BACK
Film & Program Index
Documentaries Pull Out: Schedule at a Glance Shorts Retrospectives Ticket Info Ticket Order Form Festival Venues Festival Info Frameline Board, Staff, Members & Donors
6 HT p.3
E-UP E LIN IN TH OUT
PERIO
D p.4
p.58
0
Closing Night Film & Party: I Feel Like Disco
World Cinema
E NIG
120
Centerpiece: Lilting
US Features
IN TH
Wells Fargo First Feature Award Spotlight: LGBT Films in Today’s Russia
Centerpiece: To Be Takei
Showcase Programs
OUT
New Storytelling in LGBT Cinema
Opening Night Film & Gala: The Case Against 8
FIRST
p.58
26 29
About Frameline
p.62
3
Frameline Award: George Takei
Sponsors
ORTS
A p. 4
20 21 23 25
30 38 42 52 P1 61 68 70 71 72 73 118
Welcome to Frameline38
LS SH
A-CH
p. 58
p.53 CLAN
IN GIR
OAD
GANIS
OFF R
G LOU
ST CH
: GRE
5 10 13 19
FUN
OARD
A A’S L ANIT
ON B
contents
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
1
welcome frameline38
In a city undergoing rapid transition, Frameline, with its 38-year history, stands strong and provides a vital testament to the LGBTQ cultural history of this magically queer place. So we are thrilled to bring you the 38th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival — a magnificent showcase of the best queer cinema from around the globe.
Frameline38 features 214 films from 31 countries; beyond films, our lineup of special thematic programs, dynamic parties, discussions, and other exciting events brings together filmmakers, actors, producers, artists, screenwriters, and movie lovers from here in the Bay Area and all around the world. Frameline38 opens with The Case Against 8, an all-access look at the first Supreme Court case on marriage equality. Featuring exclusive behind-thescenes footage, the film follows the four plaintiffs and the unlikely legal dream team of Ted Olson and David Boies as they take their challenge to Prop. 8 from San Francisco to the Supreme Court. Our Closing Night film is I Feel Like Disco, a funny and heartwarming coming-of-age dramatic comedy about a pudgy, sexually confused, disco-loving teen and his clueless, overbearing dad. Our Centerpiece Documentary is stellar — literally: To Be Takei celebrates the Star Trek legend, marriage-equality advocate, and social media superstar George Takei, who will also be honored with this year’s Frameline Award for his pioneering contributions to the representation of Asian American and LGBTQ figures in media. The exquisite Lilting is our Centerpiece Narrative: Hong Khaou’s debut feature tells the touching story of a Chinese mother and her son’s British lover attempting to move on after the death of their beloved. We are also delighted to host a special series of film screenings and panel discussions titled New Storytelling in LGBT Cinema, an exploration of the future of queer film, covering topics of digital distribution, new cinematic approaches to gay history and biography, and the growth and support of queer women filmmakers. This program is proudly supported by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Given the past year’s dramatic and disturbing changes for LGBT people in Russia, the Festival will shine a spotlight on Russia’s resilient and remarkable queer filmmaking, including two features (Stand and Winter Journey), a shorts program, and the documentary Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda, which will be followed by a discussion including filmmaker Michael Lucas and out Russian American journalist Masha Gessen. Other highly anticipated documentaries at Frameline38 include Nancy Kates’s Regarding Susan Sontag, the Alec Baldwin-produced Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank, and Born to Fly, about choreographer Elizabeth Streb and her Extreme Action Company. Frameline is also proud to have provided Completion Funding to six exceptional Frameline38 films: Appropriate Behavior, Back on Board: Greg Louganis, Kumu Hina, Out in the Night, Sticks and Stones, and To Be Takei. Appearing in Frameline38 films are such diverse talents as Robin Williams, Mo’Nique, Nia Vardalos, Alec Mapa, Christina Ricci, and Tilda Swinton. We are honored and excited to be able to present these 214 vibrant works of art to you this year at the Castro, Roxie, Victoria, and Elmwood theatres. You’ll find many terrific comedies, romances, thrillers, and light-hearted and sexy films that will leave a smile on your face long after the credits have rolled.
See you at the movies!
Frances Wallace Acting Executive Director
Desiree Buford Director of Exhibition & Programming
Peter L. Stein Senior Programmer
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
5
11 days of stories that don’t always get told Of all the many things we do to support Pride, one of our very favorites is Frameline: the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. It’s a wonderful way to promote understanding and acceptance of the LGBT community, and we look forward to it every year. Wells Fargo is proud to sponsor the festival, and honored to participate in Pride all month long.
Frameline and Wells Fargo — supporting the Bay Area’s own
wellsfargo.com
sponsors grand
major
signature
10
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
premier
premier creative
hotel
associate
media
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
11
SPONSORS continued
industry
international documentary association
event production
event venues
catering + beverages
hospitality
12
Catch · Crumpler · City Car Share · Escape from New York Pizza · French American Cultural Society · Every 6 Weeks · Good Vibrations Heliotrope San Francisco · Kabuki Springs & Spa · The Karpel Group · Kind Snacks · La Mediterranee · The Lexington Club San Francisco Travel Association · Titan Media · Unifrance · Whole Foods Market
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
FRAMELINE THANKS
about frameline
THE FOLLOWING FOR THEIR GENEROUS YEAR-ROUND SUPPORT:
FRAMELINE’S MISSION is to change the world through the power of queer cinema. As a media arts non-profit, Frameline’s programs connect filmmakers and audiences in San Francisco and around the world. EXHIBITION Founded in 1977, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival is the longest-running, largest and most widely-recognized LGBT film exhibition event in the world. As a community event with an annual attendance of 65,000, the Festival is the most prominent and well-attended LGBT arts program in the Bay Area. Frameline also presents year-round exhibitions, including Frameline Encore, a free film series highlighting diverse, socially relevant works. Year-round programs also include members-only sneak previews and special events, as well as special screenings and events featuring directors, actors and other queer media icons.
DISTRIBUT ION Established in 1981, Frameline Distribution is the only nonprofit distributor that solely caters to LGBTQ film. Frameline’s collection has over 250 award winning films and we have partnerships with universities, public libraries, film festivals, and community groups. In 2008, Frameline Distribution launched Youth In Motion, a program that provides free LGBTQ-themed films and curriculum resources to Gay-Straight Alliances nationwide. In 2011, we launched Frameline Voices, an effort to showcase diverse LGBTQ stories with an emphasis on films by and about people of color, transgender people, youth, and elders. The content featured on Frameline Voices is free and you can now enjoy the best of our distribution collection anytime on your computer or mobile device.
FIL MMAKER SUPPORT Since 1990, more than 110 films and videos have been completed with assistance from the Frameline Completion Fund. Grants are awarded annually and provide much-needed support to filmmakers for their final editing and lab work. Once completed, these films often go on to receive international exposure. Submissions include documentary, educational, narrative, animation, and experimental projects about LGBT people and their communities. Frameline also supports filmmakers and the LGBT community through the Frameline Generations Filmmaker Workshop, which brings youth and elders together to write, shoot and edit their own films to tell their own stories.
JOIN US The support of our Frameline Members helps to champion the Festival and all of our year-round programs. By joining the most respected LGBT arts organization in the nation, you help to deliver thought-provoking films documenting LGBT lives and supporting LGBT filmmakers — and our members enjoy exciting benefits, too! For more information about Frameline Membership go online: www.frameline.org/join. WE THANK ALL OF OUR DONORS AND PARTNERS FOR FURTHERING OUR MISSION AND SUPPORTING LGBT MEDIA ARTS. 145 9TH STREET, SUITE 300 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103 | 415.703.8650 PHONE 415.861.1404 FAX | INFO@FRAMELINE.ORG | WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
13
CELEBRATE DIVERSITY
VIDEO GAMES
T E R R A G A L L E RY & E V E N T V E N U E
Terra is proud to be a sponsor of Frameline38 Set the stage for your next special event at Terra. Designed with versatility in mind, Terra Gallery & Event Venue accommodates events ranging from large scale corporate meetings and conferences, trade shows, product launches, auctions, screenings, performances... to weddings, intimate receptions and private parties. Two levels and a total of 24,000 square feet offer multiple environments to suit your needs. Terra’s prime location in SOMA is just minutes away from San Francisco’s top hotels, restaurants and cultural activities. For information and ideas on how to transform the space into the perfect backdrop, please call 415.896.1234 or email info@terrasf.com.
511 HARRISON STREET (AT FIRST) SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 WWW.TERRASF.COM • 415.896.1234
opening night The Case Against 8
DIRS Ben Cotner & Ryan White 2014 USA 109 min
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
It has all the drama of fiction: former opponents who join forces to fight for a just cause, a witness recanting on the stand, late nights combing through thousands of pages of documents, and even a cameo from the Thursday June 19, 7:00 pm · Castro Film & Gala: $75 members, $90 general · CASE19C President. But it’s no Hollywood melodrama — it’s a riveting account of the epic five-year legal battle that Film Only: $30 members, $35 general · CASE19C overturned Proposition 8. Gala Only: $45 members, $60 general · GALA19T Co-directors Ben Cotner and Ryan White (Good Ol’ Freda) make superb use of five years of nearly unlimited access to the plaintiffs and their legal team, paring down hours of observational footage, interviews, and news clips to tell the inside story of this landmark civil rights case. And what a story they have to tell. When the American Foundation for Equal Rights hired conservative lawyer Ted Olson to argue the case for marriage equality, shockwaves went through both ends of the political spectrum. Olson then brought in liberal lawyer David Boies, whom he’d met when the two argued at the U.S. Supreme Court on opposite sides of the Bush v. Gore election dispute. The movie takes us behind the scenes to reveal how this unlikely pair helped make legal history. The true heroes of the film, however, are the four plaintiffs. Kris Perry, Sandy Stier, Paul Katami, and Jeff Zarrillo were chosen after an exhaustive background investigation, spent countless hours preparing to be crossexamined, and endured years in the public spotlight — facing not only press conferences but also threatening hate mail and phone calls — while the case worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Legal complications mount, but the directors never lose sight of their four protagonists and the human cost of being treated, as Jeff Zarrillo puts it, “as a second-class citizen.” Even if we know how the story ends, experiencing the drama up close through this extraordinary you-are-there documentary has us holding our breath as the lawyers plead their case before the justices. And isn’t that how we want a big Hollywood movie to end? With a wedding, obviously—in this case, two joyous and long-awaited celebrations of love and pride. — MONICA NOLAN
Proudly presented by
gala
After The Case Against 8, join us for our glittering Opening Night Gala at Terra Gallery (511 Harrison Street at First Street). Enjoy the best in local cuisine, luscious libations, and scrumptious desserts from our Gala partners. Lounge away in the evening garden, or PROUDLY SPONSORED BY get your groove on indoors on the dance floor. Indulge yourself, make new friends, even flirt a little — as we kick off Frameline’s 38th year of celebrating queer film!
G A L A PA RT N E R S
E. Cee Productions
GALA EVENT PRODUCER
Terra Gallery Bud Light Stella Artois Tito’s Handmade Vodka
|
Hugh Groman Catering Simply Bliss Catering & Event Planning The Front Porch
Small Potatoes Catering Curryous Catering Poco Dolce Confections
Guests must be 21 plus to enjoy beer, wine or cocktails.
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
19
PHOTO: Adam Bouska
frameline award George Takei was born in Los Angeles in 1937, to proud, hard-working parents. When he was five years old, his family, along with more than 100,000 people with Japanese heritage, was ripped from their home and imprisoned in internment camps for the duration of World War II. This experience would shape his worldview and start him on a trailblazing path toward activism. Takei’s film and television work spans decades. He landed his first professional job in 1957— when he was studying architecture at UC Berkeley and when opportunities for actors of Asian descent were scarce. Takei is universally known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, who navigated the USS Enterprise in three Star Trek franchises on television: Star Trek (1966–1969), Star Trek: The Animated Series (1974–75), and Star Trek: Voyager (1995), as well as in the first six Star Trek films (1979–1991). The series is known for its diverse cast and its ability to tackle serious social issues—and for its theatrical, sometimes camp, sensibility. He has appeared on dozens of television shows, including My Three Sons; Hawaii Five-0 (1968 and 2010); Trapper John, M.D.; 3rd Rock from the Sun; Will & Grace; Malcolm in the Middle; and Community. On their own, his voiceover credits on animated shows could fill the résumés of several actors: The Simpsons, Futurama, The Super Hero Squad Show, Scooby-Doo, SpiderMan, Batman Beyond, The Brak Show, Archer, and dozens more.
GEORGE TAKEI
George and his husband, Brad Takei, had been partners for more than 21 years when they were married on September 14, 2008. After the California Supreme Court struck down a ban on samesex marriage in May 2008, they were among the first gay couples to get a marriage license. The couple’s steadfast commitment to marriage equality and to ending anti-gay bullying includes work on many online PSAs that have been viewed millions of times. Frameline38’s Centerpiece Documentary, To Be Takei, joyously illustrates Takei’s dynamic life and sets the stage for his Broadway-bound musical, Allegiance, a story inspired by his time in the internment camps. Frameline is honored to recognize George Takei for his achievements in the media arts, as well as his unparalleled activism and community service. His groundbreaking work as an artist opened the doors for many others who have been—and continue to be—inspired by his work and his unwavering commitment to equality and social justice. He is a beacon of hope and joy. For his galaxy-size body of work in cinema, in television, and on the stage, we present George Takei with this year’s Frameline Award.
Join Frameline and journalist/civil rights advocate Helen Zia as we present George Takei with the Frameline Award at the June 24 Centerpiece screening of To Be Takei at the Castro Theatre. 20
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
centerpiece To Be Takei
DIR Jennifer Kroot EDITOR/CO-DIRECTOR Bill Weber 2013 USA 90 min
The stellar centerpiece documentary of Frameline38 celebrates the Star Trek legend, the marriage-equality advocate, the spokesperson for Japanese Americans imprisoned in internment camps during World War II, and the recipient of this year’s Frameline Award: superstar George Takei. His exceptional career and the relationship with husband Brad Takei that grounds it make for a dramatic and inspiring portrait. When George was young, his family was uprooted from their home in Los Angeles and forced into internment camps for Japanese Americans, in Arkansas and Northern California. The family eventually moved back to LA, but many parts of the country remained hostile to Japanese Americans. George frankly examines the Tuesday June 24, 6:30 pm · Castro severe limits racism placed on his early career— although he was working regularly in many roles, he did $12 members, $15 general · TOBE24C on one occasion play a stereotypical Asian stock character. Then came Gene Roddenberry’s starship and its multi-ethnic crew. Landing the role of helmsman Hikaru PROUDLY SPONSORED BY Sulu would alter the course of George’s career and inspire generations of fans. Star Trek leapt from the small to the big screen, and George was eventually promoted from helmsman Sulu to Captain Sulu. Later, George’s baritone voice would earn him work in animated series like The Simpsons, Futurama, and The Super Hero Squad Show. These days, from signings at New York City’s Midtown Comics to ComiCon!, George’s husband, With special support from the business manager, and co-pilot, Brad, excels at keeping George (and his hordes of fans) organized. International Documentary Association When George was building his career, being out was impossible. It’s not until marriage equality becomes national news that George comes out and Brad is thrust into the spotlight. George is an astute, unflappable spokesperson— an elder statesman with a wry sense of humor. His awesome Facebook presence—started to help promote his Broadway-bound musical Allegiance, inspired by his life in the internment camps—provides a daily dose of wisdom and wit. With almost 7 million actively engaged followers, George is considered by Wired magazine to be the most important person on Facebook. The film features interviews with George’s famous friends and fans. Seamless editing by Bill Weber (We Were Here, The Cockettes) whisks the viewer along. Director Jennifer Kroot (It Came from Kuchar) warmly invites you into George and Brad’s relationship and dynamically captures the universal vastness of what it means To Be Takei. — KEVIN SCHAUB
This film was a recipient of a Frameline Completion Fund grant.
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
21
YOU ARE PART OF A GREATER COMMUNITY. Union Bank® believes in the power of partnerships. That’s why we partner with communities and organizations to make a positive difference in the places where we work and live. To us, building a strong and proud community is the most valuable investment of all. Union Bank is proud to support Frameline38, San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.
The Union Bank LGBTA Employee Resource Group
San Francisco Main Branch Conchita Miller VP & Branch Manager 400 California Street, Floor 1 San Francisco, CA 94104 415-765-3289 ©2014 Union Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Visit us at unionbank.com.
centerpiece Lilting DIR Hong Khaou 2013 UK 86 min In English and Mandarin with English subtitles
Exploring matters of lost love, memory, and cross-cultural barriers with great emotion, Lilting tells the story of a bereaved mother and her late son’s longtime lover, each attempting to move on after the death of their beloved. Kai, a young man of French-Cambodian and Chinese descent, has recently died in his adopted country of England. Beset by grief, his elderly mother Junn, (who speaks little English), fantasizes conversations with her son, alternately berating him for putting her in a home and shyly discussing a new relationship she’s found there with a British man. Kai’s similarly bereft lover, Richard, meanwhile, reaches out to Junn despite the fact that she’s hostile to him and doesn’t know about his relationship with Kai. Attempting to form a bond, he hires a translator to assist with conversations between himself and Junn and between Junn Wednesday June 25, 6:30 pm · Castro $12 members, $15 general · LILT25C and her new suitor. The issue of communication is one of the film’s key themes, and writerdirector Hong Khaou reveals how trying to make things clear can often muddy the waters. Striving PROUDLY SPONSORED BY to make an emotional connection while working through his own issues of sadness and abandonment, Richard risks alienating the one person who can bring him closer to Kai. And Junn does not make it easy, refusing to confront the emotional truths that lie in front of her and relying on the language barrier to protect herself. Lilting conveys a complex set of relationships with delicate power and humor. This moving battle of wills in mourning is brought to extraordinary life through a carefully wrought script deploying flashbacks and competing memories, graceful cinematography by Ula Pontikos, and incredibly rich performances by Ben Whishaw and Pei-Pei Cheng (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). — ROD ARMSTRONG
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
23
AMERICA’S ORIGINAL CRAFT VODKA
2014
closing night I Feel Like Disco | Ich Fühl Mich Disco DIR Axel Ranisch 2013 Germany 95 min In German with English subtitles PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
An only child, Flori is a pudgy teen with shaggy hair, braces, a love of disco music, and a good deal of confusion about his sexuality. And his overbearing diving coach dad, Hanno, just doesn’t get him at all. Flori would rather have a piano than the used motorcycle Hanno bought him (in a desperate ploy to “man him up”). Or better yet, Flori would rather passionately lip sync to disco tunes— dressed in a white leisure suit and ruffled shirt under a spinning disco ball in his bedroom. Such behavior infuriates Hanno, but thankfully there’s Monika, who not only tolerates her son’s musical proclivities, but also indulges in them right along with him. Monika is Flori’s number one ally and protector and is the true keeper of the peace between her domineering, displeased husband and their awkward adolescent son. But when Monika suffers a debilitating incident, father and son are suddenly left on their own to cope with their grief and learn how to reconcile their unsteady and untested relationship. Meanwhile, Flori is desperately trying to follow his heart and interpret the mixed messages he’s receiving from the bad-boy Romanian diver he has a crush on. But nothing seems to make sense—least of all, his mother lying immobile in a hospital bed. Music turns out to be the real savior in this heartwarming and slightly goofy coming-of-age dramatic comedy, as Flori’s disco-infused fantasies provide refuge from the reality of his mother’s prognosis, while Hanno gets a wacky, alcohol-soaked intervention from German disco king Christian Steiffen (as himself). Pitch-perfect direction by Axel Ranisch turns the working-class Berlin family’s predicament into something rare: a marvelous blend of pathos, humor, and unexpected fun. Long live disco!
With special support from the Goethe-Institut
Sunday June 29, 7:00 pm · Castro Film & Party: $50 members, $60 general · IFEE29C Film Only: $30 members, $35 general · IFEE29C
— JOANNE PARSONT
party
Temple Nightclub (540 Howard Street between First and Second Streets) will play host to our dazzling Closing Night Gala—honoring 38 years of Frameline Festivals. Enjoy scrumptious bites, signature cocktails, and sophisticated wines amongst antiquities from Southeast Asia at this infamous SOMA dance club. Be there as we announce our Frameline38 AT&T Audience Award Winners, Wells Fargo First Feature Award winner, and all Festival award PROUDLY winners and send our guests off in true SF style. SPONSORED BY
PA RT Y PA RT N E R S
E. Cee Productions Temple Nightclub Bud Light
PARTY EVENT PRODUCER
Stella Artois Tito’s Handmade Vodka
Guests must be 21 plus to enjoy beer, wine or cocktails.
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
25
New Storytelling in LGBT Cinema Like our own Northern California terrain, the landscape of LGBT media has undergone rapid and sometimes earth-shaking transformation in the digital age — not only by new technologies that have changed how audiences find and experience LGBT cinema, but also by new approaches to telling queer stories and by the changing role of women filmmakers. As part of a special initiative supported by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the folks who bring you the Oscars®), Frameline38 features an exceptional series of screenings and discussions exploring these new directions in LGBT storytelling, with special free panels on digital distribution, new cinematic approaches to gay history and biography, and the growth and support of queer women filmmakers. Join us for these illuminating screenings and conversations.
Kumu Hina (p.34), The Circle (p. 32), Regarding Susan Sontag (p. 59), Appropriate Behavior (p. 30), Through a Lens Darkly (p. 60), Boys Don’t Cry (p. 68) FILMS INCLUDE (LEFT TO RIGHT):
26
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
NEW STORYTELLING IN LGBT CINEMA: PANEL #1
Past (Im)perfect: Filming Queer History Tuesday June 24, 3:30 – 5:00 pm · Roxie Theatre · PAST24R · Free Secret lives, hidden communities, and suppressed imagery have made telling queer history on film a challenging task. This panel brings together passionate and accomplished filmmakers who have been dedicated to enlivening the queer past. The discussion will address proven and emerging cinematic approaches to LGBTQ history and biography, including hybrid documentary forms and creative narrative and visual strategies.
