The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) announced Tuesday the world premiere of Families Like Yours, a powerful documentary exploring the love, compassion, sacrifice, and success of LGBT families in America. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dk Realizadores, NGLCC, and Wells Fargo underwrote the film’s production. Deutsche Bank and Hilton presented the premiere screening in New York CityJuly 17.
Through candid interviews and humorous real life stories, Families Like Yours demystifies LGBT families and their lives, showcasing that they are just as loving, busy, and complicated as any other family. Families Like Yours follows five families as they attempt to balance work and school, rush kids to sports practice, and deal with diaper duty. From all across the nation and in all different stages of family life, from conception to grandchildren, these families represent a cross-section of the modern American family– the only difference is that they are LGBT families.
“It has never been more important to showcase the richness of diversity in America. LGBT families are a fixture of every community in this country, and Families Like Yours demonstrates why love, dignity, and respect for all is a virtue that should unite each of us,” said NGLCC Co-Founder and President Justin Nelson, who is an Executive Producer on the film along with NGLCC Co-Founder and CEO Chance Mitchell. “This film is dedicated to the brave and inspiring LGBT families across the nation who overcome discrimination and fear as they work hard, give back to their communities, and strive to achieve the American Dream just like everybody else.”
Award-winning filmmakers Rodolfo Moro and Marcos Duszczak are the creative team behind a parallel film in Argentina, Familias por Igual. The film was widely praised, receiving several prestigious awards that added momentum to Argentina’s LGBT equality movement.
Russia‘s Bolshoi Theater has canceled a much anticipated ballet about dancer Rudolf Nureyev just three days before the opening night.
Bolshoi made the announcement Saturday, saying that Tuesday’s premiere has been canceled. The ballet about Nureyev who defected from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961 was directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, known for bold productions that poke fun at Russia’s growing social conservatism.
Serebrennikov was detained and questioned in May in a criminal case over embezzlement of government funds. He denies wrongdoing.
Speaking to journalists Monday, Bolshoi director Vladimir Urin denied reports that the show had been scrapped because of its frank portrayal of Nureyev’s gay relationships. Urin simply said that the ballet wasn’t ready and it will instead premiere next year.
Netflix is developing a new installment of “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City” with Working Title Television U.S. Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis are on board to revive the characters they played in Showtime and PBS adaptations of the landmark LGBT-themed novel series in the 1990s.
Michael Cunningham (“The Hours”) has penned the first script for what is envisioned as a 10-part installment, although the project does not yet have a series order from Netflix. Maupin would return as an executive producer, and Alan Poul is on board to direct. Netflix declined to comment.
Prolific novelist Maupin launched the series that follows a colorful, diverse group of characters living in San Francisco as a newspaper serial in 1976. He has published nine novels in the “Tales” series, with 2014’s “The Days of Anna Madrigal” said to be the final edition of the book series.
“Tales” focuses on the residents of a boarding house at 28 Barbary Lane run by Anna Madrigal, played by Dukakis. The Netflix series would be set in the present day, focusing on Linney’s Mary Ann Singleton character as she returns to San Francisco and the boarding house after 25 years away.
The book series has long been hailed as a cultural touchstone for the LGBT community with its finely drawn portrayals of gay, straight and transgender characters and their struggles. The “Tales” novels were among the first to address the AIDS crisis.
PBS carried the original six-part “Tales” miniseries in January 1994, which generated controversy in some regions for its depiction of LGBT relationships. Showtime ran the subsequent miniseries, 1998’s “More Tales of the City” and 2001’s “Further Tales of the City.”
Transit Havana is an intriguing documentary from Dutch filmmaker Daniel Abma that is essentially a commentary on what it is like to be transgender in socialist Cuba especially now that is going through a state of flux since the Regime is lightening up after the US started making friendly overtures at last. Abma chooses to follow a trans man and two trans woman about their daily lives as they wait to see in the official Committee has chosen them to have gender realignment surgery. The good news for them is that the whole procedure is free, but the sad news is that only 5 such operations can be done every year when for one week only two Dutch surgeons volunteer their services.
