THE BOYS IN THE BAND    1970 Directed by William Friedkin 118 minutes In English

This movie by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) provoked a hell of a discussion when it first hit the screen, and the controversy has continued until today. This was the first Hollywood movie to enter into the lives of the American gay community, and it did so in a punchy, vibrant, uncompromising way. Up until this point, depictions of gay men were marginalized to popular stereotypes - instead, this film lead entire mainstream audiences into uncomfortable territory. It takes us both high (incredibly funny, with razor-sharp dialog) and low (it also plummets into tragic realities - loneliness, marginalization).

The first part of this movie is carefree and funny as hell - it kicks off at a birthday party that eight men have organized. They are all gay, and when an unexpected 'straight' man enters the picture, everything begins to go crazy. What we have here isn't anything like gay comedies of today that have adapted to mainstream taste. This film is still level-headed, honest and certainly not dumbed-down. In other words, despite all of the humor, this is considered a 'thoughtful' gay film rather than fluff and entertainment.

Most of the gay community fell in love with this film, because for the first time it presented gay men as intelligent human beings with character, with real problems and difficult situations. And the reason for that is because these characters were drawn from real life, from the streets, rather than continuing the stereotypes that had been set up by Hollywood. And this flick embraced this sense of reality with flare... the dialogue is full of stinging one-liners and cutting observations. On the other hand, some in the gay community felt it shouldn't have gone into the darker, more painful side.

This will be a high-definition screening