Cinemulatto

On Edward Albee: Adrienne Kennedy’s “Visited by a Phantom”

Adrienne Kennedy’s most famous play, Funnyhouse of a Negro, was produced in 1962 by Edward Albee as part of his Playwrights Workshop. Already a prominent voice at the time, Albee brought Kennedy’s first professional production to life, leading to many more award-winning plays and her place as a leading force in American theatre.

In 2013, Kennedy wrote Visited by a Phantom (“It took fifty years to write,” states Kennedy), her reflections on Edward Albee and how he influenced her life and career. It’s a timeless piece that, with Albee’s passing on September 16th, immortalizes the impact he had on Kennedy and serves as a fitting obituary to a man, as Kennedy writes, who affected her “as no other person ever had.”

Visited by a Phantom first appeared on September 23rd in Samuel French’s Breaking Character Magazine.

Click the image to access the full piece.

Why I’ll Never Leave San Francisco (For Now)

I have varied thoughts about the BART strike. A friend of mine is one of the employees demanding such things as safer work conditions, a guaranteed and fair annual raise, and low-cost health insurance. I have other friends and acquaintances who always side with unions, and still others who either want to fire all BART strikers on the spot and replace them or who think the strikers are greedy.

I’ve been told BART management is lying in an effort to gain public support. On the other hand, I know that the average salary quoted for a BART worker with a high school diploma, $60,000, isn’t that far off from the average salary of a Bay Area computer programmer with a college degree, $63,000 (unless you work for Facebook or Google). And, programmers constitute a profession that’s part of the current tech-bashing trend largely based on misinformed stereotypes. San Francisco programmers aren’t paid overtime or pensions, nor do they have unions. Then again, BART workers don’t get swanky biotech perks like free stadium-sized concerts or company cafeterias serving catered, organic food like Genentech, my former employer, provides. On the third hand, BART employees make more than public school teachers, who some would say (myself included) have the weighty task of ensuring a well-knit societal fabric and deserve to protest loudly and often.

I fall somewhere in the middle in the Me Versus You cultural war. I frequently find myself in this space when it comes to social justice issues, amid both left and right attitudes that never seem capable of seeing the other side or of not resorting to knee-jerk, prejudicial reactions. I’ve lived in lower-middle-class, brown neighborhoods for most of my life. I grew up poor and now work in tech, as a copywriter and technical writer. The small company I work for is diverse and has an Asian CEO. I love the company and the work I do. Outside of work, I have friends of all backgrounds and persuasions: kinda rich, super rich, moderately poor, very poor, black, white, Asian, Latino, LGBTQI, straight, disabled, large, small, and Canadian.

I’ve come to realize: not only are there mixed-race folk; there are bi-economic folk, able to mingle successfully not only among the brown, the poor, and the otherwise financially challenged, but also among those who break out the scotch at Friday Happy Hour. And this, my friends, is why I’m not leaving San Francisco (for now). Let me ‘splain.

First off, respect to anyone who got fed up and left. I know many who have. For those who can afford it and stayed, great for you. You’re keeping San Francisco diverse. You’re educating where it’s needed and expected. We’re James Temple’s “intelligent, creative and open-minded people,” putting up with the douchebags who are apparently bringing the city to its knees (again). Douchebags, by the way, come in all shapes, sizes, and economic backgrounds. Prejudice and ignorance are odious regardless of the perpetrator.

People like me have done our fair share of educating, interfering, and throwing a wrench into any plan to make San Francisco anything other than what it’s always been—a hub for freaks, geeks, searchers, and visionaries. I had a blast during the first tech boom of the 1990s. Limos ritually dotted Mission Street with drunk assholes standing out of sunroofs. My friend Kortney and I snuck into one during Christmas season and crashed a party of eight, red-nosed Santas. Every now and then, I got people like intoxicated lawyers to pay for my pricy meals. It was awesome. All bilking aside, there were moments of true intermingling, of conversations and interactions that crossed supposed cultural boundaries. It can happen again. We can move beyond labels of “tech people” and actually engage in conversation. We can actively embrace balance and shades of gray, even with something as polarizing as a BART strike.

So, for now, I’m not going anywhere. Until, that is, I decide to take my life savings and retire in Tuscany.

10 Meaningful Statistics for
Lazy, Filthy Artists

Feng shui is old news—very mid-1990s (along with aloof lesbians). As artists of the New Millennium, we’re well-acquainted with clearing the house before emptying the soul. After cleaning up our act, we’ve gone on to suffer through some incredibly nasty roommates and lived to tell about it. With any luck, we’ve grown up. There should be no more excuses for being a lazy, filthy, immature artist, since in addition to having learned from past experience, you now probably live with a partner who’s whipped you into shape.

