this hilarious tale about a brother and sister’s rivalry for their studly new neighbor. It’s "The Wonder Years" meets "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off" as the siblings one-up each other trying to impress this guy, while at the same time wondering on which side of the fence he parks his car. Tom Lenck (a bit weak, but still sincere and sympathetic) is the sweet and awkward teenager-in-lust, while Rose Harrell all but steals the show with her comic timing and nasty paybacks. In the end, both brother and sister are forced to reach a reluctant truce. A lively soundtrack by Matthew Piper rounds out the story. Pfirman provides excellent examples of using perspective and editing to deliver punch lines.

"My Femme Divine," by Karen Everett

Award-winning documentarian Karen Everett continues to demonstrate her vision with her 52-minute video, "My Femme Divine." No yin is left unyanged in this exploration of the "butch" and "femme" archetypes identified with lesbians. intermingled with the filmmaker’s own on-screen dissection of a failed relationship, "Divine" runs the gamut of analogies and metaphors, from ancient religious teachings to powerful modern-day feminist poets. Fire and earth and other opposing images are creatively juxtaposed and extremely stylistic in their intercuts. This deluge of imagery, combined with roundtable discussions of butch/femme roles, saved this screening from the venue’s poor audio (it sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher until a tech person basically lifted the sole speaker and held it for the duration to lessen the muffle—a surprisingly typical film festival frustration). Also, although Everett’s relationship self-revelations are admittedly film-as-therapy, her own interviews seem posed, rehearsed. Everett uses re-creations of events in her relationship, and too often, the line between professional film and personal catharsis is blurred. Then again, most audiences are comprised not of film reviewers or filmmakers, but of people who relate. So if the goal of filmmaking is to elicit emotion from an audience, Everett’s work shows she is a filmmaker divine.