The Red Purse

A look at the 1950s muscle men's magazines and the representative industry which were popular supposedly as health and fitness magazines, but were in reality primarily being purchased by the still-underground homosexual community. Chief among the purveyors of this literature was Bob Mizer, who maintained a magazine and developed sexually inexplicit men's films for over 40 years. Aided by his mother, the two maintained a stable of not so innocent studs.

Shot within the urban and industrial landscapes of Halifax, Canada, Here Kitty Kitty! is an improvised film that showcases the beautiful and bleak life of Lucy, a late 30- something woman whose world is falling apart. A not-so-traditional Christmas movie with an off-beat, surreal and comic edge.

This film is animated in the rough collage style that James MacSwain has made his own. Utilizing a series of vignettes, the film traces the story of the child born to Marilyn Monroe and President Kennedy. As the satire unfolds, the story becomes a metaphor for the collapse of the American Empire due to mysticism and drugs.

A Space Opera.

A fittingly eclectic and colourful ode to Halifax treasure, multi-media artist James MacSwain, Celestial Queer documents MacSwain’s journey growing up gay in the ‘50s and ‘60s in small-town Nova Scotia and finding his community and artistic practice. Co-directors and long-time-Jim-disciples Eryn Foster and Sue Johnson compiled footage for this epic documentary for close to a decade to tell the story of this quietly outspoken feminist, naturalist and gay-rights activist.

The Medicine Show utilizes narrative storytelling, mock interviews, and staged theatrical vignettes to create a satirical portrait of a day in the life of an HIV-positive gay man named Gregory navigating his treatment options.