PANELISTS (SCHEDULED TO PARTICIPATE):
Rob Epstein (Co-director, The Times of Harvey Milk, Paragraph 175, The Celluloid Closet, Howl) Thomas Allen Harris (Director, Through a Lens Darkly) Stefan Haupt (Director, The Circle) Nancy Kates (Director, Brother Outsider, Regarding Susan Sontag) MODERATOR: Peter L. Stein (Senior Programmer, Frameline38, and Director, The Castro)
NEW STORYTELLING IN LGBT CINEMA: PANEL #2
From Crowdfunding to Social Media to Distribution: Leveraging Emerging Digital Platforms and Technologies Wednesday, June 25, 3:30 – 5:00 pm · Roxie Theatre · FROM25R · Free Whether you’re talking about the first dollar raised or the last seat filled during a “theatrical run,” the trajectory of an independent film looks quite different now than it did 20, ten, or even five years ago. Digitization has knocked down the barriers between filmmakers and audiences, and the effect can be seen from crowdfunding to the festival circuit to distribution. Frameline’s panel will contextualize the new model within the history of queer film and look to the future path being forged. Please join us for this exploration of the role of emerging technologies and how they impact filmmakers, audiences, and industry professionals.
PANELISTS (SCHEDULED TO PARTICIPATE):
Jenni Olson (Film Historian, Filmmaker, and Wolfe Video VP of E-Commerce and Consumer Marketing) Dean Hamer (Co-director, Co-producer Kumu Hina, Out in the Silence) Allie Esslinger (Founder, Section II) Max Silverman (Operations Czar, Seed&Spark) MODERATOR: Alexis Whitham (Director of Educational Programming and Acquisitions, Frameline)
NEW STORYTELLING IN LGBT CINEMA: PANEL #3
Change Makers: In Conversation with Women Filmmakers Thursday June 26, 3:30 – 5:00 pm · Roxie Theatre · CHAN26R · Free 2014 marks both the 20th anniversary of the seminal New Queer Cinema classic Go Fish and the 15th anniversary of the trailblazing transmasculine biopic Boys Don’t Cry. Both were bold and critically acclaimed feature film debuts by gifted storytellers and innovative female filmmakers. Frameline is proud to gather a dynamic group of established artists and emerging new talent to discuss how the contributions of women filmmakers have impacted and changed queer cinema and storytelling. The conversation will also highlight the trajectory over the past two decades of dynamic growth and development in new LGBTQ feature films that are being helmed by queer women filmmakers.
PANELISTS (SCHEDULED TO PARTICIPATE):
Rose Troche (Director, Producer, Co-writer Go Fish, Safety of Objects, Bedrooms and Hallways and Producer, Concussion) Guinevere Turner (Producer, Co-writer, Lead Actress, Go Fish, Co-writer, American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page, Breaking the Girls, and Writer-Director of in-development feature Creeps) Kimberly Peirce (Writer-Director, Boys Don’t Cry, Stop-Loss, and Director, Carrie) Desiree Akhavan (Writer-Director, Lead Actress, Appropriate Behavior, Co-creator, The Slope) MODERATOR:
Desiree Buford (Director of Exhibition & Programming, Frameline)
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
27
Frameline38 Wells Fargo First Feature Award While we all love seeing the latest film by our favorite well-established director, there’s nothing quite like catching the introductory work by an emerging voice whose debut feature—whether wryly comic, emotionally wrenching, visually audacious, or completely unclassifiable — brings with it the promise of a long and varied career as one of our generation’s next vital cinematic artists. Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, prides itself on introducing audiences to remarkable new talent and filmmaking artists. Groundbreaking First Feature winners include Out in the Dark (dir Michael Mayer), Facing Mirrors (dir Negar Azarbeyjani), Undertow (dir Javier Fuentes-León), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (dir John Cameron Mitchell). Regardless of which director takes home this year’s juried Frameline38 Wells Fargo First Feature Award, all of the Festival’s debut feature filmmakers are winners simply for sharing their visions and voices with us.
THIS YEAR’S ELIGIBLE FIRST FEATURES:
· 52 Tuesdays, dir Sophie Hyde (p.42) · Appropriate Behavior, dir Desiree Akhavan (p.30) · Drunktown’s Finest, dir Sydney Freeland (p.39) · Holiday, dir Diego Araujo (p.46) · Lilting, dir Hong Khaou (p.23) · Something Must Break, dir Ester Martin Bergsmark (p.48) · Tru Love, dirs Kate Johnston & Shauna MacDonald (p.49)
Frameline37 First Feature Award 2013 Recipient: Out in the Dark, directed by Michael Mayer
Generously funded by Wells Fargo, this $7,500 juried award is presented to an outstanding first narrative feature at Frameline38.
· The Way He Looks, dir Daniel Ribeiro (p.37) · What It Was, dir Daniel Armando (p.41) · You and the Night, dir Yann Gonzales (p.50)
Spotlight: LGBT Films in Today’s Russia Against the backdrop of widespread intolerance and a 2013 federal law banning so-called “gay propaganda,” the quality of LGBT life in Russia has deteriorated disturbingly over the past year. Even so, queer-themed Russian cinema is still being made, albeit under increasingly risky conditions. Join us for four eye-opening programs featuring recent queer filmmaking from Russia: the dramas Stand and Winter Journey; a program of short films including Pussy vs. Putin; and Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda, followed by a discussion with filmmaker Michael Lucas and journalist Masha Gessen. With special support from UC Berkeley’s ISEEES (Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies).
LEFT TO RIGHT:
Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda (p. 54), Winter Journey (p. 50), Masha Gessen (p. 54), Stand (p. 48), Pussy vs. Putin (p. 65)
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
29
us f eat ure s
Boulevard
Boy Meets Girl
DIR Dito
DIR Eric
Montiel 2014 USA 88 min
Separate beds, separate rooms, separate lives: this is the scenario of Nolan and Joy Mack’s passingly affectionate but essentially stagnant decades-long marriage. Nolan performs the perfunctory duties of an ideal husband, bringing Joy tea in the mornings, preparing excellent roasts for their dinner guests, and slogging away every day at a thankless bank job. Intellectual educator Joy remains comfortable in her illusion of happiness, reading best-sellers, planning a Mediterranean cruise, and rewatching the foreign films they’d enjoyed in the early days of their courtship. One evening, after another pensive visit to his ailing father in a nursing home, Nolan spontaneously cruises a seamy boulevard and very nearly runs over Leo, a young male hustler whom Nolan ends up offering a ride, out of guilt (and maybe desire). From these scant beginnings, the two disparate souls become entwined, and Nolan’s lonely house of cards begins to fall apart. Robin Williams continues to deepen as an adept character actor, offering a fascinating portrait of an unassuming man, long burdened by keeping up an appearance of supposed contentment, who tentatively feels life breathing into his soul through the complex, often violent, entanglements of reckless obsession. Kathy Baker, Bob Odenkirk, and impressive newcomer Roberto Aguire contribute thoughtful, nuanced performances in support of Williams’s tour de force, presenting a moving depiction of one man’s complicated struggle to achieve an authentic life. — LEAH LOSCHIAVO
Funny and provocative, Boy Meets Girl vividly captures the giddy excitement, sexual heat, and heartache of “non-traditional” love in a small town. Ricky (Michelle Hendley) is a 21-year-old trans girl living in Kentucky. Her only real friend, straight-laced Robby, has been her trusty, totally platonic confidant for 15 years. Her day job slinging lattes is merely a stepping-stone toward her goal of being a famous New York designer. She’s confident, cool, and completely ready for something new — and then her world is transformed when an enchanting debutante saunters into her life. Triggering fresh feelings and experiences, this unlikely connection conjures up intense questions about identity while uncovering ghosts from Ricky’s past. Indie-film veteran Eric Schaeffer (My Life’s in Turnaround, If Lucy Fell) focuses on the emotions and messy challenges of complex people navigating complicated relationships. He creates a small-town atmosphere, capturing the cozy and claustrophobic ambiance of a place where everyone knows your name — and your sexual partners. Anchored by a stunning performance from newcomer Michelle Hendley, who crafts a raw, nuanced character that is strong and vulnerable at once, Boy Meets Girl is a sweetly profound romantic comedy. — BRENDAN PETERSON PRECEDED BY:
Butterfly DIR Stuart McLaughlin
2014 UK 13 min
A transgender couple living in Ireland, both diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, share the story of their relationship and how it has changed their lives.
Thursday June 26, 9:30 pm · Castro
Saturday June 28, 3:45 pm · Roxie
$10 members, $12 general · BOUL26C
$8 members, $10 general · BOYM28R
SPONSORED BY
38
Schaeffer 2014 USA 95 min
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
us features
Broken Gardenias
Crazy Bitches
Drunktown’s Finest
DIR Kai
DIR Jane
DIR Sydney
Alexander 2014 USA 88 min
“Two fish in a tank, one turns to the other: ‘Do you know how to drive this?’” So begins this quirky dark rom-com, in which semi-orphaned botany nerd Jenni leaves her crumbling life behind with the help of fasttalking hustling hottie Sam. Together, they set out on the adventure of a lifetime. Shy, unblossomed Jenni is about to attempt suicide when Sam, a mysterious stranger in the right place at the right time, unexpectedly rescues her. With her Justin Bieber smile, switchblade, and wry life philosophy, Sam persuades Jenni to ditch her despair and embark on an odyssey in search of her father, who disappeared when she was a kid. In a not-quite-borrowed car, they set out for Los Angeles with only a faded family photo and Sam’s gutsy street smarts to guide them. Through navigating encounters with a host of wacky characters, each spurring her closer to her father — and to Sam — Jenni gets lessons on everything from driving a van to driving a vulva, and her life begins to bloom. Director Kai Alexander, who spent part of his childhood traveling with his circus performer parents, and screenwriter Alma S. Grey, who also stars as sweet savant Jenni, infuse Broken Gardenias with an invigorating sense of wild abandon and synchronous happenstance. — NATALIE MULFORD
Clark 2013 USA 100 min
With its remote setting in the mountains, the Benton Estate is known for being the perfect spot for a relaxing getaway — as long as you don’t mind the possibility that it’s haunted by the souls of murdered teenage girls. When seven former sorority sisters rent the property and invite their best gay, BJ, to join them for a vacation, true-crime fanboy BJ tells them the vacation rental’s history of horror upfront. Undeterred, the women settle in, excited for wine, a little nookie with the locals, and gossip with old gal pals. And they have a lot to gossip about! New mom Alice is shocked to find out how many of her friends know about her cheating husband. Dorri, the most grounded of the bunch, is hiding a life-changing secret. Taylor, a redheaded virgin, is being chased by the lithe and sporty Cassie, who is being secretly chased by Minnie. And Princess and Belinda are just there to be, well, crazy bitches. When someone starts picking them off one by one, with methods that play on each person’s vanity, accusations start flying and the darkness in the house changes all of them. Featuring a cast of well-known Frameline audience faves including Guinevere Turner (Go Fish, Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?) playing the mean-spirited Belinda, Candis Cayne (Dirty Sexy Money) as the buxom mistress Vivianna, and Cathy DeBuono (And Then Came Lola, We Have to Stop Now) playing the tough and slightly oversexed Cassie, Crazy Bitches is a sexy, unpredictable scream of a slasher film.
Freeland 2014 USA 95 min
Early in Drunktown’s Finest, a wise spiritual leader states: “What we look for and what we get aren’t always the same thing.” This truth is borne out in the lives of three young Native Americans living on a New Mexico Navajo reservation — a place from which all three are trying to escape. Father-to-be Sick Boy (Jeremiah Bitsui, Natural Born Killers, Victor in Breaking Bad) is about to join the Army, which offers the security of steady paychecks and an escape from his responsibilities — if he can manage to stay out of trouble for the next few days. Transracially adopted Nizhoni (Morningstar Angeline Wilson) is about to leave for college when her dreams compel her to search for her biological Native American parents. Felixia (Carmen Moore in an impressive debut), a two-spirit transwoman who is very proud of her culture and traditions, hopes to qualify as a pinup for the “Women of the Navajo” calendar. These three lives soon intersect with surprising results. Bitsui’s warrior-like Sick Boy is a standout performance, and the use of Native American non-actors for certain roles adds sincere authenticity. With an arresting score by Mark Orton (Nebraska), sumptuous scenic cinematography, and deft direction by Sydney Freeland, Drunktown’s Finest is a refreshingly unique view of an often-overlooked culture—a beautiful coming-of-age tale that is genuine, poignant, and touching. — TIM SIKA
— ANGELIQUE SMITH
This film contains depictions of graphic violence.
Sunday June 22, 6:30 pm · Roxie $10 members, $12 general · BROK22R
Wednesday June 25, 7:00 pm · Elmwood
Thursday June 26, 9:30 pm · Victoria
Saturday June 28, 1:30 pm · Roxie
$10 members, $12 general · BROK25E
$10 members, $12 general · CRAZ26V
$8 members, $10 general · DRUN28R
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
39
us features
Dyke Central
Eat With Me
First Period
DIR Florencia
DIR David
DIR Charlie
Manovil 2013 USA 85 min
Watch the delicious drama unfold in this lighthearted dramatic comedy. Dyke Central delves into queer Oakland culture, from scintillating drag shows at the White Horse Inn to flirtatious afternoons at the farmer’s market and workout sessions at The Perfect Sidekick. Alex is your typical Oaktown dyke. She lives and parties with her best friend and fellow boi, Gin, jogs around Lake Merritt, and makes sure to squeeze in time for a little loving from her stunning girlfriend, Jackie. Things couldn’t be more perfect — or so Alex thinks. But life gets more than a little messy when Alex and Gin host a “Queer Taboo” game night. The event gets off to a fabulous start as Alex and Gin bond with their new roommate, Fabiana. But when Jackie chats with Fabiana, she learns that Fabiana and Alex actually met years ago on the East Coast. Why didn’t Alex tell Jackie that she’d met Fabiana years ago? What is she trying to hide? Always fresh and fierce, filmmaker Florencia Manovil (Fiona’s Script, Frameline33) returns with the latest installments of her hilarious web series. Bay Area queers who like their produce and films local will relate to this close-knit group of Oaklanders as they traverse the fluid boundaries between friendship and romance. — TAYLOR HODGES PRECEDED BY
Throw Like a Girl DIR
Cathy Sitzes 2013 USA 16 min
Throw Like a Girl is the pilot of a mockumentary web series that follows a group of women who work at a small Bay Area startup selling sports bras.
Au 2014 USA 92 min
Emma’s life is so bland that the only way she can spice it up is to add hot sauce to everything she eats. A middle-aged empty nester, she leaves her loveless marriage and winds up crashing in her son Elliot’s apartment. Elliot (Teddy Chen Culver) runs the family restaurant, a floundering Chinese greasy spoon. But mother and son have grown apart over the years. Emma is old-world traditional; Elliot is gay. Their one common denominator is a love of food. Soon, however, Emma will have to confront her son’s sexuality. When Elliot meets a handsome young musician who is looking for more than a one-night stand, things come to a head. In desperation, Emma turns to Elliot’s eccentric yogi neighbor, Maureen (Nicole Sullivan of MADtv fame), who takes Emma on a hilarious odyssey of alcohol, asanas, and opening up to life. Meanwhile, Elliot, in danger of losing the restaurant, is in panic over his fear of commitment and is desperate to please his mother. Can mother and son heal their rift, rekindle their bond, and rediscover their zest for living? Food becomes a metaphor for relating through deep nourishing sustenance in Eat With Me. Filmmaker David Au has cooked up a laugh-out-loud poignant dramedy—and a food lover’s dream. Amid a strong ensemble, Sharon Omi shines as the endearing Emma, and Sullivan is a comedic standout. And Frameline Award honoree George Takei makes a memorable appearance playing himself.
Vaughn 2013 USA 100 min
Meet Cassie Glen, totally rockin’ superstar extraordinaire. She’s about to turn sweet 16 and is determined to be the coolest kid in school. The problem is, she just moved to town and has only five days to become popular if she wants to get all the kids to her birthday bash on Saturday night. And what better way to do that than enter the talent show with her new BFF and fellow outcast, Maggie “the Coat Rack”? But when studly buds Dirk and Brett and the two bitchy Heathers sabotage Cassie and Maggie’s dream of winning the contest with their killer homemade costumes and awesome rap skills, the girls have to learn to stand up for themselves and forget about trying to fit in. Sixteen Candles meets Hairspray, with a dash of Strangers with Candy, in the hilarious camp explosion First Period, the gayest, drag-iest teen movie you’ll ever see. Written by and starring Brandon Alexander III as Cassie, produced by and co-starring Dudley Beene as Maggie, and directed by Charlie Vaughn (Vampire Boys), this film has smart, non-stop snappy dialogue and a twisted cast of high school characters (including Cassandra Peterson and Judy Tenuta) that will have you in stitches faster than you can say, “Where’s the beef?” Featuring an outrageous poolside popsicle fellatio scene, a lipstick trick that would make Molly Ringwald proud, and a bitchin’ original soundtrack, First Period is a laugh-out-loud romp through teenage hilarity and a super gay tribute to your favorite ’80s flicks. — NATALIE MULFORD
— TIM SIKA
Saturday June 21, 4:15 pm · Victoria $8 members, $10 general · DYKE21V
40
Tuesday June 24, 9:30 pm · Elmwood
Thursday June 26, 4:00 pm · Castro
Saturday June 28, 6:45 pm · Victoria
$10 members, $12 general · DYKE24E
$8 members, $10 general · EATW26C
$10 members, $12 general · FIRS28V
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
us features
Five Dances
The Foxy Merkins
What It Was
DIR Alan
DIR Madeleine
DIR Daniel
Brown 2013 USA 83 min
Broadway dancer Ryan Steele (Newsies, Matilda) makes his film debut as Chip, a talented young dancer from Kansas who moves to New York City — in spite of his parents’ misgivings — to pursue his dream. A reticent 18-year-old, he has a quiet, keep-to-himself manner that at first unnerves his fellow dancers after he is cast in a work with a small modern dance company. Amid the pressures and interpersonal conflicts that are part of any small ensemble and the difficulties of making ends meet as a young aspiring artist in New York, Chip struggles to find his footing. This intimate drama reveals Chip gradually opening up—first as a friend to one dance partner, then as a soloist in his first professional performance, and finally as a lover to another dancer in the company. Collaborating with internationally renowned choreographer Jonah Bokear, writer-director Alan Brown (Private Romeo, Frameline35) builds his film on the foundation of the five talented dancers he has cast as the members of the fictional dance company. The film’s five chapters are interspersed with choreographed performances that showcase the cast’s extraordinary physical and artistic skill. Filming on location in and around an actual Soho rehearsal studio, Brown captures the gritty authenticity of this slice of the New York dance world, and treats fans of dance to a feast of beautifully filmed, exquisitely performed works of artistic movement. — MICHAEL J. LOPRESTI
Olnek 2013 USA 82 min
The Foxy Merkins is reminiscent of the sexy but tragic films Midnight Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho — films that define the male hustler genre. Except without the males. Or any identifiably effective hustling skills. Really, this film imagines what it would be like if everyday lesbians were out in the mean streets of New York with only their women’s studies degrees to keep them warm at night, forced to hustle in front of department stores in hoodies, always waiting for the next closeted Republican congresswoman to slip them a hotel room key. Margaret, played by the endearing Lisa Haas (Dyke Dollar, Frameline34) is a bespectacled, asthmatic newbie in carpenter jeans, and she can’t quite make it on the streets. She doesn’t even know how to pick the right merkin! When Jo (Jackie Monahan), a gay-for-pay grifter from a rich family, takes Margaret under her slightly untrustworthy wing, Margaret starts to turn more, and learn more, tricks — for instance, a yellow bandana in your back pocket means you have more than one cat. Margaret and Jo have adventures in the Sapphic sex trade that range from the absurd to the unclassifiable, as Margaret tries to find her long lost mother and Jo tries to snare a husband. Director Madeleine Olnek (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, Frameline35) earned a 2014 Independent Spirit Award “Someone to Watch” nomination for this zany comedy mixing social commentary, satire, and stereotypes, and the film was an official selection of Sundance 2014.
