Cinema Diverse Announces 2011 Screening Schedule

[Nicholas Snow]

Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is pleased to announce the 2011 Screening Schedule. The Festival, which opens on Thursday, September 22nd with the World Premiere of Writer/Director Billy Clift’s I WANT TO GET MARRIED, continues through Sunday, September 25th, 2011. For the second year, ticket sales will benefit both the Palm Springs Cultural Center, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

“This year’s schedule includes twelve feature films (including two World Premieres), and four short film selections.” said Michael C. Green, Festival spokesperson. “All Access Passes, which are already on sale at Camelot Theatres, include entrance into all the screenings, Q&As with writer/directors and cast members, and entrance into all four of our special after parties.”

“We’re very excited about this year’s festival,” Green continued. “We’ve got the two World Premieres, we’re back to a four day schedule, and we have an incredible line-up of award-winning films. I think it’s our best ever.”

 

Cinema Diverse 2011 Screening Schedule:

Thursday, September 22nd, Opening Night:

7pm - Short: A Fairy Tale -A Fairy Tale is a modern day retelling of the story of Jack and Jill...on the night of their senior Prom. When Jill goes to the prom with Price Charming, she leaves her brother at home all alone. Suddenly, his sassy fairy godmother shows up. The question is, will Jack have a Happy Ending?

Feature: World Premiere of Billy Clift’s I Want to Get Married - It’s the week before California’s historic 2008 election. Prop. 8 is on the ballot, and Paul’s life is falling apart. His mother has left his father, his father is lost in the desert, his new advertising client may just turn out to be a major proponent of Prop 8, and Paul desperately wants to get married. Trouble is, with only a week to go before the big election, Paul hasn’t even got a boyfriend.

After Party at Hunter’s Video Bar

 

Friday, September 23rd

 

11am

We Were Here -This powerful documentary takes a deep and reflective look back at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco. It explores how the City’s inhabitants were affected by, and how they responded to, that calamitous epidemic. Though a San Francisco-based story, WE WERE HERE extends beyond San Francisco, and beyond AIDS itself. It speaks to our capacity as individuals to rise to the occasion, and to the incredible power of a community coming together with love, compassion, and determination. Official Selection: 2011 SUNDANCE Film Festival

1:30pm
Private Romeo - When eight cadets are left behind at an isolated military high school, the greatest romantic drama ever written seeps out of the classroom and permeates their lives. Incorporating the original text of Romeo and Juliet, YouTube videos, and lip-synced indie rock music, Private Romeo takes us to a mysterious and tender place that only Shakespeare could have inspired. WINNER! Grand Jury Award, Outstanding Actor: The Cast of Private Romeo, 2011 OUTFEST Los Angeles

4pm
Bumblefuck USA - Distraught by the suicide of her gay friend Matt, Alexa travels from Amsterdam to his small American hometown, hoping to uncover what led Matt to take his own life. She arrives with a backpack, her video camera and intentions to make a film about what it must be like to be gay in Small Town, USA. On her first night in town, Alexa visits the gay club that Matt often frequented, and after partying all night, wakes up the next morning at Jennifer's place. A self-confident lesbian and artist, Jennifer cautions Alexa to be more careful, and they slowly become friends. While filming her documentary about homosexuality in small town America, Alexa experiences her own small town drama, picking up an unsuspecting local boy, clashing with those around her and ultimately, much to her astonishment, finding herself falling in love … with Jennifer. Alexa has never felt this way about anyone, let alone another woman. Frameline 2011 World/North American Premiere

7pm -
Short: I’m Gay - Told from the perspective of the wonderfully imaginative protagonist and his loving parents, this short film celebrates the excitement, apprehension, sense of community and embracing of gay stereotypes that often accompany those two little words, "I'm gay."

Feature: World Premiere of Eating Out: The Open Weekend - Cinema Diverse is pleased to present the world premiere of Eating Out: The Open Weekend  - the fifth installment of the immensely popular Eating Out film series. In this episode, Benji and Zack decide to visit Palm Springs for a wild weekend at a gay resort. Once there, they find themselves surrounded by hotties, and Benji suggests temporarily opening up their relationship. Zack, who is more comfortable staying monogamous, feels pressured into an open weekend. Complicating matters for Zack is the fact that his ex, Casey, is staying at the same resort, and Casey’s pretending to be dating Peter, so that he doesn't feel like a loser around Zack and Benji. Meanwhile, their friends, Lilly and Penny, the only girls in the crowd, find themselves competing for the only straight man on the premises: bartender Luis, who enjoys pitting the ladies against one another. Sound complicated? It is! It’s also a sexy romp that’s wildly entertaining! Filmed in Palm Springs!

 

After Party

 

 

Saturday, September 24th

 

11am
This is What Love in Action Looks Like - In the summer of 2005, Zach, a 16-year-old boy from Memphis, Tennessee wrote on his MySpace blog that he had told his parents he was gay. Within days of his coming out, his mother and father sent him to Love In Action (LIA), a fundamentalist Christian program that refers to homosexuality as an addictive behavior. The depressed and fearful teenager shared his feelings on his blog, where they quickly spread from his friends, to the local community, and to the nation via the internet. In a remarkably short time, daily protests were organized outside the campus of LIA - protests which ultimately changed the lives of the participants, the people who were attending LIA, and even its Executive Director. This Is What Love In Action Looks Like documents the widely controversial and inspirational story of what The New York Times referred to as "A modern day message in a bottle."

