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PRESS
Music Films Take Center Stage at Frameline30: the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival
San Francisco, CA—Musicals, music videos, music-centered features, documentaries and mockumentaries comprise a healthy portion of this year’s lineup at the 30th annual San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. Frameline30 runs June 15-25 at the historic Castro Theatre, CinéArts @ Empire, Roxie Film Center and the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco, as well as at Oakland’s Parkway Theater.
A colorful arrangement of musicals from different cultures highlights this year’s Festival. In 20 Centimeters, Veteran Spanish filmmaker Ramón Salazar draws upon the conventions of the over-the-top Hollywood musical to tell the raw, dramatic and often hilarious story of Marieta (Mónica Cervera), an unforgettable transvestite with transsexual dreams and a “20-centimeter problem”. Featuring the music of Queen, Madonna and Ani DiFranco, 20 Centimeters just might steal the “most outrageous musical” crown from Frameline28 favorite, Yes Nurse! No Nurse! In Richard Wong’s Colma: The Musical, restless teenagers express their heartache and desperation through music in a town where the dead outnumber the living. The Frameline release Shabnam Mousi, by Yogesh Bhardwaj, is an action-packed Bollywood musical based on a true story about a eunuch who transcends societal oppression to become a successful politician.
In addition to musicals, Frameline30 is loaded with music-focused documentaries covering such diverse genres as homo-hop, country, pop and gospel. In the swaggering and often homophobic world of rap and hip-hop, Pick Up The Mic celebrates a few queer revolutionaries as they do what revolutionaries always do — seize the means of production! Featured artists include Deadlee, Dutchboy, God-Des, Johnny Dangerous, JenRo and Deep Dickollective.
For the Love of Dolly profiles Dolly Parton’s greatest fans. These fans are so devoted to Dolly that she knows them by name. The movie takes the viewer into the fans’ homes — which are museums of memorabilia — and follows their preparations for the annual Dollywood grand opening parade. In Camp Michael Jackson, the fans have set up camp in Santa Maria, California, where the King of Pop is on trial for child molestation.
An obsessed fan plays a key role as well in Emmanuelle Bercot’s stunning feature directorial debut, Backstage, which traces a starstruck teenager’s fixation on a gorgeous and enigmatic pop star diva. Bercot explores the psyches of both the star and her adoring fan to reveal a troubling view of the world of celebrity worship and the complicated trappings of fame. Backstage is a knockout— an intelligent, unnerving and highly accomplished look at the culture and consequences of fame.
In George Michael: A Different Story, the extremely private George Michael candidly talks about his life and career. Michael leads us through his professional and private highs and lows, from his humble beginnings in Hertfordshire, England, to pop fame with Wham!, solo superstardom and the zenith of his fame, to the legal battles with his label and the infamous public toilet incident.
Recipient of a 2005 Frameline Film & Video Completion Fund grant, The Believers documents the journey of the world’s first transgender gospel choir. The film takes us from the choir’s shaky beginnings — a heartwarmingly chaotic, cacophonous group unable to agree on much of anything, arguing over appropriate wardrobe and learning to sing with transitioning voices— through their transformation into the polished, award-winning choir and close-knit family they are today, garnering major performances and winning an Outmusic Award in 2004 for the album Whosoever Believes.
Why We Sing! is a lively documentary by director Lawrence B. Dillon that profiles four groups: Muse, a Cincinnati Women’s Choir; The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus; the Transgender Festival Chorus; and Diverse Harmonies, a Seattle youth group of queer and straight teenage singers.
In Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig, filmmaker Katherine Linton weaves two stories together in an inspirational rock-and-roll/high school documentary. Music producer Chris Slusarenko is trying to assemble performers for a “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” tribute album, “Wig in a Box,” to benefit the Harvey Milk High School in New York City, a school for gay, bisexual and transgender teens. Working with Hedwig creators John Cameron Mitchell and Stephan Trask, Chris pursues a variety of musicians including Jonathon Richman and Yoko Ono.
Complimenting the large selection of documentaries are a couple of whip-smart mockumentaries about two musical acts who got their start in the city that is home and host to Frameline, San Francisco. The crisply shot documentary-mockumentary mash-up, Kiki and Herb Reloaded, directed by Chris Gallagher, Matt Gallagher & Michaline Babich, includes live footage and backstage banter. A host of queer luminaries — the Scissor Sisters, Erasure’s Andy Bell, Rufus Wainwright, and gossip maven Michael Musto — weigh in on the “musically challenged,” politically incorrect cabaret act born in San Francisco in the early ’90s.
In The Kinsey Sicks: I Wanna Be a Republican, four “proper” ladies are holding a Republican fundraiser. With a rumored appearance by W, the ladies are in high spirits. Singing songs and swapping stories, the gals seek to explain just why the Republicans are so darn nifty and offer some compelling reasons to come out as Republican. The Kinsey Sicks are a “dragapella” quartet from San Francisco called “the hottest ticket in town” by the New York Times. Now their hilarious satire of all things Republican is captured in one uproarious movie.
An additional festival treat in store this year for queer families with kids (as well as without kids) is our Family Film Matinee, screening of that all-time-favorite, The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh. Directed by John Lounsbery and Wolfgang Reitherman in 1977, the distinctly ‘60s-style animation is fun to watch and the voices of Sterling Holloway, Paul Winchell, Sebastian Cabot and Timothy Turner are a sheer delight. Be ready to sing along to the classic soundtrack of this lovable old favorite.
Killing Rock Stars is a carefully curated, picked-to-click program of music-driven film and video to delight your senses. These amazing music videos represent both coasts (and the important places between) and stretch the definition of the word “queer.” You might have a new favorite band after attending this showcase. Bands featured include Sleater-Kinney, Scream Club, Deerhoof, Elliott Smith, Hey Willpower, The Gossip and many more.
Frameline30: the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, screening June 15–25 at the Castro Theatre (429 Castro Street), CinéArts@Empire (85 West Portal Avenue), Roxie Film Center (3117 16th Street), Victoria Theatre (2961 16th Street) in San Francisco and the Parkway Theater (1834 Park Blvd.) in Oakland.
Advance tickets will be available at the Festival Ticket Outlet located at 474 Castro Street in San Francisco. The Ticket Outlet will be open for Frameline Members only from May 26th through June 1st. General public ticket sales begin on June 2nd. Tickets may also be purchased by phone (925.866.9559), fax (925.866.9597), or mail (Frameline30, P.O. Box 2229, Danville, CA 94526-7229). For more information on the Festival and how to purchase tickets call the 24-hour hotline at 925.866.9559 or visit http://www.frameline.org/festival.
The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival is presented by Frameline, a nonprofit LGBT organization whose mission is to strengthen the diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and further its visibility by supporting and promoting a broad array of cultural representations and artistic expression in film, video and other media arts.
Media contact:
Seema Arora
seema@frameline.org
415.703.8650 x323 |
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