The lineup for the 8th annual Damn These Heels!: LGBT Film Festival (DTH!) was announced today and includes 14 feature films from seven countries screening June 17–19 at the historic Tower Theatre. Salt Lake City, Utah’s only annual LBGT film festival, DTH! showcases the best international and domestic documentary and narrative LGBT films from film festivals around the world.
The festival opens at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 17 with the Utah premiere of BEGINNERS. Directed by Mike Mills, largely known for his artwork and music videos, this is his second feature and loosely based on his own relationship with his father, who didn’t come out of the closet until he was in his seventies. An Opening Night Gala Celebration follows the screening. The rest of the DTH! program features films from many of the world’s top film festivals, a one-time-only audience participation event, and a panel discussion presented in partnership with Equality Utah.
All screenings for the festival take place at the Salt Lake Film Society’s historic Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 S. Individual tickets are $5 and can be purchased online at www.damntheseheels.org beginning May 13. A limited number of all-access passes will be offered for $25 and include access to Opening Night celebrations and all festival film screenings.
Below is the complete list of the 8th Annual Damn These Heels!: LGBT Film Festival films:
OPENING NIGHT FILM
BEGINNERS
Directed by Mike Mills
A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer and that he has a young male lover. (U.S.A., 105 min.)
Official Selection — 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, 2011 SXSW
CENTERPIECE SCREENINGS
CIRCUMSTANCE
Directed by Maryam Keshavarz
A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager’s growing sexual rebellion and control her brother’s dangerous obsession. (Iran/U.S.A./France, 95 min.)
Audience Award Winner, World Cinema Dramatic — 2011 Sundance Film Festival
L’AMOUR FOU
Directed by Pierre Thoretton
This documentary portrays the relationship between fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent and his lover, Pierre Bergé, and the sale of their art collection following Yves’s death. (France, 98 min.)
Official Selection — 2011 San Francisco Film Festival, 2011 Tribeca Film Festival
PANEL DISCUSSION
This panel discussion addresses the ways that so-called queer media has changed and evolved in recent years, as well as explores the ways that queer filmmakers, actors, writers and journalists have brought their causes and interests to mainstream and “straight” media. Panel guests include DTH! 2011 filmmakers, local journalists, gender issue and LGBT experts. Presented in partnership with Equality Utah.
SPECIAL SCREENING
ALL ABOUT EVIL with Peaches Christ in 4-D
Directed by Joshua Grannell
This Utah premiere features Peaches Christ in a Rocky Horror Picture Show–style audience-participating, blood-soaked drag ball that has thrilled audiences across the country. In All About Evil, a mousy librarian discovers her inner serial killer as she works to save the family business — a failing movie house — by making a series of grisly shorts that turn out to be all too real. (U.S.A., 108 min.)
Official Selection — 2010 San Francisco International Film Festival, 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival
REGULAR SCREENINGS
AUGUST
Directed by Eldar Rapaport
August tells the story of two former lovers, Troy and Jonathan, who reunite after a long-ago painful breakup. A seemingly innocent rendezvous turns into an attempt to revive past passions. Only it’s not that simple. (U.S.A., 100 min.)
Official Selection — 2011 Seattle International Film Festival
CODEPENDENT LESBIAN SPACE ALIEN SEEKS SAME
Directed by Madeleine Olnek
This quirky film charts the adventures of lesbian space aliens on the planet Earth and tells the story of the romance between Jane, a shy greeting-card-store employee, and Zoinx, the woman Jane does not realize is from outer space. Meanwhile, two government agents, or “Men in Black,” are closely tracking Jane and the aliens while harboring their own secrets. (U.S.A., 76 min.)
Official Selection — 2011 Sundance Film Festival
DIFFERENT FROM WHOM?
Directed by Umberto Riccioni Carteni
This slapstick comedy pairs a handsome gay politician with a conservative woman in a campaign for mayor. They work together, fight, and eventually have an affair that shakes their lives. But an alternative solution is at hand, and they grab it. (Italy, 103 min.)
Official Selection — 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival
ELVIS & MADONA
Directed by Marcelo Laffitte
Elvis & Madona is a romantic comedy that deals with an unusual subject in a delicate and realistic way: a relationship between a young lesbian, Elvis, and a transvestite, Madona. Nevertheless, it is essentially a love story, proving that love transcends any boundaries. (Brazil, 105 min.)
Official Selection — 2010 Tribeca Film Festival
GUN HILL ROAD
Directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green
An ex-con returns home to the Bronx after three years in prison to discover his wife estranged and his teenage son exploring a sexual transformation that will put the fragile bonds of their family to the test. (U.S.A., 88 min.)
Official Selection — 2011 Sundance Film festival
MANGUS!
Directed by Ash Christian
Mangus Spedgewick has had one dream his whole life… he wants to be Jesus — in his high school’s annual production of Jesus Christ Spectacular. Will he get to be their town’s first crippled Jesus? (U.S.A., 88 min.)
Official Selection — 2011 Dallas International Film Festival
THE TOPP TWINS: UNTOUCHABLE GIRLS
Directed by Leanne Pooley
If you see only one documentary about lesbian, country- singing, comedian twins from New Zealand, make this the one! This exuberant film captures the joy the entertaining Topp twins bring to their performances and their daily lives. (New Zealand, 101 min.)
Official Selection — 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, 2010 IDFA Festival, 2010 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, 2010 RiverRun International Film Festival, 2010 Seattle International Film Festival, 2010 Provincetown International Film Festival, 2010 Outfest Film Festival
WEEKEND
Directed by Andrew Haigh
After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time, he picks up Glen, but what’s expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special. (U.K., 96 min.)
Audience Award Winner — 2011 SXSW
WHO TOOK THE BOMP? LE TIGRE ON TOUR
Directed by Kerthy Fix
Girl band Le Tigre is best known for its sociopolitical lyrics, electronic beats, and choreographed dance moves. Shot over the course of the band’s final tour, Who Took the Bomp? follows Kathleen, Johanna, and Jocelyn’s 10-year herstory of celebrating the legacy of feminism. (U.S.A., 67 min.)
Official Selection — 2011 SXSW, 2011 Florida Film Festival, 2011 Independent Film Festival Boston