MCN Press Release: SF Lesbian & Gay Film Fest

27th San Francisco International
Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Audience Honors

Pieter Kramer’s YES NURSE! NO NURSE!,
Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer’s BROTHER OUTSIDER: THE LIFE OF BAYARD RUSTIN
and Debra Wilson’s BUTCH MYSTIQUE

Kai S. Pieck’s THE CHILD I NEVER WAS
Receives the $10,000 Levi’s First Feature Award

Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdottir & Thorvaldur Kristinsson’s STRAIGHT OUT
and Tracy Flannigan’s RISE ABOVE: THE TRIBE 8 DOCUMENTARY
Share the $10,000 Stu & Dave’s Excellent Documentary Award

SAN FRANCISCO—The 27th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival closed Sunday, June 29 with attendance of over 82,000, with 16 out of 121 programs sold-out. Based on attendence, the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival continues to be the oldest and largest film festival of its kind in the world and one of the largest film festivals in the United States. This year, the Festival presented screenings at the Castro Theatre and the Herbst Theatre. At last night’s Closing Night Party at the Castro Theatre, Festival organizers announced the recipients of the Festival’s Audience Awards, the $10,000 Levi’s® First Feature Award, and the $10,000 Stu & Dave’s Excellent Documentary Award.

The Audience Award for Best Feature was given to Pieter Kramer’s YES NURSE! NO NURSE!, the campy Dutch musical about an efficient nurse at odds with an evil landlord to keep her rest home for wayward citizens open. The screenings of YES NURSE! NO NURSE! were met with standing ovations, and the film’s star Loes Luca led one audience in a sing-a-long. The Audience Award for Best Documentary was given to Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer for BROTHER OUTSIDER: THE LIFE OF BAYARD RUSTIN, a history of the pioneering gay leader of the civil rights movement. Debra Wilson’s BUTCH MYSTIQUE won the Audience Award for Best Short Film. BUTCH MYSTIQUE is a documentary examination of butch-stud lesbian-identified women of African American descent.

The juried $10,000 Levi’s® First Feature Award recognized Kai S. Pieck’s THE CHILD I NEVER WAS. Based on the shocking true crimes of Jürgen Bartsch, the film is an emotional journey into the dark reaches of a troubled mind. Pieck was not able to attend the closing ceremony, and the award was accepted by Fenton Bailey on behalf of Strand Releasing, the film’s domestic distributor. The jury consisted of three esteemed film industry representatives: Jen Chaiken, producer of BIG EDEN, Steven Jenkins, Executive Director of the San Francisco Cinematheque, and independent film consultant Orly Ravid.

Stu & Dave’s Excellent Documentary Award, a $10,000 juried award recognizing the best documentary feature having its Bay Area premiere at the Festival, was shared between two films this year: Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdottir & Thorvaldur Kristinsson’s STRAIGHT OUT and Tracy Flannigan’s RISE ABOVE: THE TRIBE 8 DOCUMENTARY. STRAIGHT OUT visits Iceland where courageous and articulate lesbian and gay youth provide amazing coming-out testimonials about gay life in one of the most distant corners of the globe, and RISE ABOVE tracks the history, popularity and controversy of the seminal lesbian punk band Tribe 8. The award jury included: film programmer Nancy Fishman, filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, and filmmaker Peter Wells, who directed last year’s winner, GEORGIE GIRL

On Opening Night, the Festival celebrated its 27th Anniversary with a gala screening of Mark Rucker’s DIE MOMMIE DIE, the newest camp spectacle from the mind of Charles Busch. Busch and Rucker attended the screening and the Opening Night Gala with co-star Stark Sands, as well as other such luminaries as Armistead Maupin, Guinevere Turner, and scores of filmmakers from around the world in town for the Festival.

The Festival closed with Alex Steyermark’s PREY FOR ROCK & ROLL, with stars Gina Gershon and Shelly Cole all in attendance, as well as Cheri Lovedog who wrote the original rock-and-roll stage show inspired by her life and career. The cast and crew, as well music producer Linda Perry and comedian Marga Gomez, attended the Closing Night Party in the heart of the Castro district outside the Castro Theatre, along with hundreds of revelers celebrating San Francisco’s pride parade and celebration, which happened earlier that day.

The 2003 Frameline Award for Outstanding Contributions to Lesbian and Gay Media Arts was given to Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato at a star-studded screening of their debut narrative feature PARTY MONSTER. Bailey and Barbato were presented with the award on-stage at the Castro Theatre before the screening by Wilmer Valderrama (“That 70s Show”), who stars in the film. After the screening, Bailey, Barbato and Valderrama joined co-star Wilson Cruz, James St. James, the real-life subject of the film, as well as author Armistead Maupin and actress Laura Linney, at a party celebrating the directing pair and their new film. Bailey and Barbato sat down for an interview about their careers with Michael Joseph Gross of The New York Times at a Close-Up: Visionaries of Modern Cinema/Times Talk event at the San Francisco Main Library. The Festival also presented screenings of SCHOOL’S OUT : THE LIFE OF A GAY HIGH SCHOOL IN TEXAS and DARK ROOTS: THE UNAUTHORIZED ANNA NICOLE, two new productions from Wolrd of Wonder, Bailey and Barbato’s production company.

