Playland

It doesn't always have to be about Stonewall. Places that fought (and continue to fight) for queer culture are numerous. The Playland Cafe in Boston was one such place, a home for the homeless in a hostile heterosexual world. Fragments from news broadcasts of that time – politicians wanting to clean up the entire neighborhood and referring to it as combat zones – are played over free and diverse reinterpretations of wild dance nights and melancholic bar scenes. And they are given a taste of their own medicine. Audio interviews bring up personal memories and memorable anecdotes, while an especially glamorous costume design paints the portrait of a physical place and an entire community that had to yield to urban renewal projects and... intolerance. A creative patchwork and an ambitious tribute, Playland is above all a demanding work of preservation that continues the legacy of the iconic bar, thus writing queer history.

“Alluding to experimental works like that of Derek Jarman and Sally Potter, West has crafted an uncanny and inventive film that boldly transcends physical space, reminding us that though certain pioneering queer spaces may be gone, their memories cannot be erased.” - IFFR