Juani, is in his 60’s and he who refers to himself as Cuba’s first official transsexual, having started out on his journey in the 1970’s. He has already fully transitioned and has had reconstructive surgery, but is now hoping for an additional procedure to make his male anatomy function better during sexual encounters.
Malú is one tough cookie who has been living as a female since she was a teenager. She is fierce and funny and devotes a great deal of her time to being a transgender rights activist, and is in fact a natural-born leader for her community. She unabashedly admits to have being a sex-worker, and there is a scene of her visiting her boyfriend of seven years who is now in jail for a reason that is never actually revealed. Malú is convinced that the fact that she is so outspoken is the reason why she still has not been selected for the surgery that she so desperately wants.
The third one is Odette who is the only one of the group who is struggling with acceptance from her family. She is a former Army tank specialist who now makes a very basic living out of doing menial jobs on a very small farm where her boss says that he only employed because he believed it was God’s will. Odette’s own religious beliefs still make it difficult for her to come to terms with being trans, and also accepting that her own Pastor is trying to convince her that surgery would be wrong in the eyes of God.
Getting equally as much time in the documentary is the charismatic daughter of the Cuban Leader Raúl Castro. Mariela is the head of Cuban National Center for Sex Education and the country’s most prominent LGBT activist amongst the political elite. She has unquestionably been the major force behind all the progress made in improving the community’s rights, and without her certain things like this gender-realignment surgery would never have happened. However she does never stop spouting the official Party line on how wonderful Socialism is, which is still tough for us to comprehend when everyone else in this documentary is literally struggling to survive and put enough food on their tables.
Abma’s subjects all made for such compelling viewing, so much so that it we share their pain when they discover that they have not been chosen for surgery again this year. In fact if there was one criticism of this otherwise quite perfect documentary it is that we never get even so much as a hint of how the Committee base their decisions on who gets selected and who gets rejected.
The Official Pulse Orlando Gay Days Benefit album has been released by Centaur Entertainment.
May 4, onePULSE Foundation unveiled plans for the creation of a permanent memorial and announced the formation of a national Board of Trustees, including the establishment of a significant fund. This fund will support the construction and maintenance of the memorial, community grants to care for the survivors and victims’ families, an educational program to promote amity among all segments of society, endowed scholarships for each of the 49 victims and ultimately a museum showcasing the historic artifacts and stories from the event.
Centaur decided to produce a benefit album to help fund the onePULSE Foundation and memorial, and got the approval of Pulse owner, Barbara Poma. Centaur reached out to artists, record labels, DJs, remixxers and more to create a coalition of people and companies to donate their time, services and love to an album to achieve this goal. One hundred percent (100%) of proceeds from the sale of this album will go directly to the onePULSE Foundation.
“We wanted to send the message that we as an LGBT community, and we as a nation, can and will rise up, remember the 49 innocent angels, and return to the dance floor unafraid and with our angels by our sides,” said Nick De Biase, Centaur’s president and the album’s producer. “Love always conquers hate!”
De Biase reached out to the owner of Pulse, Barbara Poma, and the two shared a heartfelt and tearful conversation. “Centaur understood the difficult road we were traveling,” said Poma. “On behalf of our Board of Trustees, we thank everyone you for your support. This is a defining mission and healing initiative for those involved and we are grateful to find supporters who share our vision and understand the sacred responsibility to which we have been entrusted.”
The special songs on this benefit album take on a new life and an even deeper meaning when heard and listened to in light of the Pulse tragedy. DJ Randy Bettis, who helped to compile these songs, carefully crafted them into a continuous mix.
Track List
When I’m Dreaming – Peyton (Eric Kupper Original Mix)
Music Lifts Me Up – Dirty Disco feat. Marvel (Dirty Disco Mainroom Remix)
One Night In Heaven – Toy Armada & DJ Grind feat. Inaya Day (Original Mix)
Everybody’s Beautiful – Miasha (Marc Stout Club Mix)
Rise Up – AD (Barry Harris Club Anthem Mix)
Dreamer – Janice Robinson (Barry Harris 2016 Mix)
Under Pressure – Glamazon (HumanJive Remix)
I Didn’t Know My Own Strength – Savannah Love (Ronnie Maze Ext. Mix)
This Is What U Came For – Parasol (DJ Shocker Remix)
Over & Over Again – Nathan Sykes (Elephante Radio Mix)
Proud – NTT (Centaur Classic Remix)
Over the Rainbow – Tony Moran feat. Lillias White (Club Mix)
Available on www.TheOutClub.com, iTunes, Spotify, Beatport, Amazon, Google and many more!
Married lesbian couple Cari Searcy and Kim McKeand who live with their son in Mobil, say that their friends always ask “Why Alabama? You must be crazy.” It is the exact same question that any LGBTQ person will probably also ask at the beginning of this new compelling documentary that tells the story of their lives, and that of another lesbian couple who have to deal with so much more intransigence and unabashed homophobia in this the most conservative State in the US. However what we initially perceive will be a tale of almost sheer helplessness, turns out in the end as story of how hope, love and sheer determination can still make Alabama the right place for these particular families to call home.
Cari and Kim’s problems started with the birth of their son who was born with a hole in his heart, and Kim was denied any involvement in his treatment as a co-parent. Using the fact that her California marriage to Ceri was not recognized by Alabama, the Judge denied her the right to be able to adopt him too. This starts almost a whole decade long through the Court system, which although gave them some victories along the way, they still had to deal with their own State’s judiciary and officialdom who refused to comply with the rulings.
When Kinley separated from the birth father of her child, he easily won full custody of their son, once his lawyer told the Court that Kinley was a lesbian. She and her wife Autumn then have to deal with several legal rebuttals to right the situation, and even when the boy has to be hospitalized because his stepmom had whipped him so hard, the Judge still actually treated Kinley in court as if being a lesbian was far worse than an actual child beater. It took her almost two years of several aborted Court appearances for Kinley to win the case and be able to keep her son, but as the final credits roll, there is a cautionary note that the father is still trying to challenge the decision.
These two stories are sandwiched between the tale of Patricia Todd a disarmingly charming lesbian who gets elected as the first openly gay state representative in Alabama, and the lone legislative voice of its LGBTQ community. Todd, ever a pragmatist, works hard to personally win over as many of the ultra-conservatives of the House in her attempt to stop the flow of potential anti-LGBTQ legislation becoming law in her State, and bristles when her colleagues tell her ‘not to take it personally’ as they seek to reduce our rights.
Like the others in this documentary, Todd is inspirational, although in her case it came at a personal cost when she chose her political career over her marriage. It may not be enough to want anyone to pack up their bags and move to this part of the Deep South at any time …….. especially whilst Judge Roy Moore is still hovering around ….. but it is now very clear why these woman are still happy to call Alabama home.
Lambda Literary, the nation’s leading organization advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) literature, announced the winners of the 29th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (the “Lammys”) at a ceremony hosted by multi-genre artist Justin Vivian Bond at NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The ceremony brought together attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature and twenty-nine years of the groundbreaking literary awards.
“Authors putting words in order artfully and with thought is a revolutionary thing in the climate we are living in,” said Bond as she opened the ceremony. “I want to congratulate everyone who’s nominated tonight. We’re here to celebrate you for the gift you have given us with your artistry.”
Nicole Dennis-Benn
Photo: Lambda Literary
One of the Middle East’s most celebrated voices, Rabih Alameddine won in the Gay Fiction category for his novel The Angel of History (Grove Press). Set over the course of a night, Alameddine’s book follows a Yemeni-born poet as he revisits the events of his life, from his upbringing to his life as a gay Arab man in San Francisco at the height of the AIDS epidemic. In Lesbian Fiction, Nicole Dennis-Benn won for her debut Here Comes the Sun (Liveright), a novel with a cast of unforgettable Jamaican women who battle for independence while a maelstrom of change threatens their village.
Jacqueline Woodson and Jeanette Winterson were also honored for their lifetime achievements. Tony Award-winning actress Cynthia Nixon introduced Woodson, a “writer who is part of the institution but stands outside it and critiques,” said Nixon. “She is the writer, the friend, the citizen these times demand.” Accepting the Visionary Award, Woodson noted, “The work we do as a queer community for the generations beyond us make me proud to be standing here and accept this award.”
