6:30pm
Sunday December 20, 2009
South Dallas Cultural Center 3400 S. Fitzhugh Dallas, TX 75210

Directed by: Thomas Allen Harris

VINTAGE Families of Value is an experimental documentary that looks at three
African American families through the eyes of lesbian and gay siblings –
including the filmmaker and his younger brother. In 1991, while his mother
and brother sit in the kitchen giving each other facials, the filmmaker sets up a
camera and for the first time asks his mother what she thinks of the fact that
her two and only sons are gay. What ensues is a conversation that moves from
sexuality to a discussion of ambivalence, fear and hope regarding family. Over
the course of five years, three groups of queer siblings use video cameras to
articulate the multiple narratives that coexist within the psychic space of family.
VINTAGE negotiates sexuality as a point of departure to explore these
relationships. For African Americans, autobiographical narratives constitute a
political strategy to re-write her/ histories. VINTAGE Families of Value crosses
the boundaries of truth time, gender and power, to create a portrait that is
simultaneously collective and autobiographical.

Immediately follow the screening of VINTAGE Families of Value, there will be a talkback with a panel of local black gay siblings. Special guest panelists are identical twins, Zachary and Gregory Shirley and sister and brother, Robin and Ryan Pruitt. They will join other panelists and discuss various issues surrounding black gay siblings.