CARNAL NATION

Each year, Frameline creates an opening trailer for their annual San Francisco LGBT Film Festival that is shown at the beginning of each screening. This year's trailer began with a close-up of a Super 8 projector being threaded and stacks of old films in obsolete 8mm format symbolizing how it all began at the first San Francisco Gay Film Festival in 1977. Included was a shot of a man's hands with red nail polish hanging a sheet on the wall as the screen. From those humble beginnings 33 years ago, the event has turned into a mainstay of gay culture that has spawned other gay film festivals in cities around the world. Frameline is the oldest and largest gay film festival, having sold 60,000 tickets to 226 films over the 11 days between June 18 through June 28.

Of the top films shown, Patrik, Age 1.5 won Best Feature, Training Rules won Best Documentary, and Lucha won Best Short Film.

Among some of Frameline33's many guest attendees were Rosie O'Donnell, Sharon Gless, and Chad Allen; from Drool were Jill Marie Jones and Mulholland Drive's Laura Harring; Emmy Rossum and Zach Gilford, stars of Dare; and Joe D'Allesandro, star and subject of Little Joe.

By the time I moved here in 1981, the film festival was already well-established. Over the years, I have been awed by the incredible selections shown every year. Although I've completely missed the entire film festival several times, I always make a point of at least reading the program to see what's being shown. During the weeks prior to the festival this year, I kept having an urge to see a movie—any movie—but nothing at the regular theaters seemed worthy of making the effort to leave the house. But as soon as I saw the program for the festival, I got excited and sat right down to order tickets online. Since it was the first time I was able to buy tickets online, I guess that indicates how long it's been since I attended a Frameline Festival! I also broke my two of my personal bests this year: 10 movies in one week, and on Tuesday the 23rd I attended three screenings in a single day!

Below are reviews of some of the movies I watched. The sad part is, for many of these movies, it may be the only time they will get screened. Even if some of them get released on DVD, without a big Hollywood style promotional machine, many will languish on a dusty shelf in the Special Interest section of a video store that is barely staying open. Sadder yet, in the case of Forever's Gonna Start Tonight, the film took four years to complete and has now hit a brick wall because they can't afford to pay for the music rights in order to get the film distributed. Thank goddess for Frameline!

The LA Times article by Mark Olsen, July 5, 2009, dug deeper into the problem of getting wider attention to gay movies: "In light of the uncertainty in the film business in general, and in the independent sector in particular, the business surrounding LGBT filmmaking is surprisingly healthy, with cable television and home video deals still available to a large number of films—as well as screening fees from many festivals."  Neither Frameline nor LA's Outfest pay screening fees to film makers. On the contrary, they charge filmmakers an entry fee to show it. The LA Times goes on to say, "On the flip side, moving from the gay-fest circuit to theatrical distribution for general audiences remains in many ways a largely unattainable goal for many LGBT filmmakers. 'That is probably the biggest, most difficult issue of all,' said Jeffrey Winter, co-president of the sales, marketing and distribution firm New American Vision. 'Crossover is a major, major issue. People who make gay films in no way are afraid of being called gay filmmakers anymore, but do they want their films to be seen by straight people? Absolutely. And it is very hard to get those films out of the gay ghetto.'"

Here are excerpts from my reviews of some of the many films I saw. You can find the complete reviews and other musings on gay life, culture, and, of course, men on my blog at Lavender Lounge (NSFW).