Reel Affirmations: The Nation's LGBT Film Festival 2009

Step into the rarefied world of the International Drag KingCommunity Extravaganza (IDKE), one of the world’s largest gatherings of drag kings. Brimming with the history and art of drag king performances, as well as the politics behind its inception and current incarnation, Drag King Extravaganza offers up a who’s who of performers, including DC’s own Ken Vegas, as well as fans, organizers and entertainers from around the world. This lively film spans the organization’s ten-year history and its commitment to ensuring that the drag community remains collaborative, accessible and welcoming as the IDKE travels from city to city – changing hearts and minds as it does.

Anora Fleece has got it rotten. Her husband is abusive. Her teenage daughter, Tabby, hates everything and everybody, and uses her rapier-like wit as a weapon. Little Pete is bullied at school. And she lives in the middle of nowhere, feeling like a nobody. Life becomes infinitely more bearable when the bubbly and glamorous Imogene Cochran moves into the neighborhood. Imogene sells Kathy K. Kosmetics — make-up for the cocoa-skinned woman. She won’t stop at anything to sell her products, and soon the family is awash in lotions, creams and salves, all meant to beautify and protect. Southern hospitality takes a turn for the better as Anora and Imogene learn they have much more in common than they imagined, and soon their friendship turns to romance. When Anora’s husband, Cheb, finds them, all hell breaks loose, and she has to make a quick decision about her lot in life. Unfortunately for the bullying Cheb, a stray bullet gets in the way, and Anora’s fate is cast with Imogene. What to do now? Take-charge Imogene decides that a road trip is in order. After all, she does have her purple Kathy K. kar! Anora and Imogene then pile the kids in the Kathy K. car, throw the corpse in the trunk, and ride off on a "family" road trip to bury Daddy. With its deft skewering of Southern mores, family values, and the universal search for love, Drool, is a sweet family movie — in the best sense of the word.

Offering an absolutely unparalleled look at gay politics in Russia over the course of a year, two controversial pride parades in Moscow bookend the film and serve as a catalyst for a larger view of just what it means to be gay in modern Russia. As serving of such a complicated political environment, the film features people from all stripes of the Russian gay scene, from local gay politicians to gay citizens who believe pride is a waste of time. Also featured are extreme activists who violently protest gay pride parades and often go unpunished. The breadth of information is comprehensive and is matched only in scope by the passion of the activists on both sides of the issue. Are pride parades really a useful way to enact change in a homophobic society? East/West never compromises, offering a spectrum of emotion from the hopeless to the hopeful that is as fascinating as it is horrifying.

The wildly popular Eating Out franchise is back with its most hilarious film yet – Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat Q. Allan Brocka (Boy Culture, Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in all the World) returns as writer, and critics’ darling Glenn Gaylord (What Perez Says, Tori & Dean, Little BFFs) directs. The bombastic-tastic Tiffani, who’s spent the last five minutes grieving the death of her close friend, meets gorgeous new kid in town Casey at the funeral. He’s shy, looking for love, and absolutely clueless about how to find it. A chance encounter at the Gay and Lesbian Center places the hapless Casey in the orbit of hottie Zack, and he desperately tries to wrangle a date. Attempts at seduction failing, Tiffani persuades Casey to lure him in with an online profile, using a photo of her hunky ex-boy-toy Ryan. With more revolving doors than a bailed-out bank, the film throws our characters willy-nilly into each other’s beds, lives and dreams — all to maximum comic effect. Only through some fancy footwork, advice from his Aunt Helen and mentor Harry, and a daring sexual escapade can Casey figure out how to set things right and perhaps even find the love he's been looking for. 
 Long a training ground for many of today’s young gay stars, the Eating Out series continues the tradition by featuring six openly gay actors, plus veterans Mink Stole (star of many John Waters films), Leslie Jordan ("Will & Grace"), and Rebekah Kochan (Eating Out 1 & 2).f

Edie and Thea aren’t just poster children for gay marriage, they are standard bearers for loving, affirming relationships everywhere. Their love affair was the stuff of legend – the two of them cavorting with friends in the Hamptons, moving up the career ladder in New York (Edie at IBM, Thea as a psychologist), traveling to far-off lands, all while protecting their closely held secret. Despite their meeting in the closeted sixties, a pre-Stonewall era of secret bars, intimate parties and the constant fear of reprisal, the women lived a life of excitement, love, and passion. The passion for each other has never dimmed; in fact, some of the most moving moments in the film take place as Thea twirls a rapturous Edie around the dance floor — in her wheelchair. With a treasure trove of archival photos, two sassy protagonists, and the loving direction of Gréta Olafsdóttir and Susan Muska (The Brandon Teena Story), this tender documentary travels from exotic safaris to physical therapy, from twirling nightlife to the twilight years with a loving gaze and a sense of awe. In what will surely bring out the hankies, Edie and Thea travel to Canada, after more than 40 years together, to finally wed — the ultimate adventure for two soulmates.

Opening Night Film

At 33, Eve hasn’t had someone special for years. To meet people and make new friends, she creates a pseudo-self on the Second Life social network, and finds what she wasn’t looking for.

It’s not easy to go from being vandalized to idolized, but young filmmaker Erin Davies has managed the task wih grace, humor and an engaging story of redemption. Sporting a rainbow sticker on her VW Beetle, Erin had always been open about her sexuality at school. The real world came crasing in though, on the 11th Annual National Day of Silence: Erin Davies was victim to a hate crime in Albany, New York. Erin's car was vandalized, left with the words "fag" and "u r gay" spray painted on the driver's side window and hood of her car. Despite initial shock and embarrassment, Erin decided to embrace what happened by leaving the graffiti on her car. She drove the car back to school, where in an extreme show of insensitivity, the administration asked her to remove it, as the car was disturbing to students. Embracing the act of violence, Erin took her car, now loving dubbed "fagbug" on a 58-day trip around the United States and Canada. Throughout her travels, she was egged, harassed and called a hero. She met with student groups. She talked about the care while she got her oil changed. And she filmed the entire trip, resulting in the lovely film fagbug. Full of optimism, world-weary realism and more than a touch of serendipity, fagbug will leave you in awe of humanity. Erin Davies, and her fagbug, will attend the screening of the film. In addition, members of SMYAL will tag along with Erin as she introduces DC to the latest in youth activism – fagbug tour ’09!