Jeanette-Winterson
Photo: Lambda Literary
Later, Baileys Women’s Prize-winning author A.M. Homes introduced Jeanette Winterson, who won the Trustee Award. “A lifetime achievement award is more than overdue for Jeanette,” said Homes. During her acceptance speech, Winterson praised the powers of writers and imagination. “Everything that happens starts with an idea,” said Winterson. “We should protect and expand the imagination: to imagine the world as different than it is.”
Other winners of the night included David France for How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS (Knopf), a companion book to his award-winning documentary film, in LGBT Nonfiction. Activist Cleve Jones’s When We Rise: My Life in the Movement (Hachette Books) won in Gay Memoir/Biography. “I wrote this book because the LGBT movement saved my life,” said Cleve as he accepted his award, “And I’m ready to keep fighting.”
“In a year of great political turmoil, the Lammys were a reminder that our LGBTQ writing community remains at the forefront of resistance to attacks on our communities,” said Tony Valenzuela, Lambda Literary Executive Director. “Congratulations to all the winners and honorees. You inspire us.”
As always, the Lammys brought out the stars from the worlds of film, television, theatre, journalism, and literature. Presenters this year included Yale Series of Younger Poets judge Carl Phillips, Tony Award-winning producer Vivek Toward, comedian Tig Notaro, Emmy Award-winning actress Cynthia Nixon, and New York Times columnists Frank Bruni and Masha Gessen.
29th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners
Lesbian Fiction
Here Comes the Sun, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Liveright Publishing Corporation
Gay Fiction
The Angel of History, Rabih Alameddine, Atlantic Monthly Press
Bisexual Fiction
Marrow Island, Alexis M. Smith, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Bisexual Nonfiction
Black Dove: Mama, Mi’jo, and Me, Ana Castillo, The Feminist Press
Bisexual Poetry
Mouth to Mouth, Abigail Child, EOAGH
Transgender Fiction
Small Beauty, jia qing wilson-yang, Metonymy Press
LGBT Nonfiction
How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS, David France, Knopf
Transgender Nonfiction
Life Beyond My Body: A Transgender Journey to Manhood in China, Lei Ming, Transgress Press
Lesbian Poetry (TIE)
play dead, francine j. harris, Alice James Books
The Complete Works of Pat Parker, Julie R. Enszer, Sinister Wisdom/A Midsummer Night’s Press
Gay Poetry
Thief in the Interior, Phillip B. Williams, Alice James Books
Transgender Poetry
Reacquainted with Life,KOKUMO, Topside Press
Lesbian Mystery
Pathogen, Jessica L. Webb, Bold Strokes Books
Gay Mystery
Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery, J. Aaron Sanders, Plume
Lesbian Memoir/Biography
The Wind is Spirit: The Life, Love and Legacy of Audre Lorde, Dr. Gloria Joseph, Villarosa Media
Gay Memoir/Biography
When We Rise, Cleve Jones, Hachette Books
Lesbian Romance
The Scorpion’s Empress, Yoshiyuki Ly, Solstice Publishing
Gay Romance
Into the Blue, Pene Henson, Interlude Press
LGBT Erotica
Soul to Keep, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Bold Strokes Books
LGBT Anthology
The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Health Care, Zena Sharman, Arsenal Pulp Press
LGBT Children’s/Young Adult
Girl Mans Up, M.E. Girard, Harper Teen
LGBT Drama
Barbecue/Bootycandy, Robert O’Hara, Theatre Communications Group
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz has added another subject to his series of documentaries on iconic LGBT figures which so far have included Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon, Tab Hunter Confidential, I Am Divine, and Vito. This time his subject Allan Carr may be not quite so well known to the general public, but his successful career as an infamous larger-than-life flamboyant Hollywood Producer and Agent make him a natural fit for one of Schwarz’s excellent and very compelling profiles.
Carr was born Allan Solomon in 1937, the only son of a wealthy Jewish family in Chicago and his parents spoilt him rotten, and indulged his every whim. From an early age he was fascinated to the point of being obsessed with everything to do with show business, especially with stars. One of his first ventures as a young man was that he opened Chicago’s Civic Theater and financed The World of Carl Sandburg starring Bette Davis who was touring with her then husband Gary Merrill.
