A few Outfest titles screening on Saturday:
Zabou Breitman's L'Homme de sa vie / The Man of My Life (7 p.m. at the Directors Guild in West Hollywood), which was screened at last year's Toronto Film Festival, tells the story of a married man (Bernard Campan) who, while spending time in Provence, develops a strong bond with his openly gay neighbor (Charles Berling) much to their mutual consternation — and to the dismay of the man's wife (Léa Drucker). Screenplay by Breitman and Agnès de Sacy.
Directed by Auraeus Solito (he of Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros / The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, which won several awards at international film festivals), Tuli (7:45 p.m. at the Directors Guild) chronicles the challenges faced by a tiny-village Filipino woman (Desiree Del Valle) who refuses to be married off, and then adds insult to injury by falling in love with another woman (Vanna Garcia). Will the Philippines ever be the same again? Screenplay by Jimmy Flores.
Tuli shared the Netpac Award at this year's Berlin Film Festival.
Lee Friedlander's Out at the Wedding (8:30 p.m. at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre on Cahuenga) is a comedy of mistaken identity — or rather, mistaken sexual orientation. A girl returns home for her sister's wedding only to be labeled a lesbian due to a misunderstanding. Instead of clearing up the matter, she opts to find herself a tried-and-true lesbian, apparently to drive her family nuts. As a result, dark secrets surface, romance blooms, and the family becomes more familial. Screenplay by Paula Goldberg.
Out at the Wedding, which stars Andrea Marcellus, Desi Lydic, Charlie Schlatter, Mike Farrell, and John Waters alumna Mink Stole, was the Audience Award winner at the New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
Robert Gaston's thriller 2 Minutes Later (5 p.m. at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Barnsdall Park) follows a lesbian private investigator (Jessica Graham) who teams up with a macho gay guy (Michael Molina) to investigate the disappearance of the man's twin, an erotic portrait photographer with a bad reputation. (The synopsis doesn't make it clear whether he had a reputation for taking bad photos or for being an all-around jerk.) When the macho gay guy poses as his brother, potential suspects — many of whom fully naked, apparently — pop up everywhere in sight.
As per the Outfest synopsis, Stefan Westerwelle's feature-film debut, So lange du hier bist / While You Are Here (9:30 p.m. at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at 111 N. Central Avenue) creates "an indelible portrait of two men — Georg [Michael Gempart], an elderly pensioner, and Sebastian [Leander Lichti], the attractive young hustler whom he employs on a regular basis. One evening after their session together, to Georg's delight, Sebastian asks to spend the night rather than return home. Full of atmosphere and nuanced performances, While You Are Here is a tender intergenerational story of two men eager for human connection." Winner of the jury prize at the Barcelona International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.
(All Redcat/Disney Hall screenings have been moved to the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at 111 N. Central Avenue. It is located in Little Tokyo behind the MOCA Geffen Contemporary and across the street from the Japanese American National Museum.)
And lest I forget …
At 10 p.m. at The Echo (at 1822 Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake/Echo Park), "Schwarzwald: The Black Party – The Movie You Can Dance To." Outfest calls "all nasty boys, kinky voyeurs and hot fetish fans" to the "notorious" Black Party. There'll be a screening of Schwarzwald, starring transsexual porn star Buck Angel "and complete with live fetish acts and a cast of thousands, this is a movie/dance party event that promises to be the sexiest night of the year. So break out your leather, strip off your shirt, get down and dirty and dance til dawn."
I'll be skipping that party, though it sure does sound more, er… festive than the Dreamgirls sing-along of a few days ago.
Q&A with "Gay Kiss Montage" Creator Robert Eldredge
Screened Out: Gays and Lesbians on TCM