Jane Cottis in Person By nature, television's portrayals of lesbian and gay culture have ranged from superficial to downright distorted. Jane Cottis's crazily comic War on Lesbians (32 mins) combats the array of televised misconceptions with its own arsenal of fresh stereotypes. An anchorwoman reporting on the recent visibility of lesbians takes us into the cloistered offices of experts, such as Dr. Di Kellis, and the demimonde of dykedom to meet Frank Dyke, a post-female lesbian. It's all a put-on, but not really. Cottis's characterizations (she plays every one of them) explode the seamy prejudice that tacitly informs most media reportage. In Fast Trip, Long Drop (54 mins), Gregg Bordowitz set out to contest the way in which people living with AIDS are depicted with such condescending pity. Perversely funny, a fictitious talk show host demands that the artist's alter-ego, Alter Allesman, be utterly hopeless, making imminent death a less threatening condition for the audience. Bordowitz, who is living with AIDS, confounds the meanness of such portrayals by offering himself up within a bold, complex, and politicized autobiography.-Steve Seid