Carr moved to L.A. in 1966 and changed his name and opened up his own talent agency Allan Carr Enterprises, and quickly demonstrated that he was not just a first-class salesman, but that he had a lot of chutzpah too as he was soon managing major stars such Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, Rosalind Russell, Dyan Cannon, Melina Mercouri, and Marlo Thomas.
Carr was first and foremost a showman, and as well as managing his Clients, he started to achieve a reputation for mounting extraordinary lavish promotional parties like the one the Australian impresario Robert Stigwood employed him to do for the rock musical movie Tommy, and then after that for the premiere of Saturday Night Fever. These events propelled Stigwood into making Carr the producer of the movie Grease who’s phenomenally world-wide success became the high-point of Carr’s roller-coast career.
Without doubt Carr’s best talent was in self-promotion and in publicizing his own involvement in his projects which were always at the expense of others who got totally overlooked, as in the case Grease’s director Randal Kleiser who was all but forgotten. Carr took the full credit for everything because he always made it about himself, so when he faced failure as with the campy musical he followed Grease with Can’t Stop The Music which totally bombed at the box office and was savaged by the critics, he took it all very personally.
Schwarz makes no attempt at hiding the very obvious fact that Carr had his own personal demons. He was a compulsive overeater who in the end took to wearing nothing but voluminous kaftans to hide his enormous figure, and as a gay man he surrounded himself with scantily clad pretty boys, yet never had his first sexual experience until he was in his 30’s. When it came to sex it seems that he was more of a voyeur than a player and at his celebrated pool parties in his lavish and glamorous mansion he would entertain ‘A’ list movie stars and Hollywood royalty alongside with some of the gay demimonde. When the stars left, then the party would quickly become nothing less than an orgy to satisfy Carr’s predilection for watching his stable of boys make out together, and occasionally even getting involved.
Carr always coveted professional respectability and acceptance which he finally got when in 1983 he produced La Cage Aux Follies the first stage musical on Broadway to tackle a gay theme head on. It was a mega success running for five years and 1,761 performances, and winning an impressive six Tonys, including a “Best Musical” win for Carr.
This success however was followed by a spectacular failure in 1989 when Carr landed his dream job of producing the 61st Annual Academy Awards. He was hired to create a show based on his promise that he would turn it around from the dry, dull show it had been in previous years, but the end result was panned by both the critics and the members of the Academy who publicly denounced Carr. Being censored by the Hollywood elite who he considered were his peers and friends was the worse thing ever for the overly sensitive Carr who never ever managed to salvage his reputation in the movie community after that.
It is hard not to warm to the opportunistic Carr who mixed his extraordinary flair with a great deal of charm and this very scary aspect of knowing that he was so out of his depth so very much of his time, a fact that never seem to daunt him in the very least. Carr’s life may be a mystery to many of us which in itself is a great pity but at least Schwarz’s affectionate profile will quite rightly change all that. Going into the movie you may struggle recalling who he was, but after 9o minutes you have had a glimpse at the star-studded rather glamorous life that would sadly seem so out of place in the more overly micro-managed of today.
The Fabulous Allan Carr is not only an essential piece of our community’s history that should be seen by everyone, it is also a rather fabulous movie too.
The Fabulous Allan Carr
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz has added another subject to his series of documentaries on iconic LGBT figures which so far have included Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon, Tab Hunter Confidential, I Am Divine, and Vito. This time his subject Allan Carr may be not quite so well known to the general public, but his successful career as an infamous larger-than-life flamboyant Hollywood Producer and Agent make him a natural fit for one of Schwarz’s excellent and very compelling profiles.
Carr was born Allan Solomon in 1937, the only son of a wealthy Jewish family in Chicago and his parents spoilt him rotten, and indulged his every whim. From an early age he was fascinated to the point of being obsessed with everything to do with show business, especially with stars. One of his first ventures as a young man was that he opened Chicago’s Civic Theater and financed The World of Carl Sandburg starring Bette Davis who was touring with her then husband Gary Merrill.