Armando 2013 USA 86 min
Taking a break from her high-flying career, Adina, a successful Latina starlet (the stunning Arlene ChicoLugo), takes refuge from Hollywood and the collapse of her marriage, at her ex-girlfriend Toni’s modest Brooklyn flat. While the movie star becomes the subject of curiosity among Toni’s friends, Adina is inspired to do some soul searching. In the here and now, she has choices to make: go back to her comfortable but arid old life, rekindle her relationship with old flame Toni, or maybe start something new with sexy butch body artist Hilary (Melissa Navia). But the return to her native New York also occasions a look back at the journey that has brought her to this crossroads: her risk-taking youth when she imperiled body and soul to be true to herself, and early friendships with people like Toni that helped her break free of her troubled past. Writer-director Daniel Armando makes an impressive feature debut with this drama that is part romance, part character study, and part memory play. Lyrical and languorous, What It Was unfolds like a dream as Adina’s memories leave her reeling, trapping her in the past, while smoldering sensual encounters with Toni and Hilary bring her back to an uncertain present. ChicoLugo is both vulnerable and strong in an affecting performance as a woman whose life is on hold. Having discovered the hollowness of riches and fame without a solid foundation, she must confront her past and sort out her present if she is to have a brighter future. — PAM GRADY
— ANGELIQUE SMITH
Wednesday June 25, 9:00 pm · Roxie $10 members, $12 general · WHAT25R
Friday June 20, 7:00 pm · Victoria
Sunday June 22, 9:15 pm · Castro
Saturday June 28, 6:30pm · Roxie
$10 members, $12 general · FIVE20V
$10 members, $12 general · FOXY22C
$10 members, $12 general · WHAT28R
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
41
wor ld c inem a
20 Lies, 4 Parents and a Little Egg 20 Leugens, 4 Ouders en een Scharrelei DIR Hanro Smitsman 2013 Netherlands 78 min In Dutch with English subtitles
Old friends Emma and Sjors haven’t seen each other in twelve years. In that decade, they’ve shacked up with Ilse and Bert, respectively, and have made cozy lives for themselves: Emma and Ilse are raising Dylan, their cutie rocker teen son, and Bert and Sjors are enjoying a comfy and childless life and collecting gay art. When Emma goes into the hospital, Sjors offers to take Dylan in for a few months — and the men’s tidy world is thrown into chaos. Dylan wails on his guitar, snoops through their books, and smokes weed in the living room. Adding to the uproar, Emma and Sjors have conveniently failed to let their partners in on the “tiny” secret between them: Sjors is not only a long-lost friend but also Dylan’s long-lost donor-dad. Dylan struggles to find his own identity as the child of two queer couples — roaming the streets and pining after a redhead named Lotte. Amidst jealousy, confusion, and a clash of values, everyone loses control of their mouths, their hearts, and one another. Eventually they must put their differences aside and come together around the flailing, then blossoming, Dylan. Dutch filmmaker Hanro Smitsman crafts a delightfully fun film about adolescence and contemporary queer parenthood. — NATALIE MULFORD
52 Tuesdays DIR Sophie
Hyde 2013 Australia 109 min
Winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award and the 2014 Berlin Film Festival’s Crystal Bear for Best Film, 52 Tuesdays is bold and groundbreaking filmmaking. When her mother reveals her plans for a gender transition from female to male, 16-year-old Billie (Tilda CobhamHervey) finds herself forced down the path to independence. She’s sent to live with her father, and her time with her mother is limited to one day a week: Tuesdays. Seeking her own identity, Billie begins keeping a video diary and falls in with two older schoolmates, Josh and Jasmine, adding both excitement and tension to her already complicated life. Cobham-Hervey and Del Herbert-Jane (James, the transitioning parent) lead a cast of non-professional actors who bring a rare authenticity to this emotionally charged story of desire, responsibility, and transformation. Aussie director Sophie Hyde (producer of Shut Up Little Man!, Frameline35) and her filmmaking team set themselves a challenge for Hyde’s feature debut: they would shoot the film over the course of a year, only on Tuesdays, and in the chronological order of the story (that last rule alone is remarkable in modern filmmaking). As shooting progressed, the actors received their scripts one week at a time, and only the scenes they were in. This unusual approach allows the characters to evolve gradually before the viewer and draws us in to their experiences of change and upheaval. — LAURA HENNEMAN
Sunday June 22, 1:30 pm · Roxie $8 members, $10 general · 20LI22R
42
Saturday June 28, 1:30 pm · Victoria
June 24, 7:00 pm · Victoria
$8 members, $10 general · 20LI28V
$10 members, $12 general · 52TU24V
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
world
Anita’s Last Cha-Cha Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita
Around the Block
DIR Sigrid
Intelligently exploring themes of familial strife and cultural conflict via the story of a high school drama class’s discovery and staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Around the Block ushers its audience into the dynamic world of Redfern, a tense and ethnically tangled inner-city suburb of Sydney, Australia. Christina Ricci and a young cast of rising Aussie talent illuminate this tale about realizing one’s true identity despite the challenges of family, relationships, and fear. Dino Chalmers (Ricci) is an American first-time teacher who moves to town with her pleasantly bloke-y Australian fiancé, eager to share her love of drama and literature with the disparate kids at Redfern High. Liam Wood is an Aboriginal student torn between the criminal dynasty of his family and becoming the artist he longs to be. Dino first spots Liam through the lens of her camera, insightfully capturing the street-poet soul of a troubled teenage boy dancing on the edge of innercity Australia’s gritty, and often violent, social mix. Both characters struggle with entwined elements of sexuality, race, and cultural burden as they endeavor to embrace their authentic selves. Writer/director Sarah Spillane drew upon her own experiences to produce this uncompromising vision of contemporary Australia, and fills the frame with vibrant street style, pulsing to a hip-hop beat.
Andrea Bernardo 2013 Philippines 112 min In Tagalog with English subtitles
In the small town of Obando, Bulacan, in the Philippines — full of military wives and cackling gossips — everyone knows everyone else’s business. But when the beautiful and intriguing Pilar inexplicably shows up after being gone for years, all the neighborhood ladies go into a tizzy while the neighborhood men line up in droves for her massage services. But no one is more entranced than 12-year-old Anita, a smart-mouthed tomboy who enjoys playing war games, wearing robot T-shirts, and sporting short hair (rather than the flowing tresses and dresses her mom insists on). Anita’s love for grownup Pilar blossoms in comical dream sequences. Ever the little butch-in-training, Anita sports her crush around town, as an oblivious Pilar tries to outrun her painful past. But once Anita discovers Pilar’s connection with Anita’s cousin Oscar and why she left in the first place, the young girl’s dreams of a happy ending are replaced by her very first broken heart. Set against the backdrop of a yearly fertility festival full of colorful local characters, Filipino tradition, and gender role expectations, this tender coming-ofage story treats life’s hardships with an innocent and light hand. — ANGELIQUE SMITH
DIR Sarah
Spillane 2013 Australia 104 min
PRECEDED BY: — LEAH LOSCHIAVO
Deflated DIR
Dustin Shroff 2012 USA 5 min
A young boy at a superstore is eager to get a new ball with his allowance. But ultimately he must make a choice: take home one of the bright pink balls or the deflated green ball?
Bad Hair Pelo Malo DIR Mariana Rondón 2013 Venezuela 93 min In Spanish with English subtitles
Nine-year-old Junior obsesses about transforming his truculent curly mop into a luxuriant head of silky, straight hair. He fills his lazy vacation days wandering the crowded streets of Caracas in search of tonsorial treatments — a temporary respite from the tiny apartment and pinched existence he shares with his unsympathetic mother and infant brother. Suspicious of her delicate son’s effeminacy, mother Marta harshly squashes all of Junior’s attempts to express and discover himself, complying readily with the homophobic presumptions of her poverty-stricken community. As the day when Junior’s school photo will be taken approaches — a photo in which he fantasizes he will be glossily captured as a leonine pop singer — the pressure to conform only increases, as does the strain of his mother’s continued unemployment. Junior’s isolation is relieved only occasionally by a neighboring little girl, who accepts Junior as he is, even as she cautions him against his own nature, and by his paternal grandmother, whose offer to care for the boy raises hopes as well as questions about her motives. Eliciting two astounding juvenile performances, writer-director Mariana Rondón imbues this powerful and disquieting story of longing with discerning compassion. Bad Hair astutely examines the effects of unremitting hardship, the desperate choices hopeless circumstances entail, and the rare moments of simple tenderness those circumstances engender. — LEAH LOSCHIAVO
Thursday June 26, 6:45 pm · Castro
Tuesday June 24, 9:30 pm · Castro
Saturday June 21, 1:30 pm · Roxie
$10 members, $12 general · ANIT26C
$10 members, $12 general · AROU24C
$8 members, $10 general · BADH21R
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
43
world
Boys Jongens
Cupcakes Bananot
Dual Dvojina
DIR Mischa Kamp 2013 Netherlands 78 min In Dutch with English subtitles
DIR Eytan Fox 2013 Israel 90 min In Hebrew with English subtitles
DIR Nejc Gazvoda 2013 Slovenia 102 min In Danish, English, and Slovenian with English subtitles
In this sweet and tender Dutch drama, sparks fly when two teenage boys are romantically drawn to each other while training for a national track relay championship. The solitude of running as a backdrop for the adolescent gay experience reveals contrasting examples of inner strength and self-assurance. Not to imply that the main character is a lonely outcast—quite the contrary: 15-year-old Sieger is quiet but social and athletic, and he has a fairly ordinary home life with his attentive widowed father and rebellious older brother. He’s naturally intrigued by the charming Marc, who seems much more confident in his own skin. Director Mischa Kamp manages to capture all of the delicate nuances that dictate initial encounters with attraction and desire. In her capable hands, Boys becomes a universal story about the innocent wonder, excitement, fear, and uncertainty of first love. The film is refreshing in that most of the tension comes from Sieger’s inner struggle, not from any disapproving voices around him. The gay coming-of-age genre has produced many classic movies, but each generation deserves something new to embrace. As long as the right ingredients are there, it pretty much boils down to skill and a fresh point of view, and Kamp has proven to be a sensitive master.
Cupcakes — a campy, comic confection from Israel’s gleeful gay fantasist Eytan Fox (The Bubble, Yossi & Jagger) — is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth! In suburban Tel Aviv, six neighbors gather to watch the televised finals of “Universong,” a Eurovision-style international song contest. There’s Yael, a former beauty queen who’s unhappy with her corporate job (and her secret affair with her boss); Dana, a stressedout political aide struggling to please her very traditional father; Anat, a successful bakery owner; Keren, a shy blogger; Efrat, a sultry singer-songwriter with a gorgeous girlfriend but a stalled career; and Ofer—the only guy in the group—a nursery-school teacher who’s frustrated that his boyfriend, the scion of a powerful hummus dynasty, won’t come out of the closet. The friends are ready for a night of kitschy entertainment, but Israel’s lackluster contest entry puts everyone in a bit of a funk. When Anat reveals her marital troubles, Efrat improvises a little song to cheer her up, and the other friends join in the good-natured musical effort. Then, against all odds, Ofer’s smartphone video of the song earns the group the chance to represent Israel in next year’s Universong contest. Cupcakes is a fun musical frolic, with delightful production design, imaginative costumes, and catchy tunes, but it’s got heart, too — it’s the film equivalent of a great pop song. The friends will have to do a lot of soul-searching on their way to the Universong finals in Paris. Will they take home the prize?
A bittersweet meditation on travel, secrets, and romance, Dual tells the story of a chance meeting between two young women and the profound effect it has on both. Quirky Iben is a Danish traveler stranded in Slovenia by a cancelled flight; repressed tomboy Tina is the van driver who takes her to a hotel. But Iben has no desire to sleep, and the two embark on an exploration of the capital, Ljubljana, at night. It’s a first date that never ends, as night turns into day and then another night. How long can the two prolong this unexpected interlude? Tina, who feels trapped by the narrow confines of work and family, quickly falls under prankish Iben’s spell, but Iben’s zany behavior hides a secret sorrow. The influence of the Czech classic Daisies (Sedmikrásky) hovers over the film as the two women make the city their playground. However, this film is more interested in the personal than the political, carefully observing Tina and Iben as they circle each other cautiously in a delicate dance towards deeper intimacy. Playing out against a backdrop of airports, train yards, and empty city squares, the film vividly captures our universal longing for escape and movement, and reminds us that travel is more about the unexpected discoveries along the way than the final destination.
— CHRIS KEECH
— MONICA NOLAN
— CHARLES PURDY
Friday June 20, 9:30 pm · Roxie $10 members, $12 general · DUAL20R
44
Saturday June 28, 6:30 pm · Castro
Saturday June 28, 8:30 pm · Castro
Tuesday June 24, 7:00 pm · Elmwood
$10 members, $12 general · BOYS28C
$10 members, $12 general · CUPC28C
$10 members, $12 general · DUAL24E
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
world
Everybody’s Got Somebody...But Me Todo el Mundo Tiene a Alguien Menos Yo DIR Raúl
Fuentes 2012 Mexico 95 min In Spanish with English subtitles
It begins as a passionate affair—two beautiful women making out in cars and movie theaters, frolicking playfully in bed, applying each other’s makeup, drinking fancy martinis, and dancing wildly to live jazz. One blonde, one brunette; one younger, one older; one reserved, one impetuous — disparities appropriately presented in beautifully high-contrast black and white. But just as we are settling into the rhythms of their burgeoning romance, the dynamic quickly flips, and their relationship— along with the narrative arc of the film—switches gears. We go back to the moment they met, when Alejandra, a painfully shy and snobbish middle-aged woman, is the one being seduced by Maria, a brazen, vivacious teenager still dressed in her private school uniform. Alejandra’s maturity in age at first belies her social awkwardness and insecurity, as she takes Maria out to expensive dinners and foreign films and tries to mentor her in the ways of culture and refinement. Maria is eager to soak it all in, but she is still very much invested in her life as a regular teenager— and the house parties and family commitments that go along with it. As Alejandra grows more paranoid and demanding of Maria’s time, it becomes clear that the challenges of their relationship go far beyond their age difference. With its unique narrative style, seductive cinematography, and eclectic soundtrack, director Raúl Fuentes’s feature film debut is a captivating and artful commencement. — JOANNE PARSONT
Floating Skyscrapers Plynace Wiezowce
Futuro Beach Praia do Futuro
DIR Tomasz
Wasilewski 2013 Poland 93 min In Polish with English subtitles
DIR Karim Ainouz 2014 Brazil, Germany 97 min In Portuguese and German with English subtitles
Poland is no safe haven for the LGBT community; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa has recently stated that gay members of the Polish parliament should sit behind a wall at meetings. This mood of intolerance informs Tomasz Wasilewsky’s beautiful Floating Skyscrapers, in which a budding bromance between hunky competitive swimmer Kuba and dreamy pretty boy Michal builds into a love that threatens their society’s heteronormative status quo. Kuba and Michal’s first meetings take place behind the closed door of a gym toilet stall, where wordless blowjobs are all that the ostensibly straight swimmer will allow of his eager-toplease admirer. But as Kuba and Michal dive headlong into a passionate affair, the boys’ parents and Kuba’s girlfriend demand that the couple separate. Soon, all are drowning in the deep end of love, lust, and repression. Eliciting strong performances from his frequently nude leads, Wasilewski conveys the inner torment and external physicality of his characters through hypnotic pacing, his sensitive direction attuned to the myriad nuances of forbidden desire.
In the dangerous waters off the Praia do Futuro (Futuro Beach) in Fortaleza, Brazil, two German tourists out for a swim get caught in the undercurrent. Lifeguard Donato (Wagner Moura, Elite Squad) rushes into the ocean to save the men but manages to rescue only one, a handsome ex-soldier named Konrad (Clemens Schick, Casino Royale). Waiting around to learn the fate of his best friend, Konrad finds distraction in his rescuer, Donato, launching almost immediately into an intense sexual bonding that takes them both by surprise. As days pass without any sign of the drowning victim, Konrad decides to return to Germany and invites Donato to come along — a decision that will ripple through the remaining two chapters of Futuro Beach, which leaves its namesake behind for chilly Berlin. Moody cityscapes — as gorgeously shot as the stunning Brazilian coastal scenes — form a fitting backdrop for the deepening intensity between the two men, and for Donato’s conflicting sexual liberation and physical and cultural displacement. The two men’s lives become unsettled when a figure from Donato’s past comes looking for clues about his lengthy selfimposed exile. The latest triumph from filmmaker Karim Ainouz (Madame Satã, Love in the Sky) is a lush, erotic tale that hauntingly calls to mind a contemporary, gay variation on Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura, with a great soundtrack that features Suicide and David Bowie.
— STEVEN JENKINS
This film contains sexually explicit material. PRECEDED BY:
Home from the Gym DIR
Robert Hawk 2014 USA 6 min
In this beautifully shot, wordless scenario, a young man returns from the gym and undresses with a quiet, existential air.
— JOE BOWMAN
Saturday June 21, 9:30 pm · Victoria $10 members, $12 general · FLOA21V
Tuesday June 24, 7:00 pm · Roxie
Thursday June 26, 9:30 pm · Roxie
Friday June 27, 9:30 pm · Castro
$10 members, $12 general · EVER24R
$10 members, $12 general · FLOA26R
$10 members, $12 general · FUTU27C
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
45
world
Gerontophilia DIR Bruce
LaBruce 2013 Canada 90 min
“Old men and gin bruise so easily,” says the wise and witty octogenarian Mr. Peabody in this characteristically controversial yet atypically sensitive new film by queer cinema bad boy Bruce LaBruce. From his bed in a Montréal nursing home, the aging theater queen shares nips from the bottle and tender caresses with handsome, smitten 18-year-old attendant Lake, in the throes of discovering his titular fetish for much older men. An unlikely May-December romance blossoms: a quirky and subversive development that challenges social propriety and gay culture’s fixation on youth. LaBruce handles these issues with his customary revolutionary fervor (he is the wildly profane auteur behind L.A. Zombie and The Raspberry Reich). Lake’s journey of self-discovery begins when he is a lifeguard at a public pool: he sprouts a stiffy while administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to an elderly gentleman. While attracted to his feisty feminist girlfriend Desiree, Lake cannot deny his desire for senior citizens. Taking a job at the local “wrinkle ranch,” Lake more than enjoys giving sponge baths to the aging male residents — most especially Mr. Peabody, whom he sketches in the nude and then conspires with to hit the road on a drive all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Will their love survive the distance, not to mention Lake’s shocked and disapproving mom? Retaining his edgy outrageousness yet tempering his art-trash aesthetic with newfound empathy, LaBruce gives us an unapologetically queer update of Harold and Maude that will get a rise—and elicit tears—from young and old alike.
Holiday Feriado
I Am Happiness on Earth Yo Soy la Felicidad de Este Mundo
DIR Diego Araujo 2014 Ecuador, Argentina 82 min In Spanish with English subtitles
DIR Julián Hernández 2013 Mexico 124 min In Spanish with English subtitles
From its purposefully disorienting opening credits that invert the cityscape of Quito, questions of perspective motivate Ecuadorian writer-director Diego Araujo’s feature debut towards its justified tagline: “In a world turned upside down, life reveals new paths to explore.” Doe-eyed, poetry-loving Juampi (Juan Manuel Arregui) feels his own world turn upside down when he meets leather-clad Juano (Diego Andres Paredes) during a holiday visit to the Andean home of Juampi’s rulingclass uncle, who is caught up in the scandalous 1999 collapse of Ecuador’s banking system. As much a study of the erotics sparked between social classes— Juano is a lower-class indigenous Quechua—as it is a portrait of the slow burn of first love, Holiday achieves sensual expression through the waterfall baptisms of initiatory desire. Quiet, observant Juampi meets slightly criminal Juano stealing hubcaps from his uncle’s car and helps him escape a near beating. He finds more in common with Juano and his love for heavy metal and motorcycles than he does with his hectoring cousins who bully him for being sensitive. Seeking to situate himself in an honest, independent world separate from his corrupt family, Juampi leans into Juano’s dark, sleek body. Are Juano’s feelings for him reciprocal? Holiday delicately captures the uncertain questioning of youth before commitment to orientation.
Julián Hernández—the Mexican filmmaker responsible for A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle the Sky, Broken Sky, and Raging Sun, Raging Sky— continues to push the boundaries of the art-house film with his latest experiment in ensorcellment, I Am Happiness on Earth. Emiliano is a famous film director who confuses the process of artistic creation with sexual conquest; his filmic narratives interrupt his real life. He falls in love with and pursues wounded dancer Octavio, whom he hurts further by refusing to honor their partnership, adamantly contesting the aims of gay marriage, and practicing instead a philosophy of “two, among many,” in which the definition of his being in a relationship shifts as capriciously as his desires. He becomes a man on both sides of the lens, watched and watching, whose homoerotic voyeurism elicits a fantasy of bisexual relief. With a wink toward Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hernández sifts absurd humor from the human pathos of lust, grounding happiness in an orgasmic fever dream. Hernández’s films are erotic melodramas in which characters talk with their eyes and movements, creating ballets of desire and longing. As with dance, the bodies in Hernández’s films are charged with speaking to their audience; Hernández achieves this with a ravishingly handsome cast of young men and women who embody his now-familiar themes of first love’s singular intensity, the instructive power of betrayal, and the wistful nature of how regrets are illuminations come too late.
— MICHAEL GUILLÉN
— STEVEN JENKINS
— MICHAEL GUILLÉN
Thursday June 19, 10:00 pm · Castro $10 members, $12 general · HOLI19C
46
Friday June 20, 9:30 pm · Castro
Monday June 23, 1:00 pm · Castro
Saturday June 21, 9:30 pm · Castro
$10 members, $12 general ·GERO20C
$8 members, $10 general · HOLI23C
$10 members, $12 general · IAMH21C
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
world
My Straight Son Azul y No Tan Rosa
Of Girls and Horses Von Mädchen und Pferden
DIR Miguel Ferrari 2012 Venezuela, Spain 110 min In Spanish with English subtitles
DIR Monika Treut 2014 Germany 82 min In German with English subtitles
The first-ever Venezuelan winner of the Goya Awards’ Iberoamerican Film Prize, My Straight Son tackles weighty issues of family, fatherhood, and freedom with charm and grace. Diego is a fashion photographer, shooting models and arts gigs in Caracas. Though he’s not out to his family, they all know about his “good friend” Fabrizio, an ob/gyn who’d like to settle down. Meanwhile, his son, Armando, the result of a past heterosexual romance who currently lives with his mother in Spain and harbors anger toward his absent father, is coming for a visit. As Diego attempts to reconnect with his child and decide about his future with his boyfriend, a tragic hate crime changes everything in the blink of an eye. These difficult circumstances force the handsome but somewhat superficial Diego to become a man and accept responsibility for himself and his family. Director Miguel Ferrari charts his protagonist’s course with a sure hand and a steady eye, filling the film with moving dramatic situations and well-rounded supporting characters, including a fierce transsexual cabaret artiste named Delirio del Rio (Venezuelan telenovela star Hilda Abrahamz) and the lively and loud-mouthed Perla Marina. A tearjerker with immense heart, My Straight Son provides a telenovela’s worth of entertainment, with dexterity and style.
The latest feature from prolific queer filmmaker Monika Treut (Gendernauts, Frameline23) follows the slow rhythm of farm life in green and lovely Northern Germany. Alex, a troubled teen with an attitude, is sent by her harried mother for a last-ditch internship at a farm, in the care of a horse trainer named Nina. The horse trainer, who is herself retreating from busy city life, takes on her new charge as if dealing with a wild mustang. With a firm and gentle hand and kind, steady attention, Nina mentors Alex in the care and feeding of the horses. She shows Alex how to calmly and clearly communicate with the magnificent animals. Eventually, she teaches Alex how to ride, and Alex discovers the connection and freedom of being on horseback. Holiday guest Kathy arrives with her own horse, a gift from her father. Alex resents Kathy at first for her privilege; then she grows curious and friendly. The girls become close as Kathy learns the finer points of riding and caring for her steed. One weekend when Nina goes to the city to see her girlfriend, Kathy and Alex are left to care for the horses. When the cat’s away, the mice will play. What seemed originally like punishment to Alex, this life of horses and land and physical work, opens up doors for her and a wider horizon. — CAROL HARADA
— ROD ARMSTRONG
This film contains a scene of homophobic violence.
Quick Change DIR Eduardo Roy, Jr. 2013 Philippines 98 min In Tagalog with English subtitles
Everybody in Manila’s beauty pageant-mad transgender community loves “Doctor” Dorina. Her in-home, under-the-table collagen injection services not only provide gender confirmation for her friends and community, but also might just help a girl win the intensely competitive Miss Gay Philippines contest. During her house calls Dorina says, “You want to be beautiful? You have to withstand the pain.” Between winces a customer rejoices, “This is where science and beauty meet!” But these treatments have other costs beyond a high price tag: they’re illegal and dangerous. Walking a legal and moral tightrope, Dorina maintains a discreet business tending to her addicted clients, with her little adoptive nephew in tow. Meanwhile, her handsome lover demands that she have bottom surgery, and when she balks, he turns his eye to another, younger transwoman, a pageant champion. Eduardo Roy, Jr.’s second feature, like his first about a maternity ward (Baby Factory), skillfully and compassionately explores a community where the physical body endures pain and grave consequences for the sake of recognition and love. The streets, apartments, and stages of Dorina’s world come alive with documentary precision. Lead actress Mimi Juareza won an acting prize at the 2013 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival for her intense performance as Dorina, who prays to the Virgin Mary to keep her clients safe because she herself can’t guarantee it. (Viewers who are squeamish about needle sequences, consider yourselves forewarned.) — FRAKO LODEN
Wednesday June 25, 9:30 pm · Elmwood $10 members, $12 general · MYST25E
Saturday June 28, 4:00 pm · Victoria
Friday June 27, 9:15 pm · Roxie
Tuesday June 24, 9:30 pm · Roxie
$8 members, $10 general · MYST28V
$10 members, $12 general · OFGI27R
$10 members, $12 general · QUIC24R
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
47
world
Salvation Army L’armée du Salut
Something Must Break Nånting måste gå sönder
DIR Abdellah
Taïa 2013 France, Morocco 84 min In Arabic and French with English subtitles
DIR Ester Martin
Bergsmark 2014 Sweden 81 min In Swedish with English subtitles
Adapting his own autobiographical novel, director Abdellah Taïa tells the story of a Moroccan boy’s struggle to find himself within a society that shuns him. Being gay is not the only difficulty confronting young Abdellah (the main character shares the filmmaker’s name) — his father abuses his mother, he feels a forbidden attraction to his big brother Slimane, and older men in the neighborhood prey on him for their frustrated sexual needs. To escape these tensions, the restless teen goes on a road trip to the coast with Slimane. When the two are separated and Abdellah must depend on his own resources, the prospect of a new kind of freedom arises: a journey that could take Abdellah toward the European university education he longs for, far from his native language and culture. Telling the story through two different time periods and locales, Taïa employs long, expressive takes that are visually stunning, and he’s found two compelling actors to play the younger and older iterations of his protagonist. Salvation Army is not only brave for tackling taboo issues within Moroccan society and finding new ways to represent the queer Arab experience; it’s also a compelling cinematic debut from someone whose prior work has been exclusively in prose. Taïa has turned Abdellah’s story into a moving meditation on the necessity—and the price—of personal freedom.
Set during a Stockholm summer, this love story follows two youths, Sebastian and Andreas, as they embark on a journey of discovery across the big city landscape. Sebastian (Saga Becker) is an introspective boy who’s uncomfortable in his own skin—mentally, emotionally, and physically. He’s androgynous and looking for the strength to transition to being female. He’s also seeking intimacy and love in all the wrong places—cruising public bathrooms and seedy alleys, only to find rough sex and abuse. Sebastian has a chance encounter with Andreas (Iggy Malmborg), a wayward straight boy who is drawn to Sebastian. Both have the same need for love, and they venture out into the city, shoplifting and exploiting others just to trigger an emotional connection. The sex they have is intensely physical — brutal, if only to break the barrier into deeper intimacy. Andreas struggles with confusion in this new relationship. He’s falling in love with Sebastian’s feminine side — Ellie — but pushes Sebastian as a boy away. Sebastian doesn’t understand and desperately clings to Andreas. Through their intense relationship, Sebastian begins to understand the way Ellie can be loved. Ester Martin Bergsmark’s (Fruitcake and She Male Snails) first foray into fiction offers a raw and vibrant film that brings the actors’ intensity into focus. Something Must Break offers a powerful message about transitioning and learning to know oneself.
— ROD ARMSTRONG
— MARCUS WONACOTT
Stand DIR Jonathan Taieb 2014 France, Russia 92 min In Russian with English subtitles
After taking a wrong turn in their car, a young gay Russian couple witnesses what they believe is a vicious gay bashing; their quandary over what to do about it propels them—and this suspenseful drama—into ever more dangerous territory. The slow-burning film is highly topical, given the intense worldwide outrage over Russia’s mistreatment of gays and the country’s 2013 federal law prohibiting homosexual “propaganda.” Anton and Vlad make a handsome pair, sharing a loving and natural chemistry in the comfortable privacy of their Moscow apartment. For Anton, the burden of what they may have witnessed outweighs Vlad’s fear of probing too deeply into the incident. Convinced of the police’s indifference — recent events make this a terrifyingly plausible scenario—Anton talks his skeptical lover into launching their own amateur investigation into the hate crime. Their risky search for the truth has unexpected and grim consequences. In their first major film roles, the two Russian-born leads give convincing and nuanced performances. Renat Shuteev, in particular, conveys a steely reserve behind Anton’s haunted eyes. His character stubbornly forges ahead into tense situations even though he knows where they could lead. French-born directorproducer-writer Jonathan Taieb, tackling very big ideas on a small budget, aims to convince us that we are ultimately defined more by our actions than by our ideas. — CHRIS KEECH
This film contains scenes of graphic homophobic violence.
This film contains sexually explicit material.
Friday June 20, 9:30 pm · Victoria
Friday June 20, 4:00 pm · Castro
$10 members, $12 general · SALV20V
48
$8 members, $10 general · STAN20C
Friday June 27, 7:00 pm · Roxie
Tuesday June 24, 1:15 pm · Castro
Sunday June 29, 4:15 pm · Castro
$10 members, $12 general · SALV27R
$8 members, $10 general · SOME24C
$8 members, $10 general · STAN29C
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
SP●TLIGHT RUSSIA
world
The Third One El Tercero DIR Rodrigo Guerrero 2014 Argentina 70 min In Spanish with English subtitles
Two men connect on a gay webcam chat site. One is in his early twenties, hiding his face just out of frame so that all you can see is his sculpted torso; the other is handsome, slightly older, and sitting in his study. After a bit of naughty textual flirting, the younger man shows his face—and the older one’s partner enters the room, briefly joining the chat. When the partnered men, Franco and Hernán, manage to convince young Fede (a self-described “punk”) to come over for dinner and a three-way, it seems the film may follow the path of a run-of-the-mill porno. But Argentinean director Rodrigo Guerrero has something more profound to explore about intimacy and the notion of togetherness, as the threesome’s charged evening turns into a beautifully observed, seemingly improvisatory sequence of great food, good conversation, fine wine, and even better sex. Filmed almost entirely in a series of exquisite long, static shots, The Third One delivers an honest, modern, and highly erotic glimpse into an unusual onenight stand between a happy couple of eight years and a curious university student. Guerrero and his trio of natural and gifted actors craft a fresh perspective — visually and narratively—on a kind of human encounter you don’t see all that often on the big screen. — JOE BOWMAN
This film contains graphic sexual imagery.
Tru Love
Violette
DIRS Kate
Johnston & Shauna MacDonald 2013 Canada 94 min
DIR Martin Provost 2013 France, Belgium 132 min In French with English subtitles
Commitment-phobic Tru lives life on the fast track — whether it’s girlfriends or jobs, she is always speeding on to the next one. One day she helps her good friend Suzanne, a type-A lawyer with such a busy schedule that she can’t find the time to let her visiting mother into her own house. This is how Tru meets Alice, a beautiful and charming widow who is still trying to cope with her husband’s recent passing. That night, true to form, Tru stands up one of her many disposable dates, but this time it’s for the noble reason of keeping Alice company at dinner. What starts as a polite gesture turns into a night of scintillating conversation, and as Tru starts to open up about the tragicomedies of her love life, Alice finds herself intoxicated by a whole new world full of discoveries. To Suzanne’s surprise and discomfort, Tru’s offers to lighten her overloaded schedule by showing her mother around become frequent. Tru and Alice’s time together not only starts to change Alice’s concealed ambivalence toward women, but also stirs up her daughter’s jealousy. Feeling slightly betrayed and quite conflicted, Suzanne tries to hinder this blossoming new relationship— one that may give free-spirited Tru the emotional grounding she has been searching for. Canadian filmmakers Kate Johnston and Shauna MacDonald deliver a stirring romantic drama about looking for love in all the wrong places and discovering an unexpected and exquisite connection.
“No one wants me, that’s the problem!” sobs Violette in this mesmerizing biopic of tormented French writer Violette Leduc. Author of the lesbian classic Therese and Isabelle, Leduc wrote without recognition for years, financially dependent on famous friends — especially mentor Simone de Beauvoir — before finding success in late middle age (see also the documentary Violette Leduc: In Pursuit of Love, page 60). The through-line of this deeply layered portrait is Leduc’s troubled relationship with her mentor. Pioneering feminist de Beauvoir was unstinting in her support for Leduc as a writer but rejected her protegée’s desire for something more. De Beauvoir treats Leduc’s huge crush on her as fodder for writing projects, advising Leduc to turn rejection into literature. For de Beauvoir, supporting the radical woman writer was an intellectual duty— cold comfort to Leduc, who carried a torch for her literary patron for years. Gorgeously filmed in moody blues and grays that reflect Leduc’s state of mind and France’s postwar bleakness, Martin Provost’s (Séraphine) film leaps through Leduc’s life, making evocative use of the author’s own words. César-winner Emmanuelle Devos gives a powerhouse performance, vividly embodying Leduc’s needy aggressiveness, whether she’s trading on the black market or stalking de Beauvoir with a bouquet of flowers. Devos manages to make Leduc’s egoism, paranoia, and desperation not only sympathetic but also comprehensible—even logical—in this brilliant portrait of a woman far ahead of her time.
— JULIA BARBOSA
— MONICA NOLAN
Saturday June 28, 9:15 pm · Victoria
Friday June 20, 6:45 pm · Castro
Monday June 23, 9:15 pm · Castro
$10 members, $12 general · THIR28V
$10 members, $12 general · TRUL20C
$10 members, $12 general · VIOL23C
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
49
world
Wetlands Feuchtgebiete
Winter Journey Zimniı˘ put’
DIR David Wnendt 2013 Germany 105 min In German with English subtitles
DIRS Sergei Taramaev & Luba Lvova 2013 Russia 90 min In Russian with English subtitles
DIR Yann Gonzalez 2013 France 92 min in French with English subtitles
Based on Charlotte Roche’s controversial bestselling novel of the same name, Wetlands, the sophomore feature from German director David Wnendt (following the award-winning neo-Nazi drama Combat Girls), promises to leave a lasting impression on even the most desensitized viewers. Touted as the craziest, most outrageous film at Sundance this year, Wetlands takes an unflinching, comedic look at an unusual teenage girl’s anatomical explorations and sexual misadventures. When her curiosity leads to a graphic shaving accident in one of her more delicate bodily areas, Helen Memel (Carla Juri, in a breakthrough performance) heads to the hospital for emergency surgery, where she reflects upon her awkward upbringing and subsequent escapades, which include vegetable experimentation, a lesbian tryst in a neighborhood bordello, and an already infamous scene involving a pizza. Though riotously funny and unabashedly obscene, Wetlands goes beyond the abundant display of flesh and fluids to reveal a surprising poignancy when Helen decides to use her hospital stay as an opportunity to reunite her estranged parents. If you prefer your coming-of-age tales to have more in common with Pink Flamingos than Anne of Green Gables, Wetlands is for you—just be sure to leave your squeamish friends at home.
Two young men from opposite sides of the socioeconomic spectrum embark on a dangerous course of self-destructive behavior in this striking and brave Russian drama. Eric is a classical singer and pianist practicing for an important audition. On the bus one day, he encounters the volatile Lyokha, who is subsequently arrested by a pair of police officers and taken into custody. For much of the film, their stories play out in parallel, with Eric spending his time rehearsing sublime Schubert lieder, passing time with his wealthy but dissolute mentor, Slava, and imbibing liters of vodka from a corner store, while Lyokha is causing trouble with almost everyone he encounters. The two meet up again one evening among a group of Eric’s friends, one of whom is his presumed boyfriend, and Lyokha proceeds to antagonize almost everyone assembled with boorish behavior and homophobic diatribes. Despite Lyokha’s cretinous conduct, the singer is drawn to the animalistic boy and gives him a place to stay. Where the relationship, and the film, proceeds from here is unexpected, moving, sometimes surreal, and always surprising. Coming from a culture in which being gay has recently become perilously difficult, Winter Journey feels like an urgent and brilliantly acted missive, portraying an existence where violence, alcohol, and drugs provide necessary escape and love seems next to impossible.
In a secluded fortress, young lovers Ali (Kate Moran, Born in 68) and Matthias (Niels Schneider, Heartbeats) and their transvestite maid, Udo (Nicolas Maury, Let My People Go!), await the guests of a pansexual, midnight orgy— You and the Night is the playfully surreal, visually exciting feature film debut from acclaimed short director Yann Gonzalez. Set in an unknown time that feels both nostalgic and futuristic, the lovers and their maid convene in an intricately designed living room, equipped with a “sensory jukebox” that plays music to match the feelings of the person who lays his or her hand upon it. The guests don’t have names; they have titles—The Slut, The Stud, The Star, and The Teen — and they each share their own bizarre tales of lust, fame, exploitation, and fantasy. Also starring soccer-star-turned-actor Éric Cantona, Alain Delon’s son Alain-Fabien Delon in his screen debut, and the wonderful Béatrice Dalle (Bye Bye Blondie, Frameline36) as a lascivious prison warden, You and the Night mixes camp and sexuality in an engaging, unique style that pays homage to the work of Luis Buñuel, Peter Greenaway, François Ozon, and Jean Cocteau. Featuring an original score by M83, You and the Night marks the feature debut of an exciting new voice in queer cinema. It made a splash at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and was named one of the Top 10 Films of 2013 by celebrated film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma.
— JOE BOWMAN
This film contains sexually explicit material.
SP●TLIGHT RUSSIA
You and the Night Les Rencontres d’après Minuit
— ROD ARMSTRONG — JOE BOWMAN
This film contains sexually explicit material.
Saturday June 28, 9:00 pm · Roxie
Monday June 23, 9:15 pm · Victoria
Monday June 23, 9:00 pm · Roxie
$10 members, $12 general · WETL28R
$10 members, $12 general · WINT23V
$10 members, $12 general · YOUA23R SPONSORED BY
50
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
Yves Saint Laurent DIR Jalil Lespert 2014 France 106 min In French with English subtitles
A gorgeous, sumptuous biopic about an extraordinary artist, Yves Saint Laurent tells the story of the fashion legend’s career and his decades-long love affair with Pierre Bergé. In January 1958, Yves Saint Laurent—at merely 21 years old—was unexpectedly called upon to oversee the legendary Paris fashion house established by the recently deceased Christian Dior. With the presentation of his very first collection for Dior, he became a darling of the haute couture elite. And it was while mounting this groundbreaking show that he was introduced to Bergé, who was to become both the love of his life and his lifelong business partner. Three years later, the two founded the Yves Saint Laurent Company, which would rapidly become one of the biggest luxury brands on the planet. Yves Saint Laurent is a fascinating look at the making of an icon. And the immaculately re-created costumes make it a must-see for any fashion lover. Director Jalil Lespert delivers a visual feast—with a full portion of the glamour and beauty of haute couture’s golden age, as well as a very compelling look at the intricacies of living and working in that world. The film is anchored by subtle, pitch-perfect performances by Pierre Niney as Saint Laurent — the actor is a dead ringer for the slender, neurotic genius—and Guillaume Gallienne as Bergé.
Saturday June 21, 7:00 pm · Victoria $10 members, $12 general · YVES21V SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
51
doc um ent arie s
Al Nisa: Black Muslim Women in Atlanta’s Gay Mecca
Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy
DIR Red
Mono-stricken teenage tomboy Sid opens up about her illness and begins growing into her truly singular self.
America’s “Gaysian Sweetheart,” comedian Alec Mapa (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives), sparkles onstage with incisive and flirtatiously filthy stand-up. In this bigger-than-life performance film featuring his sold-out, high-paced, award-winning show, Mapa takes on every topic in his amazingly queer life: hosting gay porn award shows, his sex life, meeting other gay celebrities, working gay cruises, his lack of knowledge (and deep love) of most musical theater, reality television, body-image issues in Los Angeles, and a diverse array of bodily functions. But the film goes well beyond his rowdy stand-up act. Touching scenes with husband, Jamison Hebert, and their child, Zion (whom they adopted at age five through the LA foster care system), give a glimpse into their family dynamics. The film charts the creation of this unconventional trio and shows how love and humor (and valiant attempts at waffle-making) define a family. Baby Daddy was performed live in LA and New York City, won the prestigious Bistro award, and was nominated for GLAAD and United Solo awards for best off-Broadway solo show. Independently produced by Mapa, Hebert, and director Andrea James, the film does an end-run around network and studio approvals. Its unbridled energy and unrestrained tone make for nonstop, gut-busting laughs, and an occasional tear, for the whole audience. And you don’t even have to like children to join the party.
Monday June 23, 7:00 pm · Roxie
Sunday June 22, 6:30 pm · Victoria
$10 members, $12 general · ALNI23R
$10 members, $12 general · ALEC22V
Summer 2013 USA 58 min
Eight women share a meal. It’s a simple act, but in this case, they also share deep soul sustenance as Black Muslim lesbians previously suffering from terrible isolation. These self-aware, powerful women articulate the different ways they’ve braided this triple identity throughout their lives. They are humbled and relieved to be able to be themselves at last, their whole selves, in the company of newfound sisters. Director and participant Red Summer shines a light on this potent moment. The women recognize the privilege of being able to speak out. In other Muslim countries, homosexuality is outlawed. In this country, death threats are common. This first generation of out lesbians in the Black Muslim community is conscious of being role models to younger people. From their unique perspective, the women offer thoughtful critiques of sexism and homophobia within the cultural and religious institutions they have inhabited. With shifting relationships to the mosque, these women affirm the primacy of individual spiritual connection with Allah. The making of this film launched a growing radical community bridging spirituality and queer identity. —CAROL HARADA PRECEDED BY:
Puppy Dreams DIR
Alex Delyle 2012 USA 8 min
DIR Andrea
James 2013 USA 78 min
— KEVIN SCHAUB
SPONSORED BY
52
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
docs
Back on Board: Greg Louganis
Born to Fly
Broken Heart Land
DIR Cheryl
DIR Catherine
DIRS Jeremy Stulberg & Randy Stulberg 2013 USA 81 min
Furjanic 2014 USA 91 min
Four-time Olympic champion Greg Louganis sky-rocketed to international glory after sweeping the diving events in consecutive Olympiads at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Games. This touching documentary catches up with the diving legend in 2011, when he is far from the public eye and struggling to pay the mortgage on his longtime Malibu residence. The fit fiftysomething, who never made it onto a Wheaties box, despite his trademark smile and four gold medals, has had trouble maintaining a financially viable career. Boxes are strewn about his modest and partially unfinished home, with memorabilia labeled ready for auction. While straight athletes were raking it in, Louganis’s long-rumored homosexuality cost him greatly in potential endorsement deals. In the early 1990s, Louganis’s public revelation that he was HIV-positive caused a media frenzy, especially in light of his still gasp-inducing head-hitting springboard dive at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games. Throughout this stirring film, we see phenomenal footage of Louganis at his athletic peak, executing dives with precision and grace. We also witness the incredibly strong emotional bonds he still has with two former coaches and mentors. Eventually we see the pioneering athlete, who admits to having felt ostracized, being courted back to the sport as a USA Diving team mentor for 2012 London Games hopefuls. This may be his last chance to regain some of the success he enjoyed at the height of his career. Will this comeback help preserve his legacy? — CHRIS KEECH
This film was a recipient of a Frameline Completion Fund grant.
Gund 2013 USA 82 min
Soar, slam, and crash—that’s what happens when you cross the Judson Dance Theater tradition of postmodern dance with American daredevil Evel Knievel. If you pictured New York choreographer Elizabeth Streb and her Extreme Action Company, that’s not a coincidence. As Catherine Gund’s exuberant yet thoughtful portrait makes clear, Streb has taken cues from both sources — along with influences ranging from circus acts to Hollywood stunt work — in evolving her philosophy of movement and art, as well as her high-flying company and its unique style of high-impact, dare-all contemporary dance. Streb’s “PopAction” aesthetic demands herculean efforts from her hyper-fit and fearless young dancers, several of whom candidly relate the exhilaration, exasperation, matchless highs, and desperate lows that a life in extreme dance can entail. Streb, for her part, reflects on her earliest influences and role models, including a gruff adoptive father and Judson Dance Theater doyenne Trisha Brown. Archival footage blends with glimpses of rehearsals and performances, as well as home life with her partner, journalist and author Laura Flanders, as the couple prepares a small dinner party for distinguished friends like Bill T. Jones and Anne Bogart. Culminating with exhilarating footage from the 2012 Olympics—audacious acrobatic dances off London’s Millennium Bridge, down the face of its City Hall, and in the spokes of the giant London Eye Ferris Wheel—Gund’s film joins Streb in asking about the relationship between art and motion, while complicating our notion of the physical and social potential of the body in action.
Zachary Harrington came out at fourteen, accepted and embraced by close friends and family. So what made him take his own life just five years later? In their terrible shock and grief, his loved ones desperately try to understand. In 2010, the mayor of Norman, Oklahoma, proposed October as LGBT History Month. Before the city council passed the proposal, hours of public testimony revealed a divided community. Citing traditional Christian values, a vocal minority made vitriolic homophobic and AIDS-phobic statements and threatened to go after progressive city council members’ jobs. Just a week after attending that meeting, Zack committed suicide. Zack’s death broke the silence of a family that didn’t talk about personal things. Seeking clues in his journals, the Harringtons learned how deeply Zack had been struggling with pervasive attitudes condemning him. Devastated, they also discovered his secret: Zack had been HIV-positive for more than a year. He’d gotten AIDS medication on the street. He’d had no doctor. He’d told no one. Oklahoma is one of 39 states where any mention of homosexuality is banned from sex education and STD prevention. With the religious right dictating public health measures, Silence=Death. When conservative Christians ran for Norman city council, Zack’s family joined activist mothers of LGBT kids to fight back, and this is where the film truly shines. Through their heartbreak, the Harringtons found a greater purpose, a strong community, and ways to honor Zack’s dream of acceptance. —CAROL HARADA
— ROB AVILA
Wednesday June 25, 4:00 pm · Castro
Sunday June 22, 1:00 pm · Castro
Saturday June 21, 11:00 am · Victoria
$8 members, $10 general · BACK25C
$8 members, $10 general · BORN22C
$8 members, $10 general · BHEA21V
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
53
docs
Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda
SP●TLIGHT RUSSIA
DIR Michael Lucas 2014 Russia, USA 78 min In Russian and English with English subtitles
Campaign of Hate is a lucid and necessary documentary primer on the hot-button issue of LGBT discrimination in Russia. Directed by outspoken provocateur and social activist Michael Lucas, a Moscow native, the film provides candid access to everyday Russian LGBT citizens and activists coping with mounting discrimination, as well as to one prominent anti-gay legislator, who paint a sobering picture of the worsening reality for Russia’s queer citizens. Anti-gay sentiment has spread rapidly as Vladimir Putin and the radically conservative Russian Orthodox Church have tightened their political grip, banning so-called “gay propaganda” and making nearly any public discussion of gay equality a crime. Violent attacks against gays, or suspected gays, are often recorded and posted online with impunity. Lucas’s interviewees include noted journalist Masha Gessen, who as a lesbian mother must weigh fleeing the country with her family after she is singled out as an unfit parent by legislator Vitaly Milonov (also interviewed). We hear from a gay male couple, who despite years of cohabitation still hide their relationship from neighbors. We also meet a drag performer, victims of hate crimes, and undeterred organizers like the producers of the Side by Side Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival. This is the second documentary by Lucas, who is the CEO of Lucas Entertainment, a gay adult film studio based in New York.
Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank
Derby Crazy Love
DIRS Sheila Canavan & Michael Chandler 2014 USA 90 min
For both roller derby novices and the most seasoned jammers out there, this film offers an in-depth look at the history of women’s roller derby and a portrait of a hard-as-nails team from Montréal called The New Skids on the Block. Following such great derby docs as Hell on Wheels and Blood on the Fast Track, as well as Drew Barrymore’s Whip It, this new documentary from filmmakers Maya Gallus and Justine Pimlott (Punch Like a Girl, Frameline32, and Girl Inside, Frameline31) shows us how our neighbors to the north like to roll, featuring interviews with the players and their stunningly enthusiastic drag-donning announcer, Plastik Patrick, as well as a few exciting clips of Raquel Welch in Kansas City Bomber and Farrah Fawcett in a special derby episode of Charlie’s Angels. As one of the few female-dominated sports out there, roller derby provides a sisterhood for these adrenaline-seeking women — mostly queer women with a fair share of straight allies — many of whom never felt included in the sort of team sports the other girls were into growing up. Get to know The New Skids on the Block as they try to unseat the international reigning champions from London, and familiarize yourself with the wildest, sexiest sport out there!
This fascinating documentary explores the life (private and public) of our country’s most prominent out gay politician to date: the inimitable Barney Frank, a staunch defender of civil rights and “small-d” democratic principles for 32 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and, as Rachel Maddow describes him, “the member of Congress you would most like to see argue with whoever it is you most dislike in the world.” In taking stock of Frank’s extraordinary life, the filmmakers share personal moments and uncover the inner workings of our country’s political process. Archival materials and conversations with Frank reveal the pain of a closeted life, the relief of coming out, and the repercussions of a scandal that everyone expected to end his career. In unsparing interviews, political power players, Frank’s lifelong friends, and even a few foes express their deep respect for the Congressman’s political savvy and reveal the gentle soul behind the cantankerous facade. Covering his final year in office, the film ends with an exclusive look at a personal triumph for Frank: his wedding to Jim Ready, which made him the first openly gay congressman to marry. This film will make you want to cheer—for a trailblazing activist whose personal journey mirrors our country’s journey toward equal rights for all, and for his knowing optimism, even in the face of a political system that seems increasingly broken. — CHARLES PURDY
— CHRIS KEECH
Screening followed by a panel discussion including Michael Lucas and journalist Masha Gessen (see p.29)
Gallus & Justine Pimlott 2013 Canada 62 min
— SÉVERINE SOREL PRECEDED BY:
The L Riders DIRS Zane Schwartz, Eric Ward, Johnny Wilcox & Kevin Wolf 2013 USA 13 min
Five lesbians use motorcycles to express themselves, explore their sexuality, and create a community that tackles the social stigmas of the LGBT community.
Sunday June 22, 1:15 pm · Victoria
Saturday June 28, 11:00 am · Castro
Saturday June 21, 9:15 pm · Roxie
$8 members, $10 general · CAMP22V
$8 members, $10 general · COMP28C
$10 members, $12 general · DERB21R
SPONSORED BY
54
DIRS Maya
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
docs
The Dog
Folsom Forever
Kidnapped for Christ
DIRS Allison Berg & Frank Keraudren 2013 USA 100 min
DIR Mike
DIR Kate
“There’s sex and there’s love,” states John Wojtowicz, the complex, charismatic subject of this riveting documentary on the real-life inspiration for the 1970s classic Dog Day Afternoon. “I’m a lover,” he asserts, though viewers will likely draw their own conflicting conclusions about the titular anti-hero, an unlikely gay-liberation icon and unrepentant ex-con whose attempt to rob a bank to finance his lover’s genderreassignment surgery is only part of this truth-isstranger-than-fiction saga. Virulently anti-establishment, polymorphously perverse, and contending with mental illness, Wojtowicz is an unreliable narrator of his own story, his bark worse than his bite in recounting that fateful day in 1972 when he burst into a Brooklyn bank. Accompanied by two accomplices, Wojtowicz took hostages and held off the NYPD and the FBI in a 14-hour standoff that was broadcast on TV and ended in his imprisonment. Having gained infamy via Pacino’s remarkable portrayal of him in Sidney Lumet’s Oscar®-winner, Wojtowicz emerged from the slammer six years later as “The Dog.” As family members, ex-wives, and former lovers attest in candid interviews, Wojtowicz’s dogged determination to express his fluid sexuality—whether under the covers, behind bars, or in the media spotlight—put him at the forefront of the gay rights movement. Filming for more than a decade, co-directors Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren’s have created an unforgettable portrait of a feisty iconoclast.
Before leather and fetish went mainstream with novels like 50 Shades of Grey, San Francisco’s beloved Folsom Street Fair was already a highlight of San Francisco’s street-fair season and an international tourist draw. As the bacchanal turns 30, leatherman documentarian Mike Skiff (Kink Crusaders) reveals Folsom’s story, capturing both rare historical moments and glorious festival footage from today. Smartly positioning leather lifestyles as a “safe way to play,” Folsom Street Fair began in 1984 as a small neighborhood event, and it grew as a response to the assault on gay spaces at the height of the AIDS crisis. By its second year, it was one of the city’s wildest events, with leathermen of all stripes flooding from SOMA bars into the streets. In the male-dominated world of early Folsom, women weren’t always welcomed with open arms, but hardy pioneers carved out space as the festival’s caretakers and crucial allies. This allegiance blossoms today in Folsom’s increasingly open (and less clothed) iteration—a much larger but still locally grown event that annually donates more than $300,000 to nonprofits, draws more than 400,000 people, celebrates self-expression and sexual freedom, and reigns supreme as “the grand daddy of all leather events.”
— STEVEN JENKINS
Skiff 2014 USA 93 min
— JACKSON SCARLETT PRECEDED BY:
Dirty Boots (He Don’t) DIR
Adam Baran 2014 USA 5 min
A sexually charged day in the life of a gay biker gang in Brooklyn leads to unexpected outcomes in this music video for Gainesville indie band Holopaw’s queer song “Dirty Boots (He Don’t).”
Logan 2014 USA, Dominican Republic 85 min
A teenage girl is awakened in the middle of the night, forced to get dressed, and then sent away with her abductors. A teenage boy is dragged from his home, pushed into a car, and then hustled onto a plane at an airport. These American teens and many like them, some with troubled pasts, are taken to Escuela Caribe, an American-run Christian behavior-modification school in the Dominican Republic. There they are subjected to “cultural shock therapy” designed to make them more compliant with the school’s Christian reform program. One straight-A student, David, is at the school solely because he is gay (sent there to be reformed, like the others, by his evangelical parents). Extreme exercise, exhausting physical labor, strict obedience to exacting rules, isolation, compulsory repetitions of religious texts, physical beatings, and even worse punishments (for minor infractions) are all part of the program. As an impartial evangelical Christian herself, documentary filmmaker Kate Logan was granted unprecedented access to the school. She thought she was documenting a benign alternative-therapy program and was shocked to discover what was really going on —just as the school began to curtail her access. Logan worked for more than five years to see her film completed amidst lawsuits and threats from the school and parents. The result is a riveting exposé (produced by Lance Bass) that throws light on the vast, previously unknown, worldwide abuse and exploitation of teens by an unregulated multibillion-dollar industry. — TIM SIKA
Wednesday June 25, 1:30 pm · Castro
Sunday June 22, 9:00 pm · Victoria
Saturday June 21, 6:30 pm · Roxie
$8 members, $10 general · DOGT25C
$10 members, $12 general · FOLS22V
$10 members, $12 general · KIDN21R
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
55
docs
Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story
The Last One
Letter to Anita
DIRS Sandrine
DIR Nadine
DIR Andrea
Orabona & Mark Herzog 2014 USA 84 min
As a decorated U.S. Navy SEAL, Christopher Beck experienced some of the most intense combat known to anyone. Yet Christopher’s journey to become Kristin Beck, an openly transgender veteran fighting for the rights of all transgender people, has proven to be the greatest battle of her life. This eloquent documentary explores Beck’s very public transition — one that has challenged many people’s assumptions of how elite military commandos should look and sound. Compelling footage of Beck’s SEAL unit training illustrates the multiple, near-suicidal operational risks Beck willingly performed as a deeply unhappy gendered male. The film bears intimate witness to Beck’s pain in coming to terms with her identity while not only on active duty but also having a wife and two young sons— fragile relationships that remain largely uncertain. Lady Valor — structured as a road trip through Beck’s life as she pilots her motor home across the country — unflinchingly reveals both her indomitable spirit and her indisputable flaws. Kristin Beck redefines social notions of heroism and devotes true service to her country in entirely new, surprising, and transcendent terms. — LEAH LOSCHIAVO PRECEDED BY:
Veteran Documentary Corps: Zoe Dunning DIR
Sylvia Turchin 2014 USA 12 min
Maria Zoe Dunning is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, a gay rights activist, and the first and only openly gay person allowed to remain on active duty in the military prior to the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
56
Licostie 2014 USA 80 min
In the 1980s and ’90s, as AIDS ravaged the gay community in San Francisco and other cities across the United States, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was born out of a public battle for treatment and understanding. This documentary traces the quilt’s history as an international art project and the role it continues to play as a response to a disease that still imperils vulnerable communities around the world. From its early days in a storefront on Market Street to its widely publicized journey to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the quilt grew from a makeshift memorial into a national symbol. It came to represent the scope of the impact that AIDS was having on American society. It also served as a call to action to care for those affected by the disease and to devote research and resources to combating it. Featuring archival footage and extensive interviews with the project’s founder, Cleve Jones, as well as other early volunteers and panel-makers, the film takes a poignant look at this seminal chapter of the campaign for awareness of HIV/AIDS well beyond the gay community. Though there has been no shortage of documentaries turning a lens on the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic, director Nadine Licostie broadens the scope in this examination of the past — and the lesseracknowledged present — of this ravaging disease to ask a question: Why are we still diagnosing people at alarming rates? — MICHAEL J. LOPRESTI
Meyerson 2013 USA 52 min
In 1978, Dr. Ronni Sanlo came out and got divorced. But this was in Florida, home of Anita Bryant and her “Save Our Children from Homosexuality” campaign. In this repressive environment, Ronni’s ex-husband and his Christian fundamentalist parents ensured that she lost custody of her two young kids. This loss turned Sanlo into an activist overnight. Remaining in Florida to be near her kids, Sanlo helped defeat the Bush-Trask amendment, which denied state funding to higher education institutions that supported gay student groups. She provided HIV/AIDS support services and care during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Meanwhile, Sanlo’s kids were being raised to be homophobic and AIDS-phobic. They broke contact with their mom. Later, Sanlo formed the nation’s first LGBT Campus Resource Centers at University of Michigan and UCLA. Finally reunited with her own grown children, Sanlo explains her journey in a letter written to her former nemesis, Anita Bryant (narrated in the film by Meredith Baxter), for whom she finds forgiveness and gratitude. Andrea Meyerson, who has documented outstanding performers from Kate Clinton to Bruce Vilanch in her Laughing Matters series, delivers another intimate, stirring film. — CAROL HARADA PRECEDED BY:
Living in the Overlap DIR
Mary M. Dalton & Cindy Hill 2013 USA 26 min
For more than 40 years, Lennie and Pearl have shared a passion for social justice and for each other. Now, the indelible spark of their love inspires many others as they fight for their right to marry in North Carolina.
Friday June 27, 1:30 pm · Castro
Friday June 27, 11:00 am · Castro
Sunday June 22, 11:00 am · Roxie
$8 members, $10 general · LADY27C
$8 members, $10 general · LAST27C
$8 members, $10 general · LETT22R
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
docs
Limited Partnership
Mentor
DIR Thomas
DIR Alix
G. Miller 2014 Australia 74 mins
Filipino American Richard Adams and Australian Tony Sullivan met in 1971 at a Los Angeles bar called The Closet, fell in love, and spent the next 40 years fighting the system in order to stay together. In 1975 they became one of the first same-sex couples to be legally married— and the first to be denied legal immigration status. Long before the current battle over same-sex marriage was even a twinkle in a modern gay activist’s eye, Richard and Tony were boldly suing the U.S. government for the right to be married, and then for the right to have that marriage recognized so Tony could get a green card and not be deported. But in the age of Anita Bryant, the backlash to their love-story-turned-legal-challenge proved to be something fierce. First came an utterly shocking response from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, then an unexpected outpouring of hate and bigotry from the general public, and then the ludicrous choice to either live apart or leave the country together (of course, they had to choose the latter — but with great consequence). Director Thomas G. Miller takes us back and forth through the decades with this pioneering and persistent bi-national couple, two unsung heroes who paved the way for the eventual defeat of DOMA. — JOANNE PARSONT
Mondo Homo: A Study of French Gay Porn in the ’70s
Lambert 2013 USA 78 min
A town with an ironic name promotes the American dream but cannot escape its shadow—school bullying of children perceived as different. Mentor, Ohio, is largely white, largely upper middle class, and listed as one of the “Top 100 Places to Live in the United States.” Its attraction for immigrants and others proves to be a deadly illusion. The Vidovics swap the perils of war in Bosnia for trying to fit in to this culture of conformity. Their daughter Sladjana endures constant bullying from 8th grade on. Kids make fun of her name, her Croatian accent, her clothes, and her perceived queerness. She suffers nightly death threats and daily physical abuse. The Vidovics seek help from the school — principals, counselors, nurses, security guards, and the police all systematically fail to stop the bullying or create a safer environment. No abuser is held accountable. Sladjana hangs herself at 16. Another victim of this bullying, Eric Mohat does not tell his parents of his daily physical abuse, being called “fag” and “queer” at school. Eric is finally taunted into killing himself at 17. The Vidovics and Mohats both sue the school district, which pursues a policy of denial, destroys evidence, and willfully refuses to address bullying at all. At its heart, the documentary poses a harrowing question: What tragedies will some endure to maintain the status quo, and what risks must we take to reclaim the future of a community in conflict? — CAROL HARADA
This film contains depictions of homophobic violence.
DIR Hervé Joseph Lebrun 2013 France 110 min In French with English subtitles
Calling all homo- and Francophiles! Bask in the bigscreen glory (holes) of très sophistiqué adult entertainment produced in the City of Light during the bygone era of bushy pubes and pre-condom abandon. Mondo Homo is a sexy and sweetly nostalgic ode to the wonderfully artistic and filthy gay porn films made in France by a cadre of horned-up directors some forty years ago, when every innocent visit to the proctologist’s office led to an entirely different sort of exam. Wild fantasy scenarios of all sorts propelled the imaginations of trailblazing filmmakers, who fondly recall their hot and heavy productions and the sweaty atmosphere of the underground cinemas where their crude masterpieces — films such as Young Prey for Bad Boys and Hand Balling — delighted mustachioed viewers eager to see their sexuality celebrated on screen. Shooting outdoors and on location, these porn provocateurs took their cues from the Nouvelle Vague masters, as well as their country’s guiding principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, helping to kick off the gay liberation movement while introducing audiences to water sports, facials, and fisting (in a scene rejected by censors as “an affront to human decency”). At once a fascinating look back at an important chapter in gay porn history and a total turn-on with its archival clips of orgiastic writhings among big bears, leather daddies, and tender hooligans, Mondo Homo is essential viewing— and the ’70s music is delicious fromage. — STEVEN JENKINS
This film contains sexually explicit material.
Thursday June 26, 1:45 pm · Castro
Tuesday June 24, 3:45 pm · Castro
Wednesday June 25, 9:30 pm · Victoria
$8 members, $10 general · LIMI26C
$8 members, $10 general · MENT24C
$10 members, $12 general · MOND25V
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
57
docs
Off Road Fuoristrada DIR Elisa Amoruso, 2013, Italy, 68 min In Italian with English subtitles
A mechanic by trade and an off-road racing champion in his free time, Pino might sound like your average middle-aged working-class Italian man. But there is something very different about Pino: it’s the fact that Pino has decided to live life as a woman named Beatrice. With bright red lipstick, a short blonde bob, an oilstained pink top, and a stocky build, Beatrice certainly stands out in her community. Not long after transitioning, Beatrice meets Marianna, a Romanian nurse caring for Beatrice’s elderly mother. The two fall in love, get married in Rome (both in wedding gowns), and begin their own unique family, which includes Marianna’s teenage son and their adorable Rottweiler. Honored at the Rome Film Fest in 2013, Elisa Amoruso’s intimate, beautifully lensed documentary goes beyond offering a portrait of “the new normal.” It shows the struggles and questions particular to this remarkable family, in addition to proving that the cornerstone of any successful family is love and acceptance — no matter how the family is built. — JOE BOWMAN PRECEDED BY:
Luigi e Vincenzo DIR
Giuseppe Bucci 2013 Italy 5 min
An aging gay couple in Italy struggle with exposing their love for each other, despite the changing times. But even as acceptance becomes more commonplace, Luigi and Vincenzo know we still have a long way to go.
Out in East Berlin — Lesbians & Gays in the GDR Out in Ost-Berlin— Lesben und Schwule in der DDR
Out in the Line-Up: Uncovering the Taboo of Homosexuality in Surfing
DIRS Jochen Hick & Andreas Strohfeldt 2013 Germany 98 min in German and English with English subtitles
Surfers have a well-earned reputation for independence and cheeky iconoclasm. So it’s a paradox that the professional surfing world has remained a confining closet for gay men and lesbians who surf. This actionpacked documentary introduces us to a growing cadre of bold athletes who dare to be “out in the line-up.” The film charts the friendship of Australian state champion Dave Wakefield, whose gradual professional coming out is chronicled in the film, and Thomas Castets, the founder of Gaysurfers.net. They bring their boards and cameras to the great beaches of the world, meeting with pro and amateur surfers, including threetime World Surfing Champion Cori Schumacher; her wife, Maria Cerda; surfing photographer Jim Ready; and his husband, Rep. Barney Frank—all of whom candidly discuss the challenges of being an outsider in a tightknit surfing community. Many are struggling to change the persistent surf-world stereotypes (macho dudes/ hot babes) perpetuated by surfing authorities and sponsors. This documentary features terrific surfing cinematography, plenty of sun-drenched bodies and a great surf-rock soundtrack. But the real appeal is the athletes: their passion is infectious.
The politics, passion, and personal toll of coming out in East Berlin are captured in this illuminating documentary about love and identity behind the Iron Curtain. Filmmakers Jochen Hick and Andreas Strohfeldt focus on the powerful stories of thirteen East Berliners who came to terms with their sexuality in a country controlled by a single-party government, where spying was a part of daily life and an attempt to escape could be deadly. In the GDR’s strict ideological world, dedicated in theory to equality for all, homophobia lay just under the surface of mainstream society. Combining provocative, emotionally charged interviews with amazing archival discoveries, Out in East Berlin paints a full picture of an era, a place, and the people who lived through an emotional roller coaster of life-changing politics. Despite the intense subject and attention to historical context, the film captures the inspirational energy that comes when marginalized people are motivated to create a movement that matters. Each voice featured in the film comes with a unique perspective, but it’s the human experience that binds them together, creating a remarkable documentary about dangerous love in an authoritarian state, and finding your place in the world against all odds. — BRENDAN PETERSON
DIR Ian
W. Thomson 2014 Australia 69 min
— MARCUS WONACOTT PRECEDED BY:
Clan DIR
Larissa Behrendt 2014 Australia 8 min
This documentary short is a poetic and gorgeously shot first-person testimonial of coming out, told by an indigenous Australian rugby player.
58
Monday June 23, 11:00 am · Castro
Thursday June 26, 7:00 pm · Victoria
Friday June 27, 7:00 pm · Victoria
$8 members, $10 general · OFFR23C
$10 members, $12 general · OUBE26V
$10 members, $12 general · OULI27V
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
docs
Purple Skies: Voices of Indian Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transmen DIR Sridhar Rangayan
2013 India 67 min
This upbeat documentary details the advocacy work of two wonderful Indian organizations: Sangini, the first helpline for lesbians, begun in 1997 by the indomitable activist Betu Singh, and Umang, an LGBT support group based in Mumbai. Leaders from both groups talk about how they have sheltered LGBT people from angry families and police and then appeared before magistrates with them to argue successfully for fair treatment and release. This persecution is an effect of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which since its 19th-century British colonial origins has made “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” a crime carrying a life sentence. LGBT people danced in the streets in July 2009, when that law was declared unconstitutional. But four years later that judgment was overturned — and the law remains in effect. Perhaps the most heartening thing this film does is to tell us the many stories of ordinary Indians who, empowered by the brief death of Section 377, vowed never to return to the closet, even when the ruling was reinstated. Happily for everyone, that prospect seems within reach, with the Supreme Court of India’s recent official recognition of transgender people as “also citizens of India” deserving “equal opportunity to grow.” — FRAKO LODEN PRECEDED BY:
FU377 DIR
Neelu Bhuman 2014 UK 5 min
An Indian mother and her queer daughter spring into action due to the Indian Supreme Court’s recriminalizing of “gay sex.”
