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"The Dublin Film Festival opens on Wednesday 26 October with an exciting line-up of award-winning films from all over the world. When the festival closes on Friday 4 November audiences will have been treated to 85 feature films and a host of shorts from the Soviet Union, Hungary, India, Argentina, Taiwan, the United States and most West European countries (including Ireland). This year's festival will include a number of special seasons, among them, ""New Irish Cinema"" and ""Out of the Past"" - the latter providing an exceptional opportunity to see films which have been out of circulation for some time. Already confirmed for this retrospective are Commissar, an extraordinary 1966 film by Alexander Askoldov which deals bluntly with anti-Semitism. The film was banned in the USSR for over 20 years until it emerged at last year's Moscow Film Festival; A Bout de Souffle (Breathless), Jean-Luc Godard's 1959 visual treat about an American journalist (Jean Seberg) and a Bogart-clone (Jean-Paul Belmondo) in Paris; from 1960 and set in Rome, Federico Fellini's razor-edge view of decadence, La Dolce Vita. Also included will be John Frankenheimcr's 1962 political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, which stars Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury in a magnificent role as Harvey's monstrous mother. Among the films already confirmed for the main part of the festival arc: Au Revoir, Les Enfants (Louis Malle, France), the Oscar-nominated picture of schoolboys in wartime; Crazy Love (Dominique Deruddcre, Belgium), an off-beat, dark comedy about the experiences of a confused twelve year old in 1955 growing up in the late '50’s and beyond; Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, Britain), the award­ winning account of British family life in the late Forties and Fifties; Dogs in Space (Richard Lowenstein, Australia), a bit of a punk nostalgia film concerning a young bohemian collective sharing a house in Melbourne. Peter Greenaway's latest offering from Britain, Drowning by Numbers, will also be shown, as will The Law of Desire, (Pedro Almodovar, Spain), an irreverent social satire about an arrogant film director, his transexual sister and an obsessive fan who, we are told, becomes ""involved Fatal Attraction-style with the director"".There'll be a comprehensive list of the Festival's screenings in the next issue of GCN."

"086068 991 3 Price £7.50/pb Gertrude Stein was born in 1871. She moved to France in 1903 and lived there until she died in 1946. This book was published in 1935 and was based on a series of six lectures Ms. Stein gave on a tour of America in 1934.In the first of the essays Ms. Stein writes ""I am trying not to give myself but to you a feeling of the way that English literature feels inside me"". This is indeed what she tries to do and not just in relation to English literature but also with her other favourite subjects - drama, people, the essence of style and grammar. Throughout Lectures in America I found a strong desire to work with the language like sculpture, questioning how prose and poetry are built up and finding the limits of their versatility. The ideas I gathered from these essays may not have been the main themes of the author; my lack of knowledge of modern art, and of literary history and style left me occasionally lost. Another problem was that Ms. Stein's method of writing can be confusing. She writes in a manner which some people would feel drawn out. I think she herself would have called it insistent. In her essay ""Poetry and Grammar"" Gertrude Stein explains that ""When I first began writing I felt that writing should go on and if writing should go on what had colons and semi-colons...what had commas, what had periods...to do with it."" The language is for the most part simple. I found that by reading the essays as if they were being spoken I could not only make good the apparent lack of punctuation but give the seemingly A stimulating book and very enjoyable for those with an interest in writing. Berni O'Dea"

"""What is unique and so encouraging about Nicaragua is that lesbians and gay men are not marginalised politically, they are working alongside the state for the revolutionary transformation of society. Our solidarity is essential if this process is to be allowed continue. In return we have much to learn from another small country struggling to decide its own future free from imperialism. This international solidarity has been described by Tomds Borge as 'the tenderness of the peoples'"". Thus writes Kieran Rose in a chapter on Lesbians and Gay Men, from the shortly to be published Nicaragua: An Unfinished Canvas. Rose, a trade unionist and gay activist of high standing, recently took part in the First Irish Coffee Brigade to Nicaragua. The visit afforded him an opportunity to meet the lesbian and gay group in Managua. GCN will be carrying a review of Nicaragua: An Unfinished Canvas plus an interview with Kieran Rose and other contributors in a future issue."

