Pam

Extremely relevant, highly entertaining and utterly humanist, the critically-acclaimed film festival favorite Tying the Knot poignantly explores one of today's hottest issues, the political war between gay people who want to marry and those determined to stop them. If you lost the one you love, how would it feel to have your love placed on trial? After a bank robber's bullets ends the life of cop Lois Marrero, her wife of thirteen years, Mickie, discovers a police department willing to accept the women's relationship but unwilling to release Lois's pension. When Oklahoma rancher Sam loses his husband of 25 years, cousins of the deceased spouse challenge his will and move to evict Sam from his home. As Mickie and Sam take up battle stations to defend their lives, Tying the Knot digs deeply into the past and present to uncover the meaning of marriage today, focusing on such key issues as rights, privilege, and love. Passionately directed by Jim de Sève, Tying the Knot is an eye-opening examination of the institution of marriage, featuring amazing footage of gay hippies storming the Manhattan marriage bureau in 1971, plus inspired interviews with gay activists and right-wing politicos.

Meet Tip, Pam, Larry, Kit, Dusty, Sweets McGee and nameless, aimless more with young faces and old eyes. Meet them, but don't get too attached. Because tomorrow some of them may not be alive. Most of the people who appear in his astonishing semidocumentary about the daily life of Los Angeles heroin abusers are real-life addicts, caught up in an endless cycle of stealing, hustling, jail time, shooting up, and coming down - hard. Directed by Floyd Mutrux (American Hot Wax), with graphic cinematography by William A. Fraker (Bullitt), Dusty and Sweets McGee is "a film in its own category. There are long stretches during which it's hard to take your eyes off the screen" (Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle).