Arts & Entertainment
East Village author weaves together fi ction and memoir
BY BOB KRASNER
Author Lucy Sante is a an interesting
point in her life, looking backward
and forward simultaneously.
With the release of her latest book, a
collection of essays entitled ‘Maybe The
People Would Be The Times’, she has
gathered together pieces that form a kind
of memoir – even in the fi ction that weaves
in and out of the examinations of music,
art, tabloids, photography and her life in
the East Village many years ago.
Between the creation of this book and
its actual publication, Sante has entered
a new phase of her life, with a remnant
of her previous persona stamped large on
the cover of the work, which is credited to
‘Luc’ Sante.
In her mid-60’s, Sante has recently come
out as transgender, changed her name and
is happily living her life with a new set of
pronouns. The writer, who came to prominence
in 1991 with ‘Low Life’ – an examination
of the seedier side of Manhattan life
in the mid-nineteenth century – is still the
same author with an insatiable quest for
knowledge and the requisite skill needed
to share her insights. But for the fi rst time,
she is feeling comfortable with who she is.
Lucy Sante reading from her latest book “Maybe The People Would Be The
Times” at the Howl Happening Gallery.
“I’d been thinking about this since I was
in single digits and I fought it every step of
the way,” she reveals. “But now I realize
now that fi ghting it was ridiculous and I
should have done it many, many years ago.
Decades ago – but it was impossible.”
Sante recently took all the photos of
herself she could fi nd of herself through the
years and put them into a program called
FaceApp to see herself gender swapped,
but there weren’t many pics to work with.
PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
“I hated being photographed,” Sante
explained. “I hated myself and the way I
looked.”
Since she came to the United States from
Belgium as a young boy she has been an
outsider, in the position of having to do her
own research on even the most mundane
things.
“I didn’t want to give myself away as an
immigrant,” she recalls. “So I couldn’t ask
questions like, ‘what kind of shoes are those’?
I had to fi gure things out on my own.”
The results of her tireless research – done
long ago in the library and elsewhere but now
handled with the benefi t of the computer (
of which she has very mixed feelings) – will
soon result in three more projects.
One, titled ’19 Reservoirs ‘ promises to
be an exhaustive history of the water supply
in Upstate New York. A book about Lou
Reed is also in the works, as well as an
extended piece about her own transition
that will be published in a major magazine.
Which makes sense for an author who
notes that “everything I’ve ever written is
about me.”
Sante now teaches writing as well as the
history of photography at Bard College and
has settled into her Ulster County home,
where she has lived longer than anywhere
else.
Sante has certainly adapted to her new
life, even to the point of enjoying her photoshoot.
“I didn’t realize how uncomfortable
I was in my body until I began the
transition,” she relates. “I was off-balance,
prickly, unconsciously avoiding possibly
feminine poses. Now, suddenly, I feel
comfortable.”
More info about Lucy Sante can be
found at lucsante.com.
New York Shorts fi lm fest showcasing over 300 movies
BY NYCKOLE MAREE
New York Shorts International Film
Festival is a non-profi t organization
that provides a showcase for
emerging fi lmmakers from around the
world. The festival is celebrating its 10
years and since starting the festival it has
been committing to bringing the theatrical
experience back to New York City.
This year, New York Shorts is showcasing
300 fi lms from around the world with
genres like comedy, documentary, drama,
music videos, and many more.
The Shorts is providing a chance for
all audience members to attend this year’s
festival by providing an on-demand and
in-person option. On-demand is a digital
experience with fi lms being available on
The Shorts Network Youtube Channel until
Nov. 4 with a subscription.
This year, the remaining days of the festival
will be held at Cinema Village showcasing
fi lms like “Training Day” a drama directed
by Kunga Choephel which is about a young
man’s last days as a motel housekeeper gets
turned upside down when he and his trainee
discover a dead body. It will also include a
documentary called, “The Show Must Go
On,” directed by Paul Grant and Nathan
Crane Cohen is about at the height of the
COVID-19 Pandemic and in the midst of a
PPE crisis, Broadway’s resilient community
comes together to create the infrastructure
to supple frontline medical workers with
desperately needed hospital gowns.
PHOTO VIA GETTY IAMGES
Besides showing films, the festival
will include music videos like “Sound of
Silence” directed by Nicole Philippidis.
The music video is a take on the classic
Simon and Garfunkel song, “The Sound
of Silence” and it was shot in Greenwich
Village, during the pandemic lockdown in
the fall of 2020. The video takes the viewer
through the streets down a time of great
uncertainty and social unrest.
“We had lockdowns, we had people
afraid, we had tons of homeless people
displaced, we had black lives matter movement
with protests and riots going on,” said
Philippidis. “The divide was tremendous
even though we were going through the
same thing. It was this big crazy ball of
chaos, but it looked completely silent
because everything was locked down so I
wanted to show that through the eyes of a
musician.”
After premiering at The Shorts on Nov.
4, it will be released for the whole public to
see on her website at www.277fi lms.com.
Philippidis has a goal, to get enough people
to watch her music video to help out for a
good cost.
“My goal, I am really hoping is that this
video gets enough interest so that people
can maybe donate a dollar or two so we can
donate these proceeds to help homelessness
in the city because that was a big part in the
music video,” said Philippidis.
The New York Shorts is the largest short
fi lm festival on the East Coast and for more
information visit nyshorts.net.
12 NNoovveembbeerr 44,, 22002211 Schneps Mediia
/lms.com
/www.277fi
/lucsante.com
/nyshorts.net
