DIFF kicks off with Yen Tan's '1985'

The Dallas International Film Festival got off to a later start than usual, which means DIFF coincides with DIFFA this year, but don’t get confused. DIFF has a longer run and starts earlier — in fact, it kicks off Thursday with a gay, North Texas-filmed feature called 1985. The writer-director, Yen Tan, pictured, is based in Austin, and a darling of indie film and festivals; his Ciao and Pit Stop are both award-winners, as was the short that was the inspiration for 1985. As the title suggests, it’s set in the midst of the Reagan Era, when a native Texan (Gotham‘s Cory Michael Smith) returns from New York to spend Christmas with his conservative-religious family (Virginia Madsen, Michael Chiklis). He’s obviously troubled, but mom and dad don’t know why… though the audience has an idea.
Shot in black and white on 35mm Kodak film (yeah, an actual film!), 1985 was a smash at its world premiere (which I attended) last month at Austin’s SXSW. It makes its local debut on Thursday at 8 p.m., then plays again on Saturday.

— Arnold Wayne Jones