‘Massillon’: Growing Up Gay in Ohio

With his fiercely demanding yet ever-provocative and decidedly original 70-minute “Massillon” (1991), which Filmforum screens at LACE tonight at 8, experimentalist William Jones juxtaposes his bleak account of growing up gay in a small Ohio city with lyrical images of that community.

The personal gradually gives way to the political as Jones delves into how homophobia and the ignorance that goes with it are embedded in our very language; simultaneously, the images of Massillon yield eventually to shots of a raw Southern California tract, where we’re led to assume that Jones, who will appear in person, now makes his home. Also screening is Jean-Marie Straub’s 23-minute “The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp” (1968), which is said to have influenced Jones’ work. Information: (213) 663-9568.

‘Mexicanos’ Showcase: If you missed Carlos Carrera’s “Benjamin’s Woman” (1990) when it screened as part of the AFI’s fifth Americas Festival, you have another chance to catch this seriocomic gem when it screens Friday at 1 and 8 p.m. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater as part of the “Mexicanos ‘91” showcase. It’s a tale of love-starved individuals living in a small ancient town in which a painfully shy, easily intimidated one-time boxer (Eduardo Lopez Rojas), now fat and 50ish, develops a passion for a pretty teen-ager (Arcelia Ramirez). Playing with “Benjamin’s Woman” at both showings is Alberto Cortes’ “City of the Blind” (1991), in which we eavesdrop on the 10 different sets of tenants who occupy an apartment in a Mexico City high-rise over a 30-year period. Cortes seems to be most interested in the inhabitants’ sex lives, but one has the impression there are references to the outside world that elude translation via the film’s English subtitles. “City of the Blind” is therefore fairly elusive--there’s no exposition whatsoever--but also erotic and intriguing. Information: (213) 857-6010.