Carr moved to L.A. in 1966 and changed his name and opened up his own talent agency Allan Carr Enterprises, and quickly demonstrated that he was not just a first-class salesman, but that he had a lot of chutzpah too as he was soon managing major stars such Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, Rosalind Russell, Dyan Cannon, Melina Mercouri, and Marlo Thomas.
Carr was first and foremost a showman, and as well as managing his Clients, he started to achieve a reputation for mounting extraordinary lavish promotional parties like the one the Australian impresario Robert Stigwood employed him to do for the rock musical movie Tommy, and then after that for the premiere of Saturday Night Fever. These events propelled Stigwood into making Carr the producer of the movie Grease who’s phenomenally world-wide success became the high-point of Carr’s roller-coast career.
Without doubt Carr’s best talent was in self-promotion and in publicizing his own involvement in his projects which were always at the expense of others who got totally overlooked, as in the case Grease’s director Randal Kleiser who was all but forgotten. Carr took the full credit for everything because he always made it about himself, so when he faced failure as with the campy musical he followed Grease with Can’t Stop The Music which totally bombed at the box office and was savaged by the critics, he took it all very personally.
Schwarz makes no attempt at hiding the very obvious fact that Carr had his own personal demons. He was a compulsive overeater who in the end took to wearing nothing but voluminous kaftans to hide his enormous figure, and as a gay man he surrounded himself with scantily clad pretty boys, yet never had his first sexual experience until he was in his 30’s. When it came to sex it seems that he was more of a voyeur than a player and at his celebrated pool parties in his lavish and glamorous mansion he would entertain ‘A’ list movie stars and Hollywood royalty alongside with some of the gay demimonde. When the stars left, then the party would quickly become nothing less than an orgy to satisfy Carr’s predilection for watching his stable of boys make out together, and occasionally even getting involved.
Carr always coveted professional respectability and acceptance which he finally got when in 1983 he produced La Cage Aux Follies the first stage musical on Broadway to tackle a gay theme head on. It was a mega success running for five years and 1,761 performances, and winning an impressive six Tonys, including a “Best Musical” win for Carr.
This success however was followed by a spectacular failure in 1989 when Carr landed his dream job of producing the 61st Annual Academy Awards. He was hired to create a show based on his promise that he would turn it around from the dry, dull show it had been in previous years, but the end result was panned by both the critics and the members of the Academy who publicly denounced Carr. Being censored by the Hollywood elite who he considered were his peers and friends was the worse thing ever for the overly sensitive Carr who never ever managed to salvage his reputation in the movie community after that.
It is hard not to warm to the opportunistic Carr who mixed his extraordinary flair with a great deal of charm and this very scary aspect of knowing that he was so out of his depth so very much of his time, a fact that never seem to daunt him in the very least. Carr’s life may be a mystery to many of us which in itself is a great pity but at least Schwarz’s affectionate profile will quite rightly change all that. Going into the movie you may struggle recalling who he was, but after 9o minutes you have had a glimpse at the star-studded rather glamorous life that would sadly seem so out of place in the more overly micro-managed of today.
The Fabulous Allan Carr is not only an essential piece of our community’s history that should be seen by everyone, it is also a rather fabulous movie too.
Celebrating its 35th Anniversary, Outfest – the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization promoting equality by creating, sharing, and protecting LGBT stories on the screen –Friday announced the complete programming lineup for the 2017 Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival presented by HBO. The nation’s leading LGBT festival will be held July 6–16, 2017.
The 2017 Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival opens at the Orpheum Theatre with Samuel Goldwyn Films’ “God’s Own Country,” Francis Lee’s powerful directorial and screenwriting feature debut; and closes with IFC Film’s “Freak Show,” Trudie Styler’s feature directorial debut starring Abigail Breslin, AnnaSophia Robb, Laverne Cox, and Bette Midler. Additional gala screenings include: U.S. Centerpiece “Strangers” (Dir/Scr: Mia Lidofsky), International Centerpiece “Close Knit” (Dir/Scr: Naoko Ogigami), Documentary Centerpiece “KEVYN AUCOIN Beauty & the Beast In Me” (Dir: Lori Kaye), and Special Centerpiece “Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall” (Dir: Katherine Fairfax Wright).
