THE SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBTQ FESTIVAL
What: A showcase of the world’s best LGBTQ cinema When: June 15-25 Where: Castro, Roxie and Victoria theaters in San Francisco; Elmwood in Berkeley; and Piedmont in Oakland.
Opening-night film: “The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin,” a look at the legendary San Francisco writer, 7 p.m. June 15, Castro; followed by a gala at Terra Gallery, 511 Harrison St. (at First), San Francisco.
U.S. centerpiece: “Becks,” a wry, bittersweet tale of a down-on-her-luck singer who returns home, 6:30 p.m. June 21, Castro.
World centerpiece: “I Dream in Another Language,” a surreal story of a lost love in the Mexican rain forest, 6:30 p.m. June 20, Castro. Closing-night film: “After Louie,” an intergenerational drama involving a 1980s AIDS activist and a Millennial, 7 p.m. June 25, Castro; followed by a party at Oasis, 298 11th St. (at Folsom), San Francisco.
More info: www.frameline.org
Hollywood isn’t exactly filling up the screen with LGBTQ characters and stories, either, even as independent LGBTQ movies earn more praise from mainstream film critics.
“What we’re witnessing is a more socially awake and conscious queer movement in film,’’ Vaughn said, “and it’s hard to imagine its momentum being blunted anytime soon, especially amid such tense political upheaval.
“We do need to be careful post-‘Moonlight’ not to assume that mainstream validation means that film festivals are now insignificant for projects seeking red-carpet approval. Part of what keeps LGBTQ cinema thriving is its vocal base that gives queer films a unique type of ground support and street cred that can’t always be conjured up by more mainstream community gatherings.”
Frameline continues to provide important backing for LGBTQ projects: 10 films in this year’s lineup received grants from the Frameline Completion Fund. “Frameline’s mission,” Wallace said, “is to change the world through the power of queer cinema — and change can only happen if this more challenging content continues to be produced.”
Indeed, LGBTQ filmmakers have come a long way since film scholar B. Ruby Rich coined the New Queer Cinema movement 25 years ago.
Back then, Stein said, “those films showed that queer subject matter and aesthetics needn’t be hidden or positioned only in deferential contrast to mainstream culture. Today’s movement — and I am not sure it is a coherent movement as much as a shared, assured attitude — is marked not by common opposition to an oppressive majority culture, but, ironically, by an insistence that our stories belong in the majority cultures.
“These films insist that sexual identities are part of a fabric inextricably woven from national, tribal, cultural, religious and racial identities. They say, in the best possible way, ‘It’s complicated.’ ”