Anguish, Pride, Delusion In `Men Who Love Boys'

There aren't many loves left that dare not speak their name. But Adi Sideman's "Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys," which opens tonight at the Pike St. Cinema, is bound to make anyone who watches it uncomfortable.

It's not a promotional tool for the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), although it's made up mostly of interviews with men who belong to the organization, which was founded in 1978 and claims to represent "good pedophiles" who oppose age-of-consent laws.

Nor does it take a judgmental stance toward the group. It simply lets its members state their cases, which are sometimes anguished and platonic ("Since I was 8 I wanted a little brother"), sometimes out of touch with contemporary reality (a Bronx science teacher was suspended when his membership became public), on one occasion quite famous (Allen Ginsberg is proud to belong) and sometimes wildly deluded (an ex-convict claims that all the boys are flirting with him).

Tom McDonough, founder of Straight Kids USA, represents the opposition. He calls NAMBLA members "baby-rapers." At the 1993 gay/lesbian march on Washington D.C., NAMBLA members are treated as pariahs by homosexual activists.

Although Sideman includes arguments for the more liberal laws of the Netherlands, as well as traditional claims that man-boy love was an important part of ancient Greek-Roman culture, the 23-year-old filmmaker favors age-of-consent laws. He made the film because he feels that an informed opinion is better than ignorance.

Also on the program: a naive, faded 1960s educational short, "Red Light, Green Light," that warns children not to take gifts from strangers, and local filmmaker Matt Ebert's campy sports-scandal parody, "Cheap Skates: The Hardly-Cardigan Affair." Tickets are $5.

911 is busy

At 8 o'clock tonight, "Mexico in Conflict: The Real Story" will be screened at 911 Media Arts Center, 117 Yale Ave. N. The program is made up of two documentaries: "TV Barrio," which was produced by reporters at Mexico's Paper Tiger Television, and "Chiapas: La Otra Guerra," an independently produced videotape about the war in Chiapas.

AIDS in Africa is the subject of Dianne Griffin and Tobi Solvang's "Wake Up," a documentary that plays at 8 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $4 for 911 members, $6 for others for both shows.

At 8 p.m. next Friday, 911 and the Washington Film & Video Association will go high-tech with the American premiere of Brett Dowler's "Cyberteens in Love." Suggested donation is $4; admission is free to 911 and association members and Northwest CyberArtists.

Next weekend at Seattle Center, 911 and Northwest CyberArtists will present "Beyond Fast Forward: A Creative Convergence of Art and Technology," a series of workshops about CD-ROM technology, interactive TV and the information superhighway. Prices range from $70 to $120. Information: 682-6552.

Around town

Cinema Video holds its next monthly showcase of independent film and video makers at 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at the Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge Theatre, 107 Occidental S. Tickets are $5 . . . The Varsity continues its midweek Shakespeare series Wednesday night with a stimulating double bill: Franco Zeffirelli's "Hamlet," starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, and Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," with Tim Roth and Gary Oldman playing supporting characters from "Hamlet" who are thrust into the leading roles . . . Silent films will be shown with live music at Meany Theater, where Hitchcock's "Blackmail" is scheduled at 8 tonight and E.A. Dupont's "Moulin Rouge" will play at 8 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $21. Buster Keaton's "Go West," "The High Sign" and "One Week" will be shown with scores written for them at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Moore. Tickets are $12 . . . The inimitable Ed Wood's "Bride of the Monster," in which Bela Lugosi wrestles a rubber octopus, will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Penny University, Second and Bell. Tickets are $4 for the Backtrack Cinema presentation . . . Ford Thaxton's Soundtrack Cinema, at 9 p.m. tomorrow on KING-FM, 98.1, features Dominic Frontiere's music for the early-1960s television show, "The Outer Limits," including the haunting score for one of the most poetic episodes, "The Man Who Was Never Born."