QFest 2009

I’m interning at Philadelphia Cinema Alliance! (TLA Entertainment Group) It’s the final step in completing my Associates Degree from MCC.

I’m getting a chance to do some minor website updates and being introduced to all things LGBTQ (for anyone not in the know, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Queer).

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, however, I would have preferred it if the internship coincided with Cinefest (formerly Philadelphia Film Festival) or with the upcoming French Film Festival.

But QFest (formerly Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival) is where I landed, so I’m going to have fun with it! And most importantly, use it as a stepping stone to make this blog more what I intend it to be – a place to discuss Independent films, promote and cover Film Festivals and continue to always throw in a little talk of dining out!

PCA is keeping me pretty busy, so I’m not certain how many films I’m going to have a chance to see and review. However, now being in the mix and working with the program guide, here are the ones that I want to see:

Drool Friday, July 10, 7:00pm Ritz East 2 & Sunday, July 12, 12:00pm Ritz East 1
In this hilariously dark romantic comedy, a family overcomes its prejudices and insecurities with the aid of a friendly neighbor and some great beauty products. Anora Fleese (gorgeous Laura Harring of Mulholland Drive) has a crappy existence. Beaten into submission by her abusive husband Cheb and treated like a doormat by her teenage siblings Tabby and Little Pete, it’s no surprise that Anora’s smile has disappeared — but at least she finds light relief in her vivid “fantasy man” dreams. When Imogene Cochran (Girlfriends star Jill Marie Jones) — a sassy “Kathy K” saleswoman peddling products for “the cocoa-skinned woman” in a community that isn’t too keen on cocoa-skinned anything — moves in next door, Anora’s life begins to change. Hooting and hollering over caffeine, painting toenails and sampling hand cream, Imogene and Anora grow close —real close. And that’s when all hell breaks loose. Before you can bat a Ms. Mascara eyelash, Imogene, Anora, Tabby and Little Pete are all piled into Imogene’s purple car on a mission to get to Savannah, before the ice melts on the body in the trunk. Marvelously marrying the difficult subjects of racism, spousal abuse and sexism with fantasy, the film is whimsical and has a great sense of timing. In this writer’s opinion, Drool is quite possibly the funniest lesbian film in our lineup. — Carol Coombes Friends & Lovers:Ski Trip 2 Thurs, July 16, 9:15pm Ritz East 2 & Friday, July 17, 5:00pm Ritz East 1
Corey and Omar have just moved to Los Angeles from New York to join their friends. Little did they know what a bee’s nest they’re about to step into in this wildly funny soap opera from writer/director/star Maurice Jamal (Ski Trip, Dirty Laundry). Bubbling over with energy, Maurice Jamal’s Friends & Lovers: Ski Trip 2 is a sexy, fun and fast-paced visit with a diverse group of gay men in Los Angeles. Presented in an episodic format, Jamal’s film is a multi-racial sequel to his first film, Ski Trip, picking the story up two years later. Corey (Maurice Jamal) is giving a reading of his new novel at an L.A. gay bookstore. At the reading, a man asks about Corey about his relationship, and where it is now, setting off memories that take us back six months. Corey and his partner Omar (John Rankin) have just moved from New York to L.A.; they’re a committed couple thinking about marriage, but, who knows? The couple’s friends lead soap opera-worthy lives. There’s drama queen actor (Daren Fleming); the over-sexed lesbian Nikki (Cassandra Cruz); Steamy “straight” NBA player Montell (Terrell Carter) and his over-the-top materialistic girlfriend Lisa (Saaphyri Windsor– VH1 Reality Star); Jayson (Benjamin Patterson) with his body of steel and heart of gold; and we can’t forget the mantrap, next door neighbor Gabriel (Lucky Connor). Put all these outrageous characters in the queer stewpot of West Hollywood and it’s bound to boil over! — Scott Cranin
Ghosted Friday, July 10, 5:00pm Ritz East 2Ghosted, an ethereal lesbian love story set in Taiwan and Germany, cleverly utilizes flashbacks to bridge the ocean between Eastern and Western cultural beliefs. In Taiwan, ghosts are rarely a laughing matter; in this ancestor-worship culture, where the memories of the living nurture the deceased, there is a belief that the dead become ghosts roaming between heaven and earth. In Ghosted — an unconventional, meditative love story directed by veteran German filmmaker Monika Treat (her seminal trans doc Gendernauts screened in our ’99 line-up) — we are introduced to Sophie (Ingra Busch), a 40-something renowned German video-artist who has returned to Taipei to open an exhibition dedicated to her late Taiwanese lover Ai-Ling (Huan-Ru Ke). There she meets Mei-Li (Ting Ting Hu), a pushy and beautiful journalist who eerily reminds her of Ai-Ling. Mei-Li’s constant questions and flirtatious overtures are too much, too soon, and Sophie retreats to Hamburg. When the journalist mysteriously turns up on her doorstep, Sophie decides to open herself to new sexual adventures. Her newfound trust is soon shattered when she discovers that Mei-Li isn’t who she claims to be. Suspenseful and complex, this cross-border narrative is a rich addition to Treut’s growing body of work. (English, German and Mandarin with English subtitles) — Carol Coombes
St. Trinian’s Saturday, July 11, 2:45pm Prince Music Theater & Saturday, July 18, 9:15pm Ritz East 2
Packed with madcap antics, explosive hi-jinks and Rupert Everett in a frock, St. Trinian’s follows a sassy group of bad girls as they try to save their boarding school from foreclosure. Out actor Rupert Everett is reunited with Colin Firth (Mamma Mia!) for the first time since Another Country, in which they played gay lovers. In St. Trinian’s they do kiss again — but as a man and a woman! Things are shook up when the new Minister of Education (Colin Firth) identifies St. Trinian’s as the “worst boarding school in the country”. The all-girl boarding school is the poster child for bad education with its eccentric headmistress, Camilla Fritton (a cross-dressing Rupert Everett in a dual role) and her unorthodox ways. Miss Fritton usually retreats to her private quarters with a nice gin cocktail while her devilish students, led by the posh Kelly (Gemma Arterton, Quantum of Solace) wreck the school, cheat at field hockey and terrorize the trembling new student Annabelle (Talulah Riley, Pride & Prejudice). All the frivolity is about to change, as the bank is threatening foreclosure. The girls (along with Mischa Barton) devise an outlandish plan to cheat their way to finals of the Scholastic Challenge, where they will steal Vermeer’s painting “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”. Pulling out all the stops, St. Trinian’s is a fabulously clever, camp remake of the classic British television series (that began in 1954 with The Belles of St Trinian’s) that will have you buckled over with laughter till the credits roll! — Kelly Burkhardt