If you’re still a dirty, good-for-nothing, artistically inclined bum, it’s simply time to get a domestic clue. To this end, Cinemulatto has scientific, grant-funded evidence to support you no longer being a repulsive slob.

Here’s how long it takes to complete 10 common household tasks. You have time for all of these, you rotten, unclean sluggard.

Changing an empty roll of toilet paper: 10 seconds
Washing ten dishes: 5 minutes
Taking out the trash: 4 minutes
Doing something—anything—with leftover food: 2 minutes
Wiping down one kitchen counter: 2 minutes
Dusting one room: 5 minutes
Disposing of bathtub hair: 30 seconds
Wiping up a small puddle of water: 1.5 minutes
Opening a window to air out a room: 4 seconds
Making sure toenail clippings land in the trash: 0 seconds

Now go clean up, then make a movie or draw a picture or write a song/novel.

The Cinemulatto Broke-ass
Film School

Cinemulatto almost made this an entirely farcical post on things you can do to save money as an indie filmmaker—like using your kids as crew. Well, not everyone has kids. Plus, we’ve come a long way since Robert Rodriguez and his 10-minute film school, even though his advice is still relevant. We can go deeper and learn more, however. We can even go to the library.

So, here are a few things that neophyte, broke-ass filmmakers can do to save a few bucks and still become a pro. These have all been helpful to me over the years.

8 Things You Can Do to Get Some Film Skillz
(Cinemulatto’s Zero-budget Film School)

Study cinematographers. Roger Deakins has a great forum, plus lots of really awesome cinematographers are willing to share information with you. Stroke a few egos! I was fortunate to receive an email response from Marcel Zyskind about the bare-bones lighting he used for 9 Songs. (If you have a rich friend with access to IMDB Pro, wash their car in exchange for DP contact information.)
Go to the library. Read books and more books. Find a comfy chair and read back issues of American Cinematographer Magazine. Get a damn library card. Then check out books. Just a few of my favorites are This is Orson Welles, Master Shots, The Films of Akira Kurosawa, and The Oxford History of World Cinema. Never stop reading, and throw in at least one screenplay a month.
Get on film festival mailing lists or visit film festival websites. Festivals often offer tips via their email distribution lists or directly on their sites, and frequently offer links to free films. Two good ones are Raindance and Sundance.
Save money. Before crowd funding, there was good old-fashioned piggy banks (or analog begging, borrowing, and stealing, i.e., “O.G. crowd funding”). You can save money fast if you actually budget for it. And, since the cost of making a simple, short film is so dirt-cheap these days, AND since this is your passion, save some money! Make yourself a tip jar. You won’t owe anyone anything.
Get equipment off craigslist. But, go with a knowledegable friend who can also be a bodyguard if needed. Then learn how to use the equipment.
Make movies, however horrible. Don’t show them to anyone if you don’t want to. But make them. Hold a camera. Develop a close relationship with it. Not doing this is like expecting to know how to drive a car the first time you get in.
If you can afford it (or, see tip #4), selectively take classes. But, do this only when you need to. Figure out what you’re not good at, take a class, then get good at it. Over the last 10 years I’ve taken such classes as producing, lighting, color correction, and DSLR cameras spread out over time to guess what? Yes! Save money!
WATCH MOVIES. I can’t believe how many film folks I know who don’t constantly watch movies. Make it a goal to watch at least 3,000 of them. Study the shots, the lighting, the sound, the acting, the design. Watch shorts and classic epics. Black and white and silent. Films you think you’ll love and others you know you’ll hate. Watch Criterion and B movies and buddy flicks and rom coms and documentaries. For as long as director commentaries exist, listen to them, but turn them off after 10 minutes if they’re stupid. Netflix is still relatively cheap and yes, the library has movies!

Good luck and happy filming.

MULATTO OF THE MONTH: EARTHA KITT

Just because I’ve been thinking about Eartha Kitt lately.

Galasso Made Me Do It:
Lars von Trier’s Antichrist

Galasso Made Me Do It is where Cinemulatto occasionally reviews movies recommended by friend and actor Thomas Galasso. These are movies I swear I’ll never see. After the seed’s planted, the unconscious pressure mounts until I break down and watch the movie.

