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SFist Sara gives you the lowdown on what to expect from the Frameline GLBT film fest, which starts up TODAY!
Starting today, The Frameline LGBT Film Festival will be rolling out its rainbow carpet at the Castro and the lineup of guests is glittery. Besides appearances by RuPaul (for Starrbooty), Alan Cumming (for his directorial debut Suffering Man’s Charity) and Alexis Arquette (for Alexis Arquette: She’s our Brother), the fest is again offering a super smart lineup of LGBT themed fare with a special mention of the fest’s foreign language section.
Opening night (tonight!) is the French film The Witnesses. Set over a year between 1984-85, this film follows a group of friends and lovers during the AIDS discovery period. An ensemble piece, André Téchiné intelligently weaves a plot that implicates parental and sexual relationships while getting at the question: “what can we really know about each other?” Subtle in its ways, Witnesses lets you be the witness to its eventual quandary. And if you’re not into it, at the very least it’s artful.
Nina’s Heavenly Delights (preview here) is a sort of Indian/Lesbian/Scottish Like Water For Chocolate (director Pratibha Parmar attending). It’s mainstream and a little overly sweetened, but it’s full of really pretty people and positively raises the question of compromise: everyone is bi-cultural, everyone is hiding a decision and everyone would be so much happier if they just spit it out already! (Audience included.)
More movies, and preview clips, after the jump! Preview of Nina's Heavenly Delights above.
Red Without Blue (preview here) is a doc made by a local (Brooke Seibold attending!) and it’s getting some due attention. About a pair of twins who both come out (in close proximity to their parent’s divorce), one twin chooses gender reassignment and the family rallies around her. Pairing artless reporting and occasionally using photos like Ken Burns, the film creates a strange space that makes you question reality and our parts in constructing that reality. Even if you don’t like it, you’ll have lots to talk about over coffee and (ahem) canolli.
El Calentito is a nostalgic coming of age comedy about punk and fascism in 80’s Madrid. Calentito is what early Almodóvar would be if it were tidier (nostalgia does tidy) and watched girls kissing instead of boys. The themes are all there: oppressive Catholicism, tyrannical mothers, vice as choice, subversive sexuality. And virginity! Don’t forget the virgins.
A hit at past fests, The Curiosity of Chance (preview here) is pithy and warm and loves the 80s just as much as Calentito but for more American reasons. We interviewed the director if you want to hear more.
Finally, our favorite has to be the sure-to-be-controversial Israeli feature The Bubble (director Etyan Fox attending). An indictment of both the Israli-Palestinian conflict and the tendency of the self-entitled youth to speak out unknowing of consequence, The Bubble suggests a relationship between the activists and the perpetuation of the conflict. Granted, the premise doesn’t sound drastically unpredictable but the film is nuanced and vibrant and balances a subtext about revolution that is truly challenging.
Altogether – there’s not much worth missing at Frameline, and we didn’t even touch the porn. We’ll let you touch that.
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