Out Here: 3 Short Films about Rural LGBT Life Written & Directed by PMA Associate Professor Austin Bunn With guests David Hirsch ("Lavender Hill"), Claudia Brenner ("In the Hollow"), and Wayne Mitteer ("Campfire") 5:30pm-7pm Cinemapolis Wednesday, April 4/26 Post-show reception at Moosewood This spring event, sponsored by Cornell's Rural Humanities Initiative, will feature three award-winning short films by writer/director Austin Bunn, Associate Professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts. A post-show panel Q&A will include those featured in each film: David Hirsch ("Lavender Hill"), Claudia Brenner ("In the Hollow"), and Wayne Mitteer ("Campfire"), and will be facilitated by Gerard Aching, Cornell's W. E. B. DuBois Professor in the Humanities. The films have screened variously at Outfest (L.A.), Inside Out (Toronto), Cleveland Film Festival, Provincetown International Film Festival, Sidewalk, Shortoftheweek.com, and elsewhere. The screening and Q&A will be followed by a reception at Moosewood Restaurant. Film synopses: "Lavender Hill: a love story" (23 mins) In 1973, a motley group of young writers, artists, political activists, and recent college graduates purchased over 80 acres of land outside West Danby, New York to build Lavender Hill — one of the few gay and lesbian communes in the Back to the Land movement. "Lavender Hill" reveals the rich and complex history of this experiment in intentional living, from its theoretical beginnings in the Gay Liberation Front to its twilight during the AIDS crisis. "In the Hollow" (15 mins) In May 1988, girlfriends Claudia Brenner and Rebecca Wight were attacked while hiking the Appalachian Trail by a 'mountain man' named Stephen Roy Carr. "In the Hollow" tells the story of the shooting and Brenner's desperate survival and later transformation into an advocate for hate crime legislation in the U.S. as she returns to the trail for the first time since the shooting. "Campfire" (17 min) A married dairy farmer travels to a gay campground in the Endless Mountains of NE Pennsylvania to find his long-lost love — and discovers the past isn't done with him yet. A blend of narrative film and documentary, the film features interviews and performances by non-actors and "perm" residents of the Hillside Campground in New Milford, PA. This event is sponsored by the Rural Humanities Initiative from an award by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
