FilmOut celebrates its 24th year as San Diego's LGBTQ+ film festival, and I have attended every one.
The rewarding thing about being a loyal attendee of a film festival is that you sometimes get to see artists evolve. Benjamin Howard is a San Diego filmmaker who has been screening his short films at FilmOut since 2017. This year his debut feature "Riley" will close the festival on Sunday.
"If you had told me back then, 'hey, you're going to make a feature and it's going to close out the festival, several years from now.' I just I wouldn't have believed you," Howard said. "But here we are. And, coming back home to San Diego, where we filmed, where I grew up, we shot a scene right outside of the Museum of Photographic Arts, which is where we're screening the film, it's very serendipitous and really special."
Check out the discussion of queer horror and Benjamin Howard's short film "Rendezvous" from FilmOut 2022.
The feature is based on the short film "Rendezvous" that played at FilmOut in 2022. Both films focus on a high school senior and star football player performed by Jake Holley, who tries to come to terms with his queer identity.
The film is paired with another film from a San Diego filmmaker, Noah Wiseman's "Brain/Heart." Wiseman is making his FilmOut debut with a short he produced in high school. And like Howard, he focuses on a high school boy.
"He has to figure out, through his own journey, how he is going to navigate having a crush on a boy that will never like him back," Wiseman explained of his main character. "I like to think there's a little bit of comedy to it, but I don't think my parents who watched it would agree. I think at its heart it's a little bit of a romance, and then it twists itself into sort of an obsession story. Like a lot of teenagers in high school, I feel like when you have a crush on someone, it can sort of twist into an obsession, and it's more about wanting to be around that person than the person themselves. And then I think by the end of it, it's more scary than it is romance. I like the scariness. I like the darkness of of 'Brain/Heart.' So I'm working on a full horror movie. I think that'll be fun."
FilmOut programmer Michael McQuiggan has a passion for queer horror. And with this year's festival overlapping Friday the 13th, he took the cue and programed an entire night of horror.
The evening starts with "The Judgment," director Marwan Mokbel's multinational production (Egypt/Lebanon/U.S.). It's about a man who returns to his Egyptian home for a family emergency, and has to face some ghosts from his past, as well as possible witchcraft intended to punish him for his "homosexual sins."
The film alludes to possible supernatural elements but the horrors are really rooted in the real world and real prejudices.
Next up in the queer horror agenda is "Witchy Ways," brewed by Jane Clark who drew inspiration from the film "Practical Magic." The film is co-presented by Femtasia.
I’m thrilled to be a co-presenter with Film Geeks SD for "There's a Zombie Outside" from Troma alum Michael Varrati, and the shorts "Bath Bomb" and "Last Night."
Once again FilmOut brings an eclectic array of LGBTQ+ films for audiences to enjoy. Opening night takes place at The NAT with a screening of "F.L.Y.," a sort of rom-com set during the pandemic as ex-lovers find themselves quarantined together. The festival then continues through Sunday at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park.