VIRAGO PRESS 086 068 4830 PRICE £5 Kate Fransler, Professor of Literature and amateur detective, is invited to Clare College, New England, ostenably to contribute to the task force on Gender Studies. However, her real objective is to investigate the death by drowning of Patrice Umphelby, historian and novelist. Was it Murder or Suicide? Patrice had been vocal on her distaste for old age and professed to be "in love with death". During her lifetime Patrice's slight eccentricity and certainly her feminism had antagonised many of her fellow academics. Her biographers, Herbert and Archer, suspect one of them of murdering Patrice. As a crime novel this book is slow and unexciting with little in the way of thrills. However, the author, herself a university Professor, does depict life in a women's college with some humour. She also details the thoughts of a woman in her fifties on her approaching old age and argues that it need not be merely a time for nostalgia. Mary Walsh

"After having its world premiere at the Hawkswell in Sligo a few months ago, this play toured the country before finally reaching Dublin. It must have been a disappointment to many that the show only ran for a week at the Project, as there was surely sufficient demand for a three-week run. The sets comprised of a number of of rostra that formed steps down to the beach at Dun Laoghaire Pier. They were slightly battered round the edges, but this was probably due to the number of venues the company has played. Cider bottles were very much in evidence and as the night wore on their numbers increased. The back wall of the Project was painted to represent the sea/sky, in a crude but effective manner. Most of the action seemed to take place at night, as the set was lit mainly from behind in light-mid blues with cross light fill, again in light blues and key lights from the right (moonlight?), the idea of using orange to represent sodium street lights could have been exploited a lot more. The show opened with Huey, the main character (played by Declan Croghan) going for a swim, although we are led to believe that he has something less innocent in mind. His pal Pug (Gerry Marshall) times him while he is gone, but after 650 he stops, fearing the worst.. As the play unfolds, we see that the characters are a sort of family, united by their drinking of cider. When one of them gets money, it is spent on cider for all of them. Squint (Paul Kennedy), who went to the same orphanage as Huey, is the leader and is the chief source of money (got mainly by acting as pimp for Ria (Aoife Lawless) and by organising attacks on the gay men who use the pier as a cruising ground). Smokey (Connor Clarke) is an alcoholic by now, and has to rely on the others to supply him with cider. The gang spend most of their time at the end of the pier, lost in their own dream worlds, except for Pug, who sees very clearly what is happening around him and sees through the other characters. Ria, although not a dreamer, still does not quite see what she is doing to herself. Smokey is either drunk or has the D.T.'s. Squint feels that he has brought this family together and that he is master. Huey dreams about the family he thinks he had that drowned on the Titanic. (All the characters are in the 17-20 age group, and the play is set in 1985!) After setting the scene, the first half of the play ends with the attack on the 'Duke' (John Woods), with the intention of robbing him. However, Huey takes out his anger at himself and people of his kind on the Duke, whom he feels portrays typical ""filthy queers"". He ends up killing him. In the second half the trial is over, and the young men have gotten off with 5 years keeping of the peace. The local community supported them very well - ""sure weren't they ridding the neighbourhood of child molesters"". They arrive back at the end of the pier to celebrate. During a re-run of the case, Ria decides that what they told the Judge about child molesters etc. was not true (""what kids come down here after dark?""). She realises that the Duke had kids of his own, that he was a human being, the same as herself and that it was wrong to have killed him. She cannot escape a vision of his face. The only thing for her now is cider. Smokey feels the same. Whatever chance he had of giving up cider is now gone. It is the only escape from the thoughts of what he has done. Ria moves over to England, to her sister. Smokey tries for re-habilitation and even Squint realises that he no longer has his family to look after. Pug, who never wanted a job in the first place, gets a job in his uncle's pub. Only Huey remains. He also requires cider to escape. Pug visits him, to find out why he killed the Duke. Huey finally admits that he is gay himself, that it was hatred for himself that made him do it. Pug, who was trying to tell Huey that he (Huey) was gay at the start of the play now finds it hard to take. There the play ends, with Huey left in darkness.The first half of the play is badly paced. The director has drawn it out, with little contrast between high and low points in the action, the fight scenes are unconvincing, be they brawls between friends or the attack on the Duke; sloppy, unconvincing and far too slow. The time for the first half could easily be cut by 30-40% without losing any of the dialogue, and it would certainly help relieve the tedium. Direction wise, the second half of the play is much better. The pace is a lot faster and there is much better contrasts between moods. Although I was bored for the first half of the play, I sat riveted through this part. When it was over I sat there, stunned. Was this a live performance or was it reality? It took me 5 minutes to convince myself of where I actually was. Huey, the main character is not very convincing. The inflections in his speech, his accent and the lines he is given add up to a totally unconvincing performance. However, it is difficult to know whether to blame the actor or the director. I would tend to blame the director. The author, in trying to show us a confused mind has succeeded in showing us too well. Squint was unremarkable, quite a good performance, but again, what a terrible accent. Pug was excellent. He was not acting the part, he was the part. His voice had the correct inflections for his lines. He spoke them with the correct accent and his emotions were real. Gerry Marshall is a name we are going to hear a lot more of. Ria also gave a good performance. She had good contrasts between her moods and maintained the correct (Sallynoggin) accent throughout. Particularly effective was her soliloquy where she is shown pleading with her mother after the murder. Smokey, although a small part, was a very demanding one. To stay in character with the D.T.'s every night for a long run, even if you don't have a lot to say requires much of an actor, and Connor Clarke did so admirably.The Duke was a very small part, hardly worth a mention, except to say that the make-up, while good in the shadows, let the actor down when he turned to the key light.Overall this was a very worthwhile performance. As many people as possible in Ireland should see it, if only to reveal what Aodhan Madden, the author, described as a ""deep and unpleasant homophobia in Irish society"". Well done Acorn Theatre Company. Tony Murphy SEA URCHINS UPDATE Sea Urchins has now transferred to the Tivoli in Francis St. where it will play for as long as the demand is there. During the Theatre Festival the play will tour community venues around Dublin. Contact the Festival Offices for further information."

