Treat Gay, Lesbian Film Festivals Like Any Other

With the conclusion of the ninth annual L.A. International Gay & Lesbian Film & Video Festival on July 20, the community once again unequivocally affirmed its support for this event in Los Angeles.

More than 135 films and video tapes were enthusiastically received by capacity crowds, representing more than 17,000 people attending the 10-day event. The festival reaped over $82,000 in total ticket sales, the largest box office return since its inception.

But obstacles continue to hamper our best efforts. David J. Fox’s article “Gay Film Fest Loses Out on Four Films” (Calendar, July 9) clearly outlined some of the problems we have had this year, however they barely scratch the surface of our eight-year history of studio non-cooperation.

A perfect example is Percy Adlon’s film “Salmonberries,” featuring k.d. lang. Fox’s article reported Beverly Graff, associate producer of the film, as noting that we could not screen “Salmonberries” at our event due to it being entered in the Montreal Film Festival and that no screening could take place elsewhere until after September.

Why then is the UCLA Film & Television Archive presenting “Salmonberries” in a public screening on Sept. 6--before either the Toronto or Montreal film festival?

Surely ours is not an event to be trivialized, as Ira Deutchman from Fine Line Features attempts to do in his letter to the L.A. Times (Calendar, July 20). His suggestion for us to change the dates of our festival, thereby avoiding conflicts with other events, doesn’t hold water.

In fact, a great deal of effort goes into the festival scheduling, precisely to avoid conflicts with other festivals both in this country and internationally. To my knowledge, no other festival takes place concurrently, quite a feat in the jammed line-up of international film festivals.

Fine Line’s Deutchman equally misses the boat when comparing our festival to the likes of New York, Telluride and Toronto. The Los Angeles Festival has as its mission to showcase premiere lesbian and gay-themed films that generally get short shrift or are dismissed altogether by studios and distributors.

Precious few gay films come through the mainstream channels or independent distributors. Why shouldn’t that rare film be first showcased in a gay and lesbian festival?

Doesn’t the gay and lesbian community clearly represent one of the prime target markets for such films?

The presumption and concomitant arrogance of distributors to simply rely on an already pre-packaged and built-in lesbian and gay audience when releasing their films must be challenged. As just one example, it was the gay community that first rallied around Gus Van Sant’s “Mala Noche” at gay film festivals, paving at least part of the way for Van Sant’s subsequent movie deals.

Why should such distributors as New Line, Fine Line Features and Miramax use gay film festivals as potential breeding grounds for new talent and then not recognize the significant role the gay community plays in often first embracing and then ushering forth that talent?

That attitude vis-a-vis the gay community takes for granted a pre-set market, while giving very little back to the gay and lesbian community during its own hard-won film celebration. The L.A. International Gay & Lesbian Film & Video Festival has come a long way since its very modest beginnings at the UCLA Film & Television Archive in 1982. The struggles over producing this event have been fought on many fronts, e.g., with funding, general recognition, screening spaces, studio films, to name a few of our battles.

Despite the often Sisyphean efforts involved, the festival continues to grow, providing lesbian and gay festival-goers with greater access to the images that speak to the community.

Until now, the Los Angeles Festival’s real bread and butter has come from the increasing number of independent gay and lesbian films produced in this country, and from foreign titles issuing out of Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Isn’t it time for Hollywood to finally take note of the viability of gay and lesbian film festivals and the significant community enthusiasm for them? Distributor and studio marketing strategies need to deal more honestly with the gay and lesbian audiences they clearly hope to reach at some point.