This is KPBS Midday Edition I am Maureen Cavanaugh. Film out San Diego's LGBT film Festival kicks off its 19th year this Friday at the observatory North Park. The festival will show -- showcase 40 shorts features and documentaries. Our arts reporter gets a preview of the festival with film out her grandma Michael McMakin It is about to turn 20 next year. What kind of changes has the festival gone through in these decades. The biggest changes that were used to be a big weeklong festival that was five days and now we are three days. We have streamlined the festival down to three days because for our festival what we learned was that attendance was low on Monday Tuesday Wednesday evening so that was kind of embarrassing when we would have dealmakers show up and there were 50 people. We decided to streamline the festival down to three days and pick the best of the best -- best of the best films and do whatever Friday through Sunday and it has worked out well for us. Your opening night is already sold out for Tommy with the film is you will be screening. We are excited that we have already sold out. The film is called a very sordid wedding. Jesus spoke to us and said no service to the date -- gaze. No cakes flowers or photos and nobody to perform the wedding's. No gay marriage. Ever ever ever. Jesus is speaking to me right here and now and the boys that I am hearing is telling me He is telling me that he never said anything to you. It is a sequel to sordid lives which came out in 2000. We are excited that this will be the exclusive San Diego premier. We have no source it will be in attendance along with 14 of the original cast so we are excited that we will have most of them here and it will be followed by our party at the Sunset Temple. This year you also have something new which is you are doing your first ever Gay horror block of films. I know you I a horror fan so are you excited. I really am, I've been wanting to do this for years that we just did not have that many horror film submissions especially shorts. This year we received a handful. I was like these are all worthy films so I decided why not just you a horror tracked on Saturday night. I always go with the 17th century medieval long board. Sword. I'm pretty sure King Arthur touched it. I do not care about how it is done as long as they taste good after. We just decided that normally for our Saturday night we do something pretty aggressive in terms of sexuality. This year without let's do something in terms of poor and maybe a little bit of course run-in for a different type of audience. That is why we went with that. We are going to screen five horror short and I hope people come. Early on in the festival it seemed like a lot of what these were about were about gay identity. Now that there are more homes representing LGBT filmmakers it seems like they are more willing to go into genre filmmaking and stepping away from those issues right and the friend and tackling them through Jonathan's. They have a better chance of getting into our festival because like you said they are not dealing with blame ourselves identity or the romantic comedies or musicals not to take away from any of those themes that when something is original that is not seen through the Sinemet it is refreshing. I encourage filmmakers to make more genre films because you have a chance of getting into festivals when it is something that is not carbon copied hundreds and hundreds of times. Over each festival submission process it is incredible how many people think they can get into festivals if they are going to make around, or a socially relevant drama. It is done today. One of the mainstays of the festival has always and documentaries. You will be closing with one. Told me about the closing night from. It is the untold tells of Armistead Martin. Is a prolific writer based out of San Francisco who wrote details of the city parks. Not really. My writing didn't really flourish until I came out because it is very possible to keep a huge secret in your heart and be a good writer. I think it is very difficult. My whole success was concurrent with my coming out sexually. It is basically a film about his life and has lot of interviews with people like you McAllen and Olympia Dukakis and Laura Lenny and Charles Busch to name a few. For people that like documentaries that we have screened over pasts like I am the vine and tab Hunter confidential this is right like that. I am excited about a lot of the features. Some of the film still is socially relevant themes. We have the lavender scare which is not a documentary which kind of is a chapter of not just LGBTQ history but American history that has been ignored and it is about the Eisenhower era during the Cold War that they were trying to blackmail and have homosexuals kind of erased from the government system. The factors I was fired not because of a judgment on me as an individual but a judgment against an entire group of people. I'm certain you agree that every American citizen has the right to be considered on the basis of his own personal merit. I am a homosexual American citizen. Before I leave this earth I assure you that I will see to it that the second and third words of that phrase American citizen are no longer ignored in regard to people like me. That's when we have another film that is an eight comedy if you can believe that caught pushing dead and it's an outstanding film. It used to be a big deal. Marches and red ribbons. Media coverage. Those days now it is just another boring life-threatening illness. It is about as exciting as having hepatitis C. All the films he can read about the line up in the synopsis all from our website. Anything else you want to highlight before we and Lex I want to spotlight one more. This year we received a lot of local filmmaker shorts. We decided to spotlight them and so we are going to premier four local San Diego short films on Sunday morning so we are hoping that people will get out and support our local filmmakers. Thank you very much. We will be seeing you at the festival this weekend.
FilmOut, San Diego’s LGBT film festival, kicks off on Friday at the Observatory North Park. Here is a preview.
FilmOut celebrates its 19th anniversary, and its opening night film, “A Very Sordid Wedding,” is already sold out. The film is the sequel to Del Shores’ 2000 feature film “Sordid Lives” and 2008 TV series. Many of the original cast members are returning for the sequel and at the festival for opening night. Shores will also be attendance. He received FilmOut’s Career Achievement Award in 2012.
You cannot get into opening night nor its after party, but FilmOut programmer Michael McQuiggan said there is plenty more to see at the three-day festival.
As a horror fan, McQuiggan is thrilled to be presenting FilmOut’s first ever queer horror block of shorts at 10 p.m., Saturday. McQuiggan has been dedicated to showcasing gay horror. He screened “Hellbent,” a film referred to as the first gay slasher film, back in 2004. He has also programmed a number of brilliant but dark films such as “Drown” and “Down River” as a contrast to the brighter rom-coms that also play at the festival.
Matheus Farias is a Brazilian filmmaker who is having “Room for Rent,” a film he co-directed with Enock Carvalho, showcased as part of the horror block.
“We are thrilled and honored to have our film being screened at FilmOut San Diego at this block of horror genre films,” Farias said. “Where are the queer characters in horror films? Maybe FilmOut San Diego will have the answer for that question.”
Carvalho added, “We are lovers of horror films, so seems natural that we use this genre to tell stories while making films. The idea for the film came when we were both talking about a tale of two women having a date. They would go to an apartment owned by one of them, and the end of the night would go terribly wrong. The idea for the film already came with a dark and mysterious mood, probably because these references were all in our mind.”
In addition to the horror block, McQuiggan is excited about the closing night documentary, “The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin,” about the beloved San Francisco author of “Tales of the City.”
“It’s basically a film about his life, and it has lots of interviews with people like Ian McKellan, Olympia Dukakis, Laura Linney, and Charles Busch to name a few,” McQuiggan said. “And people who like documentaries that we screened in the past like ‘I Am Divine’ and ‘Tab Hunter Confidential,’ this is right up that same alley so you won’t be disappointed.”
FilmOut runs Friday through Sunday and will screen some 40 shorts, features and documentaries at the Observatory North Park.
Check out the Cinema Junkie Podcast #119 on Thursday all about Queer Horror.
