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City People

Gay film ambassador tries to keep it reel

It's enough to inspire job envy: Joseph Cook gets paid to travel to film festivals across the country.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published September 29, 2006

Joseph Cook saw something special in each of those movies while touring the country's festivals this year. So the program director for the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival picked them for the 10-day event, which kicks off Thursday.

"The purpose of a film festival is to bring films that people wouldn't see otherwise," he said.

Meet Tampa's ambassador of independent gay film. Cook started refining his cinematic tastes while working the box office at an indie movie house in Louisville, Ky., as a college sophomore.

Now, the 35-year-old sociology professor who lives downtown is in his second year as program director for the festival, which has grown to three venues: the Tampa Theatre, Channelside Cinemas and Muvico BayWalk 20 in St. Petersburg.

Cook gets paid to spend the year traveling to film festivals across the country, picking flicks that entertain and further the genre. He screened about 400 movies this year, which was particularly strong for queer cinema, he said.

"In times where there is political conservatism and a lot of tension in society, filmmakers are inspired by that," he said. "There's a renaissance in terms of stories and films that are fairly political and entertaining. The statement is part of the film, but not the film itself."

The festival, now in its 17th year, will feature 133 films from more than 20 countries. The festival will mark the first time many of the movies have been shown in the Southeast.

Cook's newest acquisition for the festival will surely make a statement. He got last-minute rights to screen Short Bus, a sexy sophomore film by Hedwig and the Angry Inch director John Cameron Mitchell.

Cook looks for films with innovative approaches and fresh topics.

"He is extraordinarily intelligent and approaches the film programming with such an incredible, incisive perspective," said festival spokesman Scott Taylor. It's "the sociologist in him, I guess."

Cook is a sociology professor at Polk Community College and an adjunct instructor at the University of South Florida and Hillsborough Community College. He specializes in sexuality, film studies in sociocultural contexts, gender and pop culture. He wants to educate people about the fluidity of identity.

"Identity overall is very dynamic," Cook said. "And from the standpoint of a gay man who grew up in a conservative Kentucky town, I'm frustrated when people have limited ideas of what they think someone else's sexuality entails."

For Cook, film, sociology and education are a perfect fit, and as his career progresses, his three passions become more intertwined. Cook hopes to write sociological film criticism and, one day, produce his own documentary.

"Film has the capacity to change minds," he said.

JOSEPH J. COOK

Age: 35

Gig: Sociology professor and program director for the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

Digs: One Laurel Place in downtown Tampa

FILM SCOUTING CITIES: Miami, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco

Favorite movie directors: John Sayles, Pedro Almodovar, Woody Allen and Federico Fellini

Reading: Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours

Peeve: "I hate lazy filmmaking - movies that don't attempt to justify their characters or films that insult the audience's intelligence."

YEAR'S FAVORITES: 20 Centimeters, Whispering Moon, Gypo and Pick up the Mic

IF YOU GO

The Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival runs Thursday through Oct. 15 at the Tampa Theatre, Channelside Cinemas and Muvico BayWalk 20. It's $9 per show; packages are available. See www.pridefilmfest. com.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or 226-3354.

[Last modified September 28, 2006, 11:56:54]