Grit & Grind + Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger
Total Run time: 80min / 2014 / USA / Digital video
Grit & Grind (US Premiere) presented by DCTV
Directed by Felix Endara and Sasha Wortzel
10min / 2014 / USA / English
Grit & Grind is a short documentary about the Clit Club, an edgy lesbian party set in New York City’s Meatpacking District in the 1990s, as this large metropolis struggled with the AIDS epidemic. The film acts as a polyvocal recollection of the sexually charged energy produced by this intergenerational, crossracial, mixed class venue? and serves as a record of a vibrant neighborhood before it became home to homogeneous trendy boutiques and luxury hotels.
Kate Bornstein Is A Queer and Pleasant Danger captures the many facets of a queer hero and pioneering gender outlaw. Whether she is charming an enraptured audience on her latest book tour, tweeting to her 20 thousand followers from her home office, or cuddling with her puggle? this documentary portrait highlights Kate’s style, wicked wit, and astonishing candor.
To view the trailer click here.
Felix Endara Born in Ecuador, Felix Endara is a New York-based independent filmmaker and curator whose films have screened at festivals including Berlin, Frameline, Outfest, and Mill Valley. From 2008 to 2012, he programmed Arts Engine’s documentary screening series DocuClub, which he toured to Mexico City and Silver Spring, Maryland. In 2010, he was a fellow at the IFP Documentary Finishing Lab as producer for Wildness, which premiered at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in February 2012, and was an official selection at SXSW later that year. Grit & Grind, his most recent short film, had its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014.
Sasha Wortzel is a filmmaker, media artist, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY, working in video, installation, sound, and performance. Her experimental and documentary films explore space in relation to gender, sexuality, memorial, and archive. In her interactive installations, analogue objects are brought to life with physical computing and programming. She produces the radio program, Romantic Friendship, a thematic exploration of art, culture, and politics through a queer, feminist lens She has recently presented work at the Berlin International Film Festival, Tribeca Interactive, Guggenheim Lab, A.I.R. Gallery, and the Leslie Lohman Museum. She is a recipient of the Robert Rauschenberg/Big Arts award and a 2012-2013 Queer/Art/Mentorship Fellow. She is currently directing Star People are Beautiful People, a hybrid feature about the late transgender activists, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson of STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries).
Sam Feder’s (www.samfeder.com) directorial debut, the award-winning feature, Boy I Am, is cited as one of the 10-Must See Gender Documentaries. Sam’s work can be seen internationally at film festivals, universities and colleges, museums, and libraries. They have received grants, fellowships and residencies from: The Jerome Foundation, the RFA Excellence in Filmmaking, Crossroads Foundation, Funding Exchange, Astraea Foundation for Social Justice, and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2013, Sam was awarded a Yaddo Artist Residency, and a MacDowell Colony Fellow Residency.
Founded in 1972, DCTV is an established media arts resource for New York City’s independent filmmaking community, providing affordable workshops, production equipment rentals, post-production facilities, a signature screening and event series, renowned youth programming, and more – all under the same roof as its award-winning documentary production house. DCTV is also the soon-to-be home of the first US documentary-only cinema!
