Movies
QFest St. Louis Kicks Off This Sunday with Greg Louganis Documentary and More
This Sunday! – Come get your Q on, St. Louis!
The Eighth Annual QFest St. Louis, presented by Cinema St. Louis, runs April 19-23 at the Tivoli Theatre. The St. Louis-based LGBTQ film festival, QFest will present an eclectic slate of 23 films – 11 features (six narratives and five documentaries) and 12 short subjects. The participating filmmakers represent a wide variety of voices in contemporary queer world cinema. The mission of the film festival is to use the art of contemporary gay cinema to illustrate the diversity of the LGBTQ community and to explore the complexities of living an alternative lifestyle.
Highlights include the St. Louis premieres of two biographical documentaries on Olympic diver Greg Louganis (“Back on Board”) and former Hollywood heartthrob Tab Hunter (“Tab Hunter Confidential”). Other prominent films include the latest from avant-garde queer filmmaker Bruce la Bruce (“Gerontophilia”) and lesbian-themed films starring Geraldine Chaplin (“Sand Dollars”) and the directorial debut from HBO’s “Girls” co-star Desiree Akhavan (“Appropriate Behavior”).
The 2015 QFest St. Louis begins on Sunday, April 19, and runs through Thursday, April 23. Tickets are on sale now for all shows. Cost is $12 each or $10 for students and Cinema St. Louis members with valid and current IDs. All screenings will be held at the Tivoli Theatre, located at 6350 Delmar Blvd. in the Delmar Loop. Advance sales are available through the Landmark Theatres website at tickets.landmarktheatres.com. Click on show time, not film title, to get to the purchase section.
For the schedule of screenings and events, including trailers and full descriptions of the films, visit Cinema St. Louis’ interactive festival website at www.cinemastlouis.org/qfest. The official QFest St. Louis page on Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/QFestSTL.
Here’s the four films that will kick off QFest this Sunday
The Year We Thought About Love – Director: Ellen Brodsky – Apr 19 at 1:00pm
What happens when a diverse group of LGBTQ youth dares to be “out” onstage to reveal their lives and their loves? The film goes behind the scenes of one of the oldest queer-youth theaters in America, the Boston-based True Colors OUT Youth Theater, which transforms daily struggles into performance for social change. With wit, candor, and attitude, the cast of characters captivates audiences surprised to hear such stories in school settings. The film introduces a transgender teenager kicked out of her house, a devout Christian challenging his church’s homophobia, and a girl who prefers to wear boys’ clothing even as she models dresses on the runway. When bombs explode outside their building, the troupe becomes even more determined to share their stories of love to help heal their city.
Back on Board: Greg Louganis – 2014, U.S., 90 min. Director: Cheryl Furjanic – Sun, Apr 19 at 3:15pm
A refreshingly candid documentary film about four-time Olympic champion Greg Louganis, “Back on Board” follows the diver over the past three years, as he struggles with financial security and reunites with the sport he once dominated but was not welcomed in. The threat of losing his house during the recent financial crisis forces Louganis to re-evaluate the choices, relationships, and missed opportunities of his career. With unprecedented access, the film reveals the complicated life of an athlete whose grace, beauty, and courage sparked a worldwide fascination with diving. It chronicles Louganis’ rise from a difficult upbringing to nearly universal acclaim as the greatest diver ever and traces his path as he moves from a pioneering openly gay athlete with HIV to an overlooked sports icon. “Back on Board” is the engrossing story of an American legend as he re-emerges on the world stage to combat prejudice, promote tolerance, and return to the diving world after a long period of absence to act as a mentor to the next generation.
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Liz in September – Director: Fina Torres2014, Venezuela, 100 min., in Spanish with English subtitles – Sun, Apr 19 at 5:30pm
“Liz in September” — based on the classic lesbian play “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove” — chronicles the unlikely relationship between two apparent opposites. Liz has known several things since she was a child: She is gay, beauty is power, and she will never be a victim. Determined to enjoy the time she still has left on Earth, she hides her terminal disease from even her closest friends. Eva, by contrast, has succumbed to despair. After she loses her son to cancer, Eva finds that pain and guilt damage the relationship with her husband, sinking both into isolation. Alone on her vacation, Eva is left stranded on the road when her car breaks down. Ending up at Margot’s Inn, she meets Liz and her group of gay friends, and Liz makes a bet that she can seduce the straight newcomer. Against all odds, the encounter between these two women changes their lives.
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Tiger Orange – Director: Wade Gasque – 2014, U.S., 76 min. – Sun, Apr 19 at 8:00pm
Chet (co-screenwriter Mark Strano) and Todd (Frankie Valenti, aka former adult star Johnny Hazzard) are estranged gay brothers who grew up in a small town in Central California with their homophobic single father. Bad boy Todd ran off to Los Angeles and is now out and proud, but the mostly closeted Chet stayed at home, running the family hardware store and caring for their ailing father until his recent death. When a broke and homeless Todd returns to the brother he left behind, long-simmering resentments boil to the surface. As the pair confronts their differences and similarities, the film offers a poignant depiction of family dynamics and small-town life.
In this charming coming-of-age musical, a high-school senior eliminates his self-esteem issues after attending a drag performance.
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