Faery executive producere Justin Winokur reads a raffle ticket while Kitten Calfer assists and billboard-sized Sodomy” screams behind them. Photo by Rink.

Marrvelous Films presented an art auction fundraiser on April 19 at The LGBT Community Center to help produce a new queer documentary, Faerie. Justin Winokur was emcee and auctioneer for the event, which offered photographs, sculptures, oils, watercolors, sketches, and mixed media. This was the second such Faerie film fundraiser, following the successful March 22 “PlayParty” and preceding the June 27 “Artist + Nude =” silent auction. There will be monthly fundraisers with different themes, such as an upcoming foodie festival, where a chef will prepare a five-course meal for food enthusiasts.

People can contribute with financing or research or art pieces for the filmmaking at the website, faeriefilm.com. 

My favorite art piece was, “Sodomy: It’s Fan-Fucking-Tastic!” by Tim Walker, which was a gigantic 132” x 96” canvas taking up half of the back wall of The Center. “See your nearest Recruitment Officer for more details,” it said. A figure resembling Jesus was holding quite closely a young lad, helping him learn to hold a baseball bat. At the bottom was a disclaimer as a government warning: “According to the Surgeon General, excessive exposure to this public service message may cause serious brain damage, vertigo, anal rampage, mild stomach discomfort, Sunday morning sodomy, prolonged anal discharge, and may impair your ability to drive a car or operate machinery. “Closet” by Kenney Mencher was an oil as a double self-portrait (“meant as an entendre, and you get to figure out what skeletons may be in my closet”) as he opens the closet from the side and also stands in front of it surveying the inside. “Altar Boy” by Tim Walker was a Plexiglas acrylic light box of a stained glass window, where two priests stand together as an altar boy kneels with his face in the father’s crotch. “Revivification” by Tom Schmidt was a giclee print of a bald man trying to pull up a bustier around his torso, showing signs of anguish in the struggle. Or maybe it was because he was standing in killer come-fuck-me pumps.

I interrupted my tour of art to speak with Faerie director/producer David Marr about his project, highlighting the contributions of queers throughout history – showing a comparison of how someone like Leonardo Da Vinci or Socrates living today would not be allowed queer rights, such as same-sex marriage, hate crime laws, or open military service. “The film will show how we should have equality across the board, and that queers have a unique role in society and should be respected,” said Marr. He said the film will point out that people should not be entitled to certain rights just because they breed.

“If you’re not a person who procreates, then you have fewer rights than those people,” he said. “This is to show that everyone has a contribution to society, and without those contributions - such as Socrates’ defining what Western Civilization is – would not be allowed to have equal rights.” His mission-like statement is: “Folklore suggests the origin of the Faerie traces back to a conquered race that lived by moral or ethical values that lost attention with the arrival of Christianity. It is rumored the destiny of a Faerie is to illuminate mankind in creativity, inspiration, and self-investigation, and to be keepers of hope for those who question the physical manifestation of our essential spirits.” Marr said they “lay the foundations of civilization and society itself (Plato, Aristotle, Socrates); defined the meaning of art and beauty (Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Warhol); and united the broken tribes of humankind (Alexander, Caesar, kings and queens).

The film is anticipated to be completed by early 2009, distributed as public education to community centers and health organizations, “so when it comes time to voting for queer rights, people will know what’s right and what’s wrong.” It will also be targeted to independent theaters across the nation, as well as film festivals. There will be a narrator - hopefully some sort of celebrity - talking about LGBT contributions to society, from the beginning of society.

Marr told me he has been a working artist for most of his life, spending ten years in Hollywood seeking to be an actor and writer, then moving to San Francisco and getting involved with the Burning Man community. He said, “I believe that art has a really important role in society.” He taught himself to write, direct, film, edit, produce, and fundraise, “so I would not have to put that role in somebody else’s hand and depend on others so much.” Over the last three years he has made more than 15 short films, music videos, and commercial projects. “I can sing and dance,” he said. “I don’t do drag – but who knows what the future holds?!”

“Twin Klownz Oral Balloon” by Glenn Campbell was a giclee print of two white-faced clowns facing each other, sucking on a long purple balloon between them. It was from a collection called “Klownerotika.” Campbell told me he has been performing in the SF Porn Klown Posse and the LA HellaKlowns for ten years. The clowns participated in the March 15 anti-war march and will clown for the May 10th Revlon Cancer Walk, among other events where they tend to pop up.

“Scissoring” by Jenny Slafkoski was a steel and paint sculpture of two pairs of scissors doing what many lesbians like to do as a sexual position. “No One’s Dick Is That Big” by Jeff Gillman was graphite on paper as a nude muscleman, lifting up his posing strap to reveal a member bigger than his head. Gillman said back when he was in 9th grade in Salt Lake City, he found muscle posing physique magazines a real turn-on, and the impression stayed with him as his sexuality defined itself further in life. Marie Saquing had a series of oils of three different female couples fucking. “I was still in school when there was a rumor that they kicked out students who had created sexually explicit art, and I wanted to see what boundaries I could push by painting something erotic that would be beautiful and still qualify as fine art,” she said. Based on movie ratings, “X” (1999) was explicit sixty-nine, “NC-17” (1998) was far less explicit naked coupling, and “Unrated” (1997) was kissing and touching with underwear on.

As Marr said, “Beyond the ability of procreation, Faeries possess the unique new thought or act of creation itself; the very element needed to redefine culture in the minds and lives of humankind.”