What to See at aGLIFF's PRISM 36
Austin's annual LGBTQ+ film festival will span five days this month, August 23 — 27. Boasting a slate of more than 50 films that includes 20 narrative features as well as six documentaries, the fest will also offer more than 40 short films across six shorts programs, a 10th Anniversary screening of Darren Stein's "G.B.F.," and nostalgic looks back at Stein's popular films "Jawbreaker" (1999) and "Sparkler" (1997).
"Our theme this year is 'Find Your Friends at aGLIFF's PRISM 36,'" says aGLIFF Board President Todd Hogan. "We felt like going back to our roots as a gathering space for Austin LGBTQ+ individuals is more important than ever.
"While we've made significant progress politically over the past 36 years, recent legislative attacks on our transgender family and drag community threaten everyone's right to live and love freely as humans," Hogan adds. "We believe in the universal language of film, which helps people discover shared humanity. As we continue to confront institutional bias, we are more driven than ever to educate both within and outside our LGBTQ+ community through powerful stories captured on film."
The fest kicks off with Opening Night Selection "Glitter & Doom," which sees director Tom Gustafson and writer Cory Krueckeberg ("Were the World Mine," "Mariachi Gringo," "Getting Go: The Go Doc Project," "Hello Again") reunited for their fifth feature film. A lively jukebox musical built around the songs of The Indigo Girls, "Glitter & Doom" follows its two titular characters — a would-be circus performer played by Alex Diaz and a young singer-songwriter played by Alan Cammish, respectively — as they spend a summer pursuing their dreams and, perhaps more importantly, their nascent love affair. The film bristles with star power, including appearances from Lea DeLaria, Peppermint, Tig Notaro, Ming-Na Wen, and The Indigo Girls themselves, among others.
The festival's Narrative Centerpiece will be the Billy Porter and Luke Evans family drama "Our Son," in which the two openly gay leads portray dads on the verge of a divorce. The film "has been called a modern-day gay version of Robert Benton's 1979 'Kramer vs. Kramer' because it portrays the heartbreaking reality that with marriage equality for LGBTQ+ couples also comes the heartbreaking realities of divorce," aGLIFF noted in a press release.
Another family drama, "The Mattachine Family," closes out the festival. "With performances by an all-star cast including Nico Tortorella, Juan Pablo Di Pace, and Emily Hampshire, the film explores the highs and lows of queer foster parenting," aGLIFF says.
Nestled among the festival's new queer cinematic gems is a fresh exercise in horror: Audiences will thrill to a sneak peek at Marwan Mokebel's Egypt-set "The Judgment," which is set to world premiere in October.
This year's Queer Black Voices Fund — created to give Black directors, writers, actors, and other industry pros from the LGBTQ+ community access and representation — will feature four documentaries, the centerpiece of which is Nneka Onuorah's 85-minute "Truth Be Told," about the often-fractious relationship between the Black church and the queer Black community.
"I'm super excited to attend PRISM 36 this year," Onuorah, who serves as this year's Queer Black Voices Fund mentor, says. "I'm excited to be a mentor in the program because in making films and getting them out it's very difficult and support from people who have been through it means everything to get to the finish line."
"My film 'Truth Be Told' is timely because there are so many systems that are being reversed that affect my community and their mental health and self-worth," Onuorah adds. "We need stories that provoke healing while also holding oppressive systems accountable. It couldn't be a better time to come out."
The four-minute "I Identify As Me," by Tina Colleen and Monick Monell, "is a chorus of gender-diverse women and people who are queer & trans Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPoC)," aGLIFF's press notes reveal. "Their stories allow us to reflect on the truth that the intersectionalities of gender and people are infinite; honoring this brings us a step closer to liberating ourselves from damaging social constructs" Isak Vaillancourt's 17-minute film "Collective Resistance" explores "new possibilities for relationships between Blackness and Indigeneity which is rooted in solidarity and joy." Malik Julien and Emily McClanahan's 40-minute, Deep South-set "And They Were Loved," rounds out this year's Queer Black Voices Fund class, looking into how "safer spaces in hostile environments" are created "through sexual health advocacy, multimedia artistry, and ballroom culture."
Other festival standouts include Sharon "Rocky" Roggio's piercing documentary "1946 — A Mistranslation that Changed Culture," which focuses on the first appearance of the word "homosexual" in the Bible — a mistranslation that laid onus on gay people when the original word meant something different; "Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn," in which director Timothy Harris shadows self-described "poor, Black, and gay kid from North Philly" Malcolm Kenyatta on his bid for a U.S. Senate seat; the transgender family drama "Two Lives in Pittsburgh," which shows how a blue-collar father's love for his child rises above the noise of accusing, anti-trans voices; trans filmmaker Sav Rodgers' doc "Chasing Chasing Amy," about Rodgers' quest to untangle the history of the 1997 Kevin Smith movie that first offered him a cinematic glimpse of the LGBTQ+ community; and Olivier Peyon's film adaptation of Philippe Besson's novel "Lie With Me," in which a middle-aged novelist makes a return to his home town, and the echoes of his past, with a trip back to Cognac, France after three-and-a-half decades away.
The in-person festival will be followed by a virtual encore of select titles from Aug. 28 — Sept. 4, allowing viewers from around the country to view a representative sample of this year's offerings.
Tickets, badges, and memberships are available now.
