Dallas International Film Festival launches with a slate filled with gay-interest programming
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Life+Style Editor
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DALLAS INT’L FILM FEST
Screenings at Angelika Film Center and Magnolia Theatre, April 4–14. For scheduling and tickets, visit DallasFilm.org
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With OutTakes Dallas gone and QCinema pushing its big festival to the fall, we’re lucky to have the Dallas International Film Festival filling the void with some gay programming at its 11-day-long festival of moviemaking. In addition to gala events — including husband and wife filmmaking icons William Friedkin and Sherry Lansing receiving awards — among the new films screening this year are a number with gay content, with gay interest themes or from gay filmmakers — often all three. Here is a rundown of what to look for, listed alphabetically by category. (A • indicates that the film has been screened and is recommended.)
FEATURES
C.O.G. — The first feature film adapted from David Sedaris’ writings, C.O.G. stars out actor Jonathan Groff as David, a city boy who finds himself encountering odd folks when he goes to work on an apple farm in Oregon. Denis O’Hare co-stars in the film from director Kyle Patrick Alvarez. (Screens April 10 at 7 p.m. and April 11 at 10:30 p.m. as part of the Narrative Feature Competition)
•Pit Stop. Texas-based filmmaker Yen Tan, whose two-hander Ciao won honorable mention at DIFF a few years ago, is back with this Brokeback-esque story of gay life in a small town. Gabe (Bill Heck) shares child-rearing of his daughter with his ex-wife, but the man he loves has dumped him. Ernie (Marcus DeAnda) has just broken up with his ex, while nursing his friend in a coma. Both stories — about grief and loss and coping with feelings while deeply closeted and without social support — proceed independently, until their worlds cross in this tender drama of rural romance where gay rights is a foreign concept. (Screens April 6 at 7:30 p.m. and April 8 at 10:15 p.m. at the Magnolia as part of the Texas Competition)
•Petunia. Charlie (Tobias Segal) is the wallflower of the Petunia family — and why wouldn’t he be? Parents Felicia and Percy (Christine Lahti, David Rasche) don’t speak to each other; older brother Adrian (Jimmy Heck) bangs anything in a pushup bra; and other brother Michael (Eddie Kaye Thomas) just married Vivian (Thora Birch) whom he doesn’t seem to be in love with.
When Charlie meets Vivian’s cousin George (Dallas native Michael Urie) at a wedding, though, his self-imposed vow of chastity gets put to the test. Paris, Texas, native son Ash Christian, who made Fat Girls and Mangus in Dallas, follows in the footsteps of fellow North Texans Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson with this quirky family comedy that calls to mind The Royal Tenenbaums — only with more gay sex. (Screens April 8 at 7:30 p.m. and April 9 at 4 p.m. at the Magnolia)
DOCUMENTARIES
TAKE ONE | Among the movies screening this year at DIFF are, from far left, ‘C.O.G.’ with Jonathan Groff and Denis O’Hare; Ash Christian’s ‘Petunia’ with Tobias Segal and Michael Urie; Yen Tan’s ‘Pit Stop;’ and ‘Blood Brother,’ about orphans with HIV, above.
Blood Brother — In this documentary, an American visits India and discovers an underclass of orphans with HIV/AIDS, and is transformed. (Screen April 10 at 4:15 p.m. and April 11 at 7:15 p.m. at the Angelika)
God Loves Uganda. A hit earlier this year at Sundance, Roger Ross Williams explores the rampant anti-gay policies in the African nation of Uganda, driven largely by Christian activists in the United States. (Screens April 10 at 7:15 p.m. and April 11 at 4:30 p.m. at the Angelika)
•Lord Montagu — Dallas native Luke Korem profiles the British peer, an important figure in the restoration and appreciation of automobiles as well as the center of a gay sex scandal that helped change the laws in England on homosexuality. (Screens April 6 at 5:15 p.m. and April 7 at 8 p.m. at the Magnolia)
The Other Shore — The documentary profiles lesbian swimming champ Diana Nyad, famed for her open-sea distance attempts. (Screens April 9 at 10:15 p.m. and April 11 at 4:30 p.m. at the Magnolia)
SHORTS
Yeah Kowalski! — 13-year-old Gabe tries to impress his schoolyard crush, Shane. (Screens April 6 at 7:15 p.m. and April 7 at 5 p.m. at the Angelika as part of a Shorts Program)
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 29, 2013,