FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: Jake Graf Honored at aGLIFF 2018’s Full Lineup includes the fest’s first Breakthrough Honoree, and a diverse schedule of films befitting the festival’s dedication (and title change) to the true definition of inclusiveness

Filmmaker Jake Graf Honored at The All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival (aGLIFF) (formerly the Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival) announced the official selections for the film festival’s 31st edition.

Screening exclusively at Alamo Drafthouse Lamar (1120 S. Lamar Blvd.) in Austin, Texas on September 6-9, aGLIFF will open with the previously announced CALL HER GANDA, directed by PJ RAVAL, with Ondi Timoner’s MAPPLETHORPE, starring Matt Smith, set to make its Texas Premiere as the Closing Night selection.

MAPPLETHORPE
MAPPLETHORPE

aGLIFF also announced the debut of the festival’s Breakthrough Award, which will be presented to filmmaker Jake Graf, a longtime aGLIFF favorite, joining Austin-based filmmaker YEN TAN, who will be receiving aGLIFF’s first Tribute Award. This year’s edition of Austin’s longest running film festival will showcase 32 feature-length films (19 narrative, 13 documentary), and 47 short films and music videos (36 narrative, 5 documentary, and 6 music videos).

aGLIFF Program Director Jim Brunzell, said, “Following last year’s wonderful 30th anniversary celebration of our film festival’s storied history, we found it appropriate to make some changes and updates this year, starting, of course, with changing our festival’s name to the All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival to properly reflect who we are, what we represent, and hope to exemplify as aGLIFF goes forward. But our growth has not stopped there. This year, we have decided to add two filmmaker award presentations to our celebration of LGBTQ+ cinema to salute film artists that have made a significant impact (the Tribute Award), and to single out filmmakers early in their careers whose work we have admired, and anticipate continued success (Breakthrough Award).”

BRACE
BRACE

 

CHANCE
CHANCE

 

This first filmmaker chosen to be presented with aGLIFF’s new Breakthrough Award, Jake Graf is a director, writer and actor based in London and known for a prolific stream of films including, BRACE (2014), THE DANISH GIRL (2015), CHANCE (2015), DUSK (2017) and HEADSPACE (2017). A frequent presence on the film festival circuit, Graf’s films have screened at aGLIFF and numerous film festivals all over the world. His first film, XWHY (2011), which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in, was nominated for The Iris Prize. BRACE, which featured his second screenplay, has screened at over 100 festivals internationally. Graf’s third film, CHANCE, was one of 5 films selected to take part in the British Film Council’s pioneering project #FiveFilms4Freedom in association with the BFI, promoting tolerance and understanding worldwide. His fourth short, DUSK, has won 30 Best Short Film awards and is part of the Tribeca curated United Airlines LGBT short film package, and his online short, HEADSPACE, went viral in 2017 with 4.6 million online views.

DUSK
DUSK

 

All of Graf’s films are used as educational tools in universities, schools, prisons and media events internationally. His first feature film as a director, LAVENDER, and two television drama pilots are now in development with MisFits Entertainment (“Alleycats”/'”McQueen”). He has also just starred in COLETTE directed by Wash Westmoreland (STILL ALICE) and played the lead role in upcoming boxing drama FEATHERWEIGHT.

 

Jake Graf
Jake Graf

 

Previously announced, the recipient of aGLIFF’s inaugural Tribute Award, Yen Tan will be presented with the award on Sunday, September 9, prior to a screening of his critically acclaimed film, 1985. aGLIFF will also be screening his first feature film, CIAO, celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary, on Friday, September 7.

Raval’s CALL HER GANDA will open aGLIFF, making its Southwest premiere when it screens at the Alamo Drafthouse’s South Lamar venue (1120 S. Lamar Blvd) on Thursday, September 6. The film investigates the story of Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, who was brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine. Three women intimately invested in the case–an activist attorney, a transgender journalist and Jennifer’s mother, galvanizing a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of US imperialism.

