Crosstown Arthouse Film Series

American jazz musician Billy Tipton developed a reputable touring and recording career in the mid-twentieth century, along with his band The Billy Tipton Trio. After his death in the late 80s, it was revealed that Tipton was assigned female at birth, and his life was swiftly reframed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. The genre-defying documentary No Ordinary Man seeks to correct that misrepresentation by collaborating with trans artists. As they collectively celebrate Tipton’s story as a musician living his life according to his own terms, they paint a portrait of a trans culture icon. No Ordinary Man features leading voices and breakout stars in the trans community, including Marquise Vilsón, Scott Turner Schofield, Susan Stryker, C. Riley Snorton, and Thomas Page McBee, among others.

A combination of art film, documentary, and narrative, Funeral Parade of Roses takes a deep dive into  gay subculture in late 1960s Tokyo, Japan. In between the loose narrative, characters are interviewed about their lives and gender identity and occasionally the fourth wall is broken, revealing the crew making the film. A wild combination of film technique, documentation of '60s Japanese pop culture and gay life, Funeral Parade of Roses is a CAN’T MISS!

Swimmer and actress Esther Williams wanted to tell the life story of Australian swimmer and actress Annette Kellerman, and Million Dollar Mermaid is that film! A feast for the eyes with choreography by Busby Berkeley! Esther Williams broke her neck and was temporarily paralyzed for this entertainment!! With Victor Mature (Head: The Monkees Movie) and Jesse White (The Maytag Repair Man!).

From JANUS: The whiplash, double-pronged Chungking Express  is one of the defining works of '90s cinema and the film that made Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in Wong’s gloriously shot and utterly unexpected charmer, which cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of romantic longing.