The Festival spotlighted two new international hits with Special Presentation screenings at the Castro Theatre. The first Special Presentation was French detective thriller GENDER BIAS, about a beautiful young transsexual with a troubled past who gets entangled with a local police chief. Robinson Stevenin won the Cesar Award for Best Actor at the “French Oscars,” for his performance as transsexual Bo. From Argentina, the Festival proudly presented SUDDENLY. Compared to the early works of Jim Jarmusch and Fassbinder, SUDDENLY tracks two punk dykes named Mao and Lenin who kidnap a lonely salesgirl and give her the adventure of a lifetime. In addition to worldwide acclaim, first-time director Diego Lerma’s SUDDENLY has won the Silver Leopard award at the prestigious Locarno International Film Festival and the top prize at the recent Istanbul Film Festival.

The 27th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival welcomed several World Premieres, including Andrea Meyerson’s LAUGHING MATTERS, Sascha Rice’s MANGO KISS and Jennifer Kroot’s SIRENS OF THE 23rd CENTURY. An enthusiastic sold-out audience welcomed LAUGHING MATTERS, a portrait of four professional lesbian comedians. Myerson was in attendance with comedians Suzanne Westenhoefer, Karen Williams, co-director Nancy Rosenblum and editor Laurie Schenden. Sascha Rice welcomed mom Kathleen Brown and uncle Jerry Brown to the sold-out World Premiere screening of MANGO KISS, her comedy about two lovers exploring San Francisco’s lesbian scene. San Francisco director Kroot was thrilled to premiere SIRENS OF THE 23rd CENTURY, her satire about beauty and femininity, for local audiences.

Two new documentaries also had World Premieres at the Festival. DON’T YOU WORRY, IT WILL PROBABLY PASS is a collection of video diaries kept by three teenage lesbians in Sweden. Director Cecilia Neant-Falk trained the three girls to use cameras and then collected and edited the footage into this moving film. Neant-Falk and her three subject attended the World Premiere screening at the Castro Theatre. Jeffrey Schwarz premiered PEOPLE LIKE US: MAKING PHILADELPHIA, his behind-the-scenes look at the making of this popular yet controversial award-winning film, at a special 10th Anniversary screening of PHILADELPHIA, with screenwriter Ron Nyswaner in attendance.

Over 350 guests from the Bay Area, the United States and around the world attended the Festival this year. Notable guests included: director Michale Burke with THE MUDGE BOY, a feature length adaptation of his short film FISH-BELLY WHITE; producer Gal Uchovsky with the award-winning Israeli love story YOSSI & JAGGER; Canadian director Lee DeMarbre with his B-movie homage JESUS CHRIST VAMPIRE HUNTER; Dutch actress Loes Luca, who plays Nurse Klivia in the musical YES NURSE! NO NURSE!; director Tony Ayres with his film WALKING ON WATER; Thom Fitzgerald, director of THE EVENT; documentarian Ellen Flanders with a presentation of her work-in-progress at the program and discussion QUEER DOCUMENTARY IN WARTIME; Sara Millman, Kathee Turner, and Clody Cates representing the film ROBIN’S HOOD; Chinese director Yau Ching with HO YUK-LET’S LOVE HONG KONG; writer/director Billy Hayes (MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) with COCK & BULL STORY; directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau with MY LIFE ON ICE; Fresno directors Rhomie Thompson and David Lowe with the women’s drama THE BRIDGE GAME; directors Melissa Levin and Roxana Spicer with subject Adina from CLASS QUEERS; director Louise Hogarth with her award-winning documentary THE GIFT; producer/NBC Nightly News medical correspondent Bruce Hensel with the documentaries THE OPPOSITE SEX: RENE’S STORY and THE OPPOSITE SEX: JAMIE’S STORY; animators Mark Ewert and David Cutler with PIKI & POKO: ADVENTURES IN STARLAND; JEB, director of NO SECRET ANYMORE: THE TIMES OF DEL MARTIN AND PHYLLIS LYON; Russian director Sasha Valenti with her debut feature TASTY BITS; director Tracy Flannigan and members of the lesbian punk band Tribe 8 at RISE ABOVE: THE TRIBE 8 DOCUMENTARY; directors Nancy Kates and Bennet Singer with BROTHER OUTSIDER: THE LIFE OF BAYARD RUSTIN, San Jose director Luane Beck with INTENTIONS; writer/director Jason Schafer with TOTALLY SEXY LOSER; and directors Darren Stein and Adam Shell with their documentary PUT THE CAMERA ON ME.

Sold-out programs at the Castro Theatre (1400 seats) included DIE MOMMIE DIE, MANGO KISS, YOSSI & JAGGER, GASOLINE, MY LIFE ON ICE, LAUGHING MATTERS, TOTALLY SEXY LOSER, PARTY MONSTER, PREY FOR ROCK & ROLL and the popular short film programs FUN IN BOYS’ SHORTS and FUN IN GIRLS’ SHORTS.

Sold-out programs at the Herbst Theatre (925 seats) included THE EDUCATION OF GORE VIDAL, JUCITAN QUEER PARADISE, BULGARIAN LOVERS, MANGO SOUFFLE, and the shorts program SPOOFED!.

The 28th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival is scheduled for June 10-27, 2004.