The Closing Night selection, MAPPLETHORPE, marks the narrative feature directorial debut of Ondi Timoner in partnership with sibling producers Eliza and Nate Dushku. Timoner is the only two-time winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for her documentaries DIG! (2004) and WE LIVE IN PUBLIC (2009), while Eliza Dushku (“Dollhouse”) is a veteran actress of film and television, who finds herself on the other side of the camera. Shot on 16mm and Super 8mm film stock, the movie provides a rich, textured view of the New York art world in its heyday. And through Matt Smith’s image-altering performance, the film offers a vivid, challenging portrait of a true cultural icon. MAPPLETHORPE screens on Sunday, September 9.

 

RETABLO
RETABLO

 

CLOSE-KNIT
CLOSE-KNIT

 

This year’s edition of aGLIFF has a decidedly international feel with 20 countries represented this year, including three award winners from the Berlin Film Festival. Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio’s Peruvian coming-of-age story, RETABLO screened in the Generation section at the Berlin Film Festival, winning two awards, the Special Jury Mention and the Newcomer Teddy Award. Another Teddy Award winner at Berlin was Naoko Ogigami’s CLOSE-KNIT, starring Japanese superstar singer and actor Toma Ikuta. The film breaks new ground in Japanese queer filmmaking, telling a poignant and affirming story about family, affection, and acceptance, and Marcelo Martinessi’s THE HEIRESSES features Ana Brun, who won the Berlin International Film Festival Award for Best Actress with her first feature film performance.

Joining CLOSE-KNIT in the Narrative Competition section are; Amara Cash’s DADDY ISSUES, about a tragic triangle including a queer pixie and her father; Fabian Gorgeart’s French film DIANE HAS THE RIGHT SHAPE, which follows the complications that arise when a surrogate mother develops an infatuation; Pablo D’Alo Abba’s Argentinian film, MATER, with another triangle created by a search for a sperm donor; and Jeffrey Walker’s Australian film RIOT, which dramatizes that country’s 1970s Gay Rights Movement.

 

THE ICE KING
THE ICE KING

 

MR. SOUL
MR. SOUL

 

The Documentary Competition includes; Jethro Patalinghug’s 50 YEARS OF FABULOUS, which tells the story of the Imperial Council, one of the oldest and most influential LGBT organizations in the world; James Erskine’s THE ICE KING profiles ice skater John Curry, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1976; Laura Marie Wayne’s LOVE, SCOTT follows the journey of a young gay musician who is attacked and paralyzed from the waist down; Melissa Haizlip’s MR SOUL! shines a light on “SOUL!” a late 60s/early 70s all-Black variety show on public television, and producer-turned-host Ellis Haizlip; and Mika Gustafson, Olivia Kastebring, and Christina Tsiobanelis’s SILVANA, which profiles Swedish rapper Silvana Imam.

SILVANA
SILVANA

 

For a fifth year in a row, aGLIFF will present a highly anticipated “Secret Screening” of a film, making its U.S. Premiere with the film’s writer and director in attendance. Other filmmakers expected to attend aGLIFF include PJ Raval (CALL HER GANDA), Ondi Timoner, Nate Dushku, Amnon Lourie (MAPPLETHORPE), Yen Tan (Tribute Award), Jake Graf (Breakthrough Award), Amara Cash (DADDY ISSUES), Lisa Donato (FOXY TROT, THERE YOU ARE), Melissa Haizlip (MR. SOUL), Jenna Laurenzo (LEZ BOMB), Madeleine Olnek (WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY), Adam Sekuler (TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS), and Marc Smolowitz (50 YEARS OF FABULOUS).