Regarding Susan Sontag
Songs for Alexis
DIR Nancy
DIR Elvira
Kates 2014 USA 100 min
Nancy Kates’s new documentary on America’s most glamorous public intellectual takes us on a breathtaking tour through Sontag’s life, using a treasure trove of archival material, contextualized by commentary from a cast of Sontag scholars, friends, relatives, and lovers. An iconic writer, filmmaker, professor, and political activist, Sontag accomplished more in one lifetime than most of us might in three. “I was in a hurry to grow up,” she tells an interviewer, explaining why she entered college at sixteen and had married, given birth, and divorced by the age of 25. She doesn’t mention how busy she really was; she combined classes at Berkeley with a thorough exploration of San Francisco’s gay scene under the guidance of her first lover, Harriet Sohmers Zwerling. As they toured North Beach bars, Sontag copied gay slang into her notebook: this was a woman whose mind never stopped working. Kates (Brother Outsider) fills the screen with images of Sontag, who constantly engaged the camera in photos, in interviews, and even in a French art film. As this profile vividly documents, despite her metamorphoses from novelist to essayist to filmmaker and from faculty wife to lesbian pinup, Sontag remained, inimitably, Susan Sontag.
Lind 2014 Denmark 75 min
When director Elvira Lind introduces us to Ryan Cassata, he is comfortably displaying scars on his bare chest. A transgender 18-year-old living in the suburbs of Long Island with his highly supportive single mother and two brothers, Ryan has known— and owned— his sexual identity since he was twelve. Ryan is also an aspiring singer-songwriter and an incorrigible romantic. The beneficiary of his love— and of his many love songs— is 16-year-old Alexis, a girl from California he met at a summer camp in San Francisco. Despite the distance between their homes, the young lovers sustain a deep connection and a passionate relationship both in person and online. When their love affair is threatened by Alexis’s father’s hostile disapproval of Ryan and the potential legal ramifications of their age difference, difficult choices will need to be made. This endearing coming-of-age documentary is told in an unobtrusive but remarkably intimate manner by a filmmaker whose presence is never felt but whose skillfulness is evident in every frame. The result is a touching love story told as the subjects have chosen to tell it— much as they ultimately choose how to live their lives and with whom. — JOANNE PARSONT
— MONICA NOLAN PRECEDED BY:
David Hockney IN THE NOW (in six minutes). DIR
Lucy Walker 2014 USA 6 min
A quick romp through the life and work of artist David Hockney, filled with sun-splashed imagery, fun archival clips of poolside nudity, and an explosion of color. Wednesday June 25, 7:00 pm · Victoria
PRECEDED BY:
Under Ground DIR Sha Huang 2013 China, USA 14 min in Mandarin with English subtitles
Xuan, a talented young Chinese musician who lives in NYC, dreams of touring the world as an indie-rock star — not only because she loves music, but also because she feels it is the only way she can reveal her relationship to her family.
$10 members, $12 general · REGA25V
Saturday June 21, 11:00 am · Roxie
Thursday June 26, 7:00 pm · Elmwood
Saturday June 28, 11:00 am · Victoria
$8 members, $10 general · PURP21R
$10 members, $12 general · REGA26E
$8 members, $10 general · SONG28V
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
59
docs
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People DIR Thomas
Allen Harris 2014 USA 92 min
Images do much more than illustrate and inform. They represent. This film spans a century and a half in the forgotten annals of African American photography; in it, filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris poignantly illuminates the disparity between two distinct views of black life and culture. Through a treasure trove of sublime, mostly black-and-white portraits from family albums and black newspapers, Harris etches a picture of dignified everyday life that contrasts starkly with the pandering stereotypes and racist propaganda circulated by the mainstream press. This visually stunning and extraordinarily ambitious documentary is an excavation and reclamation project of the first order. Harris (Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela) lovingly honors the contributions and legacy of black photographers such as James VanDerZee, Roy DeCarava, and Gordon Parks — whose constant aim was “to expose something to the public that I thought was hidden” — while making space for contemporary artists like Deborah Willis, Carrie Mae Weems, and Clarissa Sligh. The filmmaker’s coolly passionate narration threads through the film, posing complex questions about identity, equality, and place. Harris pauses to acknowledge the people who have often been omitted from African American family albums, namely lesbian and gay children and siblings. Ultimately, his goal is to restore every African American to the center of the frame, whether it’s Frederick Douglass or an unnamed Harlem shopkeeper.
Violette Leduc: In Pursuit of Love DIR Esther Hoffenberg 2014 France 57 min In French with English subtitles
In 1964, Violette Leduc’s taboo-breaking memoir, The Bastard, became an enormous literary success in France. After decades of toiling in obscurity, the outsider writer, who would go on to publish the lesbian classic Therese and Isabelle, had finally earned some long-sought recognition. Director Esther Hoffenberg uses archival footage, interviews with friends and scholars, and the author’s own words to convey the impact of Leduc’s books and sketch the controversial woman behind them. There is no question that Leduc was a difficult person (see this year’s fabulous biopic Violette, page 49, if you have any doubts). She confesses to an interviewer constant feelings of persecution, and she was, in fact, briefly confined to a clinic due to supposed paranoiac tendencies. Was she truly unbalanced, or was societal prejudice against a woman who aggressively demanded her due the deciding factor? As one scholar notes, a literary double standard hindered Leduc’s career. Publisher Gallimard had no problem with the erotic work of Jean Genet but insisted that Leduc cut a lesbian episode and a graphic account of an abortion from one of her books. Small wonder that when asked to define “indecency” she replies promptly, “Hypocrisy.” With this film, viewers have a rare opportunity to rediscover the work of one of lesbian literature’s giants. — MONICA NOLAN
— MICHAEL FOX
60
Saturday June 21, 1:30 pm · Victoria
Tuesday June 24, 11:00 am · Castro
$8 members, $10 general · THRO21V
$8 members, $10 general · VIOL24C
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
sho rts
shorts
Bi Candy: Bisexual Short Cinema Why isn’t sex ever truly simple? Or relationships for that matter? Is it because we can never truly understand what goes on in someone else’s body or mind? In the animated short Simple, everyone seems to know what (and who) they want, yet reciprocation remains an endless challenge. Past and present coincide in Lilies, when a chance meeting reveals a love story as intricate as origami. In Deadweight and Balloons, a married woman explores the limits of what a colleague’s pep talk might include, while a sexual practice session between two young men has its own rewards in the Swedish dramedy Boygame. In a flash of color and beauty from Senegal, The Other Woman reveals some unforeseen risks of bringing another woman into the home. Desire fragments and reshapes reality in The Kiss, locking Emilia and Matylda in a fraught embrace as they try to find out the truth about last night. This international program of shorts traverses the hetero-homo divide in brave, shocking, and hilarious ways. — CURATED BY ALLEGRA AND APRIL HIRSCHMAN
SIMPLE (EINFACH) dir Markus Wende 2013 Germany 2 min LILIES dir Yudho Aditya 2014 USA 7 min DEADWEIGHT AND BALLOONS dir Jack Dyball 2013 Australia 7 min BOYGAME dir Anna Österlund Nolskog 2012 Sweden 14 min in Swedish with English subtitles THE OTHER WOMAN (L’AUTRE FEMME) dir Marie Ka 2013 Senegal 12 min in French with English subtitles THE KISS dir Filip Gieldon 2013 Poland 21 min in Polish with English subtitles TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 63 min
Creatures of the Night: Queer Horror Shorts The full moon rises, a comet streaks across the sky, and dark shadows stir in this wicked program of short films. Aussie short Swallow finds homophobic neighbors knocking to see what the “poofters” are up to. Unfortunately for them, these boys have a secret, and it’s that time of the month! On the night of a rare comet, tortured tomboy Morgan is given a second chance to resolve her guilt and finally express her true feelings for Olivia in The Night Is Ours. In the hilarious Out, a young vampire returns home to come out of the coffin to his parents. Set in an apartment building overrun by zombies, Goodnight My Love finds a dyke couple hiding in a laundry room, spending what may be their final moments doing what any self-respecting lesbians would do. Candy Cravings is a twisted romance about a young woman in therapy to work through her very unusual eating desires. YOLO is an intoxicating, stylized Danish treat of a lesbian vampire film. And a high school senior overcomes his emotional dysfunction and self-esteem issues when he unwittingly meets Dragula—played by Rocky Horror Picture Show legend Barry Bostwick! — DESIREE BUFORD
SWALLOW dir Mia’kate Russell 2013 Australia 9 min THE NIGHT IS OURS dir Aubree Bernier-Clarke 2013 USA 18 min OUT (HORS) dir Jeremy LaLonde 2013 Canada 9 min GOODNIGHT MY LOVE dir Kellee Terrell 2013 USA 11 min CANDY CRAVINGS dir Sebastian Bertoli 2013 Finland, Australia 7 min YOLO (LÆKRE TIL VI DØR) dir Marie Grahtø Sørensen 2013 Denmark 22 min in Danish with English subtitles DRAGULA dir Frank Meli 2013 USA 24 min TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 100 min
Wednesday June 25, 7:00 pm · Roxie
Friday June 27, 9:30 pm · Victoria
$10 members, $12 general · BICA25R
$10 members, $12 general · CREA27V
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
61
shorts
Facing Fear
Fun in Boys Shorts
Fun in Girls Shorts
This intensely moving program of shorts delves bravely into the ways in which people face their fears, and how this act can be a source of liberation and forgiveness. In a bid to find true love at age 32, 420-pound Stavros enters the Mr. Gay UK beauty pageant — and things don’t go as anyone plans— in Being Stavros. An aging author faces the impossible task of moving on and finding peace in the wake of a devastating loss in A Last Farewell. Exiting a midnight showing of The Wiz, a black gay male couple argues about the degree of “outness” in their relationship. When they are suddenly attacked, the tables get turned in a beautifully shot examination of homophobia, The Bash. In Brace— a gritty, contemporary, romantic drama set in London — Adam meets Rocky, a handsome and mysterious drifter. Silence abounds until one explosive night changes everything. A ten-year-old tomboy grapples with her loyalty to her trusted older brother and the need to stand up for herself in Bombshell. And in Facing Fear, an Oscar®nominated short documentary, the worlds of a former neo-Nazi and the gay victim of his senseless hate crime collide by chance 25 years later.
Nothing is sacred and everything is hilarious in these sparkling comic gems, which spoof everything from YouTube videos and online hookups to Harry Potter fanboys and self-absorbed gay-oisie. In Safe Word, a bored couple tries to spice up their sex life with role play that goes a bit too far. In Trunk, an Australian college lad visits home and is beset by a loud unwelcome guest. Back in the USA, a manhunt in the neighborhood wreaks havoc with Kenton’s Sex Date. If you miss the merchandising ads from Saturday morning TV, you’ll love Cruising Electric (1980), a commercial parody. In Slash, a precocious 13-year-old boy posts unusual literary twists on Harry Potter and Star Trek and develops a decidedly more adult online fan base. Think your friends are shallow? Wait till you meet the pair of insufferable LA narcissists who complain about the world in The Disgustings. Hailing from Austria, MeTube: August Sings Carmen ‘Habanera’ pays affectionate, goofy homage to the legions of diva wannabes who upload homemade videos. And a neurotic Manhattanite finds his intimate birthday party turning into a comic nightmare in Dinner at 40.
Disaster kit–loving dykes, the joys of gay divorce, and lesbian vampires are all part of this year’s side-splitting and sexy collection of queer women’s shorts! First Clue offers insight into our earliest intuitions. Two women check into a hotel on their Dream Date. In Disaster Preparedness, a hurricane places a couple at the crossroads of commitment, disaster, and the art of being prepared. Two women learn after their One Night Stand that, sometimes, you get more than you bargained for. The language of love does not need to be heard for two women to connect in What’s Your Sign? Stop Calling Me Honey Bunny asks what happens when a couple that once shagged like bunnies find themselves in a routine. A Hollywood starlet finds her way into a stranger’s arms in Her with Me. Marisa Tomei and Elodie Bouchez are two lesbians on the brink of a divorce, while Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) makes matters even more hilarious in She Said, She Said. It’s one hell of a night in YOLO as three friends mix friendship with lust in this lesbian vampire film!
— KEVIN SCHAUB
— PETER L. STEIN
BEING STAVROS dir Jonothan McLeod 2013 UK 10 min A LAST FAREWELL dir Casper Andreas 2013 Sweden 12 min in Swedish with English subtitles THE BASH dir Tyson Fitzgerald 2013 USA 6 min BRACE dir Sophy Holland 2013 UK 25 min BOMBSHELL dir Erin Sanger 2013 USA 14 min FACING FEAR dir Jason Cohen 2013 USA 22 min TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 89 min
This program contains scenes of homophobic violence.
62
SAFE WORD dir Todd Lillethun 2014 USA 15 min TRUNK dir Jack Taylor Cox 2013 Australia 12 min SEX DATE dir John Sobrack 2014 USA 15 min CRUISING ELECTRIC (1980) dir Brumby Boylston 2013 USA 2 min SLASH dir Clay Liford 2012 USA 9 min THE DISGUSTINGS dir Jordan Firstman 2013 USA 12 min METUBE: AUGUST SINGS CARMEN ‘HABANERA’ dir Daniel Moshel 2013 Austria 4 min DINNER AT 40 dir Carl Byrd 2014 USA 18 min TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 87 min
— DESIREE BUFORD
FIRST CLUE dir Susan Sullivan 2014 USA 6 min DREAM DATE dirs Andromeda Godfrey, Diana Juhr-De Benedetti 2012 UK 3 min DISASTER PREPAREDNESS dir Melissa Finell 2014 USA 14 min ONE NIGHT STAND dir Ryan Logan 2013 USA 5 min WHAT’S YOUR SIGN? dirs Rebby Kern, Reese Mortis, Alex Siow 2013 USA 6 min STOP CALLING ME HONEY BUNNY dir Gabrielle Zilkha 2013 Canada 11 min HER WITH ME dir Alyssa Pankiw 2013 Canada 13 min SHE SAID, SHE SAID dir Stuart Blumberg 2013 USA 7 min YOLO (LÆKRE TIL VI DØR) dir Marie Grahtø Sørensen 2013 Denmark 22 min in Danish with English subtitles TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 87 min
Saturday June 21, 11:00 am · Castro
Saturday June 21, 1:45 pm · Castro
$8 members, $10 general · FIBS21C
$8 members, $10 general · FIGS21C
Monday June 23, 3:30 pm · Castro
Sunday June 29, 1:30 pm · Castro
Sunday June 29, 11:00 am · Castro
$8 members, $10 general · FACI23C
$8 members, $10 general · FIBS29C
$8 members, $10 general · FIGS29C
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
shorts
The Gem People How does one survive an encounter with death, a silent men’s retreat, or an evening at T.G.I. Friday’s? Watch and learn. These playful and intelligent films experiment with visual and narrative techniques to deliver more than just a script. Enter the realm of The Gem People, a world fraught with cringe-worthy empathy, magic, sex, and social media gone awry. In Ahogo-Ice Cream, a woman falls desperately in lust with her ice cream bar. Grab a spoon! A Ugandan priest wrestles with his conscience in the award-winning Priest, which combines elements of magical realism and intimate close-ups. Meet Gary, a disillusioned queen obsessed with status and “quality of life,” in Together People, shot on 16mm. Death strikes a hard bargain in Brute, a lesbian retelling of an Iranian epic. Burn your bra, put away your beehive hairdo, and learn some real fashion from The Gem Sisters. Laugh out loud with the original music video Social Networks (Make Me Feel Sh*t Sometimes). The Gem People delivers all this and more in ten dynamic short films! — KOLMEL WITHLOVE
This program contains graphic sexual content.
Generations: Youth and Elders Making Movies This yearly program highlights films created in Frameline and TILT’s local Generations Film Workshop, as well as five other films featuring the powerful voices of youth and elders across the country. In Pepper, a fabulous female impersonator happens upon an eightyear-old, and the chance meeting triggers an unlikely friendship. Makeup and makeovers, along with petty theft, lead to an identity crisis for a young black butch with a crush in Whitewash. Nine-year-old George is an outcast with a penchant for secrecy but finds an ally in a reclusive neighbor, in the winning Wini + George. Teen activists, local heroes, and filmmaker Phil Siegel explore recent history in the third part of Siegel’s vivid documentary series Coming Out in the 1970s. Two girls work through a crisis in their friendship in Overflow. A young man seeking connection through Internet dating confronts his own unrealistic standards in Perfect Match. Three lost San Franciscans combat a tech worker in search of space in Dolores Park in The Bench. And BART: Building Art, Redefining Tolerance explores how performance arts are essential to building community in the Bay Area.
Get Animated! Jimmy Carter, Chelsea Manning, lesbian penguins, and two rabbits named Tord share the spotlight in an animation program for adults that is as wild as it is poetic. A child inspires the monster under his bed in the delightful Bendik & the Monster. The guitar-fueled Happy Toilet delivers a “cheeky dose” of raunch, and a couple exchange body parts, making finite possibilities anything but, in the sexy and charming Beyond the Mirror’s Gaze. Identity and politics blend in the poignant Bradley Manning Had Secrets and in a very vibrant retelling of a peanut farmer’s rise to fame, Jimmy Carter! Welcome to a land of super-hip moms, demeaning social networks, and a colony of penguins in real need of a lesson. Scratch your head. Shed a tear. Split your side. It’s one wild ride. — KOLMEL WITHLOVE
SOCIAL NETWORKS (MAKE ME FEEL SH*T SOMETIMES) dir Kate Moross 2013 USA 3min BEYOND THE MIRROR’S GAZE dir Iris Moore 2013 Canada 4 min BREED dir Stanton Cameron 2013 USA 3 min THE EGG dir Tonnette Stanford 2013 Australia 10 min HAPPY TOILET dir Lark Buckingham 2013 USA 3 min SIMPLE (EINFACH) dir Markus Wende 2013 Germany 2 min WE SHOULD HAVE COFFEE SOMETIME dir Lane Stroud 2013 USA 6 min BRADLEY MANNING HAD SECRETS dir Adam Butcher 2011 UK 5 min BENDIK & THE MONSTER dir Frank Mosvold 2014 Norway 10min in Norwegian with English subtitles TEAGAN dir Sheldon Lieberman, Igor Coric 2013 Australia 3 min JIMMY CARTER! dir Julian Modugno 2010 USA 4 min FU377 dir Neelu Bhuman 2014 UK 5 min TORD AND TORD dir Niki Lindroth von Bahr 2010 Sweden 10 min in Swedish with English subtitles TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 68 min
AHOGO-ICE CREAM dir Alisa Goddess 2013 Russia 3 min In Russian with English subtitles CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ dir Adriann Ramirez 2013 USA 5 min BRUTE dir Navid Sinaki 2013 USA 5min PLACES I CAN NEVER GO BACK TO dir Craig Love 2014 USA 10 min THE GEM SISTERS dirs Mike Bailey-Gates, Claire Christerson 2014 USA 3 min PRIEST dir Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine 2013 Uganda 7 min LATS YERK dirs Siobhan Aluvalot & Anna Luisa Petrisko 2011 USA 3 min SO X dir Xavier MTW 2014 USA 6 min SOCIAL NETWORKS (MAKE ME FEEL SH*T SOMETIMES) dir Kate Moross 2013 USA 3 min TOGETHER PEOPLE dir Gary Fembot 2012 USA 24 min TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 69 min
PEPPER dir Marc Cleary 2014 USA 18 min WHITEWASH dir Evan Roberts 2013 USA 9 min WINI + GEORGE dir Ben Monie 2014 USA 12 min COMING OUT IN THE 1970S dir Phil Siegel 2014 USA 15 min OVERFLOW dir Ruby Drake 2014 USA 8 min PERFECT MATCH dirs José Angel Cital, Markley Morris, Tim Pennypacker, Joe Tham, instructor: Matthew Perifano, 2014 USA 8 min THE BENCH dirs Haley DerManouelian, Rosie Katz, Bo Brown, instructor: Jason Boyce 2014 USA 8 min BART: BUILDING ART, REDEFINING TOLERANCE dirs Jordan Green, Catherine Ragazzi, Irene Tu, Scott Jarvis, instructor: Bernadette Montez 2014 USA 8 min TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 85 min
Sunday June 22, 9:00 pm · Roxie
Sunday June 22, 4:00 pm · Roxie
Saturday June 21, 4:00 pm · Roxie
$10 members, $12 general · GEMP22R
$8 members, $10 general · GENE22R
$8 members, $10 general · GETA21R
This program contains graphic sexual content.
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
63
shorts
Homegrown
In the City of Shy Hunters
Local Legends
From first love to the fight for fair housing, this program is an upbeat look at what lingers in the hearts, minds, and pants of the people who proudly call the SF Bay Area their home. Closeted teens outdo themselves in attempt to land a date to the prom in Mission ImPROMable. Lesbians reminisce about their first crushes in First Clue. Teenagers investigate the mysterious disappearance of their librarian in Miss Finknagle Succumbs to Chaos. To avoid rejection, a young woman shares her struggles with anxiety in Truth About Love and Panic. Filmmakers take a “loving” twist on beloved musicians in the sexy Puppy Love and in Dunkin Love. A young boy dreams of becoming a Filipina princess, much to the chagrin of his father, in Prinsesa. A whip-brandishing toilet has a tale to tell in the action-packed music video Happy Toilet. And the program concludes with the intelligent and moving documentary Housing First, inspired by the discovery that the LGBTQ community is disproportionately affected by San Francisco’s current housing crisis.
