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June 18 - 28: Frameline 33: the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival

It’s no secret that LGBT people are often a few steps ahead of the crowd. We’re seen strutting that cute look before it hits the shelves, dancing to hits that nobody else has heard yet, and writing words that would make our mothers blush.

When it comes to film, we’ve experimented with new ways of telling our stories, as well as inventing film language that explores our histories, bodies, and desires. Most importantly, we’ve documented our community’s activism, paid homage to those on the margins, and turned trash into high art.

This year, Frameline takes a look back to the explosion of underground queer films made in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and also looks forward at those pushing the boundaries of cinema right here, right now.

Be sure to buy your tickets now - these are films you won’t find at the multiplexes, and many aren’t available on video either!

Fans of the underground also won’t want to miss CANYON CINEMA’S QUEER UNDERGROUND program, spanning work from the ‘40s to the present. Variously called avant-garde, underground and experimental, these queer artists’ works share uncompromising visions of personal expression that are free from the demands of commercial film conventions. Included in this program are works by such luminaries as Kenneth Anger, Su Friedrich, and Curt McDowell, among others. Prior to this program we will be hosting a free panel on Queer Underground Cinema, featuring filmmakers Stephen Kent Jusick, Bill Basquin, Jim Hubbard, Dominic Angerame, and Denah A. Johnston, from 4:30-6:30pm at the Little Roxie.

We’ve also got some great experimental films from outstanding filmmakers outside of the US. Queer cinema visionary John Greyson (Lilies, Proteus) once again dazzles the senses and challenges the intellect with FIG TREES, a remarkably complex and moving rumination on AIDS activism, St. Teresa of Avila and Gertrude Stein that features a singing albino squirrel. And we’re thrilled to present director Kit Hung’s beautifully photographed, non-linear debut feature, SOUNDLESS WIND CHIME, in which two lonely young men, one Chinese and one Swiss, meet in bustling Hong Kong. The film finds its true magic in love’s wake, when memory is as palpable as a steady breeze.

If you’re looking for a side of eye-candy with your avant-garde, you’ll find it in LITTLE JOE, a fascinating documentary starring iconic cult actor and Warhol star Joe Dallesandro, who will be attending the festival in the flesh. We’re also delighted to be showing the long-anticipated MAGGOTS AND MEN, a utopian re-visioning of the Kronstadt Uprising of 1921, featuring film history’s first cast of over 100 transgender actors. (Gay sailors, anyone?) We’ve also got our shorts program DIRT AND DESIRE, featuring sexy, hot, and porn-arific queers of all genders who explore desire in every form in this down and dirty shorts program with a little something for everyone…and we mean everyone.

For those curious about the underground at the turn of the century, we’ve got THE LOLLIPOP GENERATION, G.B. Jones’s loose narrative that pays homage to the grungy, life-on-the street subculture of sucker-licking, queer hooligans. Shot on grainy Super 8 with spurts of jarring video, the fast cuts and simplistic dialogue belie the subject matter of social deviants, hustlers and smut peddlers who revel in defying society’s norms of decency.

And of course, that’s not all! Check out our complete line-up of more than 200 films to find something that challenges you!

Starts	June 18 2009
Ends / Deadline	June 28 2009
Homepage	http://www.frameline.org/festival/
Contact	info@frameline.org
Issues	Family & Society, Gay/Lesbian, Gay/Lesbian Adoption, Gay/Lesbian Discrimination, Gay/Lesbian Hate Crimes, Gay/Lesbian Health, Gay/Lesbian Marriage, Transgender, Gender/Women, Body Image, Equal Opportunities, Violence against women, Human Rights, Media, Fair Representation, Politics/Government, Legal Reform