Thursday Night Program
Legends of Courage Project – Camille Wojtasiak on Being Gay in Business
Director Dawn Deason | 2016 | USA | 2 min
Camille Wojtasiak shares her unique experience as an out-lesbian in the male-dominated and rather conservative field of wealth management. Camille is a serious supporter of LGBT non-profits that focus on the arts and is the concept creator for the “Legends of Courage” LGBT oral history and documentary series.
Political Animals
Directors Jonah Markowitz and Tracy Wares | 2015 | USA | 90 min
Political Animals tells the story of the civil rights struggle of this century–the LGBT rights movement—through the eyes of four elected women, a group often left out of gay histories until now. Emotionally charged like its subjects, the film follows four groundbreaking lesbians who took the fight for the causes most personal to them and their communities off the streets and into the halls of government. Fierce, determined, focused and passionate, these women had the courage and foresight to start the work of legal rights of the LGBT community, ultimately paving the way for other states across the nation.
Friday Night Program
Legends of Courage Project – Dennis Mangers on LGBT Rights
Director Dawn Deason | 2016 | USA | 3 min
Former California Assembly member, Dennis Mangers reminds us that “LGBT” may not be the all-inclusive acronym some believe it to be. Dennis is a popular and respected community servant and a fierce advocate for LGBT rights. Dennis has a way of expressing himself that’s charming while informing.
S.T.A.R.
Director Rhys Ernst | 2016 | USA | 6 min
Empowered by their participation in the Stonewall Riots, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera fought back against the bourgeois, white gay liberation movement. In order to advocate for trans people, people of color, and the poor, they formed New York City’s S.T.A.R.—the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries.
MAJOR!
Director Annalise Ophelian | 2016 | USA | 95 min
This is the inspiring story of one woman’s journey, a community’s history, and how caring for each other can be a revolutionary act. MAJOR! is a documentary film exploring the life and campaigns of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a formerly incarcerated Black transgender elder and activist who has been fighting for the rights of trans women of color for over 40 years.
Saturday Matinee Program
Alzheimer’s: A Love Story
Directors Monica Petruzzelli and Gabe Schimmel | 2016 | USA | 17 min
Those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s live an average of eight years after their symptoms first become noticeable—it’s been 12 years for Greg. He lives at a memory care facility in Chicago and can no longer live independently. Every day a man named Michael comes and visits for a couple of hours. No one can say for sure if Greg knows who Michael is or why he comes every day, but it seems he does. From Michael’s point of view it’s only natural that Greg appears to know him—after all, Michael has loved Greg since the day they met 40 years ago.
Being 17 (Quand on a 17 ans)
Director André Téchiné | 2016 | France | 109 min
Director André Téchiné (Wild Reeds) returns with a new masterwork about gay adolescence, with a talented cast delivering delicately nuanced performances. Thomas and Damien, high school classmates in the remote French Pyrenees find that increased testosterone and unspoken feelings have created a complex rivalry they find difficult to understand, leading to occasional outbursts of violence as their lives become increasingly entwined.
Saturday Night Program
Legends of Courage Project – Laurie McBride on AIDS
Director Dawn Deason | 2016 | USA | 4 min
Laurie McBride discusses how the AIDS crisis was instrumental in the LGBT struggle for civil rights. She is an important advocate for LGBT civil rights and has been for most of her life. She served as the Assistant Secretary of State for California and Chief of Staff for the Majority Leader in the California Assembly. Laurie was at ground zero in San Francisco during the most frightening days of the AIDS crisis.
The Weigh In
Directors The Perez Bros. | 2014 | USA | 2 min
Two beefy boxers prepare for their big bout in a queer send-up of hyperventilating boxing promos.
Folsom Street
Director Aron Kantor | 2015 | USA | 5 min
Leathermen collide with Bob Fosse choreography in this kinky, sexy dance masterpiece.