Have a look below at EDGE's picks for the 12 must-see offerings from this year's aGLIFF PRISM film festival.
1. Opening Night Selection: "Glitter & Doom"
Two young gay men — Glitter, an aspiring circus performer, and Doom, a budding singer-songwriter — escape together on a camping trip. The latest team-up from director Tom Gustafson and writer Corey Krueckeberg ("Were the World Mine," "Mariachi Gringo," "Hello Again") "Glitter & Doom" offers a visual and musical fantasia... and plenty of surprising cameo appearances.
See the trailer here.
Screening Wednesday, Aug. 23rd, at 7:30 pm @ AFS Cinema
2. "Two Lives in Pittsburgh"
Writer-director Brian Silverman probes beneath the headlines and 24/7 right-wing rage against transgender children to explore what it means when a working class dad (Silverman) comes face to face with the realities of life. On one generational side he's got his mother (Annie O'Donnell), who is declining but still fierce, to deal with; on the other, his son Manny (Emma Basques) might actually be his daughter.
Saturday, Aug. 26th, at 4:30 pm @ Galaxy Theater Screen 6
3. "Chasing Chasing Amy"
Transgender filmmaker Sav Rodgers was obsessed with the Kevin Smith movie "Chasing Amy" since his days as a bullied 12-year-old. The film was the first queer representation Rodgers, growing up in the Midwest, had ever seen in a movie. Rodgers' TED talk about the film — "The Rom Com that Saved My Life" — led to the chance to interview Smith himself, among others connected with the film, and explore the controversies that grew up around the movie's plot about a straight man and an LGBTQ+ woman falling in love.
Sunday, Aug. 27th, at 1:30 pm @ Galaxy Theater Screen 6
4. "The Empress of Vancouver"
With anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers in numerous states targeting the venerable art of drag for repressive laws — and lumping drag performances in with "sexualized" entertainment unfit for children regardless of actual content — the time is more than right for Dave Rodden-Shortt's documentary about drag icon Olive Howe in a project described as a "cinematic and intimate collision of drag, queer history, and performance art."
Screening TBA
5. "1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture"
"While other documentaries have been successful in their attempt to treat the symptom of homophobia in the church," the website for this illuminating documentary explains, "1946 is working to diagnose and treat the disease - Biblical Literalism."
But the crux of this film isn't just the content of a book regarded as holy by Christians worldwide; it's how a crucial mistranslation, which the film pinpoints in the year 1946, put cultural concepts into an ancient text that were never intended by the original authors... or, if you believe that the Bible is the actual word of God, the original Author.
Sunday, Aug. 27th, at 1:46 pm @ Galaxy Theatre Screen 9
6. "Lie with Me"
Director Olivier Peyon adapts Philippe Besson's 2017 novel for the screen, delving into memory and the enduring force of love with a dramatic feature that finds middle-aged novelist Stéphane Belcourt making a return to Cognac, France after more than three decades. In his past: the resonances of a first love between himself as a young man (Jérémy Gillet) and another young man, Thomas (Julien De Saint Jean). In the present: a growing attracting to Lucas (Victor Belmondo) — Thomas' son.
Saturday, Aug. 26th, at 4:15 PM @ Galaxy Theatre Screen 9
7. "Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn"
Timothy Harris' documentary — executive produced by Al Roker of NBC's "Today" — follows Malcolm Kenyatta, an out candidate for the United States Senate, who rose from his origins as "poor, Black, and gay kid from North Philly" to representative for the marginalized — and a challenge to longstanding notions of "electability," being a Black candidate in a state that has only ever sent straight white men to the Senate.
Saturday, Aug. 26th, at 2:00 PM @ Galaxy Theatre Screen 9
8. "A mon seul Desir (My Sole Desire)"
A fable about erotic power and female fulfillment, Lucie Borleteau's film follows Manon, a med school student, into a strip club where she discovers a world of unexpected friendships, personal validation — and fascination with a fellow dancer named Mia.
No screening information available.
9. "Truth Be Told"
Emmy Award-winner Nneka Onuorah gives an idea of the film's focus when she asks, "you've seen Mike Tyson versus Holyfield, but have you ever seen the LGBTQ+ community versus the Black church?" Selected as the festival's Centerpiece Documentary — and with Onuroah serving as this year's Queer Black Voices Fund mentor — the film takes note of how "the Black church has historically fallen short when it comes to supporting the LGBTQ+ community and its queer members," even as it has proved instrumental in other areas of the civil rights struggle.
10. "Jezabel"
This Venezuelan thriller, from director Hernán Jabes, explores the decades-long repercussions of a tragedy among a group of high-spirited teenagers — especially the impact the event has on Alain (Gabriel Agüero).
Screening information TBA
11. "Clashing Differences"
The politics and pressures of pursuing greater equity drive this humorous German film, which follows a feminist group — "House of Womxn" — trying to participate in an international conference but facing cancellation if they can't find the right diverse balance for its panel.
Screening information TBA
12. 10th Anniversary Screening of "G.B.F."
Have the parallels between high school and adult life ever been more explicit than in Darren Stein's 2014 comedy? Tanner, a gay teen, becomes a hot commodity when he's outed and his status as the sole out gay in the school unleashes a frenzy among the popular girls, all maneuvering to acquire their very own "gay best friend."
Screening Saturday, Aug. 26, @ Galaxy Theater Screen 6