San Francisco, CA - Frameline29, the 29th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, is set to run June 16-26 at the historic Castro Theatre, Victoria Theatre, and Roxie Cinema in San Francisco, as well as at Oakland's Parkway Theater.

This year's Festival is unusually rocking, rolling, and show-stopping, with films featuring top talent from the wide and wild world of LGBT music and performance. Lovelorn heart-throb and exquisite depressive Morrissey (leader of legendary Britpop band The Smiths) is the object of affection for pompadoured East L.A. Latino fans in William E. Jones' stylish documentary IS IT REALLY SO STRANGE? A queer music icon from an earlier era is profiled in James Dowell's and John Kolomvakis' NED ROREM: WORD & MUSIC, which examines the fascinating career of America's leading composer of art songs and doubles as a gay cultural history of the twentieth century. Alt-country duo Y'all drive across America in their camper, bringing snappy tunes, lucky green dresses and relationship drama to their fans in Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer's delightful doc LIFE IN A BOX.

Queer punks get their rocks off in I Wanna Be Sedated, a loud and proud shorts program featuring new videos by local bands Boyskout, and Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes, along with the short MALAQUEERCHE: QUEER PUNK ROCK SHOW, which pits the Mohawks against the Mullets in a quest for punk stardom. Another shorts program packed with post-punk attitude is Off the Hook, featuring the sounds and visions of San Francisco synth-poppers Boyskout, FTM emo-hop MC Katastrophe, and local electronic powerhouse "hey willpower" (recent tour mate of the Scissor Sisters).

Also on the local front, two documentaries celebrate 10 years of flashy, trashy gender illusion at infamous club Trannyshack. Sean Mullens' TRANNYSHACK and Sasha Aicken's BLOOD, SWEAT, AND GLITTER revel in the glamorous bad taste of the drag queens who have made the club and its competitions world-famous. Local impresario and drag superstar Peaches Christ takes the stage at the Castro Theatre to present her and co-director Deena Davenport's TRAN-ILOGY OF TERROR and a bevy of larger-than-life cohorts (in person and on screen). The dulcet tones of African American a cappella quintet lend grace and soul to Kathy Hines' and Rebecca Burklee's CREATING A PLACE AT THE TABLE, a documentary about multicultural lesbian couples and their families that also features the award-winning music of Danielle LoPresti & The Masses. The unique feminist-flavored music of Queen Bee inspired the script for, and is heard throughout, German filmmaker Sathyan Ramesh's BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, in which five independent actors embark on a life-changing journey. In Travis Reeves' wonderfully engaging documentary FUNNY KINDA GUY, Scottish transgender singer/songwriter Simon gains his true identity as a man but loses his high-pitched singing voice to hormone treatment.

In Mike Nicholls' mock-doc KIKI & HERB ON THE ROCKS, the self-described "boozy chanteusie" and her piano-playing sidekick (having first made their mark in San Francisco) invade London. In John Catania's and Charles Ignacio's THE LADY IN QUESTION IS CHARLES BUSCH, beloved drag performer Busch (DIE MOMMY DIE!) recalls his movie-obsessed childhood and the origins of his off-Broadway hits. Another Big Apple story is told in Jenni Livingston's epochal vogue-ball documentary PARIS IS BURNING, back for a 15th-anniversary screening before its release on DVD later this year. Livingston also will premiere a new short, WHO'S THE TOP?, featuring dozens of Busby Berkeley-style dancers high-stepping through remarkable bondage-inspired dance numbers. Dancer/performers also take center stage in Dan Castle's ZONA ROSA, in which gorgeous exotic entertainers enliven the nightclubs in Mexico City's notorious "pink zone" with their bump-and-grind routines.

With this variety of music and performance films, Frameline29 moves to its own queer beat!

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Frameline29 -- the 29th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival -- is the oldest and largest event of its kind in the world, and will screen June 16-26, 2005. Frameline29 screens in San Francisco at the Castro Theatre (429 Castro St.), the Roxie Cinema (3117 16th St.), the Victoria Theatre (2961 16th St.) and in Oakland at the Parkway Theater (1834 Park Blvd). Festival passes are currently on sale to Frameline members. Tickets go on sale to Frameline members on Friday, May 27, 2005. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 3, 2005. For more information, please call 925.866.9559 or visit www.Frameline.org.

Frameline29 is presented by Frameline, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and furthering its visibility by supporting and promoting a broad array of cultural representations and artistic expression in film, video, and other media art.