 

LEZ BOMB
LEZ BOMB

 

Film festival passes are on-sale now. VIP badges are $300, Film badges start at $125, and Student passes are $50. Individual Tickets are $12. For more information aGLIFF, go to http://agliff.org. To purchase passes or tickets, go to: http://agliff.org/badgesandtickets/

 

The 2018 aGLIFF official selections:

OPENING NIGHT SELECTION                                        

CALL HER GANDA                                                Southwest Premiere

Director: PJ Raval

Country: USA, Running Time: 93 min

The film investigates the story of Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, who was brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine. Three women intimately invested in the case–an activist attorney, a transgender journalist and Jennifer’s mother, galvanizing a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of US imperialism.

 

CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION

MAPPLETHORPE                                      

Director: Ondi Timoner

Country: USA, Running Time: 94 min
The first-ever biopic of Robert Mapplethorpe stars a revelatory Matt Smith in the title portraying the artist from his early days in New York City, chronicling his relationships with musician Patti Smith (Marianne Rendón) and curator Sam Wagstaff (John Benjamin Hickey), to his death in 1989 from HIV/AIDS at age 42.
NARRATIVE FILM COMPETITION

CLOSE-KNIT

Director: Naoko Ogigami

Country: Japan, Running Time: 127 min

Tomo is an 11-year-old girl whose mother is woefully incapable of caring for her. When the child awakes one morning to find her mother gone—apparently off on a bender—Tomo seeks refuge with her bookstore-clerk uncle, Makio. Before bringing her home to his apartment, Makio cautiously informs Tomo that he’s got a new girlfriend, Rinko, and that there’s something different about her. Rinko is a transgender woman, whose maternal instincts kick in immediately upon Tomo’s arrival—she offers the child a warm meal, a spot on the couch to play Wii, and a bed to sleep in. While Tomo is at first hesitant to accept Rinko’s gestures of affection, she is quickly won over by the tenderness that this new mother figure in her life offers, not to mention the exquisite delicacy with which Rinko does everything from packing lunch to knitting—a craft she teaches Tomo as a way to channel the girl’s anger and sadness. Woven closer every day as a family unit, the three characters are confronted with a wrenching decision when Tomo’s wayward mother returns, looking to be reunited with her daughter.

 

DADDY ISSUES

Director: Amara Cash

Country: USA, Running Time: 90 min

A modern-day tragedy about a 19-year-old queer pixie, her estranged neurotic father, and the woman they’re both infatuated with.

 

DIANE HAS THE RIGHT SHAPE                       

Director: Fabien Gorgeart

Country: France, Running Time: 87 min

Diane doesn’t hesitate for a moment when her best friends, Thomas and Jacques, ask her to be their surrogate mother. It is in these less than perfect circumstances that she suddenly becomes infatuated with her electrician, Fabrizio.

 

MATER                                                          North American Premiere

Director: Pablo D’Alo Abba

Country: Argentina, Running Time: 80 min

Lena and Celeste love each other and desperately want to become mothers. One night, they go out looking for a sperm donor and choose a stranger to conceive their child with. That night Celeste meets Darío, a young man unhappy with his life and dominated by his overprotective mother. The event will set their lives on a different course, especially Dario’s, who will discover that he can do something for himself. Based on the play “Wind in a Violin” by Claudio Tolcachir.

 

RIOT

Director: Jeffrey Walker

Country: Australia, Running Time: 105 min

RIOT shines a spotlight on Australia’s 1970s Gay Rights Movement and the passionate individuals who were unwavering in their fight for decriminalization, recognition and equality.

 

DOCUMENTARY FILM COMPETITION

50 YEARS OF FABULOUS

Director: Jethro Patalinghug

Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min

50 YEARS OF FABULOUS recounts the rich history of the Imperial Council, one of the oldest and most influential LGBT organizations in the world, from its genesis as a critical public space for the community and capacity building of LGBT San Franciscans, to its vital role in the advocacy for LGBT human rights. The film documents the full scope of the organization’s historical evolution up to its contemporary struggle in finding relevance, both in the wake of social progress it has helped foster, and in light of a newly empowered political coalition committed to rolling back a half-century of civil rights achievements.

