Frameline41 San Francisco LGBT Film Festival June 15-25
By Moira Sullivan
The largest ongoing LGBT film festival in the world, Frameline41, the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, will take place June 15-25, 2017. This year there are films from over 19 countries and the good news is 40 percent of the films are made by women directors. Here are some highlights:
The OPENING NIGHT Film and Gala on June 15 is THE UNTOLD TALES OF ARMISTEAD MAUPIN directed by Jennifer Kroot. This will be the Bay Area premiere. Armistead Maupin will be in attendance and is warmly remembered for his Tales of the City. The film includes interviews with Sir Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis and others.
AFTER LOUIE - Closing Night Film, on June 25, the debut feature of Vincent Gagliostro in a West Coast Premiere. The film's protagonist Sam (Alan Cumming) hails from the onslaught of HIV/AIDS in the 80's and 90's and was an ACT UP activist. He is skeptical of a younger generation of gay men and their lack of political commitment or convictions but when he meets the young Braeden, he becomes open to new ways of thinking. Alan Cumming will be the recipient of the 2017 FRAMELINE AWARD.
CENTERPIECE features include BECKS by Daniel Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh. When Becks' lover leaves her for a younger woman she moves home with her ex-nun mother played by Christine Lahti - and when she least expects it finds romance in the Midwest. Plays on June 21
CHAVELA is a documentary directed by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi about the famous Costa Rican Mexican singer Chavela Vargas who died in 2012. She was in several of Pedro Almodóvars films and sang the soulful "Paloma Negra" (Black Dove) in Julie Taymor’s 2002 film "Frida". Screens June 19.
I DREAM IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE (Sueño en otra idioma), which won the Audience Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival concerns a fifty-year feud between speakers of a a dying indigenous language in Mexico. June 20
Other noteworthy films are THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON by David France, which investigates the 1992 death of transgender pioneer Marsha P. Johnson. In the course of making the film interviews her friend and comrade Sylvia River both instrumental in the modern trans rights movement. June 22.
THE FABULOUS LIFE OF ALLAN CARR, by Jeffrey Schwarz, is the story of the successful producer Allan Carr who was behind productions such as "Grease" and the Broadway hit "La Cage aux Folles", but who screwed up when producing the 1989’s Academy Awards ceremony, which is considered one of the worst Oscars. Walt Disney sued when Carr paired Snow White (Eileen Bowman) singing with Rob Lowe among other blunders. June 18
For Whitney Houston fans WHITNEY. “CAN I BE ME”, by Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal, is a stark portrait of the late artist with never before sceen footage of her life. June 20
One classic film not to miss is LOOKING FOR LANGSTON, by Isaac Julien, a digital restoration of the 1989 poetic treatise of the Harlem Renaissance. June 19. Another is Donna Deitch's classic lesbian romance DESERT HEARTS from 1985 in a new digital restoration.
GIRL UNBOUND, by Erin Heidenreich takes a look at a high ranking female squash player in Pakistan who has been playing since here teens but had received death threats from the Taliban but who refuses to stop. June 18.
There are many more films at the festival that deserve mention and these are only a few of the excellent choices made by programmer Des Buford who is planning to retire from the festival after many years of service and go on to new opportunities.
© 2017 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 06/14/17
Movie Magazine International
AFTER LOUIE - Closing Night Film, on June 25, the debut feature of Vincent Gagliostro in a West Coast Premiere. The film's protagonist Sam (Alan Cumming) hails from the onslaught of HIV/AIDS in the 80's and 90's and was an ACT UP activist. He is skeptical of a younger generation of gay men and their lack of political commitment or convictions but when he meets the young Braeden, he becomes open to new ways of thinking. Alan Cumming will be the recipient of the 2017 FRAMELINE AWARD.
CENTERPIECE features include BECKS by Daniel Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh. When Becks' lover leaves her for a younger woman she moves home with her ex-nun mother played by Christine Lahti - and when she least expects it finds romance in the Midwest. Plays on June 21
CHAVELA is a documentary directed by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi about the famous Costa Rican Mexican singer Chavela Vargas who died in 2012. She was in several of Pedro Almodóvars films and sang the soulful "Paloma Negra" (Black Dove) in Julie Taymor’s 2002 film "Frida". Screens June 19.
I DREAM IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE (Sueño en otra idioma), which won the Audience Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival concerns a fifty-year feud between speakers of a a dying indigenous language in Mexico. June 20
Other noteworthy films are THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON by David France, which investigates the 1992 death of transgender pioneer Marsha P. Johnson. In the course of making the film interviews her friend and comrade Sylvia River both instrumental in the modern trans rights movement. June 22.
THE FABULOUS LIFE OF ALLAN CARR, by Jeffrey Schwarz, is the story of the successful producer Allan Carr who was behind productions such as "Grease" and the Broadway hit "La Cage aux Folles", but who screwed up when producing the 1989’s Academy Awards ceremony, which is considered one of the worst Oscars. Walt Disney sued when Carr paired Snow White (Eileen Bowman) singing with Rob Lowe among other blunders. June 18For Whitney Houston fans WHITNEY. “CAN I BE ME”, by Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal, is a stark portrait of the late artist with never before sceen footage of her life. June 20
One classic film not to miss is LOOKING FOR LANGSTON, by Isaac Julien, a digital restoration of the 1989 poetic treatise of the Harlem Renaissance. June 19. Another is Donna Deitch's classic lesbian romance DESERT HEARTS from 1985 in a new digital restoration.
GIRL UNBOUND, by Erin Heidenreich takes a look at a high ranking female squash player in Pakistan who has been playing since here teens but had received death threats from the Taliban but who refuses to stop. June 18.
There are many more films at the festival that deserve mention and these are only a few of the excellent choices made by programmer Des Buford who is planning to retire from the festival after many years of service and go on to new opportunities.
© 2017 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 06/14/17
Movie Magazine International
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