The following review is a text message exchange with Thomas Galasso involving Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. In the movie, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe have gorgeous, cinematic, black and white sex at 1,000 frames per second; their toddler son sees them, is traumatized, and jumps out of a window (in equally magnificent shots, in falling snow); Dafoe insists that he become Gainsbourg’s therapist; and rampant, psychotic sex and violence ensue—including such delights as Gainsbourg impaling Dafoe’s leg with a grinding wheel and jerking off his damaged penis until it squirts blood.

Cinemulatto: I watched Antichrist. Me #1 thinks it’s the most brilliant movie she’s ever seen, while Me #2 wants to stab it to death then burn it.

Thomas Galasso: Haha. Why does Me #2 feel that way? I just want someone to break down Lars von Trier for me. I liked the movie. I feel like now he has created an even more intense niche as the “guy with disturbing movies.”

CM: It goes deeper than that for me. It’s a will to live versus an urge to die, of recognizing horror in the world but choosing lightness and life. To accept the essence of that movie, for me, is to ultimately renounce love and embrace a dark vision of the world. I can analyze and explore darkness but I fundamentally believe in goodness. He’s stepping back into the madwoman in the attic, a tradition/trend that feminists have worked to change for a long time. At least this madwoman’s in a cottage. It’s also very Brechtian. I know von Trier is influenced by Brecht. Also lots of religious and psychosexual symbolism and iconography. So, it’s a smart movie, but I just can’t get on board with the underlying message.

TG: Interesting. I’ve seen the “madwoman” in various films and stories.

CM: He’s a master of bending genre. The problem with that, however, is the movie becomes more realistic, despite the Brechtian devices he tries to use.

TG: The dark and the hopelessness has always been von Trier’s angle. I’ve always liked that about him. Sometimes I see the world the way he does. In total chaos. Explain the Brechtian. What is that?

CM: Yeah. If you haven’t already read The Yellow Wallpaper, read it. I just checked and it’s available online for free. Lezley Saar mentioned her daughter compared it to Antichrist. [Non-texted note: See the Cinemulatto post from 1/3/13.]

TG: I’ve heard of the Yellow Wallpaper. Damn. I can’t recall where though.

CM: Brecht also deals with dark subject matter, but always reminds you you’re watching something somebody created. He creates alienation and distance between the story and the viewer. Use of inter-titles, like von Trier does. Yellow Wallpaper was written I think in the 1890s. It’s usually on the syllabus of creative writing classes. Chaos reigns, ha. I just don’t accept chaos, or more specifically that one should give in to it.

TG: Interesting. Yeah I have to admit, I would love to work with von Trier. I see some of the same with David Lynch at times. Lynch is more steeped in deconstructing the nuclear family though.

CM: You’d be perfect in a von Trier movie. It should’ve been you instead of Shia LeBeouf.

TG: Haha I know.

I Don’t Care If He’s Gay. But I Kinda Do.

MichaelQuercio — Michael Quercio, early 1980s

I saw The Three O’Clock at Great American Music Hall last week, a reunion show that placed me as an audience member some 30 years after seeing them at The Palace in Los Angeles at age 15. Mod Male recently wrote a blog post about their influential music and fashion sense. Here I was, however, dragging my lesbian child-bride to something I hoped would spark distant memories and create new ones.

Both were the case. More on that in a moment. For the time being, as I picked out a perfect tie for the show, I thought about a mention of the band in Frontiers LA’s article, Gay for Play, where lead singer Michael Quercio is referenced as “openly gay”. A link to the article was posted on the Three O’Clock Facebook page along with spirited responses, including one from Quercio (“F-OFF”) that I tended to agree with. Openly gay? What’s that got to do with 1980s psych-pop? Or the reunion of one of my favorite childhood bands? (They still sound so great!) Would someone really go see a band just because someone in it’s gay? Why hadn’t the gay press given Quercio the time of day over the last 30 years? Had the gay police widened the search for musical icons? Have we once and for all moved beyond house music, Tracy Chapman, and Tegan and Sara?

On the one hand, new gay icons are fantastic. Gay culture needs as much diversity as it can get. On the other hand, going to see the Three O’Clock only marginally brought up issues of sexual identity for me. What it did more than anything is, indeed, bring back those original memories of seeing them at age 15. The excitement of my first concert. Taking a bus from Duarte (near Pasadena) to Hollywood and Vine with my older brother. Giving change to a homeless person for the first time. Using the fakest ID in history—handwritten by a friend. (The door guy told me, “I guess this’ll have to do” and let me in.) Witnessing two people French kiss for the first time. Seeing Michael Quercio, who I had a huge crush on, from right near the stage. Hearing songs in person that I’d only appreciated from the privacy of my cloistered teenage room, and singing along to all of them. Being showered with falling balloons at the end of the show. Trying to get home after being told we needed exact change for the bus—change that had gone to the homeless guy.