 

THE ICE KING

Director: James Erskine

Country: UK, Running Time: 89 min

John Curry transformed ice skating from a dated sport into an exalted art form. Coming out on the night of his Olympic win in 1976, he became the first openly gay Olympian in a time when homosexuality was not even fully legal. Toxic yet charming; rebellious yet elitist; emotionally aloof yet spectacularly needy; ferociously ambitious yet bent on self-destruction, this is a man forever on the run: from his father’s ghost, his country, and even his own self. Above all, an artist and an athlete whose body time and time again –sometimes against his will– becomes a political battlefield.

 

LOVE, SCOTT

Director: Laura Marie Wayne

Country: Canada, Running Time: 75 min

Following the journey of a young gay musician who is attacked and paralyzed from the waist down, LOVE, SCOTT is an intimate and visually evocative window into queer experience, set against a stunning score by Sigur Rós.

 

MR. SOUL

Director: Melissa Haizlip

Country: USA, Running Time: 90 min

Premiering in 1968, SOUL! was the first nationally broadcast all-Black variety show on public television, merging artists from the margins with post–civil rights Black radical thought. Visionary producer-turned-host Ellis Haizlip—openly gay and committed to charting new aesthetic territory—brought the avant-garde into the mainstream by foregrounding poetry and politics. Debuting icons like Patti Labelle, Ashford & Simpson and Arsenio Hall alongside early legends such as Toni Morrison, James Baldwin and the Last Poets, Haizlip’s keen ear for talent propelled a cultural shift so powerful it pushed Nixon into action. Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Kathleen Cleaver and more reflect on this lost chapter of pop culture history and revisit their time on SOUL! With original music by Robert Glasper, take a deep dive into these unseen yet urgent archives and learn about the complex man who was the SOUL! of it all.

 

SILVANA                                         

Directors: Mika Gustafson, Olivia Kastebring, Christina Tsiobanelis

Country: Sweden, Running Time: 91 min

Swedish rapper Silvana Imam quickly rose to fame with her blunt, uncompromising rhymes. In the span of just a year, she became a superstar. The world of hip-hop has long been male-dominated, which means she has to work even harder. Not only is she female, but also a lesbian feminist. Her politically charged anthems about destroying the patriarchy brought a whole new audience to rap. Huge crowds of young women came with fists in the air to sing along to her lyrics. The media began labeling her a hero for women and the LGBT community. The praise was nice, but the pressure of being a role model was hard to handle. She was also tired of journalists focusing only on her gender and sexuality, rather than on her musical talents. Everything started to take a toll on her mental health.

 

 

RETROSPECTIVE AND ANNIVERSARY FILMS

BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (2013)

Director: PJ Raval

Country: USA, Running Time: 110 min

Three gay seniors navigate the adventures, challenges, and surprises of life and love in their golden years.

 

CIAO (2008)

Director: Yen Tan

Country: USA, Running Time: 87 min

Jeff is taking care of everything Mark left behind when he died in an accident. Mark was about to have a visitor, Andrea, an Italian guy he met online. Now, Jeff and Andrea have the chance to share memories of the Mark they knew while getting to know each other.

 

aGLIFF ENCORES

1985

Director: Yen Tan

Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min

Inspired by the award-winning short film of the same name, 1985 follows Adrian (Cory Michael Smith, “Gotham”), a closeted young man returning to his Texas hometown for Christmas during the first wave of the AIDS crisis. Burdened with an unspeakable tragedy in New York, Adrian reconnects with his brother (Aidan Langford) and estranged childhood friend (Jamie Chung), as he struggles to divulge his dire circumstances to his religious parents (Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis).