This handsome collection of shorts puts transguys front and center. From seemingly familiar greetings and unfamiliar goodbyes, to finding empowerment through embodiment, to sci-fi ruminations on self and society, these shorts highlight bravely authentic, resilient, and self-defined men. In Who Do You Think You Are, Arnaud thinks that being recognized by his ex-girlfriend should be possible. Jo slowly comes to grips with having to take the test he has been dreading. Faced with the prejudices of the receptionist, other patients, and his doctor, he braves the most invasive medical exam of his life. MyMy is an awesome Aussie experimental sci-fi short about a young transguy who makes himself a cyborg twin. In the beautiful Lit, queer twentysomethings Eva and Jessie (performance artist D’Lo) meet at a bar at last call and embark on a late-night odyssey around San Francisco. Cheryl Dunye’s provocative Black Is Blue is a look at a stealth security guard who has struggled to make his insides match his outside. A dystopic tale of gender enforcement set in a not-toodistant future, Elliot King Is Third is a sci-fi exploration of a society in which identity microchips are implanted into humans. Elliot wants to try to change his identity to live a safer life, but can he?
Bambi Lake, Heklina, Mr. Pam, Phatima Rude, and Jason Mecier. You may know these names, but do you know their stories? Join us in celebration of these local legends as the artists share stories about their lives that are raw, brave, entertaining, and above all else, inspiring. Notorious transsexual chanteuse Bambi Lake takes us on a stroll down pre-AIDS 1970s Polk Street in Silas Howard’s new film Sticks and Stones. Sit back and enjoy the lively self-titled Heklina, sharing a life in and beyond the hair and that LAUGH. Wham, Bam, Mr. Pam, follows Mr. Pam, the extremely successful female videographer of gay male porn, from her days as a Catholic schoolgirl to her work editing fisting films. A pioneer of the alternative queer punk drag scene, Phatima Rude shares brave stories both past and present in Paul King’s intimate and unflinching Ladies and Gentlemen: Phatima Rude. The program ends with a sweet surprise in Eye Candy, a look at the beloved Jason Mecier, a fine artist fashioning famous likenesses from Tina Fey to Phyllis Diller out of everything from old toothbrushes to turkey basters. Amid a changing city climate, Local Legends reminds us of the artists who helped sculpt San Francisco into the dynamic place we call home.
— DESIREE BUFORD
— KOLMEL WITHLOVE
— KOLMEL WITHLOVE
MISSION IMPROMABLE dir Clio Gevirtz 2013 USA 5 min FIRST CLUE dir Susan Sullivan 2014 USA 6 min MISS FINKNAGLE SUCCUMBS TO CHAOS dir Amy Harrison 2013 USA 9 min TRUTH ABOUT LOVE AND PANIC Angie Powers 2014 USA 12 min DUNKIN LOVE dir Adrian Anchondo 2013 USA 5 min PUPPY LOVE dir Aron Kantor 2013 USA 3 min PRINSESA dir Drew Stephens 2014 USA 12 min HAPPY TOILET dir Lark Buckingham 2013 USA 3 min HOUSING FIRST dir John Smathers 2013 USA 22 min TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 77 min
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE (FAIS PAS GENRE) dir Marie Loustalot 2013 France, Germany 8 min in French with English subtitles JO dir April Wilson 2013 USA 6 min MYMY dir Anna Helme 2014 Australia 15 min LIT dir Elena Oxman 2014 USA 13 min BLACK IS BLUE Cheryl Dunye 2014 USA 21 min ELLIOT KING IS THIRD dir Rose Troche 2012 USA 19 min TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 82 min
STICKS & STONES dir Silas Howard 2014 USA 14 min HEKLINA dir Brian Favorite 2013 USA 15 min WHAM, BAM, MR. PAM dir Nicolas Kazamia 2014 USA 25 min LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: PHATIMA RUDE dir Paul King 2014 USA 24 min EYE CANDY dir Alexis Spraic 2013 USA 10 min TOTAL RUNNNING TIME : 88 min
This program contains depictions of transphobic violence.
Sticks & Stones was a recipient of a Frameline Completion grant.
Sunday June 22, 11:00 am · Victoria
Thursday June 26, 7:00 pm · Roxie
Tuesday June 24, 9:30 pm · Victoria
$8 members, $10 general · HOME22V
$10 members, $12 general · INTH26R
$10 members, $12 general · LOCA24V
SPONSORED BY
64
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
This program contains graphic sexual content.
SPONSORED BY
shorts
Pussy vs. Putin
SP●TLIGHT RUSSIA
This bracing three-film program, part of Frameline38’s spotlight on Russian LGBT cinema, brings together the funny, fresh, and bold voices of women on the cutting — and sometimes bleeding — edge of free expression in Putin’s Russia. In The Beginning, a comic short, the setting is Moscow 2012, and nobody is out. In a brash web series billed as “the Russian L-Word,” we follow the very out lives and loves of women who cross paths at a bar. It was originally intended for Russian TV but never broadcast. Finally, the new documentary Pussy vs. Putin is a fascinating eyewitness chronicle of Russia’s feminist rock performance/activist group Pussy Riot before and after the 2013 arrest and imprisonment of three of their members for hooliganism. Cellphone cameras accompany the group into rehearsals, protests, and even into jail cells, bearing witness to the fierce condemnation they faced not only at the hands of security police but by legions of counter-protesters. (Supportive acts shown by Madonna and Faith No More pale by comparison.) This observational film lets audiences come to their own conclusions about the meaning and potency of Pussy Riot’s actions, though the ferocity of the backlashes against them — from state, church and lay opposition—leaves little doubt about what they are protesting. — PETER L. STEIN & KOLMEL WITHLOVE
THE BEGINNING dir Eleonora Zbanke 2012 Russia 6 min LESBIAN WEBISODE 2013 Russia 30 min PUSSY VS. PUTIN dir Gogol’s Wives 2014 Russia 59 min All films are in Russian with English subtitles. TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 95 min
Realness & Revelations
Shadows & Secrets
From taboo-smashing LA homeboys with hearts of gold to brown girls navigating coming out, this collection of shorts features QTPOC folks keeping it real with fierce love and surprising truths. Redefining philanthropy, Rad Queers: Payasos L.A. offers an intimate glimpse into a group of gay Latino men who wear clown make-up, go-go dance at leather bars, and try to make the world a better place. Secrets & Toys is a sexy, delightful short film about a mother and daughter who discover each other’s secrets through a comedy of errors. Happy Birthday Cindy Wei follows 15-yearold school underdog Cindy Wei as she takes her first steps towards overcoming her lack of cultural identity. With an explosive personality and edgy rhymes, Cakes Da Killa: No Homo is ready to take the world by storm! Cheryl Dunye’s provocative Black Is Blue is a look at a stealth security guard who has struggled to make his insides match his outside. A gay Latino barber in a macho Brooklyn hood secretly falls in love with a handsome stranger in Barrio Boy. In the beautifully lensed Lit, queer twentysomethings Eva and Jessie (performance artist D’Lo) meet at a bar at last call and embark on a late-night odyssey around San Francisco.
Keeping secrets can be a dangerous game, but sometimes hiding in the shadows is the only option. These five powerful short dramas from international filmmakers explore the emotional earthquakes that rumble through the lives of people suddenly forced to confront — or flee — shadowy secrets revealed in the world around them. In An Exchange, a conservative family man finds comfort in a hotel room massage, while the masseur and the audience find out something rather less comforting. At Dawn, two strangers in the subway have a dangerous, racist encounter, but may have more in common than they thought. Jason’s Dad kept secrets that he didn’t intend young Jason to discover, but which the grieving lad feels compelled to uncover. In the political thriller O.V.O., French filmmaker Alban Sapin creates a dystopian world that looks disturbingly like our own were an extreme neo-Fascist party to take power and target Jews, immigrants, and homosexuals; Laurent and his targeted friends must decide how to confront the O.V.O party’s secret, menacing agenda. In contemporary Copenhagen’s cruisy underground, handsome Christian struggles to pick up the pieces of his shattered life after the untimely death of his ex-lover, whose family blames Christian for keeping secrets not of his making, in the gritty, beautifully acted, and emotionally powerful drama Nomansland.
— DESIREE BUFORD
RAD QUEERS: PAYASOS L.A. dir Graham Kolbeins 2012 USA 9 min SECRETS & TOYS dir Quentin Lee 2013 USA 12 min HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY WEI dir Tsveta Lozanova 2013 UK 10 min CAKES DA KILLA: NO HOMO dir Ja’Tovia Gary 2013 USA 12 min BLACK IS BLUE dir Cheryl Dunye 2014 USA 21 min BARRIO BOY dir Dennis Shinners 2013 USA 8 min LIT dir Elena Oxman 2014 USA 13 min TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 85 min
This program contains a film depicting transphobic violence.
— PETER L. STEIN
AN EXCHANGE dir Bryce Woodworth 2013 USA 13 min DAWN dir Leon Le 2012 USA 10 min JASON’S DAD dir Matthew Campea 2013 Canada 13 min O.V.O. dir Alban Sapin 2012 France 18 min NOMANSLAND dir Karsten Geisnæs 2013 Denmark 35 min TOTAL RUNNNING TIME : 89 min
This program contains scenes of graphic violence.
Saturday June 28, 11:00 am · Roxie
Friday June 20, 7:00 pm · Roxie
Friday June 20, 1:15 pm · Castro
$8 members, $10 general · PUSS28R
$10 members, $12 general · REAL20R
$8 members, $10 general · SHAD20C
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
65
shorts
Transtastic!
Worldly Affairs
Worldly Women
From cyborg twins, to 51-year-old athletes, to ghosts returning home, this year’s Transtastic! shorts offer a look into the real lives, and imagined realities, of our eclectic trans community. In Gender Games, a 51year-old transwoman contends with the many challenges of returning to college basketball. A grieving Chicana mother confronts an uninvited family member before her Día de los Muertos celebration in You’re Dead to Me. In a mythic cyberfeminist universe, a frustrated young man yearns for affinity in MyMy. When his ex-girlfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize him anymore, Arnaud turns to his friends for support in Who Do You Think You Are? Notorious chanteuse Bambi Lake takes us on a stroll down pre-AIDS 1970s Polk Street in Sticks and Stones. A transgender couple, both diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, share the story of their relationship in Butterfly. Transforming Family offers an eloquent snapshot of the current struggles and strengths of trans and gender fluid parents. Exchanging their eyes, genitalia, and facial features, a couple gets to know themselves and each other in the playful animation Beyond the Mirror’s Gaze.
Dig in to our delectable buffet of international men’s short films—a sexy smorgasbord of flirtation and fantasy, longing and love. In Scaffolding, two neighbors in a Spanish apartment building barely exchange words, until construction work forces them to share a balcony. Then Best finds two British chaps having a quickie and revealing a world of fraught relationships. Underwater we go in Mum, as a deaf swimmer tries to attract a guy he has his eyes on. In Das Phallometer, an absurd immigration screening in a sinister country turns both comic and poignant in a few deft strokes. Set in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Barrio Boy features a young Latino barber whose taboo romantic fantasies about a handsome customer must remain a private voiceover only we can hear. Good Morning is the touching and funny breakfast-table encounter between a Canadian man hung over from his 30th birthday party, and the adorable 17-year-old stranger crashing in his apartment. In Wandering Clouds, Mexico’s poetic writer-director Julián Hernández choreographs the lyrical catapults and plunges of two divers, as a teenager watches longingly from afar. And at a fast-food joint in Wales, Burger eavesdrops on the banter of its working-class customers, who flirt, threaten, strut, compete, and somehow coexist.
Delight and excite your senses with this sumptuous feast of international women’s shorts— from Senegal, Malaysia, Poland, South Korea, and Germany. Set in a Muslim fishing village in Borneo, Jellyfish is the coming-of-age story of Danice, a fourteen-year-old fisherwoman who tastes first love with Riya — an alluring transgender woman who arrives in the village one day. Ordinary Family’s Su-young has plans to go on her first vacation with her girlfriend, Young-mi, but then she receives the news that she must visit her father— with Young-mi in tow. In Bachelorette, Stefanie attends her friend’s bachelor party, where an enticing woman sparks her interest. In The Kiss, Emilia—after an alcoholfueled night out—wakes up in an unknown apartment next to another woman, Matylda, who claims they slept with each other. Set in beguiling Dakar, The Other Woman boldly depicts a housewife in her fifties who discovers her true self when she has to learn to accept her husband’s second wife into her home.
— CURATED BY SHAWNA VIRAGO, SFTFF, & VERONICA LOPEZ
GENDER GAMES dir Meg Smaker 2013 USA 9 min YOU’RE DEAD TO ME dir Wu Tsang 2013 USA 12 min MYMY dir Anna Helme 2014 Australia 15 min BRADLEY MANNING HAD SECRETS dir Adam Butcher 2011 UK 5 min WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Marie Loustalot 2013 France 8 min STICKS AND STONES dir Silas Howard 2014 USA 14 min BUTTERFLY dir Stuart McLaughlin 2014 UK 13 min TRANSFORMING FAMILY dir Rémy Huberdeau 2013 Canada 11 min BEYOND THE MIRROR’S GAZE dir Iris Moore 2013 Canada 4 min TOTAL RUNNNING TIME : 93 min
66
— PETER L. STEIN
SCAFFOLDING dir Juanma Carrillo 2012 Spain 14 min BEST dir William Oldroyd 2013 UK 3 min MUM dir Alex Bohs 2013 USA 11 min DAS PHALLOMETER dir Tor Iben 2013 Germany 7 min BARRIO BOY dir Dennis Shinners 2013 USA 8 min GOOD MORNING dir Milda Yoo 2013 Canada 10 min WANDERING CLOUDS dir Julián Hernández 2013 Mexico 13 min BURGER dir Magnus Mork 2013 UK/Norway 12 min TOTAL RUNNNING TIME : 78 min
— FRANCES WALLACE
JELLYFISH dir Rosie Haber 2013 Malaysia 11 min in Tagalog with English subtitles ORDINARY FAMILY dir HyunJu Lee 2014 South Korea 23 min in Korean with English subtitles BACHERLORETTE dir Anna Linke 2012 Germany 15 min in German with English subtitles THE KISS dir Filip Gieldon 2013 Poland 21 min in Polish with English subtitles THE OTHER WOMAN dir Marie Ka 2013 Senegal 12 min in French with English subtitles TOTAL RUNNING TIME : 82 min
Monday June 23, 7:00 pm · Victoria
Friday June 27, 4:30 pm · Castro
Saturday, June 28, 3:45 pm · Castro
$10 members, $12 general · TRAN23V
$8 members, $10 general · WORL27C
$8 members, $10 general · WORW28C
SPONSORED BY
SPONSORED BY
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
fam ily You Go Girl! Queer Women of Color Shorts The women in these films are sure to inspire us to get it going! Tracing 40 years, History of SFWAR honors the role that San Francisco Women Against Rape plays in the fight to end sexual assault. A young Black Latina girl opposes gender expectations in Girls You Know. A mixed-Latina tomboy finds her inner resilience when bullied in Straight Jacket. A young Black lesbian discovers community in Finding Hope. Trucker Kitty is a badass trucker who shows off her driving skills. A two-spirit Native American man, Devin Howard: Potter finds self-acceptance through pottery. In Shi’ Life, a queer Diné sheep producer on the Navajo Indian Nation is concerned about imported meat. A queer ChineseVietnamese refugee shares the challenges of starting a family in Casey’s Hope. Two queer Asian American women run into each other everywhere, what could Possibly be their connection? An African American lesbian commits to masculine gender representation in Closet Dance. And musician Melanie DeMore, an African American lesbian, brings her music to Free in Song. — CURATED BY MADELEINE LIM OF QWOCMAP
HISTORY OF SFWAR dir QWOCMAP Productions 2013 USA 11 min GIRLS YOU KNOW dir Carie-Elena Edwards 2014 USA 3 min STRAIGHT JACKET dir Christine Liang 2013 USA 10 min FINDING HOPE dir Nicholas Hatten & Rosie Walker 2013 USA 5 min TRUCKER KITTY dir Alice Choe 2013 USA 6 min DEVIN HOWARD: POTTER dir Carey Tully 2013 USA 5 min SHI’ LIFE dir Carrie House 2013 USA 3 min CASEY’S HOPE dir Sanjay Chhugani, Viet Hoang & Casey Huynh 2013 USA 6 min POSSIBLY dir Tracy Nguyen 2013 USA 10 min CLOSET DANCE dir Catherine Pope & Aaron Ornelas 2014 USA 3 min FREE IN SONG dir Tiye Levias 2014 USA 20 min TOTAL RUNNNING TIME : 82 min
SURPRISE FAMILY MATINEE! Invite your friends, family, and loved ones to revisit a classic tale of bravery, selflessness, and unconditional love at our surprise family film screening! Inspired by ancient poetry and literature, this animated film takes us on a young heroine’s journey toward self-actualization in a society where girls, have few—if any—options outside of marrying a man and working within the home. This brave young woman dreams of something different, but isn’t quite sure what that something is. One moment changes her life, catapulting her down a path she never knew was an option, yet later recognized as her destiny. Watch one girl defy the rules and use marvelous wit and courage to save her community in this surprise family screening at The Castro Theatre. Free to kids and film fans of all ages! — TAYLOR J. HODGES TOTAL RUNNNING TIME :
90 min
Sunday June 22, 4:00 pm · Victoria
Sunday June 22, 10:30 am · Castro
$8 members, $10 general · YOUG22V
FREE · SURP22C
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
67
retr osp ecti ves
Boys Don’t Cry DIR Kimberly
Thursday June 26, 11:00 am · Castro $8 members, $10 general · BOYS26C
This film contains graphic depictions of sexual assault and violence.
15 TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING!
Peirce 1999 USA 118 min
Fifteen years after its release, Kimberly Peirce’s moving and brilliantly acted adaptation of the Brandon Teena story retains its stirring emotional power. As many know, Teena was a young transgender man who was brutally murdered shortly after his 21st birthday. Living in an inhospitable community in Lincoln, Nebraska, he is hounded out of town by people upset at his seduction of several young women. “You’re not a boy,” Teena is pointedly reminded by a gay friend; “They say I’m the best boyfriend they ever had,” is his cocky response. And this is the crux of the problem: Brandon’s male self-image doesn’t square with the perceptions of his surrounding society, and trouble is the result. Relocating to the small community of Falls City, Brandon falls in with some hard-partying folks, including the volatile ex-con John and his buddy Tom and falls for their friend Lana. Peirce gives great gravity to the relationship between Brandon and Lana; though the threat of discovery and harm are always in the background, their love for one another is the film’s heart and soul. Filled with great performances, including Hilary Swank’s indelible turn as Brandon — she deservedly won the Oscar® — and Chloë Sevigny as Lana, Boys Don’t Cry is important and vital cinema. — ROD ARMSTRONG
SPONSORED BY
Edward II DIR Derek
Jarman 1991 UK 90 min
Derek Jarman (1942–1994) was one the most creative and controversial artists to come out of Britain. Among his best-known films are fascinating, irreverent explorations of queer historical figures — Sebastiane (Frameline10), Caravaggio, Edward II, and Wittgenstein. In his bold version of Christopher Marlowe’s 400-year-old play Edward II, the newly-crowned Edward II and his beloved but low-born Piers Gaveston are absorbed in an obsessive love affair that alienates nobles and the church. His neglected and despairing queen, Isabella (Tilda Swinton), conspires with the ruthless military man Mortimer to dethrone him. Unfolding in spare, elegant tableaux, Jarman’s exploration of tragic love and social control references contemporary militant struggles against statesupported homophobia and was deemed “a modern (dare I say postmodern) masterpiece” by film scholar B. Ruby Rich. This program launches Derek Jarman, Visionary, screening at the Pacific Film Archive Theater in July and August, co-presented by Frameline, and featuring a selection of Jarman’s remarkable films, including titles newly remastered by the British Film Institute National Archive to mark the 20th anniversary of his death (for information, visit bampfa.berkeley.edu).
Friday June 20, 11:00 am · Castro $8 members, $10 general · EDWA20C
— KATHY GERITZ
SPONSORED BY
Go Fish DIR Rose
Wednesday June 25, 11:00 am · Castro $8 members, $10 general · GOFI25C
This film was a recipient of a 1992 Frameline Completion Fund grant.
SPONSORED BY
20 TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING!
Troche 1994 USA 83 min
Produced on a shoestring budget during the height of the New Queer Cinema movement, Go Fish first created a buzz in 1994 as Frameline18’s Opening Night selection. This debut feature from writer-director Rose Troche (recipient of the 2004 Frameline Award) also launched the career of its co-writer and star, queer film icon Guinevere Turner. And it made a critical contribution to the lives of queer women everywhere by illuminating the importance of...nail-clippers. In this groundbreaking lesbian-looking-for-love story, Max (Turner) is a baby dyke living in 1990s Chicago. Over drinks at a café, Max complains to her roommate Kia that she needs help finding “hot babes.” Kia offers to introduce Max to Ely (V.S. Brodie), the shy, long-haired lesbian sitting behind Max at a nearby table. But when Max sneaks a peek over her shoulder, she immediately rejects Ely for being “U-G-L-Y.” Circumstances throw the two together, and Max and Ely end up sharing a kiss on the couch after going to the movies. But their sizzle fizzles mid-kiss when they hear Ely’s long-distance lover’s voice on the answering machine. As fresh today as it was 20 years ago, this queer classic proves that looking for love can take you to some pretty surprising places. And, as Max famously says, “The girl is out there.” You just have to find her. — GRETCHEN LEE
68
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
photo: Brian Kitts
OFFICIAL FRAMELINE38 TICKET OUTLET HRC IS PROUD TO BE PARTNERING WITH FRAMELINE38 HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN SAN FRANCISCO
ACTION CENTER AND STORE 575 CASTRO STREET | 415-431-2200 AM E R ICA’S LARG EST CIVI L R IG HTS ORGAN IZATION WOR KI NG TO ACH I EVE LG BTQ EQUALITY
Proud to support Frameline38 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival
Dan Healy
415.699.0552 www.DanHealyHomes.com /DanHealyHomes
CREATIVE HOT SPOT. CULTURAL LAUNCH PAD. Effortlessly fusing sophisticated and cutting-edge aesthetics with state-of-the-art amenities, Hotel Zetta is an urban retreat ideally located for connecting authentically with San Francisco’s diverse cultural community. Hotel Zetta invites style-seeking travelers and local professionals to work, connect, play and get inspired.
55 5th Street San Francisco California 94103 RESERVATIONS 415 543 8555 hotelzetta.com
74
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
www.curvemag.com
76
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
PRIDE.
