Southwest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2009

Meet Bethesda Manolo-- performance artist and bonafide fag hag -- in FRUIT FLY, a colorful and quirkly musical that reunites H.P. Mendoza, Richard Wong, and L.A. Renigen (the team that brought us “COLMA: THE MUSICAL) in their newest film (winner Best Narrative Feature in San Francisco’s International Asian-American Film Festival). Searching for her birth mother, Bethesda moves to San Francisco with the intention of putting on “Work-in-Progress,” the one-woman show she is sure will launch her to success. After the theater rejects her proposal, she is forced to rethink both her career and her life. The film features spectacular musical numbers like “Public Transit,” “We are the Hag,” “Fag Hag” and a transition scene where Tetris takes over the San Francisco skyline. FRUIT FLY is a coming of age story about a memorable protagonist whose search for one thing leads her to finding much more than she ever expected. —Sam Tetangco

This “coming of age musical extravaganza” assembles home movies, interviews and ephemera to craft an unforgettable portrait of make-up artist, singer and teenage-drag-superstar Mark Payne.

An animated short about two female bunnies who move across the world to be together, and then attempt to raise eight adopted chicken eggs.

Adapted from an award winning play by Claudia Allen, and starring Sharon Gless of QUEER AS FOLK, HANNAH FREE is the story of the lifelong love affair shared between Hannah, a butch independent woman who has an insatiable itch to travel and see the world, and Rachel, a widowed mother of two who spends most of her lifetime trying to shed the shame brought on by her religious upbringing. At the end of their lives, Hannah and Rachel are both trapped in the same nursing home, their once independent lives now at the mercy of a nursing staff that cares more about following rules than caring about their patients. While Hannah is confined to a bed and a wheelchair after a roofing accident, Rachel sits in a coma several floors above, tied to machines and the whims of her conservative daughter who refuses to let Hannah see her because she isn’t “family.” Hannah is convinced she’ll die without seeing Rachel again until a mysterious young girl appears and helps her concoct a plan, and, in the process, changes the course of all their lives. Told through a series of flashbacks and conversations between the older Hannah and the imaginary presence of younger Rachel (“I can’t go to her, so I bring her to me,” Hannah tells her young friend), HANNAH FREE is a story that shows the way love, despite its many internal and external obstacles, strengthens with age and time. Through Hannah’s journey we see that the way home – no matter who defines it – will always reside between two people who keep finding a way back to each other. —Sam Tetangco

Biting Hollywood satire meets a melancholy search for love and acceptance in this explosively entertaining film. The film begins in Paris where Jerome still hopes to reunite with his ex, who has moved on. On a desperate whim, Jerome packs his bags and heads for Hollywood. Within his first 24 hours, the Frenchman meets a cute stoner at the beach named Ross (Chad Allen), discovers the frustrating effects of LA public transportation, and chats up transexual hooker Kaleesha, who falls in love immediately and offers him a place to crash. Striving to forget his ex-lover back home, Jerome searches for new experiences and connections on the strange, colorful streets of Los Angeles. Driven by brilliant performances by Eric Debets and gay icon Chad Allen and a profound appreciation of showbiz absurdity, HOLLYWOOD JE T’AIME is insanely funny and unlike anything you’ve ever seen. — Jason Wilby

Emmanuel, a 22 year-old musician longs for true love, but finds himself falling over and over for guys who leave the morning after. He channels his frustrations through Brigitte de la rue, a Jerusalem drag queen which leaves her catches the morning after.

The director and cast of last year’s festival favorite A WORLD UNSEEN bring another tale of desire, difference and discovery with I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT. Tala is a Palestinian born Arab Christian who was raised in Jordan. She will marry in just six weeks. Though she has never been married, this is her fourth engagement – much to the dismay of her extended family. Her independent spirit led her to become an entrepreneur in London where she now resides. Leyla, a Muslim Indian who lives outside of London with her parents and sister, works at an uninspiring job for her father’s insurance company. He plans for his daughters to inherit the company and pursue life insurance sales while Layla aspires to be a writer and her sister Yasmin is an emerging chef. Through her new boyfriend Ali, Leyla meets Tala and the two become instantly intrigued with one another. Shamim Sarif sets this tale of forbidden love between women in the political and social context of contemporary Europe and the Middle East. Divergent immigrant communities and distinct religious traditions provide a rich backdrop to the women’s explorations of self. Class, ethnic, and cultural differences are among the negotiations the women must traverse, but most significantly I CAN’T THINK STRAIGHT illuminates a fervent desire to live a full, happy life despite familial expectations. — Gina Diaz

The filmmaker uses animation to work through the experience of receiving a hateful piece of fan-mail.

Meet the Mozarts of 8mm – twins George and Mike Kuchar. These brothers from the Bronx began their no-budget filmmaking career at age twelve when they made a short movie with a camera borrowed from an aunt. From the 1950s to today, the brothers have created more than 200 films including underground items such as PUSSY ON A HOT TIN ROOF, SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS and the semi-reflexive, HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED. Beyond their own filmography of robots, monsters, madmen and melodrama vixens, the Kuchar brothers have inspired many filmmakers, including Buck Henry, Wayne Wang, and John Waters, all of whom are interviewed in this striking documentary. Directed by Jennifer M. Kroot, one of George’s students at the San Francisco Art Institute, the film pulls together interviews with the brothers and footage from the brother’s raucous films to create an interesting and appropriately quirky overview of the Kuchars’s lives and work. —Brandie Erisman