 

ANCHOR & HOPE

Director: Carlos Marques-Marcet

Country: Spain, Running Time: 113 min

In their mid-30s, Eva (Oona Chaplin) and Kat’s (Natalia Tena) humble, yet carefree, lifestyle in their London canal boat gets turned upside down when Eva presents Kat with an ultimatum: she wants a child. Kat resists, knowing that it will end the bohemian lifestyle she’s always envisaged with Eva. When Kat’s best friend, Roger (David Verdaguer), drops in from Barcelona to party with the ladies, however, the three of them toy around with the idea of creating a baby together. Forced into a corner, Kat sees no other way out but to say yes. Surprisingly, their offbeat DIY fertilization process is actually successful. As Eva enjoys her pregnancy and Roger fantasizes about his role in his new family, Kat feels like the third wheel and begins distancing herself. When Eva has an unexpected miscarriage, the group’s true feelings are laid bare, leading Eva and Kat to break up while Roger prepares to go back to Barcelona.

 

TRANSMILITARY

Directors: Gabe Silverman, Fiona Dawson

Country: USA, Running Time: 93 min

The 2018 SXSW Audience Award-winning feature film debut by Gabriel Silverman & Fiona Dawson, TRANSMILITARY follows the Emmy-nominated short film TRANSGENDER, AT WAR AND IN LOVE. Around 15,500 transgender people serve in the U.S. military (notably the largest transgender employer in the U.S.), where they must conceal their gender identity because military policies ban their service. TRANSMILITARY chronicles the lives of four individuals (Senior Airman Logan Ireland, Corporal Laila Villanueva, Captain Jennifer Peace & First Lieutenant El Cook) defending their country’s freedom while fighting for their own. They put their careers and their families’ livelihoods on the line by coming out as transgender to top brass officials in the Pentagon in hopes of attaining the equal right to serve. The ban was lifted in 2016, but with President Trump now trying to reinstate it, their futures hang in the balance again.

 

WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY

Director: Madeleine Olnek

Country: USA, Running Time: 84 min

Molly Shannon plays Emily Dickinson in the humorous drama WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY. The poet’s persona, popularized since her death, became that of a reclusive spinster – a delicate wallflower, too sensitive for this world. This film explores her vivacious, irreverent side that was covered up for years — most notably Emily’s lifelong romantic relationship with another woman (Susan Ziegler). After Emily died, a rivalry emerged when her brother’s mistress (Amy Seimetz) along with editor T.W. Higginson (Brett Gelman) published a book of Emily’s poems.

 

NARRATIVE FILMS

ALASKA IS A DRAG                                                        

Director: Shaz Bennett

Country: USA, Running Time: 88 min

This is a fish out of water story — literally. Everyone who slices fish all day daydreams – his are just glamtastic. He’s had to learn to fight to survive. And his boss who is also an amateur boxer takes note. When a new kid offers to be his sparring partner – he and his twin are forced to confront the real reason they’re stuck in fish guts.

 

HARD PAINT                                              

Directors: Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon

Country: Brazil, Running Time: 118 min

Set in Brazil’s southern city of Porto Alegre, the film focuses on a socially repressed young man who only comes out of his shell during chatroom performances, when he strips and smears neon paints on his lithe body.

 

THE HEIRESSES

Director: Marcelo Martinessi

Countries: Paraguay/Germany/Uraguay, Running Time: 95 min

Chela and Chiquita have lived together for decades in fading elegance, sharing Chela’s childhood home in Asunción, Paraguay.Forceful Chiquita manages practical matters, while reclusive Chela stays in and paints. When mounting money troubles force Chiquita to start selling off family treasures, Chela clings to her tattered dignity and proudly refuses financial help from friends. But this carefully observed tale about social status takes a dramatic turn when Chiquita is sent to prison for covering up their debts. Chela is forced to reconsider her notions of class by going to work—at first hesitantly, offering rides to her elderly (and judgmental) wealthy friends despite her discomfort behind the wheel, and then more confidently, starting a kind of private taxi service. It is a journey that will take her down exciting new avenues of independence, and into thrilling contact with young and beautiful Angy, who encourages her freedom—and a lot more.

