Overview

The 24th annual San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival is noncompetitive and open to the public. Screening venues are all in San Francisco: Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street; Victoria Theatre, 2961-16th Street; and the Roxie Cinema, 3117-16th Street.

This festival is the oldest and largest event of its kind in the world and is presented by Frameline, whose mission is to "support, develop and promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer visibility through media arts."

The Festival includes 270 works, 110 programs, 80 features, 186 shorts and 54 works by local filmmakers. Twenty five countries are represented. Among them are Germany, China, Canada, the United States, the UK, France, Australia, South Africa, Greece, the Philippines and Spain.

The festival boasts four world premiers, six North American and two United States Premiers. Two new films portray Native American Queer identity - Big Eden and Johnnie Greyeyes, and array of Asian films, as well as the latest films from Spain in a group called Gay Images in Spanish Films. Dockeers Khakis will continue its $10,000 Award for first time directors of feature films. The winner will be announced on closing night, June 25.

The opening night film is Punks directed by Patrik-Ian Polk. The soundtrack includes Sister Sledge and Marvin Gaye which nicely complements the trials of gay urban life for a Latino and his three black male friends in Los Angeles. The Centerpiece is Paragraph 175, a phrase from the German penal code which was on the books from 1871 to 1969..."An unnatural sex act committed between persons of the male sex or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights may also be imposed." This documentary was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Times of Harvey Milk and The Celluloid Closet). Closing night features and out-of-drag RuPaul in But I'm a Cheerleader directed by Jamie Babbit in his first feature film about a wonderfully normal girl who is a model student, a cheerleader and is dating the captain of the football team. She runs into conflict when her parents make her admit she is a homosexual and is carted off to True Directions, a five-step homo-rehab camp, where she meets Mike, (RuPaul) who tries to change her.

Jewish themes are represented in three films: Paragraph 175 about living as a gay under the Nazi regime; The Brian Epstein Story, originally shown on BBC about the life of the man who discovered The Beatles and...But I Was a Girl, a video directed by Toni Boumans in 1998 that follows the escape route of the only female conductor in Holland who disguised herself as a man during the Nazi era.

Films with actors who are more well-known include two documentaries: The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Nina Hagen = Punk + Glory; and also Common Ground with Jason Priestley, Margot Kidder, Eric Stoltz, Mimi Rogers and Ed Asner; Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas; Beat with Kiefer Sutherland and Courtney Love playing the wife of William Burroughs of the beat generation who was fatally wounded by a gunshot from her husband; Heavenly Creatures with Kate Winslet (1994) and part of the Killer Lesbians Program Series; Sex Monster with Mariel Hemingway and What's Cooking? which was the Sundance opener featuring Julianna Margulies, Joan Chen, Kyra Sedgwick, Mercedes Ruehl and Alfre Woodard.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Yvonne Walter

Wrap-Up

At the Closing Gala of the 24th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, the Festival presented four Audience Awards and the $10,000 DOCKERS® First Feature Award.

The Audience Award for Best Feature was given to Thomas Bezucha's Big Eden, the story of a New York artist who returns to his small hometown and falls in love with a local Native American shopkeeper.

The screening of Big Eden was met with a 5-minute standing ovation. The Audience Award for Best Documentary was a tie honoring both Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's Paragraph 175 and Debra Chasnoff's That's A Family. Paragraph 175 blends interviews, archival footage and new material to recount the experiences of gays and lesbians under the Nazi regime, and That's A Family gives voice to the many forms that a family can take. Philip J. Bartell's Crush won the Audience Award for Best Short Film. Crush is the story of 12-year old Tina, who has a crush on 16-year old Robbie, who has also a crush of his own.

The juried DOCKERS® First Feature Award recognized Jon Shear's debut film Urbania, about a gay everyman lost in an urban no-manís land seeking revenge and closure. The jury consisted of three-esteemed film industry representatives: Stephen Israel, independent producer and Slamdance programmer; Emmanuel Levy, film critic for Variety; and Susan Stover, independent producer.

The 24th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival closed with a screening of Jamie Babbitís But I'm A Cheerleader, with director Babbit and star Clea DuVall in attendance. The sold-out crowd was welcomed by Cheer SF, a San Francisco-based gay and lesbian cheerleading squad celebrating its 20th anniversary, and a preview trailer of next year's Silver Anniversary of the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.

On Opening Night, the Festival welcomed Patrik-Ian Polk and his debut film Punks, a black, gay romantic comedy set in West Hollywood. Polk and his cast attended the film and Opening Night Gala. The Festival's Centerpiece selection was Epstein and Friedman's Paragraph 175. The 2000 Frameline Award for Outstanding Contributions to Lesbian and Gay Media Arts was given to Barbara Hammer, who attended the Festival with the World Premiere of History Lessons, the final installment of her lesbian history trilogy. And, at a benefit screening of Donna Deitch's Common Ground, Deitch helped Frameline to raise $3,000 for the Tzabaco/Frameline Film and Video Completion Fund.

The 24th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival screened 272 films in 112 different programs between June 15-25, 2000. With 45 sold-out programs, ticket sales reached 74,000 for the second year in a row.

The 25th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival is scheduled for June 14-24, 2001.