Reel Affirmations: The Nation's LGBT Film Festival 2009

Yuma, Arizona is the birthplace of Cesar Chavez and is considered one of the hottest places on earth. It’s also the site of the exceptionally brutal murder of Amancio Corrales, a 23-year old female impersonator well-known in northern Mexico and the southwest U.S. Amancio’s dream of performing in Las Vegas was cut short when his body was found floating in the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona. The violence inflicted on the popular young man’s body — beaten, stabbed more than 30 times, dragged more than 25 feet — served to galvanize the community. Despite an initial flurry of outrage and a community-wide appeal for justice, attention for the horrific murder soon faded. One man, however, refused to give up. Yuma resident Michael Baughman, who had never met the young man, was haunted by the story. Seeing that the police seemed in no hurry to undertake a thorough investigation, he befriended Amancio’s family and friends and joined the cause on behalf of a young man he had never met. Three years later, Baughman and a coalition of LGBT activists, family members and concerned citizens filed into court for the last time, to confront Amancio’s killer. Local filmmaker Tom Murray has crafted a fascinating and poignant look at a community forced to publicly address issues of sexual orientation and gender expression.

The film banned by Facebook!

Rosa is in love with a woman for the first time. Her marriage behind her, she wants to learn how to please a woman, and knows just who to call for lessons.

Athena (Angela Vint) and Lilith (Megan Fahlenbock) want a baby. And in this day and age, who needs a man? Or even a sperm donation. The couple enlist the services of a science lab to make sperm from their own stem cells. Spoofing the rigidity of science and the anything-goes world of gay conception, The Baby Formula follows the couple as they struggle to tell their families about their immaculate conception. Add to the mix lesbian power struggles (carried out to ridiculous lengths); Athena's super-Irish Catholic mom who is appalled by the news; a Scottish octogenarian great-grandmother to be; Lilith’s two gay dads (both struggling with notions of staying on the wagon for their impending granddaughters); and one super-nerdy scientist prone to proclamations such as “People say we're making men obsolete. That's not true. We're simply making them unnecessary.” When all’s said and done, you get a funny, heart-warming, and provocative movie. Plus, the hilarious rendition of "My Humps" send-up at the end will keep you laughing in your seats.

Since his wife’s death, Arthur, a father and well-respected surgeon, takes to cocooning his daughter from the world. Lucille, his teenage daughter, seeks to escape her father's domination. Trapped in a beautiful yet bizarre mansion with only a great-aunt as her other companion, Lucille attempts suicide and succeeds in only disfiguring her face. In an effort to heal her and keep her from the fate of her mother, Arthur enlists the aid of Joan, a beautiful and experienced nurse with a questionable past. Meanwhile, he and his aged aunt pursue an experimental skin graft procedure that will remake her into an image of his beloved and departed wife. In attending to Lucille, Joan finds that she has feelings for the young girl, and Lucille in turn finds she has discovered passion and a sensual energy that rivals any experience. In their secrecy they battle the father's interference, the aunt’s peculiar obsessions, and their own unabated sexual longings. In this piercingly beautiful and strange backdrop the lovers are moving towards oblivion when operations go awry and results go haywire.

Check out this year’s best shorts – these are the gems that arrived in our mailbox and could only be described as – Best of the Fest. A treasure chest of the best in global cinema, this program will make you weep, laugh, and perhaps dance in the aisles!

Casper Andreas (4 Letter Word, Between Love and Good-bye) is back with his best film ever! Set in the bawdy world of New York theater, Big Gay Musical features a who’s who of the scene — including cameos by Michael Musto and a laugh-out-loud stint by Steve Hayes (Trick) as God. In the film. Paul and Eddie have just begun previews for the new off-Broadway musical Adam & Steve: Just the Way God Made ‘Em. Their lives strangely mirror the characters they are playing: Paul is looking for the perfect man and Eddie is dealing with how his sexuality and faith can mix. After yet another disastrous dating experience, Paul has an epiphany: Forget the nice boy routine; he wants to slut it up like the sexy boys in the chorus! Eddie, meanwhile, begins to panic when his uber-religious parents announce they’ll be in town for the play’s opening night. How to explain to the folks that not only is he playing gay, but is really gay and starring in a play that calls the Bible the "Breeder’s Informational Book of Living Examples." Neither boy has much luck in their endeavors — Eddie’s parents are destroyed by the news and Paul can’t even have a good one-night stand. But after musical numbers with scantly clad tap-dancing angels, a retelling of Genesis, tele-evangelists, a camp that attempts to turn gay kids straight and a bunch of show tunes, everyone realizes that life gets better once they accept who they really are: just the way God made ‘em!

A classic tale of boy-meets-boy neatly packed into a lighthearted musical that includes all the usual characters and landscapes of the urban gay life.