by LEO E. LAURENCE,
J.D.
Copyright © 2011 by Leo E. Laurence for Zenger’s
Newsmagazine • All rights reserved
PHOTO: Kaleb James,
taken by Leo E. Laurence (file photo)
FilmOut San
Diego, the six-day 13th annual, 2011 Gay film festival fizzled in
August with attendance dropping by about 50 percent as compared with last year,
according to Festival Director Kaleb James.
Running two full
weekends, August 16-18 and August 23-35, the festival screened 59 movies at the
elegant Birch North Park Theatre.
While films at
the annual Latino Film Festival in the spring are usually in Spanish with
English subtitles, most of the movies at FilmOut did not have Gay themes.
Many were older
classics which may have appealed to the largely older audiences attending FilmOut.
To counter the
seriously declining audiences, James said in an interview with Zenger’s that his board will probably change from an event in
August to a springtime schedule.
The weather is
so warm and nice that people may be going to the beach instead of our festival,
James believed.
However, while
tourists may be hitting the beaches, those who attend the Gay film festival are
generally locals who work and live here, and do not spend their time at the
beach.
Also, to
schedule the film festival in the spring will bring it into direct conflict
with the Latino Film Festival. While the
two events do work closely together, moving the Gay event to the spring will
mean both festivals will be in direct competition for scarce corporate
sponsorship money and promotional media coverage.
As one movie
patron suggested, however, the answer may be in a much more simple fact: the
theatre was often freezing cold inside.
One moviegoer
who had seen another movie earlier, and knew that theatre was extremely cold,
even brought a heavy blanket with her to keep warm.
Several patrons
simply left the theatre halfway into their movies because they were seriously uncomfortable
with the cold.
Once when the
temperature was really chilly, one person reported this to the staff. About an hour later, when the
temperature could have been adjusted, the theatre actually got colder.
While the
festival organizers were hoping that many of their regular patrons would return
to see other movies, with it so cold inside, that appeared more unlikely.
Low-Budget Productions
After the
screening of several of the movies, the producers, directors and sometimes
actors of the production would appear on stage for question-and-answer
sessions.
While some of
the questions from the audience were boring mini-speeches, these sessions gave
the producers an opportunity to praise their movie. But sometimes they revealed
information perhaps too candidly.
Some admitted
their films were very low-budget operations. Unfortunately, that showed up in
grossly inadequately lighting and only one-camera shooting. One producer said
his entire film was conceived and shot solely in his one-bedroom apartment,
where there was no room for several pods of lights.
Many of the
movies, in FilmOut were independently produced, and even some of the low-budget
films were more interesting that the violent, gun-toting stuff coming out of
Hollywood.
Indeed, one
movie from France and Iran was Circumstance, which was a provocative, coming-of-age story that cracked open the
hidden, underground world of the Iranian youth culture. Even the film’s
credits, as well as much of the dialogue, were in Arabic with subtitles, adding
to the international charm of the movie.
Some of the
films were painful to watch. Fresh from the Sundance Film Festival, Gun Hill
Road was the story of a middle-aged, very
macho, Latino father who returned home to the Bronx in New York City after
three years in prison to discover his teenage son was Gay. He hated it!
Sparks flew and
the kid moved out to avoid the violence of his homophobic father. In the end, as his dad was picked up
again by police, they seemed to reconcile. It brought tears to my eyes.
To produce the
film festival and move the hundreds of people in the audience in and out of the
theater for the change in screenings, there was an army of nearly 200 loyal
volunteers.
“Thrill-O-Rama”
Perhaps to get
people ready for scary Hallowe’en on Oct. 31, FilmOut will produce “Thrill-O-Rama” on Saturday, Oct. 8 from noon to midnight at the
Birch North Park Theatre.
Scary movies
like The Fog, Dressed to Kill and Suspiria
will be screened. Tickets for all six movies
are $20, or $5 for single shows, according to James.
More information
is available at www.filmoutsandiego.com
