San Francisco, CA - Frameline29, the 29th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, is the oldest and largest LGBT film festival in the world and is scheduled to run June 16Ð26 at the historic Castro Theatre, Victoria Theatre, and Roxie Cinema in San Francisco, as well as at the Parkway Theater in Oakland (June 20Ð24).

The easily recognizable prevalence of queer youthÐbased films in Frameline29 reflects the increasing visibility of today's young LGBT community, a group more determined to be seen and heard than ever before-and the Festival is the perfect vantage.

One not-to-be-missed Festival29 program is Do It Yourself-New Youth Films, which showcases a collection of youth-made films from around the Bay Area: Sarah Millet's GENDER PAINS explores the filmmaker's elusive stream of emotions regarding gender and placement; director Tamara Rahman's NO MATTER WHAT addresses sexual abuse by women against women; Natasha Brinsko's QUID PRO QUO captures an experimental conversation that uncovers betrayal and misunderstanding; Jen Gilomen's IN MY SHOES- STORIES OF YOUTH WITH LGBT FAMILES reveals how several youths perceive growing up w/ queer parents; and concluding this exciting youth-focused program will be the screening of the first film made by the Wells Fargo/Frameline Youth Filmmaker Workshop.

Other impressive youth-made Festival entries include Gentry McShane's DETACHED, an experimental video poetry piece on gender identity and sex work, and Kai Ling Xue's A GIRL NAMED KAI, a brave and honest autobiography about self-discoveries, passions, secrets, and dreams.

Youth-centered Festival features run the gamut in their portrayal of angst-filled adolescents struggling with their identities, as seen in Lionel Baier's GARÇON STUPIDE, which highlights the downward spiral of a street-smart hustler, and Gæl Morel's powerful film about three brothers struggling to find their place in life in THREE DANCING SLAVES, to more self-affirming depictions of queer youth and youth with LGBT parents, as found in the Frameline29 special presentation of Marco Kreuzpaintner's SUMMER STORM, about what happens when a rowing league must accept-physically and emotionally-an all-gay team, as well as the Closing Night screening of Duncan Trucker's TRANSAMERICA, a hilarious yet touching feature debut staring Felicity Huffman ("Desperate Housewives") as pre-op MTF transsexual who discovers she has a son, a hustler who is trying to track down his biological father.

Even Opening Night's COTE D'AZURE, by filmmakers Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Marineau, serves up a delicious and comedic portrayal of how one family's children offer greater stability in their sexuality than their parents, whose quixotic vacillating in desires weakens their authority.

Documentaries about queer youth include Natalie Wood's ENTER, HAILEY, about the filmmaker's own experience with her sister's decision to raise her child, Hailey, away from the violent and homophobic views of their parents, b.h. Yael's TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA, about a 13-year-old's disillusionment with her age, Jacqueline Frost's WHAT IS GAY? that addresses what the word "gay means for children of LGBT parents, and directors Ilsa Bertolini's and Stephanie Miller's PROM NIGHT (a recipient of the Frameline Film and Video Completion Fund) that chronicles what it takes to put on-and attend-a Bay Area gay prom.

Not surprisingly, animated shorts make up several of the Festival's youth-based films: Alec Butler's three-part MISADVENTURES OF PUSSY BOY, about hero Alick who is bashed by transphobia and heroine Kay who shows him the last revenge; Pei Ying Lee's DREAMING IS FOR MOONRISE, which describes the feelings lurking in the moonlight; and Shira Avni's JOHN AND MICHAEL, an elegy to two men with Down's Syndrome.

An additional Festival treat in store this year for queer families with kids (as well as without kids!) is the Second Annual Kid's Matinee-a screening of everyone's favorite, CHARLOTTE'S WEB. Directed by Charles A. Nichols and Iwao Takamoto in 1973, this affecting and life-affirming tale features the voices of Debbie Reynolds, Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilly, Agnes Moorehead, and Danny Bonaduce, and Henry Gibson. (Finding a queerer cast than this may not be possible.)

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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.