78
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
1 8 6 4 9 3
3
3 1 8 4 9 6 4 9 31 8 6
9 4 6 8
31 8 6 4 9 13 9 4 6 8 1
IT M AD NE O
ADM ONEIT
6 3
3 9 4 6
1
8 9
8
1 4
6
3
9 3 6 4 1 8
9
4
4
9
1 8 6 4 9 3
6 3 1 8 4 9 6 4 6 9 31 8
AD O MI N ET
8
3
1
9
8
3
ADMIT ONE IT ME ADON 4
31 8 6 4 9 13 1 8 6 4 9 3
1 8 6 4 9 3
6
8 9
IT ME D A ON
We
8
1
6 4
ADMIT ONE
1
MI T AD E ON
AD ONMIT E
ADM ONEIT
3 4 9 6 1 8
Indie Film
Find the most comprehensive film reviews and listings anywhere, including our Rep Clock, at sfbg.com
80
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
81
THE SECRET IS OUT! Sleep with us for a Discount. Call
Mark Twain Has a Fierce New Look. The Hotel Mark TTwain’s The w wain’s fabulous renovation is complete. With Just in time for FFrameline. rameline. W ith a Drag Queen for a Manager, General Manager r,, a Bear of a Sales Director Manager, ont Desk Manager r,, you and a Club Kid FFront ront stay.. won’t find a more gay place to stay Photos: Steven Underhill
82
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
415.673.2332 415.673.2332 and mention FRAMELINE FRAMELINE for 112% 2% off Push zero for front desk to get discount
345 Taylor Str eet Near Union Square SF hotelmarktwain.com
84
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
.C R OM IB /O E RD NO ER W -N OW
AV AI LA BL EO S HE U RE B N TV SC
ICA ’S
ER
AM ON LY G AY TV N ET WO RK
86
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
87
88
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
89
90
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
NCLR SALUTES FRAMELINE38 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
www.NCLRights.org
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
91
} >>` V }À >Ì Õ >Ì iÃ Ì iÊ v > iÀ Ã Ê v Ê À > i i Î n } >>`° À }
92
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
93
Whether it’s a casual night with friends or a soiree for up to 250 guests, let Simply Bliss cater your next wedding or dinner party! With a focus on organic, sustainable, local produce, we will create seasonal menus from a variety of cuisines for meat-eaters and vegans alike. Set up a private consultation to design your personalized menu, then let Chef Yulanda and Simply Bliss execute a delicious night of unique plates and bites! www.chefyulanda.com Email: chef@chefyulanda.com Phone: (510) 500-3062 Address: 4123 Bayo St. Oakland, CA 94619
Steps away from Union Squa r e. Miles away from ordinary.
Stay where we celebrate YOU and enjoy 15% off!
Visit Serr anoHotel.com use promo code FL38.
S a
E san
R
R
franci sco
A
N
O
hotel
a n d J a s pe r ’s C or n e r T a p & K i t c h e n
94
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
THEA AT TER Proud home of Frameline Film Festival since 1979 ROXIE.COM
presents
WWW.RAYOFLIGHTTHEATRE.COM WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
95
96
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
C A S T R O
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
97
KIMPTONHOTELS.COM
we like to watch, too SAN FRANCISCO We proudly support Frameline38 and our LGBT guests.
98
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
SILENT FILM FESTIVAL
silentfilm.org
We create mobile engagement solutions for local advertisers, sports venues and entertainment producers. Our services include text message marketing, text-to-screen, text voting, and subscriber database management. Contact Loyda Drew at loyda.drew@mobivity.com or 818-533-1131 or visit mobivity.com for more information.
proudly sponsors
Frameline’s
LG B T Film Festival dot429.com The world’s largest LGBTA professional network
100 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
101
102 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
104 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
105
106 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
A M AG A Z I N E FO R T H E C R E AT I V E C L A S S
San Francisco’s gay district is called “San Francisco.” Welcome to the city that practically invented gay. Sip cocktails at a local hot spot. Walk over the Golden Gate Bridge hand-in-hand. Dance to a local band in a SOMA club. Stroll through a museum on date night. Or better yet, get married here and spend your honeymoon in one of the most romantic cities on earth. Whatever your state of bliss, San Francisco will show you just how fabulous 49 square miles on the edge of the Pacific can be. Find out more at sanfrancisco.travel/lgbt
WWW.SNAPM.AG
108 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
Conformity? Shuck it.
A proud supporter of FRAMELINE38
www.codesalonsf.com
T 415 624 8340
110 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
111
Now building a healthier community! In response to increased demand for services, San Francisco AIDS Foundation is bringing together three of our most popular programs—Magnet, Stonewall, and Stop AIDS—to create a groundbreaking new community space in the heart of the Castro. Together, we can transform the way gay and bi men think about holistic health and wellness, and advance toward our goal of making San Francisco the first U.S. city to end HIV transmission. We look forward to welcome you in through the doors of our new home in the Castro soon. While construction is underway, check our progress here:
474castro.org
112 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
Celebrating Our 35th Anniversary We Make Everyday Life Better, Every Day
Serving a seasonal selection of fine ingredients, including sustainably harvested fish and farmers’ market produce. Hayes Street Bar & Grill is proud to be a sponsor of Frameline’s 38th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.
W We e in invite vite yyou ou tto o be par partt of an or organization ganization tha thatt impr improves oves the w world orld ar around ound us with the unique ideas and inno innovation vation tha thatt only yyou ou can br bring. ing. Please Please view our career career oppor opportunities tunities online and rreference eference FFrameline. rameline.
www www.TheC w loro orox oxCompany.c ny.com/c y areers rs s
NI-24566
TThe he Clor Clorox ox C Company ompany is an EEO/A EEO/Affirmative ffirmative A Action ction Emplo Employer. yer.
Lunch Monday through Friday Dinner nightly 320 Hayes Street @ Franklin San Francisco (415) 863-5545
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
113
Some wealth management firms go back 150 years. We go 150 years forward. Creativity inspires life changing experiences. Aspiriant is inspired by Frameline38, changing the world one movie at a time, and is proud to support San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. aspiriant.com
Through funding programs, leadership building, and grantmaking, we inspire and engage the Bay Area’s LGBT Jewish community.
Jewishfed.org 114 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG
115
Fueling the LGBT Movement 116 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
film index # 20 Lies, 4 Parents and A Little Egg 42 52 Tuesdays 42
A Ahogo-Icecream 63 Al Nisa: Black Muslim Women in Atlanta’s Gay Mecca 52 Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy 52 An Exchange 65 Anita’s Last Cha-Cha 43 Appropriate Behavior 30 Around the Block 43
B Bachelorette 66 Back on Board: Greg Louganis 53 Bad Hair 43 Barrio Boy 65, 66 BART: Building Art, Redefining Tolerance 63 The Bash 62 The Beginning 65 Being Stavros 62 The Bench 63 Bendik & the Monster 63 Best 66 Beyond the Mirror’s Gaze 63, 66 Bi Candy: Bisexual Short Cinema 61 Black Is Blue 65 Blackbird 31 Bombshell 62 Born to Fly 53 Boulevard 38 Boy Meets Girl 38 Boygame 61 Boys 44 Boys Don’t Cry 68 Brace 62 Bradley Manning Had Secrets 63, 66 Breed 63 Broken Gardenias 39 Broken Heart Land 53 Brute 63 Burger 66 Butterfly 38, 66
C Cakes Da Killa: No Homo 65
California Dreamin’ 63 Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda 54 Candy Cravings 61 The Case Against 8 19 Casey’s Hope 67 The Circle 32 Clan 58 Closet Dance 67 Coming Out in the 1970s 63 Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank 54 Crazy Bitches 39 Creatures of the Night: Queer Horror Shorts 61 Cruising Electric (1980) 62 Cupcakes 44
D Das Phallometer 66 David Hockney IN THE NOW (in six minutes). 65 Dawn 65 Dead Weights and Balloons 61 Deflated 43 Derby Crazy Love 54 Devin Howard: Potter 67 Dinner at 40 62 Dirty Boots (He Don’t) 55 Disaster Preparedness 62 The Disgustings 62 The Dog 55 Dragula 61 Dream Date 62 Drunktown’s Finest 39 Dual 44 Dunkin’ Love 64 Dyke Central 40
E Eat With Me 40 Edward II 68 The Egg 63 Elliot King is Third 64 Everybody’s Got Somebody...But Me 45 Eye Candy 64
F Facing Fear 62 Finding Hope 67 First Clue 62, 64
First Period 40 Five Dances 41 Floating Skyscrapers 45 Folsom Forever 55 The Foxy Merkins 41 Free in Song 67 FU377 59, 63 Fun in Boys Shorts 62 Fun in Girls Shorts 62 Futuro Beach 45
G The Gem People 63 The Gem Sisters 63 Gender Games 66 Generations 63 Gerontophilia 46 Get Animated! 63 Girls You Know 67 Go Fish 68 Good Morning 66 Goodnight My Love 61
H Happy Birthday Cindy Wei 65 Happy Toilet 63, 64 Heklina 64 Helicopter Mom 33 Her With Me 62 History of SFWAR 67 Holiday 46 Home From the Gym 45 Homegrown 64 Housing First 64
I I Am Happiness On Earth 46 I Feel Like Disco 25 In the City of Shy Hunters 64
J Jason’s Dad 65 Jellyfish 66 Jimmy Carter! 63 Jo 64
K Kidnapped for Christ 55 The Kiss 61, 66 Kumu Hina 34
120 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
L
P
T
The L Riders 54 Ladies and Gentlemen: Phatima Rude 64 Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story 56 A Last Farewell 62 The Last One 56 Lats Yerk 63 Letter to Anita 56 Lilies 61 Lilting 23 Limited Partnership 57 Lit 64, 65 Living in the Overlap 56 Local Legends 64 Luigi and Vincenzo 58
Pepper 63 Perfect Match 63 The Places I Can Never Go Back To 63 Possibly 67 Priest 63 Prinsesa 64 Puppy Dreams 52 Puppy Love 64 Purple Skies: Voices of Indian Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transmen 59 Pussy vs. Putin 65
Quick Change 47
Teagan 63 The Third One 49 Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People 60 Throw Like a Girl 40 To Be Takei 21 Together People 63 Tord and Tord 63 Transforming Family 66 Transtastic! 66 Tru Love 49 Trucker Kitty 67 Trunk 62 The Truth About Love and Panic 64
R
U
Rad Queers: Payasos L.A. 65 Realness & Revelations 65 Regarding Susan Sontag 59
Under Ground 59
M Mentor 57 MeTube: August Sings Carmen ‘Habanera’ 62 Miss Finknagle Succumbs to Chaos 64 Mission ImPROMable 64 Mondo Homo: A Study of French Gay Porn in the ’70s 57 Mum 66 My Straight Son 47 MyMy 64, 66
N New Storytelling in LGBT Cinema Panels 27 The Night Is Ours 61 Nomansland 65
O O.V.O. 65 Of Girls and Horses 47 Off Road 58 One Night Stand 62 Open Up to Me 35 Ordinary Family 66 The Other Woman 61, 66 Out 61 Out in East Berlin— Lesbians & Gays in the GDR 58 Out in the Line-Up: Uncovering the Taboo of Homosexuality in Surfing 58 Out in the Night 36 Overflow 63
Q
S Safe Word 62 Salvation Army 48 Scaffolding 66 Secrets & Toys 65 Sex Date 62 Shadows & Secrets 65 She Said, She Said 62 Shi’Life 67 Simple 61, 63 Slash 62 So X 63 Social Networks (Make Me Feel Sh*t Sometimes) 63 Something Must Break 48 Songs for Alexis 59 Stand 48 Sticks & Stones 64, 66 Stop Calling Me Honey Bunny 62 Straight Jacket 67 Surprise Family Screening 67 Swallow 61
V Veteran Documentary Corps: Zoe Dunning 56 Violette 49 Violette Leduc: In Pursuit of Love 60
W Wandering Clouds 66 The Way He Looks 37 We Should Have Coffee Sometime 63 Wetlands 50 Wham, Bam, mr Pam 64 What It Was 41 What’s Your Sign? 62 Whitewash 63 Who Do You Think You Are 64, 66 Wini + George 63 Winter Journey 50 Worldly Affairs 66 Worldly Women 66
Y YOLO 61, 62 You and the Night 50 You’re Dead To Me 66 YouGoGirl! Queer Women of Color Shorts 67 Yves Saint Laurent 51
HBO®PROUDLY SUPPORTS
FRAMELINE38 The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival
©2014 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and related channels and service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.
# frameline38 /frameline
@framelinefest
/framelinefest
Save a tree! Get the Frameline38 mobile app for iOS and Android
pull out guide frameline.org
grand sponsors
premier sponsor
schedule Thursday June 19 Castro 11 AM
NOON
Q = OPENING/CLOSING C
= SHOWCASE
3 PM
= US FEATURE
4 PM
W
= WORLD CINEMA
5 PM
D
= DOCUMENTARY
6 PM
S
= SHORTS PROGRAM
F
= FAMILY PROGRAM
R
= RETROSPECTIVE
7 PM
10 PM
11 PM
12 AM
4:00 pm Stand STAN20C p.48 W
7:00 pm The Case Against 8 CASE19C p.19 Q
10:00 pm Opening Night Gala at Terra Gallery GALA19T p.19
10:00 pm Holiday HOLI19C p.46 W
Wednesday June 25
NOON
Roxie
Victoria
Castro Roxie 11:00 am 11:00 am Fun In Boys Shorts Purple Skies FIBS21C PURP21R p.59 p.62 S
D
Victoria 11:00 am Broken Heart Land BHEA21V p.53 D
1:30 pm 1:45 pm Bad Hair Fun In Girls Shorts BADH21R FIGS21C p.43 W p.62 S
s
6:45 pm Tru Love TRUL20C p.49 W
4:00 pm Get Animated! GETA21R p.63
4:15 pm The Circle CIRC21C p.32
7:00 pm Realness & Revelations REAL20R p.65
S
7:00 pm Five Dances FIVE20V p.41 U
7:00 pm Helicopter Mom HELI21C p.33
9:30 pm Salvation Army SALV20V p.48 W
9:30 pm I Am Happiness on Earth IAMH21C p.46 W
1:30 pm Through a Lens Darkly THRO21V p.60
S
6:30 pm Kidnapped for Christ KIDN21R p.55 D
D
4:15 pm Dyke Central DYKE21V p.40 U
7:00 pm Yves Saint Laurent YVES21V p.51 W
9 PM
t = SPECIAL PROGRAM
Castro 11:00 am Go Fish GOFI25C p.68 R
Roxie
1:15 pm Shadows & Secrets SHAD20C p.65 S
2 PM
8 PM
11 AM
Castro 11:00 am Edward II EDWA20C p.68 R
Saturday June 21
1 PM
= CENTERPIECE
s = SPOTLIGHT: RUSSIA U
Friday June 20
Victoria
9:30 pm Gerontophilia GERO20C p.46 W
9:30 pm Dual DUAL20R p.44 W
9:15 pm Derby Crazy Love DERB21R p.54 D
Thursday June 26 Elmwood
Castro 11:00 am Boys Don’t Cry BOYS26C p.68 R
Roxie
Victoria
9:30 pm Floating Skyscrapers FLOA21V p.45 W
Friday June 27 Elmwood
Castro 11:00 am The Last One LAST27C p.56
Roxie
Victoria
D
1 PM
2 PM
3 PM
4 PM
5 PM
1:30 pm The Dog DOGT25C p.55 D
4:00 pm Back on Board: Greg Louganis BACK25C p.53 D
1:30 pm Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story LADY27C p.56 D
1:45 pm Limited Partnership LIMI26C p.57 D 3:30 pm Panel: New Technologies FROM25R p.27 t
4:00 pm Eat With Me EATW26C p.40 U
3:30 pm Panel: Change Makers CHAN26R p.27 t
4:30 pm Worldly Affairs WORL27C p.66 S
6 PM
7 PM
8 PM
6:30 pm Lilting LILT25C p.23 C
9 PM
10 PM
11 PM
9:15 pm Open Up to Me OPEN25C p.35
7:00 pm Bi Candy BICA25R p.61
9:00 pm What It Was WHAT25R p.41 U
S
7:00 pm Regarding Susan Sontag REGA25V p.59
9:30 pm Mondo Homo MOND25V p.57 D
D
7:00 pm Broken Gardenias BROK25E p.39 U
6:45 pm Anita’s Last Cha-Cha ANIT26C p.43 W
7:00 pm In the City of Shy Hunters INTH26R p.64 S
7:00 pm Out in East Berlin OUBE26V p.58 D
7:00 pm Regarding Susan Sontag REGA26E p.59
9:30 pm My Straight Son MYST25E p.47 W
9:30 pm Boulevard BOUL26C p.38 U
9:30 pm Floating Skyscrapers FLOA26R p.45 W
9:30 pm Crazy Bitches CRAZ26V p.39 U
9:30 pm Out in the Night OUNG26E p.36
12 AM
P2 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL
D
7:00 pm Appropriate Behavior APPR27C p.30
7:00 pm Salvation Army SALV27R p.48 W
7:00 pm Out in the Line-Up OULI27V p.58 D
9:30 pm Futuro Beach FUTU27C p.45 W
9:15 pm Of Girls and Horses 9:30 pm Creatures of the OFGI27R Night CREA27V p.47 W p.61 S
Sunday June 22 Castro Roxie 10:30 am SURPRISE 11:00 am Family Matinee! Letter to Anita SURP22C p.67 F LETT22R p.56 D 1:00 pm Born to Fly BORN22C p.53
D
3:30 pm Kumu Hina KUMU22C p.34
1:30 pm 20 Lies, 4 Parents and A Little Egg 20LI22R p.42 W
Monday June 23
Victoria 11:00 am Homegrown HOME22V p.64
S
1:15 pm Campaign of Hate CAMP22V p.54 D s
Castro 11:00 am Off Road OFFR23Ctp.58
Roxie
Tuesday June 24
Victoria
Elmwood
D
Castro 11:00 am Violette Leduc: In Pursuit of Love VIOL24C p.60 D
Roxie
Victoria
Elmwood 11 AM
NOON
1 PM
1:00 pm Holiday HOLI23C p.46 W
1:15 pm Something Must Break SOME24C p.48 W
2 PM
3 PM
4:00 pm Generations GENE22R p.63 S
4:00 pm You Go Girl! Queer Women of Color Shorts YOUG22V p.67 S
6:30 pm Broken Gardenias BROK22R p.39 U
6:30 pm Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy ALEC22V p.52
9:00 pm The Gem People GEMP22R p.63 S
9:00 pm Folsom Forever FOLS22V p.55 D
3:30 pm Facing Fear FACI23C p.62 S
3:45 pm Mentor MENT24C p.57
6:30 pm The Way He Looks WAYH23C p.37
6:30 pm To Be Takei TOBE24C p.21 C
D
3:30 pm Panel: Past (Im)perfect PAST24R p.27 t
4 PM
5 PM
6 PM
6:30 pm Blackbird BLAC22C p.31
9:15 pm The Foxy Merkins FOXY22C p.41 U
D
7:00 pm Al Nisa: Black Muslim Women in Atlanta’s Gay Mecca ALNI23R p.52 D 9:00 pm You and the Night YOUA23R p.50 W
9:15 pm Violette VIOL23C p.49 W
7:00 pm Transtastic! TRAN23V p.66 S
7:00 pm Kumu Hina KUMU23E p.34
7:00 pm Everybody’s Got Somebody...But Me EVER24R p.45 W
7:00 pm 52 Tuesdays 52TU24V p.42 W
7:00 pm Dual DUAL24E p.44 W
7 PM
8 PM
9 PM
9:15 pm Winter Journey WINT23V p.50 W s
9:30 pm The Circle CIRC23E p.32
9:30 pm Around the Block AROU24C p.43 W
9:30 pm Quick Change QUIC24R p.47 W
9:30 pm Local Legends LOCA24V p.64 S
9:30 pm Dyke Central DYKE24E p.40 U
10 PM
11 PM
12 AM
Saturday June 28 Castro 11:00 am Compared to What... Barney Frank COMP28C p.54 D
Roxie 11:00 am Pussy vs. Putin PUSS28R p.65 S s
Sunday June 29
Victoria 11:00 am Songs for Alexis SONG28V p.59 D
Castro 11:00 am Fun In Girls Shorts FIGS29C p.62 S
11 AM
NOON
1 PM
1:30 pm Out in the Night OUNG28C p.36
1:30 pm Drunktown’s Finest DRUN28R p.39 U
3:45 pm Worldly Women WORW28C p.66 S
3:45 pm Boy Meets Girl BOYM28R p.38 U
1:30 pm 20 Lies, 4 Parents and A Little Egg 20LI28V p.42 W
4:00 pm My Straight Son MYST28V p.47 W
1:30 pm Fun In Boys Shorts FIBS29C p.62 S
2 PM
3 PM
4 PM
4:15 pm Stand STAN29C p.48 W
5 PM
s 6 PM
6:30 pm Boys BOYS28C p.44
8:30 pm Cupcakes CUPC28C p.44 W
W
6:30 pm What It Was WHAT28R p.41 U
9:00 pm Wetlands WETL28R p.50 W
6:45 pm First Period FIRS28V p.40 U
7:00 pm I Feel Like Disco IFEE29C p.25 Q
7 PM
8 PM
9 PM
9:15 pm The Third One THIR28V p.49
W
10:00 pm Closing Night Party at Temple Nightclub p. 25
10 PM
11 PM
frameline38
For more Festival information, including continually updated screening information, visit www.frameline.org
12 AM
WWW.FRAMELINE.ORG P3
Of all the fun things you can do on your phone,
how many support LGBT filmmakers? Vote with your fingertips and support your favorite films as they compete for the Frameline38 AT&T Audience Awards. Filmmakers can receive cash prizes for Best Feature, Best Documentary, and Best Short to fuel their filmmaking dreams. It’s up to you! POWERED BY
Text Your Vote for the Frameline38 AT&T Audience Awards: 1. Draft a new text message to phone number 55333. 2. Type in the film’s text voting code. To find it: › Look on-screen after the show. › Check out www.frameline.org or the mobile app. › Ask a staff member or volunteer. 3. Hit send.* You’ll have six hours after the start of the screening to vote, and you can vote for as many films as you want! But, to keep it fair, you can only vote once for each film. For those without text-messaging capabilities, a small number of paper ballots will be available upon request in the lobby. *Standard messaging rates may apply (a small price to support LGBT film).