 

JUST FRIENDS                                          

Director: Ellen Smit

Country: Netherlands, Running Time: 80 min

Two young men from different cultural backgrounds seem perfectly matched for love, but the idiosyncrasies of their parents may keep them apart, in this winning romantic tale set in the Netherlands. When we first meet handsome medical student Yad (Majd Mardo), he has quit his hard-partying life in Amsterdam and moved home to a smaller Dutch city to live with his Middle Eastern mother and father. To their dismay, he settles for a temporary job in domestic care, working for a bubbly elderly woman named Ans (Jenny Arean). Like a mischievous Cupid, Ans slyly introduces Yad to her dashing and sexy grandson Joris (Josha Stradowski), and their connection is immediate. But Joris is dealing with his own set of family problems, including an overbearing mother who is addicted to plastic surgery and who has never fully dealt with the messy end of her marriage to Joris’ late father.

 

LEZ BOMB

Director: Jenna Laurenzo

Country: USA, Running Time: 90 min

A still closeted young woman brings her girlfriend home for Thanksgiving only to have her coming out efforts thwarted by the unexpected arrival of her male roommate.

 

MARIO

Director: Marcel Giser

Country: Switzerland, Running Time: 119 min

Mario has fallen in love for the first time. Yet his new love is Leon, the team’s new striker, who could pose a threat to Mario’s chances of advancing his soccer career. Before long, their relationship is discovered by their team members and rumors begin to spread beyond the locker room. Mario realizes this jeopardizes his career as a professional football player, but he does not want to lose Leon at any price. He has to make a decision. Does he risk his fame as a soccer star or the only man he has truly loved?

 

RETABLO                

Director: Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio

Country: Peru, Running Time: 101 min

Stumbling across a heartbreaking secret his father is harboring, 14-year-old Segundo will come to face the raw reality of his deeply conservative surroundings, as well as a more profound connection with his father than he’d ever imagined. Segundo sees silence as his only option for dealing with his father Noé’s secret. The 14-year-old lives with his parents in a village high up in the mountains of Peru. Noé is a respected artisan and Segundo’s role model. With loving eye for detail, he artfully crafts altarpieces for church and homes, and is preparing his son to follow in his footsteps. But cracks form in their tight bond.

 

THE WILD BOYS

Director: Bertrand Mandico

Country: France, Running Time: 110 min

Mandico’s genre- and gender-bending surrealist work zigzags through a perverse, hyper-stylized world of transgressions. In this nightmarish adventure, well-bred teenage boys, played by women, commit a heinous crime and are sent to sea with the barbaric Captain. Landing on a magical island with bizarre animals and lascivious plants, the teens metamorphose. Outrageous vulgarity blends with refinement as machismo’s cruelty and the glory of sexual freedom are exposed in this phantasmagorical visual feast and erotic fantasia.

  

DOCUMENTARY FILMS

ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970: SEX FASHION & DISCO                             

Director: James Crump

Country: USA, Running Time: 95 min

A feature documentary-based time capsule concerning Paris and New York between 1969 and 1973 and viewed through the eyes of Antonio Lopez (1943-1987), the dominant fashion illustrator of the time, and told through the lives of his colorful and sometimes outrageous milieu.

 

EVERY ACT OF LIFE            

Director: Jeff Kaufman

Country: USA, Running Time: 92 min

World-renowned Playwright Terrence McNally’s pioneering 5-decades in the theatre, in the struggle for LGBT rights, and through his pursuit of love and inspiration at every age. Featuring Angela Lansbury, F. Murray Abraham, Meryl Streep, Bryan Cranston, Larry Kramer, Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald, Stanley Tucci and many more.

 

MAN MADE

Director: T Cooper

Country: USA, Running Time: 95 min

MAN MADE takes us into the heart of transgender male (FTM) culture, revealing unexpected truths about gender, masculinity, humanity, and love. Four trans men, take a variety of life paths toward stepping on the stage at Trans FitCon, the only all-transgender bodybuilding competition in the world.

