Reel Affirmations: The Nation's LGBT Film Festival 2008

Zombie Double Feature!
Otto, or Up With Dead People w/ Zombie Prom
Otto, or Up With Dead People features a newly zombified young thing – teetering into the world of the undead on still unsteady feet. Otto, played with gothic glee by Jay Crisfar, wanders the streets of Berlin, briefly recalling snippets of his pre-zombie life. (At one point, compelled to eat the entrails of a small animal and finding it somewhat of an acquired taste, he wonders if he was a vegan in a former life). Otto eventually finds work as, well.. a zombie… on THE epic political-porno-zombie movie to end all political-porno-zombie movies. Ridiculed for remaining in character, Otto remains consumed by the memory of his ex-boyfriend. He tracks him down, with predictably disastrous results, but not before remembering the love they once shared. Aaaawww…
Otto features all the LaBruce flourishes we love so well – sexy boys being naughty, bursting politically correct bubbles left and right, and a cinematic style that is at once both breathtakingly daring and slyly low-rent.
Bruce LaBruce, GER, 2008, 95 mins.

Zombie Prom
While Otto is a subversive look at European mores and politics, Zombie Prom is as all-American as apple pie and comic books. Apple pie dipped in radioactive waste, that is.

Good-girl Toffee and Jonny-with-no-H are in love, but she dumps him at the insistence of principal Miss Strict (RuPaul). Devastated, Jonny jumps into a nuclear cooling tower, only to emerge a still handsome atomic waste-ridden TEENAGE ZOMBIE! He returns in hopes of still escorting Toffee to the prom, but the whole town is thrown into turmoil at this radioactive hunk in their midst. The media is called in, adding to the furor and hysteria behind the Zombie Civil Rights struggle. Will Jonny win back Toffee? And what of the shared past between Miss Strict and sleazo-o TV personality Eddie Flagrante? It all comes to a boiling head amidst some rousing dance numbers, state-of-the-art comic book animation and a not-so-veiled look at the lives of gay teenagers today.
Vince Marcello, US, 2006, 36 mins.
Awards: Best Musical Score, FAIF International Film Festival
Outstanding Achievement in Film Music, Park City Film Music Festival

Preceded by Brian the Gnome Slayer by Brian Tosko Bello