Editor

Outfest to Screen Highlighted Winners During Largest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

Outfest 2004 Los Angeles is one of the largest lesbian and gay film festivals. With a year round screening program and many support projects throughout the year. This seasons Outfest will run from July 8th to July 19th with in the city of Los Angeles. Premieres, parties, sing-a-long screening and a host of filmmakers will be a part of one of the best G & L Festivals in the industry.
To be able to screen top award-winning films for this Festival will be popular for attendees as many of these have yet to play the West Coast. Outfest reputation has been instrumental in drawing the support from the film community to have this dynamic programming available.
Scheduled to screen are: BROTHER TO BROTHER which won, Special Jury Award, Sundance Film Festival, Best Fiction Feature, Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Vanguard Award, New York LGBT Film Festival. Using the powerful legacy of the Harlem Renaissance as its inspiration, BROTHER TO BROTHER is a stirring and captivating contemporary tale about a young, gay Black artist who is transported to a time full of creative integrity, radical discourse, unabashed gay sex and great pride. CALLAS FOREVER Audience Favorite, Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The vision of renowned opera and film master Franco Zeffirelli (ROMEO AND JULIET, TEA WITH MUSSOLINI), the powerful and touching performances of Fanny Ardant and Jeremy Irons, and the unsurpassed singing voice of opera diva Maria Callas make this a breathtaking experience for lovers of opera and film. DORIAN BLUES Best US Narrative Screenplay Award, New York LGBT Film Festival This hilarious coming-of-age tale portrays one very charming young man’s triumphs along the road to happiness. GARDEN Best Documentary Feature Award, New York LGBT Film Festival In this timely documentary, filmmakers Ruthie Shatz and Adi Barash provide a trenchant study of the displaced lives of two male hustlers caught in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. ON THE DOWNLOW Best US Narrative Feature Award, New York LGBT Film Festival In this violent world of warring Latino gangbangers, handsome Angel defects to the enemy camp to be with his clandestine lover Isaac. SUGAR Best Canadian Feature-Length Narrative or Documentary, Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival Based on short stories by queer auteur Bruce LaBruce (THE RASPBERRY REICH), John Palmer’s SUGAR is a defiantly provocative coming-of-age story about a restless suburban teen who hooks up with a strikingly handsome hustler with an escalating drug habit.
Also to take note of and a buzz has already been noted is, SUPERSTAR IN A HOUSEDRESS Audience Award, Best Documentary, Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival. This riveting documentary chronicles the life and legend of Andy Warhol superstar Jackie Curtis, who died tragically from a heroin overdose at the age of 38 - at the precise moment he was having his first experience with heterosexual sex. What a way to go! More award winning screening are: TOUCH OF PINK Best Artistic Achievement in a Feature Film or Video, Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival The magic of the movies pervades this culture-clash romantic comedy starring Jimi Mistry (THE GURU) as Alim, a South-Asian Canadian living in London with his lover, Giles (Kristen Holden-Reid), and his lifelong imaginary friend and mentor, Hollywood legend Cary Grant (Kyle MacLachlan). WILD SIDE Teddy Award, Berlin International Film Festival New Director's Showcase Award, Seattle International Film Festival Director Sébastian Lifshitz (COME UNDONE) returns to Outfest with an arrestingly beautiful and daring film about the love, sex and companionship that unite a trio of outsiders. YES NURSE! NO NURSE! Audience Award, San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival Combining elements of CHICAGO, DOWN WITH LOVE and MOULIN ROUGE, this original and unexpected musical delight revolves around the eccentric residents of an Amsterdam rest home - and the curmudgeonly landlord/neighbor who wants them all evicted. YOU I LOVE Best Foreign Narrative Feature Award, New York LGBT Film Festival
A delightful, hyper-sexual Russian triangle involving a dashing advertising executive, a beautiful TV anchorwoman and an adorable young man who works in the Moscow Zoo.
Outfest will begin its 22nd edition of with Sony’s “D.E.B.S.” and will close with the debut of the much anticipated Warner Independent Pictures release “A Home at the End of the World,” starring Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts and Sissy Spacek, directed by Michael Mayer and written by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham (The Hours) from his acclaimed novel.

Outfest has the admiration of the Festival Industry for presenting a diverse program while staying true to the mission of the Festival. This year they plan to screen 218 films features, documentaries and short films from 24 countries. Dates are scheduled for the Festival is July 8th to the 19th, 2004 at nine different venues across Los Angeles. For more information, log on to www.Outfest.org or call 213/480-7065.
Keako Beatie