Reel Affirmations: The Nation's LGBT Film Festival 2009

A socially inept young woman persistently and hilariously pursues the "woman of her dreams" who seems to care less.

Closeted life can be pretty cramped, what with all the hangers hitting your head. Not being able to live out in the open is sometimes a small price to pay compared to the fear of familial and professional backlash. But the price becomes too high for thirty-something Felicia, as she finds herself coaxing her lesbian lover into a closet due to a surprise visit from her mom. Her relationship now in jeopardy, Felicia has a proposal for her similarly repressed group of sapphic friends: all six must come out within thirty days. Of course, this is easier said than done. For cocky WNBA player Kemp, future endorsements are on the line. Sabrina, a meek churchgoer, must reconcile her beliefs with her desires. Tonya feels ongoing pressure from her fiancée, but can’t stand up to her pushy sister, and Melanie will do whatever it takes to regain custody of her daughter from a former girlfriend. The bravest of the bunch, Monifa, confesses her sexuality to her parents with hilarious results, but then finds herself swept up in an unexpected love affair. And Felicia, the catalyst for the pact, is too afraid to stick to her own plan. Tackling relevant African American LGBT issues such as church values and coming out in Hollywood, writer-director Faith Trimel (Black Aura on an Angel) effectively transcends color lines with her powerful, relatable story of confronting your own truth. --Frameline

She has been compared to everyone from Johnny Cash to Bruce Springsteen. A music critic famously wrote of her “What if Bob Dylan had been born a Canadian lesbian?” She once hired an unknown songwriter named Tori Amos as a backup .singer, and she has been cited as an influence by everyone from Ani diFranco to the Indigo Girls. We are, of course, speaking of Ferron. No last name needed — just Ferron. And a guitar. In this remarkably intimate documentary, Gerry Rogers (My Left Breast) chronicles the return of the folk legend as she picks up the pieces after a ten-year absence from music. From her home in rural Canada, she brings together a band of merry pranksters to aid and abet her intricate, life-changing lyrics and rapture-inducing live performances. With a slam-dunk kick-off performance in Vancouver the film never lets up, offering one intimate glimpse after another into Ferrron’s personal and professional life. As soul-baring as her lyrics are, this film opens the audience even deeper to the magic that is Ferron: her passion for women’s rights, her determination to live a true artist’s life, and — always — her love of performing. Girl on a Road is, more than anything, the portrait of deeply spiritual woman who has taken a stance against the corruption of modern society and created a life of everlasting beauty – a life that she graciously shares with her audience.

A wildly original melding of the surreal and the heartbreaking, Fig Trees boldly examines the global AIDS crisis in an utterly unique and captivating style. The film innovatively combines documentary footage and interviews with abstract musical interludes, which include cleverly apropos updates of classic pop songs, as well as selections from Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, faithfully re-created as a full-blown opera. The film follows two of the most prominent figures in the world of AIDS activism: Zackie Achmat, whose treatment strike made worldwide headlines as he refused to take anti-retroviral drugs until they were made available to the public in South Africa, and Tim McCaskell, who has been living with AIDS for 25 years and founded Canadian AIDS Action Now. Skillfully balancing the tremendous scope of the crisis with the personal, painful effects of AIDS, the film strikes a tone that is at once enlightening, indignant, and, of course, gleefully over-the-top. Prepare for a visceral, intellectual experience that will smash your expectations of just what it means to be a documentary.

This short doc gives a surprisingly comprehensive overview of the state of gay adoption in the U.S.

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Laugh till you cry in this program of sly and witty takes on lesbian love!

How far can a young man follow his dreams? If you are Mark Payne, apparently all the way to the top. Mark became a singer, clothing designer and stage performer at the ripe age of 13. Get Happy chronicles the unconventional coming-of-age of a boy encouraged to express himself by a supportive mother and grandmother. Childhood footage of him performing his female impersonations (Liza and Barbra among them) is simply stunning, and earned him the prestige of performing alongside the likes of Bob Hope and Milton Berle. A true homage to the greatness inside us all — if only we can achieve our dreams.