Maybe I’m old, or world-worn, or perhaps I’ve lived in San Francisco too long. Or maybe loyalty to teen idols trumps everything else. I’m certain of one thing only: the gayest moment of the evening came not from seeing Michael Quercio on stage, but from running into our lesbian gynecologist. How gay is that?

10 Practical Ways to Pass As White

Cinemulatto is confident the U.S. Supreme Court will do the right thing when it decides on marriage equality. Until then, if a gay person wanted to engage in some act of national freedom such as, say, taking a cross-country trip through states supporting at least civil unions, a path could be reasonably made (if one assumes speeding through Utah and Nebraska, then taking a detour through Canada).

Mulattoes have a similar liberty! Having long ago earned the right to marry whomever we want (as far as race goes, at any rate), we now have sure-fire ways to safely straddle the social fence between black and white. We’re taking Cultural Frame Switching to a new level—and officially recognizing things a fun-loving mulatto can do to pass as white.

Stay tuned for future tips for passing as black.

At office mixers, talk boldly about the thread count on sheets.
Lose any hint of an accent. Practice diction.
Engage your white friends in discussion on high-interest savings.
Share made-up stories with strangers about a past summer job in upstate New York.
Make up further stories about a childhood pet rock collection.
Attend a ragtime festival. Take pictures and post to social media sites.
Go fruit picking while wearing a sun hat and oversized shorts.
Tend a flower garden during times of high foot traffic.
Read Winning Chess Tactics on public transportation.
Take up snag fishing.

MULATTO OF THE MONTH: WENTWORTH MILLER

We’ve mentioned him several times on the Cinemulatto Facebook page. When it comes to passing, Wentworth’s claim to fame is playing a white man on a television prison drama. A prison drama, where he plays a building engineer who holds up a bank to get thrown into prison on purpose to save his brother.

Who better to play this role than a mulatto?

Screenwriter, actor, model, producer, and Tigertone, this month we celebrate a man whose hand can almost cover the entire top of his head.

Lawrence Nathaniel Newton

Cinemulatto is in London this week with her family, mostly showing her teen daughter touristy things and eating at places like Nando’s. I’m also visiting relatives on my mother’s side I haven’t seen in 23 years, plus new ones I’ve never met.

Not only is the search for Dorothy Newton continuing, but now there’s a beginning to the story. This beginning is my mother’s father, Lawrence Nathaniel Newton.

L_N_Newton — Lawrence Newton, circa the early 1930s.

I never met my maternal grandfather. I only heard about him in stories, and knew (as mentioned in a previous Cinemulatto post) that my mother had spoken about his swollen heart as witnessed on his deathbed.

My time in London has unearthed several facts:

He died from too much drinking, not heart disease, and it was his swollen liver my mother saw.
He was Indo-Jamaican. I don’t know anything about my great-grandfather or where in India he came from, but I now know my brothers and I are one-eighth Indian (!).
Lawrence was prone to violence. My mother was the only one among his wife and five kids who wasn’t subject to frequent, physical outbursts.
He was a tailor. Thus the snazzy outfit above.

I couldn’t stop staring at the picture when I saw it. The prominent eyelids. The downward-curving mouth. Clear signs of “Newton” and traits I’ve inherited.

Why was my mother his favorite? What drove him to drink? What was the nature of his relationship with Mary Dawson, his wife? What are the other parts of his legacy?

More questions, plus the continued search for answers….

MULATTO OF THE MONTH, SPECIAL EDITION:
DAKOTA BILLOPS-BREAUX

Due to popular demand (and her personal request), we have a late-March 2013 Mulatto of the Month: my daughter, Dakota Billops-Breaux. Her racial background: Black, White, Native American, Vietnamese, and Chinese. (Our theme song: “One of your own five kinds, stick to your own five kinds.”)

I won’t go into the many, many ways this young woman is extraordinary (bias be damned!), but I will say that our most recent “deep conversation” made me rethink genetics and family history.

It’s a given that in any gay or otherwise blended family, DNA is often secondary to the filial bond. There’s the occasional curiosity about the donor. There are blood lines traced through the birth parent. This has always been part of our family’s reality but only in a cursory way. It’s never determined in any real way how we relate to each other on a day to day basis.