1:30pm
An Ordinary Couple, sponsored by the Desert Film Society -
An Ordinary Couple is a romantic and uplifting documentary following two extraordinary men, Orin Kennedy and Bernardo Puccio, on an unexpected journey from their funeral to their wedding. Yes, in that order. Their story is not distinctive in that it involves two men. Rather, it is extraordinary because their relationship has flourished for 33 years, that both men escaped the AIDS epidemic, and that they continue to make their relationship normal in the face of discrimination, opposition and misunderstanding. Intertwining themes of love, marriage, and politics, the film delivers humor, political commentary, the occasional touch of drama, and a deeply personal look at Kennedy and Puccio's dedication to one another.

4pm
E-Cupid - Marshall (Houston Rhines) is turning 30! On top of that, he’s working a dead-end job, and after seven years with his boyfriend, his love life has become boring. Desperate for something new, Marshall goes online, and discovers a mysterious app called “eCupid” that guarantees to find true love.  From the moment he downloads it, “eCupid” scans every inch of Marshall’s online world and gives him everything he thinks he wanted. But too much of a good thing may not be a good thing. Struggling to reclaim what he may have lost forever, Marshall runs into a wise and mysterious waitress (Morgan Fairchild), Marshall is given one last chance to listen to his heart and figure out what (and who) is really important.

7pm
Short: The Fox in the Snow -  In this short romantic comedy, a women's bible study meeting takes an unexpected turn when the members' true motives are revealed.

Feature: Judas Kiss - Down and out filmmaker Zachary Wells is returning to his Alma Mater to judge the school’s annual film festival - a festival he won as a student. The night he arrives, he goes out to a bar and hooks up with a handsome student, Danny Reyes, for a one night stand. Unfortunately, the next day, Wells discovers that Reyes is competing in the film festival he’s been asked to judge. He also discovers that the film Danny has entered, has the same title as the film Zach used when he won the festival. Zach scrambles for answers, only to be confronted by a mysterious, chain-smoking campus tour guide who counsels him to: “Change the kid’s past; change your future.” Zach decides on a dramatic course of action that may just reshape destiny, and, in the process, reveal a family’s darkest secrets.

After Party

 

Sunday, September 25th

11am
Leave it on the Floor -  Leave It on the Floor is a spanking, hot, independent feature film musical with eleven original songs set in the contemporary ball culture of Los Angeles. The film tells the story of Brad, who’s been thrown out by his dysfunctional mother onto the mean streets in LA. By chance, like Alice down the rabbit hole, he stumbles into a ball (a la Paris is Burning), a startling underground scene populated by a ragtag assortment of strange strays. Brad’s journey is one of finding home, love and acceptance in this new, and most unlikely of places. The score is an impressive mix of hip-hop, techno and house music, and gives the entire film its heart-pumping pulse; the dance numbers and choreography bring it alive. Leave It on the Floor has been compared to Rent by critics, and called the “Saturday Night Fever for the new millennium.”

1:30pm
The Wise Kids - A thoughtful and evocative coming-of-age drama, The Wise Kids takes place in the transitional space between high school and college, when life seems to be all questions, and the future is both scary, and wide open. Set in and around a Charleston, SC, Baptist church, the film weaves through the lives of three main characters - Brea, an introspective pastor's daughter experiencing debilitating doubt; the hyperactive Laura, Brea's best friend and a devout believer; and Tim, the open-hearted son of a single father, confronting his homosexuality for the first time. Tensions and buried feelings abound, as colleges are chosen, lives intertwine, and adults behave badly.

3:30pm
Short: Freak - Randall, a hard working yet fragile soul, faces the inner demons buried behind his drag queen persona, while pursuing the dream of a lifetime. If you thought Ugly Betty was different, you haven’t seen anything yet!

4pm
Closing Feature: Going Down in LA LA Land - A candid, sexy, and outrageously funny look at what an actor can – and will do – to survive in Hollywood. Young, handsome, and ambitious, Adam arrives from New York with dreams of making it big in L.A. He moves in with his zany best friend Candy, who, between auditions, spends her time at the gym, shopping, or looking for a wealthy man. Adam gets off to a rocky start, complete with parking tickets and an insufferable job answering phones. A new job in production looks promising, but soon Adam finds himself dealing with down-and-out directors, washed up starlets, and meth addicts, as he starts to lose himself in a seamy underworld of gay porn and prostitution. He finally finds Prince Charming but there’s a catch....

HRC Closing Night Party - WANG’s

 

Cinema Diverse:
The Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

Opens September 22nd and runs through September 25th, 2011
Full schedule available at: www.cinemadiverse.org

PASSES AND TICKETS (on sale, starting September 2nd):

All Access Pass (includes all
special events and all festival screenings) = $125.00

Festival Screenings = $12.50

Online:  www.camelottickets.com
Telephone:  [phone] (Monday-Friday, 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM)
Walkup: Camelot Theatres Box Office (7 days a week, 11:30 AM to 8:00 PM)
 2300 E. Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA, 92262