The film does depict an Anglo-Latino pairing and while director Shinners
confesses to an adoring fascination with Latin (in this case Puerto Rican) culture, he is quick to say he does not sexually fetishize Latino men. “Being raised in an Irish- catholic home where we don’t talk about things, I admire and am attracted to the more vocal, more expressive, warmer and less-afraid-of-each-other Latin culture,” New Jersey native, Shinners told The Rage Monthly during a recent phone interview. Barrio Boy is a condensed version of a feature-length film Shinners hopes to
complete, for that he will need investment. ShortFest and other film festivals pres- ent opportunities for up-and-coming directors, such as he and Ping-Wen Wang to attract attention from studios and potential investors. That’s partially why Shinners’ films, including Barrio Boy, Area X and Go-Go have graced the screens of competitive festivals including ShortFest, Iris Prize International LGBT Film Festival in Cardiff, Wales and the Miami Gay and Lesbian FilmFest. “Yes, the feature film would be a commercial venture,” he said. “But I also want people to walk away from it with a bet- ter appreciation of the need for tolerance and acceptance in society.” Yet Shinners’ wants to be clear, noting that Barrio Boy is entertaining and definitely not preachy. “It’s told from the point of view one person’s thoughts,” he said. “I hope it’s a personal experience.” According to organizers, festivals such as ShortFest present rare opportunities
for art, commerce and audiences to convene. This year’s ShortFest makes that connection more global than ever, according to festival director, Kathleen McInnis. “More countries than ever submitted,” says McInnis. “Eighty-two to be exact and we will be screening films from fifty-two. The quality of the work is, as always, outstand- ing, but in particular we’ve seen a lot of visual storytelling dealing with topics that speak to our world just now. Stories about relationships, certainly, but relationships with a different sense of place and time—and even urgency.”
Be sure to catch Between Us and Barrio Boy, or any of the more than 35 LGBT-themed films at ShortFest 2014, screening at Camelot Theatres, 2300 East Baristo Road in Palm Springs. For more information and to select from an array of diversely priced packages visit
psfilmfest.org.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 44
sound-sync film.” Not one to rest on her laurels, Wang is moving on to her next project even as the
festival circuits watch her cut her teeth on Between Us. “I’m preparing my thesis film, which is also an LGBT film and a woman’s film, called Christmas Dance. If Between Us and another film, Barrio Boy, are any indications about this year’s
wonderfully-long list of LGBT-centered selections among the lineup of film fare at ShortFest, one watch word to describe these productions may be “intimate.” In fact, just watching the trailer to Between Us and likewise to director Dennis Shin- ners’ Barrio Boy makes the viewer feel like they have covertly pried his or her way into a strictly confidential moment…one in which certain things are understood, though remain unspoken. “Barrio Boy is a short film that takes place in a barber shop in a macho neighbor-
hood in Brooklyn during the course of a haircut by a closeted barber, who falls in love with a handsome newcomer to the shop and to the neighborhood,” explains Shinner. “Yet what is covertly understood is not necessarily that the handsome Latino barber is (possibly) gay, but that there is a seductive tension innate in being attracted to something or someone that is or who is new to you in comparison to your own culture of origin.”
Palm Springs 46 RAGE monthly RAGE monthly | JUNE 2014
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