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Screening: VALENCIA

Wed, May 21, 2014, 5:00 pm
Location: 
Media Theater (M110)

SPECIAL DOUBLE BILL
5pm - Silas Howard in conversation with B. Ruby Rich
7pm - Valencia screening, followed by a q/a with Silas Howard, Samuael Topiary & Harris David Harris (Lil Miss Hot Mess)

Based on the legendary 90's lesbian memoir Valencia by Michelle Tea, this film takes us on an adventurous journey through Michelle’s tumultuous love life as told by 20 different filmmakers, including noted filmmakers Silas Howard (BY HOOK OR BY CROOK), Cheryl Dunye (WATERMELON WOMAN) and recent Sundance award-winner Jill Soloway (AFTERNOON DELIGHT). 

Valencia the novel put the experiences of an entire generation of lesbians on paper through the lens of one hard-loving and hard-drinking dyke. Punk rockers, riot grrls, and simple, artsy freaks suddenly had a heroine to look up to and a mecca to head toward. This highly anticipated film adaptation of Valencia gives a whole new generation of fabulous, artsy, genderqueer folks an opportunity to reinterpret and reinvent the tales of this iconic novel one chapter at a time.  

Valencia the film lives on the same edge as its characters, by taking an anthology structure; each chapter is told by a different director and cast, and each “Michelle” conveys a different element or feel of the story and the community. The “Michelles” come in every shape, race, style, and gender—and by the end of the film, the wide swath of performances come together showing how “Michelle” and the stories of Valencia itself represent a universal experience. From falling in love to bonding with your exes’ exes, the film captures the universal experience of being young, heartbroken, and ecstatic, and discovering the magic of who you are — all at once. 

Taking the story of one young woman coming of queer age in San Francisco’s thriving Mission District and making it Universal, the filmmakers alternately re-create the lesbian bohemia of the 1990s and set it in contemporary Brooklyn, Austin, Portland; they cast ‘Michelle’ as an earnest 20-something female, or instead bring in trans men, drag queens, Claymation buffalo, and blow-up-dolls. Weaving documentary of the era’s radical politics with fantastical love story elements, embracing the recklessness of youth culture via sex and drugs and riot grrrrrl, Valencia ingests the classic text and gives back to you a kaleidoscopic vision of wild, joyful queerness, utilizing a thriving community of contemporary filmmakers to offer a vision of queer community buzzing with love, art, poetry and revolution. 

For details about where the Media Theater is located on campus: http://maps.ucsc.edu/content/437/map_detail