Closet Monster
Director Stephen Dunn | 2015 | Canada | 90 min
Teenage lust, woozy visions, and a talking hamster voiced by Isabella Rossellini shape this queer coming-of-age tale that’s as strange, scary, and sublime as the real experience. Winner of multiple awards on the festival circuit and directed by Stephen Dunn, whose sexually irreverent short Pop-Up Porno was a favorite among SIGLFF audiences last year, Closet Monster is an impressive first feature that verifies Dunn’s reputation as a risk-taking visionary. Closet Monster is deliriously dark, but with a cheeky comic wit that emerges via Oscar’s closest confidant: “Buffy,” the wryly observant rodent.
Saturday Late Night Program
Paris 05:59: Theo & Hugo
Directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau | 2016 | France | 97 min
Incredibly hot sex is just the beginning of this truly remarkable and sumptuously shot French film. In the late night hours at a Paris sex club, Theo spots the handsome Hugo just a couple of naked bodies away. After some intense glances—and even more intense sex—they leave together. Riding their bikes through the mostly deserted streets, the two young men begin a conversation that will take them through the evening and traverse an extraordinary range of personal and psychological territory.
Preceded by:
SHORT
The Glory Hole
Director Daniel Maggio | 2015 | USA | 4 min
Two gay men in San Francisco, together 22 years, recount their unlikely first date with honest and tender hilarity.
Sunday Night Shorts Program
He Who Has Two Souls (Celui qui a deux âmes)
Director Fabrice Luang-Vija | 2015 | France | 17 min
In this gorgeous animated tale, an Inuit man hunts like the best of men and sews like the best of women. Tension builds like a taut bowstring about whom he should take as a partner, and the arrow hits home when he meets his match.
Do Not Think For A Moment
Directors Adria Siu and Vivian Wang | 2015 | USA | 4 min
Challenging stereotypes of gender, sexuality, and race, three Asian American women share their experiences, frustrations, and identity amid the backdrop of San Francisco’s Castro District and other neighborhoods.
Libertad
Director Brenda Avila-Hanna | 2015 | USA | 9 min
Libertad is a short documentary featuring the incredible Alejandra Santiago, an indigenous transwoman from Oaxaca whose life journey transcends multiple borders.
Performing Girl
Director Crescent Diamond | 2013 | USA | 25 min
Performing Girl tells the compelling story of D’Lo, a performance artist originally from Southern California and raised by Sri Lankan parents who struggled with his gender variance through childhood and adolescence. Through animation, intimate family interviews, and poignant excerpts from D’Lo’s performances, the film illustrates the evolution of a family’s unconditional love.
Be Fabulous, First Stop: Sexitude
Director Meghan Ryan | 2015 | USA | 5 min
Welcome to Sexitude, a body-positive, sex-positive, age-positive dance class in San Francisco, created by D’Arcy Drollinger. The participants in the class represent all shapes, sizes, genders, sexual orientations, and fitness levels, and definitely know how to werk a look in neon spandex, fishnet stockings, and gold booty shorts.
Pick Up
Director Joshua Alan Rogers | 2015 | USA | 20 min
Jesse is a driver for “Pick Up”, a ride-sharing service in LA. He’s begun falling for a very handsome regular passenger, but the secret Jesse decides to share may steer them both off course.
Spunkle
Director Lisa Donato | 2016 | USA | 11 min
Tensions rise when a woman and her wife ask her brother to be the sperm donor of their baby…or the uncle…or the Spunkle!
Spoilers
Director Brendon McDonall | 2016 | Australia/UK | 22 min
Leon and Felix are strangers on a plane who find they have an uncommon connection. But seizing the moment requires they first have to resist playing out their entire future in their heads in this delightful Welsh Iris Prize winner.
These C*cksucking Tears
Director Dan Taberski | 2016 | USA | 16 min
Meet Patrick Haggerty, the man behind the world’s first and only gay-themed country music album, “Lavender Country”, 40 years after its release, in this rollicking and moving SXSW 2016 Jury Award-winning film.