 

STUDIO 54                                      

Director: Matt Tyrnauer

Country: USA, Running Time: 98 min

For 33 months, from 1978 to 1980, the nightclub Studio 54 was the place to be seen in Manhattan. A haven of hedonism, tolerance, glitz and glamor, Studio was very hard to gain entrance to and impossible to ignore, with news of who was there filling the gossip columns daily. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two college friends from Brooklyn, succeeded in creating the ultimate escapist fantasy in the heart of the theater district. Rubell was the outgoing party-boy who wanted to be everybody’s friend and was photographed with every celebrity du jour who entered the club and Schrager was the quiet, behind-the-scenes workhorse who shunned the limelight. Studio 54 was an instant success and a cash cow, but the drug-and-sex-fueled dream soon crumbled before their eyes. With unprecedented access to Schrager, who tells the whole unvarnished story for the first time, and a treasure-trove of rare footage, director Matt Tyrnauer constructs a vivid, glorious portrait of a disco-era phenomenon, and tells the story of two friends who stuck together through an incredible series of highs and lows.

 

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS

Director: Adam Sekuler

Country: USA, Running Time: 93 min

A couple struggles as one person pursues a conscious death amidst the chaotic decline of Alzheimer’s.

 

YOURS IN SISTERHOOD

Director: Irene Lusztig

Country: USA, Running Time: 101 min

YOURS IN SISTERHOOD invites strangers in communities all over the US to read aloud and respond to letters from the 1970s sent to the editor of Ms. Magazine-America’s first mainstream feminist magazine. The intimate, provocative, and sometimes heartbreaking conversations with strangers that emerge from these spontaneous performances of forty-year-old letters make us think critically about the past, present, and future of feminism, providing a space of reflection that is newly urgent in the aftermath of the 2016 election.

 

SHORTS PROGRAMS

JAKE GRAF BREAKTHROUGH AWARD PRESENTATION

BRACE (2014)

Country: UK, Running Time: 30 min

 

CHANCE (2015)

Country: UK, Running Time: 17 min

 

DAWN (2016)

Country: UK, Running Time: 14 min

 

DUSK (2017)

Country: UK, Running Time: 15 min

 

DRAMATIC SHORTS

(TRT: 103 min) 

BODIES OF WATER

Director: David Lykes Keenan

Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min

 

MY AUNT MAME

Director: Krissy Mahan

Country: USA, Running Time: 8 min

 

POP ROX

Director: Nate Trinrud

Country: USA, Running Time: 13 min

 

PRE-DRINK

Director: Marc-Antoine Lemire

Country: Canada, Running Time: 23 min

 

THERE YOU ARE

Director: Lisa Donato

Country: USA, Running Time: 16 min

 

THE WORLD IS ROUND SO NOBODY CAN HIDE IN THE CORNERS – PART II: THE KISS

Director: Leandro Goddinho

Country: Germany, Running Time: 5 min

 

ZERO ONE                                                                           WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Nick Neon

Country: UK, Running Time: 24 min

 

COMEDY SHORTS

(TRT: 71 min)

BRANNEN & THE MONOSEXUALS: DOUBLE BOOKED

Director: Caryn K. Hayes

Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min

 

FOXY TROT

Director: Lisa Donato

Country: USA, Running Time: 14 min

 

GRACE & BETTY

Director: Zoe Lubeck

Country: USA, Running Time: 11 min

 

I LIKE GIRLS

Director: Diane Obomswain

Country: Canada, Running Time: 8 min

 

MATT & DAN/SEX NOTES

Director: Will Gordh

Country: USA, Running Time: 4 min

 

SOMETHING NEW

Director: TJ Marchbank

Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

(TRT: 86 min)

ANGELA WILSON, A BUTCHER’S STORY

Director: Gaby Scott

Country: USA, Running Time: 7 min

 

DO I HAVE BOOBS NOW?