"A last Summer fling I kept telling myself; something to raise the spirits and take my mind off approaching Autumn. And thus, my little trolls, I found myself on August 25 in Dublin's newest gay venue - MINSKY'S at 2 Ely Place (off St. Stephen's Green). The night's fare was advertised as Male Stripper and Exotic Snacks. I'll have a bit of both I thought smugly. Disporting myself with cute escort Timmy we arrived at our destination and were shown downstairs by the shockingly tall but sculptured David the Doorman. At the foot of the stairs we bumped into Tommy, an old (as in years of friendship) flaming queen from Phibsborough who's now earning a packet and living it up in London. Similar story for many of our closest, n'est-ce pas? We sidled over to a plush sofa in the 'conservatory', just off the bar area. As we sipped our martinis we surveyed the crowd which included many of the leather boys spotted earlier in the Parliament. There was a pleasant atmosphere with Alfred, the Bar Manager, spinning an eclectic variety of music in between serving the exotic-hungry punters. Now and then Alfred would toss back his luxuriously long, thick black mane, scan...the crowd and making sure that Busboy Mick got the deliciously hot and cold hor-d'oeuvres to the milling throng. Male Stripper (the Song) heralded Male Stripper (the Artiste).... interesting accoutrements hanging from his bod but, my God, love handles that even I don't have - and wouldn't wish to have, mes chéres! Our stripping friend was somewhat reticent about doing his biz until a certain James from the legal profession (we faggots are truly EVERYWHERE) began to tarry by the dancefloor and help our unhappy entertainer. Well there were shrieks of horror and joy as the poor bloke had his face mask and briefs whipped off. Then the real tease began. I heard moans of horror from T & T who were squashed beside me on the stairs. I turned back to the floor in time to see Mark, a well- known face on the Dublin pub scene and himself a former stripper, stride toward the centre of entertainment. At this stage the crowd resembled an amphitheatre full of Romans feeding Christians to the lions as Mark and our original stripper became engaged on the dancefloor. There were leering faces everywhere. People began to whoop and clap as Mark dragged the stripper back onto the floor while simultaneously dropping his own clothes. The bould James was close at hand doing his stage managing routine. Before long it was all over and I came away from the place with mixed feelings. For service and ambience Minsky's is well worth a visit, but we'll forget about the stripper... unless you think otherwise - it which case, my delicate darlings, you know how to contact me. I remain yours in search of sleaze, Blondie Bombshell. NEXT ISSUE BLONDIE VISITS THE GAY SAUNAS IN DUBLIN."

