CCA News
Three CCA Filmmakers Included in Preeminent San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival
Posted on Friday, June 18, 2010, by Jim Norrena
What do owls, drag queens, and poets have in common? It’s a tricky question, that is unless you’re attending frameline34, the 34th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival—the world’s landmark showcase of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender cinema—where not one but two CCA Film Program faculty members have award-winning feature films in this year's program.
Film professor Cheryl Dunye’s The Owls, which earned the inspired filmmaker her second Berlin International Film Festival Teddy Award, receives its West Coast premiere Friday, June 18, at the Castro Theatre. (Note: Day-of-show ticket sales can be purchased at the venue.)
Two-time Academy Award–winning documentary filmmaker [The Times of Harvey Milk (1985), Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)] and Film Program chair Rob Epstein’s latest feature film, Howl, starring James Franco as the young poet Allen Ginsberg, is scheduled to close the festival—a parallel honor to the film’s opening-night programming at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in January.
Howl is based on Ginsberg's famous poem, on which the title of the film is based, which sparked a counter-culture revolution following the famous 1957 obscenity trial in which a San Francisco prosecutor argued Ginsberg's poem contained "filthy, vulgar, obscene, and disgusting language." Read more about this film at the Telling pictures website.
Also scheduled in the world-renowned film festival is a short film by Film student Julian Vargas, whose Ka.Ka is a six-minute comedy presented in Spanish (with English subtitles) about how two characters unravel a life-changing discovery during what used to be a private childhood game. The film is scheduled to screen as part of one of the shorts programs ("Are You Krazy"). The short-film collections are traditionally sold-out events and often rate high as an audience favorite during the festival.
About frameline34
The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival is the longest-running, largest, and most widely recognized LGBT film exhibition event in the world. It was founded in 1977 and is produced by San Francisco–based Frameline, which also distributes more than 200 films nationally as part of its integrated programming that provides support for emerging LGBT filmmakers.
This year’s festival runs June 17 through 27 at various venues in San Francisco (Castro Theatre, Roxie Theater, Victoria Theatre, Ninth Street Independent Film Center, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society), as well as in Oakland’s Rockridge District (Rialto Cinemas Elmwood).
For complete frameline34 programming information, including screening times and venues, visit the frameline34 website.
Related
Cheryl Dunye's The Owls Makes a Hoot at International Berlin Film Festival
Rob Epstein's Film Howl, Starring James Franco, Lands World Premiere at Sundance