“Outfest began 35 years ago with a group of students desperate to find positive depictions of themselves on film; today Outfest is the launch pad for the storytellers that bring our stories to life on screen.” said Christopher Racster, Outfest Executive Director. “I am proud that this year’s program reflects just how far we have come as a movement, as a community and as storytellers. These films capture the true complexities of our lives, our loves, and our identities. But our advancements have only taken our community so far, and we are proud to champion this year’s filmmakers who capture the ongoing fight for our rights for freedom, for love, and for acceptance.”
With 194 films from 30 different countries, Outfest Los Angeles once again brings together the highest quality of LGBTQ film in the world along with highlighting efforts in the mainstream media to tell those stories.
The 2017 Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival will also return to the Theatre at Ace Hotel. These screenings will kick off on July 13 with Special Centerpiece, “Behind the Curtain: Todrick Hall,” with “The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin,” “After Louie,” and the Closing Night Gala “Freak Show” following on the subsequent days.
“The theme tying these films together is activism. Today’s queer filmmakers have gender parity, trans justice and racial equality top of mind. The activism that has existed in our community for decades is documented in films like ‘Chavela,’ ‘After Louie,’ and ‘Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution,’ and meets head on with present day movements that convey our community’s ongoing quest for civil rights, in films like ‘Whose Streets?,’ ‘The Death And Life Of Marsha P. Johnson,’ and ‘More Than T.’ The language of this year’s lineup taps into a multiplicity of perspectives to articulate what fairness should look like,” notes Lucy Mukerjee-Brown, Outfest Director of Programming.
Special Events include OWN’s “Queen Sugar” Director’s Panel with Outfest alumnae Aurora Guerrero, Tina Mabry and Cheryl Dunye; a conversation with I. Marlene King, the executive producer of “Pretty Little Liars” and “Famous in Love;” a screening of “Chasing Amy” in honor of the film’s 20th Anniversary followed by a conversation with director Kevin Smith and Guinevere Turner; Showtime Networks’ “More Than T;” a sneak peek at Season 4 of Amazon Studios’ “Transparent;” and a screening of REVRY’s “Suspiciously Large Woman: Bob the Drag Queen Comedy Special.” Additionally, the AT&T Hello Lab is hosting a panel examining the unique challenges and opportunities facing underrepresented communities in the entertainment industry, and the steps being taken to show a more diverse and realistic world.
For more information and for a complete listing of films in 2017 Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival, log on to outfest.org or call 213-480-7065, Monday–Friday, 10:00am-6:00pm.
Rounding out Season 39 is an over-the-top, extravagantly fun series of concerts – “The Gay Kitchen Sink!”
Pride Month is never complete without an over-the-top, fabulous evening with the internationally acclaimed San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus!
Celebrate Pride with SFGMC and their summer show — “The Gay Kitchen Sink” at the Nourse Theater, with very special guests The Kinsey Sicks.
“The Gay Kitchen Sink” is just what it sounds like — a delightfully spirited playlist of LGBT anthems, current favorites, and huge production numbers. You’ll absolutely revel in music by gay icons like Cyndi Lauper, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Sara Bareilles, Destiny’s Child, Robyn, Taylor Swift, Kander & Ebb, Patsy Cline, and of course a little Broadway thrown in the mix.
Of course, SFGMC couldn’t put on a Pride concert without a nod to the 1967 Summer of Love. The show opens with a rousing set of pieces honoring the 50th Anniversary of this momentous San Francisco revolution. In the Age of Aquarius, the hope was harmony and understanding. SFGMC starts by letting the sun shine in!
The Chorus will also present a few selections from its upcoming Lavender Pen Tour, which journeys to six Southern states this October to spread the Chorus’ message and music of hope, tolerance, and acceptance.
Also, don’t miss The Kinsey Sicks, SFGMC’s featured guest artists for “The Gay Kitchen Sink.” The Kinsey Sicks are “America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet”… and they must be heard to be believed! The Washington Post writes, “If you haven’t made the acquaintance of The Kinsey Sicks, it’s high time you did… Uproarious… brilliant… authentically joyful,” and KQED calls them “The Royal Shakespeare Company of drag performance.”