Directors: Milena Salazar, Joella Cabalu

Country: Canada, Running Time: 6 min

 

PICTURE THIS

Director: Jari Osborne

Country: Canada, Running Time: 33 min

 

SALTWATER BAPTISM

Directors: Jared Callahan, Russell Sheaffer

Country: USA, Running Time: 16 min

 

SUNUNÚ: THE REVOLUTION OF LOVE

Director: Olivia Crellin

Country: UK, Running Time: 24 min

 

 

INTERNATIONAL SHORTS

(TRT: 114 min)

BLACK LIPS

Director: Adrian Chiarella

Country: Australia, Running Time: 15 min

 

LE CONVIVE

Director: Hakim Mastour

Country: Switzerland, Running Time: 19 min

 

DARIO

Director: Manuel Kinzer

Country: Germany, Running Time: 15 min

 

MANIVALD

Director: Chintis Lundgren

Country: Estonia, Running Time: 12 min

 

MATHIAS

Director: Clara Stern

Country: Austria, Running Time: 30 min

 

PHOTOMATON

Director: Roberto Fiesco

Country: Mexico, Running Time: 5 min

 

SOMETHING ABOUT ALEX

Director: Reinout Hellenthal

Country: Netherlands, Running Time: 18 min

 

LATE NIGHT & SEXY SHORTS

(TRT: 84 min)

ARIDAI

Director: Igor Luna

Country: Spain, Running Time: 8 min

 

THE CLEANSE

Director: Lucas Omar

Country: USA, Running Time: 12 min

 

GIRL TALK

Director: Erica Rose

Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min

 

MEAT

Director: Vishesh Pires

Country: USA, Running Time: 8 min

 

NIGHT SHIFT

Director: Chris Phillips

Country: USA, Running Time: 12 min

 

THE QUIET ROOM

Director: Sam Wineman

Country: USA, Running Time: 27 min

 

QUEER BEATS

(TRT: 88 min)

BENEATH BY HAPPY LITTLE CLOUDS

Directors: Jenny Bergman, Stephen LoVerme

Country: USA, Running Time: 4 min

 

CONTROL – SLOOM & DANCINATRA

Director: Diego Lozano

Country: USA, Running Time: 4 min

 

MOTHER’S BALLS

Director: Catherine van Campen

Country: Netherlands, Running Time: 48 min

 

REACH THE SKY

Director: Daniel Sterlin-Altman

Country: Canada, Running Time: 5 min

 

SILVER LIGHT

Director: Brad McDermott

Country: Canada, Running Time: 5 min

 

SPACECARS N’ BABES

Director: Taylor Mansmann

Country: USA, Running Time: 22 min

 

SHORTS SCREENING PRIOR TO FEATURES

CHILDREN ALIKE (screens prior to LEZ BOMB)

Director: Julia Boström

Country: Sweden, Running Time: 5 min

 

SPARK (screens prior to DADDY ISSUES)

Director: Aharonit Elior

Country: USA, Running Time: 6 min

 

QUEER YOUTH AND CREATIVITY (screens prior to EVERY ACT OF LIFE)

Director: Queer Youth Media Project

Country: USA, Running Time: 9 min

 

FLASHBACK (screens prior to JUST FRIENDS)

Director: Queer Youth Media Project

Country: USA, Running Time: 6 min

 

YES AND NO (screens prior to ANCHOR & HOPE)

Director: Shannon Hardy

Country: USA, Running Time: 5 min

 

FIFTEEN (screens prior to WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY)

Director: Louisa Baldwin

Country: USA, Running Time: 4 min

Jake Graf Honored at aGLIFF 2018’s Full Lineup includes the fest’s first Breakthrough Honoree, and a diverse schedule of films befitting the festival’s dedication (and title change) to the true definition of inclusiveness