John Waters, Gus Van Sant, Margaret Cho and all the colors of the rainbow.
Whew! We are still recovering from a marathon of events this past weekend, including Frameline’s closing night and some amazing Pride festivities.
After spending Saturday celebrating Pride around San Francisco’s Civic Center, we ran to the Victoria Theatre for A Jihad for Love, by Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma. The film is incredible, documenting over 5 1/2 years of stories and struggles as it explores the complex global intersections of Islam and homosexuality.
A Jihad for Love Trailer.
Then it was off to the Castro Theatre for the festival’s most anticipated and commercial film: Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild! The sequel follows four young gay guys as they do the things that young gay guys do on Spring Break. The film doesn’t really expand on the first; the director seems to have run out of material and just ran to Fort Lauderdale with the cast, RuPaul, and Lady Bunny hoping for the best (though a funny appearance by Perez Hilton livens things up a bit).
Sunday brought the Pride Parade, with Cyndi Lauper and Gavin Newsom showing their support for marriage equality. Margaret Cho even showed up with her entourage of fifteen, apparently filming some sort of low-budget reality show. But can she really compete with self-proclaimed D-lister Kathy Griffin?
A very unhappy Margaret Cho. But with the crowd 10,000 deep and temperatures at 90 degrees who can blame her?
After seeing things that one should not write about, we were off to the closing night movie and party for The 32nd Annual Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival . A special tribute was given to Michael Lumpkin, who has been with the festival for 25 years. A standing ovation, a filmed greeting by John Waters and an appearance by Oscar-winning director Gus Van Sant were the ideal intro to the closing night film: Breakfast with Scot, directed by Laurie Lynd. This heart-felt and touching movie was the perfect way to end the Pride festivities in San Francisco. The film follows two lovers who inherit the best gift of all: an “artistic waif who sings Christmas carols out of season, spells his name with one ‘t’ and likes to give everything, including his pee-wee hockey uniform, a little extra sparkle.”
Breakfast with Scot Trailer
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Thanks to Frameline, the filmmakers, and the enthusiastic people of San Francisco for making this Pride one to remember!