During our London trip, however, as I became obsessed with the image of my grandfather and bonded with my cousins on family matters, Dakota expressed disappointment that she’d never have the “Newton look” or possess that particular connection to me that comes with genetics. My motherly response: I’d rather you have my sense of humor than my nose. Still, tracing one’s family history, even in a gay family context, includes at least partial discussion of blood line. And although it’s the case–even more so with the Supreme Court about to make history–that our relationship is recognized by family, community, and nation, to not respect all the feelings one’s child may encounter in becoming her own person is to do an injustice to all the things that make our gay household loving and tight-knit in the first place.

Happy March, Dakota! Thanks for continuing to teach me things.

10 Ways to Know You’re a Queer Woman of Color Making a Low-Budget Film

Not everyone’s born related to Francis Ford Coppola. Most of us have to walk the long walk of continuous trial and error, cobbled-together resources, or costly film school. If you’re a queer woman filmmaker of color, you have to work exponentially harder. Chances are you’ve worked on some of the grungiest sets known to humankind, although with some of the most spirited and eager (and often unpaid) partners in filmic crime. You’ve done the same long hours as those paid 200 times more than you. You, like your higher-budget counterparts, probably also occasionally survived on Twizzlers at the craft services table, if you even had a craft services table.

You’ve had to put up with the most unique and odorous bullshit.

Fresh off International Women’s Day, Cinemulatto offers 10 sure-fire ways of confirming, once and for all, that you’re a queer woman of color making a low-budget film. Holler if you’ve experienced any of these on a film set. These are all based on true stories.

You’ve appeared in at least one of your own movies. You based the lead on yourself. This is usually a bad thing.
Half the crew responsibilities are covered by your girlfriend/wife/significant queer other/person you’re sleeping with. Although limiting, this is usually a good thing.
While filming in public, people who see you tell you how to shoot the film, including parents, college students, and homeless guys.
There is one straight white male on set. He offers frequent advice because he knows someone who knows how to run sound.
Someone eventually freaks out, usually an actor. They turn to you for resolution of past abuses and ills. You become Mother Teresa therapist just to finish the movie.
The (usually male) DP starts directing the film.
There is a marked lack of deodorant.
There is that one person. We all know her. She complains. About everything.
You survived on Twizzlers at the craft services table.
After your first film, you vow to never do it again. But you do, repeatedly.

MULATTO OF THE MONTH: JENNIFER BEALS

Thinking of trials and tribulations makes me think of the day (or was it evening?) in 2004 when I found out Jennifer Beals would be on The L Word. Although I ultimately ended up hating this show, here was my main high school crush (we’re talking closeted 1980s crush!) starring as a lesbian in prime time. The consummate intellectual and humanitarian, Jennifer’s transformative effect on me runs deep!

Remember your female idols this month. It’s never too late to show 80s appreciation!

Fanshen Cox: One Drop of Love

Fanshen Cox is an actor, producer, and educator based in Los Angeles. She’s a co-founder of the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival and can be heard every week co-hosting the award-winning podcast Mixed Chicks Chat.

In keeping with our recent family motif, we interviewed Fanshen about One Drop of Love, which premieres in L.A. on Saturday, March 9th and has other scheduled dates through June. Check out the One Drop of Love website for the latest news and show dates!

What’s One Drop of Love?

It’s a multimedia solo performance piece about my relationship with my father and the ways in which ‘race’ has both hindered and improved our relationship. Eventually I’ll combine the footage I use in the piece, as well as performance footage and new footage, to complete a feature documentary film of the same title.

What events influenced you to start this project?

In 2006 I got married to my husband, who is Italian. My father, a staunch Pan Africanist, didn’t attend my wedding – and I believed ‘race’ had a lot to do with his absence. This sent me on a journey to discover if and how ‘race’ came into play in our relationship. I wanted to share this journey with others, and I felt documentary film would be the perfect medium for that.

What major challenges, if any, have you encountered along the way?

What kind of budding independent filmmaker would I be if I didn’t say the biggest challenge is: FUNDING? I remember the shock I felt when I completed my first budget for the film – I had no clue how I would raise the money. Yet little by little I’ve uncovered good resources (not just monetary) for getting it made.

The historical context of the title is familiar; what’s the personal significance?

For a number of years I used the history of the One Drop Rule to explain why I identified solely as ‘Black,’ despite my blended origins. Then I began to explore my own relationship to ‘race’ and to look at the parallels and contrasts with my father’s, and I discovered that One Drop had been an excuse. The truth was, I’d chosen to identify solely as ‘Black’ in hopes of being closer to my father. It was his love I was seeking – even if just One Drop.

Oregon or Jamaica?

Oregon for summer, Jamaica for winter. I’m all about the sunshine!

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