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"Aggie rolled around her bed hugging her pillow. Suddenly she became frantic and sat up straight in bed. Something was different, something had changed. She searched for this something but all seemed normal. Then she glimpsed her cast off clothes. Where was Skye? She jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. No sign of her. She went back to her bed disappointed. She so liked the morning after a night spent with someone; the breakfast in bed, the crumbs on the sheets, the laughter and very often the lovemaking that followed or even interrupted. Someone! Skye wasn't someone, she was a woman. My God, thought Aggie, what has happened? Her head suddenly filled with a gloom never before felt. She must be crazy. I've been raped by a woman she thought, how horrid, how utterly disgusting. She tried to push the details far from her mind. It had all happened so quickly. That woman Skye must be one of those lesbeans. She'd never met a real one before. She remembered her school days and the story of Michele Ennis and Deidre O'Connell, the Gym Mistress found them holding each other in the locker room. There had been a lot of talk about what they weren't wearing. Afterwards they were suspended and separated. In fact Michele never came back to school. But they weren't lesbeans. Lesbeans drove motorbikes, wore Doc Martens and had moustaches. Another school friend saw one once on holidays. She had to have been one because no man would have her. Aggie became hysterical. Maybe I caught it off her? Should I go to the priest or even the doctor? I'm sure there's something he can give me. What will the neighbours think? They could have seen her coming out of the flat wearing those Doc Martens. Perhaps she wasn't one after all. But how could she explain to herself what had happened last night? Aggie's mind soared. She decided she'd play it cool. She'd tell Skye that as long as she promised to move away she wouldn't report her. It was already a quarter past two and Aggie's stomach rumbled. She got up and made herself breakfast. Her food tasted rather bland. She promised herself she wouldn't think about that incident. After finishing her food she went to take a shower. Aggie stood naked in front of her bathroom mirror. She was checking her breasts for lumps as she did every morning. Then she smelt an odour different to her own. Unsuspectingly her thoughts drifted to the night before. It was different with a woman. She hated that smell after being with a man though wouldn’t admit it to anyone. Somehow she couldn't find offence in this lingering odour. Then she got into the shower and rubbed herself clean with the sponge her mother had bought her for Christmas - it was a real one too. Aggie had to rid herself of the thoughts of Skye. Then she thought of those Doc Martens. She could never wear them. They wouldn't go with any of her clothes and besides she didn't like them. She felt safe and reassured once more. In the bedroom Aggie tore the sheets off the bed, took her clothes and left her apartment for the laundrette. She liked living in Rathmines. Everything was so convenient with all those 24hr shops. She did her business at the laundrette and then went shopping. It began to rain. The sky looked like a badly made bed to Aggie as she looked towards Rathmines Townhall. It had been three weeks and no sign of Skye. Her post was piling up downstairs. Aggie felt like pushing it under Skye's door but thought better of it. Momentarily she was distracted by a loud, booming sound from next door. Aggie became slightly irritated and then realised it was Skye's stereo. She ran to the door, opened it and as she was about to knock on Skye's, she froze. She touched the door gently with the palm of her hand, turned and went back to her room, locking her door behind her. Continued next issue"

"The Parliament Inn has launched an ambitious programme of entertainment for the Winter season. Every second Thursday night in the top lounge is Leather and Denim Night. The top lounge also sees weekly women only nights. In keeping with this policy of offering something for everyone, they are bringing over some of the top names from the London scene over to Dublin. The first of these was ANDRE ADORE, who performed his show on three consecutive nights from 26th to 28th August. The show started at quarter past ten, when a diminutive man got onto stage and started stripping to the music. Soon he was putting on make-up and a dress. With the wig in place the transformation was complete! ""Marilyn Monroe"" was on stage in front of us. There was even a wind machine to create that famous up-draft!!! While ""I am what I am"" was playing, he changed into ""Judy Garland"". After a ten minute break, André returned to give an impersonation of Shirley Bassey, with a massive pink boa. Another change and we had the man who took the stage at the start of the night's entertainment. The show was excellent, and well done to Frank and Noel for giving us the opportunity to see it. Tony Murphy"