Gay, Lesbian Film Fest Broadens Its Horizons

Outfest ‘96, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, opens its 14th year tonight with “Stonewall,” a tribute to the momentous beginnings of the gay rights movement, when a bunch of flamboyant drag queens in New York began a historical riot.

Closing night, July 21, is the lesbian-themed “Late Bloomers,” a late-in-life love story of two middle-aged women who work in the same school. A big wedding scene, which caps the movie, is bound to touch a deep chord in the audience in a year when “freedom to marry” is a hot issue within the gay community.

These films reflect significant changes in the direction of the festival since its modest beginnings in 1982. “Stonewall,” due out from Strand later this month, is one of a larger than usual pool of films in this year’s event--about 10--with distribution deals already set. It also represents a trend away from films about AIDS toward broader themes, such as coming out and self-esteem, friendship and bonding, love and seduction.

“The movies are not all about AIDS anymore,” says John Cooper, the festival’s artistic director. “We have erotic fantasies, witty romantic comedies like ‘Boyfriends,’ even gay action films, like ‘Raising Heroes.’ ”

Adds Morgan Rumpf, Outfest’s executive director: “This year, the festival is a chronicle of queer activism, where we’ve been, where we’re going as a community.”

The current festival also features a record number of lesbian films. Until the last few years, most of what was shown were movies about men, made for the most part by white male filmmakers. But the critical and commercial success of “Go Fish” and “The Incredibly True Story of Two Girls in Love” opened the doors for other lesbian films.

Among the ’96 crop are Susan Streitfeld’s stylish erotic meditation “Female Perversions,” with “Orlando’s” Tilda Swinton in the lead role, and Sharon Pollack’s “Everything Relative,” a reunion comedy-drama touted as a “lesbian ‘Big Chill.’ ”

Adding to the increased lesbian visibility is a discussion panel, quirkily titled “Dykes as Bad Girls,” which will deconstruct the images of Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct,” Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly in the upcoming Gramercy picture “Bound” (shown in the festival) and other “criminal-crazy” lesbians.

Another change is an increasing global diversity. In 1982, there were 29 films from seven countries; this year, there are 200 offerings representing 19 countries.

The first gay documentary from China, “Darkness Before Dawn,” is going to be shown in the festival. For fear of political repercussions, the filmmakers have used pseudonyms, but director Wu Feng has managed to get a visa and will introduce his work in person.

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There’s also the first South Korean gay movie--Park Jae Ho’s “Broken Branches,” a chronicle of gay underground culture with its coded norms and necessary subterfuges. Very much in this league is Sonja de Vries’ “Gay Cuba,” which provides a candid look at the controversial issue of human rights for gays under Castro.

A larger than usual number of films arrive at the festival with distribution deals. But the festival still serves vital functions as a showcase for movies without distributors, as a marketing tool for those with--and as an unusual emotional experience. “You can’t ask for a better audience,” says Marcus Hu, co-president of Strand Releasing, which will distribute “Stonewall” later this month. “The energy of a gay audience is unique; it’s like going to church, sharing a deeply religious experience.”

Among the premieres are “Green Plaid Shirt,” a personal film about the joys and sorrows of gay relationships by film journalist Richard Natale, making his directing debut, and Stephen Winter’s “Chocolate Babies,” a satire in which a wide variety of gay cliques join forces to terrorize conservative politicians.

There is a sidebar called “Guilty Pleasures,” composed of classic movies that are not necessarily gay in content but display a gay sensibility. George Cukor’s masterpiece “A Star Is Born,” which features the best dramatic performance of Judy Garland, an icon in gay culture, will be introduced by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). Other films in the series include Billy Wilder’s campy classic “Some Like It Hot” and Barbra Streisand’s gender-bender “Yentl.”

The festival offers panels ranging from the pragmatic “The Spectrum of Visibility--Marketing the Gay and Lesbian Themed Film” to the more intellectual “What Is a Gay Film Anyway?” based on the notion that it may no longer be possible to define gay fare strictly by thematic concerns or by the sexual orientation of its filmmakers.

Movies such as “johns,” which evokes “Midnight Cowboy” in L.A., and the lesbian crime-action “Bound,” are made by straight directors, Scott Silver and Larry and Andy Wachowski, respectively.

While there’s some overlap between Outfest and gay festivals in other cities, the organizers emphasize the uniqueness of their endeavor--its location, its proximity to Hollywood. For Strand’s Hu, the main achievement of the new regime is its “strong financial and organizational stability.”

“They have done a wonderful outreach with the L.A. film community,” he says. “For the first time, the board includes gay members from studio ranks like Amblin as well as independents like Gramercy.”

These healthy foundations are reflected in the box-office take, which has grown from $10,000 in the early 1980s to more than $100,000 last year. The festival hopes to reach 25,000 viewers this year, up from about 20,000 in 1995. To meet the growing demand, Outfest has added one day to its operation and one more screening per day.

At present, Outfest has larger impact and bigger audiences than ever before. “We are here to create access, knowledge and awareness of gay films,” Rumpf says. “There’s immense curiosity among people, some of them straight, in discovering what gay culture is all about.”

* Outfest ’96 runs tonight through July 21, with all screenings at the Directors Guild, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. Tickets and information: (213) 782-1125.