13th Annual Gay And Lesbian Film Festival Opening This Weekend

The Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is scheduled for Friday through Nov. 18 at the in Huntington. In its 13th year, organizers call the festival the biggest gay arts event on Long Island, with more than 2,000 attendees expected.

"Once again the festival hopes to reach many segments of our Long Island LGBT community," said Steve Flynn, festival director. Programs this year will cover gay seniors, Hispanics, transgendered, drag queens, political documentaries and romantic comedies.

"We're not afraid to shake people up, to challenge Long Islanders with our programs," Flynn said. This year's programming includes a Tony-nominated playwright, a Long Islander who is a legend in the gay adult film industry, a video lecture on gay film horror and documentaries on marriage equality and gay seniors.

An opening night gala is planned for Friday from 8-11 p.m. in the Sky Room. The festival also will host the kick-off event for the Long Island Transgendered Day of Remembrance on Tuesday, Nov. 16, with film screenings at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. and a reception at 8 p.m.

The festival is having an all-Latin night on Wednesday, Nov. 17, with three films from South America. At 8 p.m., there will be a reception sponsored by Organizacion Latina Associada Gay. Latin Night movies include "Hermafrodita" from the Dominican Republic, "Undertow" from Columbia and the 1969 exploitation classic "Fuego." "Hermafrodita" director and Long Island resident Albert Xavier will attend the screening, along with members of the cast. "Undertow" was the 2010 Sundance Audience Award winner.

Festival organizers also will recognize the contributions of Cinema Arts Centre founder Vic Skolnick and Pastor Shane Hibbs of the Long Island Community Fellowship, both of whom passed away in 2010, as well as Al Lawrence, festival co-founder and former owner of the Long Island Eagle, and the 25th anniversary of Wolfe Video, a distributor of gay and lesbian films.

Playwright, actor, and female impersonator Charles Busch will be a special guest at the festival on Monday, Nov. 15, and will be interviewed after a screening of his 2003 film "Die Mommie Die." A send-up of mid-century melodramas that co-stars Jason Priestly, Busch won a Sundance Film Festival award for best performance for his portrayal. A reception will follow the film and interview. All of Busch's films have been screened at past festivals. Busch is appearing in his latest play, "The Divine Sister," at the SoHo Playhouse in Manhattan.

The festival committee has informally designated Monday as drag night in honor of the evening's second screenings of the short film "Get Happy," about a 13-year-old who does expert drag shows in his back yard for the neighborhood children and is filmed on video by his mother, followed by "Forever is Going to Start Tonight," the true story of the oldest working drag queen in America.

Flynn credits the festival's success to the support by community groups and businesses that contribute to the festival. "Many local restaurants, businesses and local community groups will be sponsoring the multiple receptions and after-parties that are an integral part of the festival," he says. "The festival committee works hard to ensure that this is a real festival, with parties and receptions." There will be at least one reception every day, and the festival also will bring back its popular community bagel brunch and movie on Sunday, Nov. 14, for a recession-buster price of $15.

On Sunday, Nov. 14, beginning at 6:30 p.m., the festival will present an "Evening with Joe Gage," which will include an interview with pioneering adult filmmaker Joe Gage, including trailers, a reception and a rare big screen showing at 8:30 p.m. of the 1979 film "LA Tool and Die." Gage is famous for his "Working Man's Trilogy" of adult films in the '70s that celebrated the average Joe and influenced 1970s gay male culture. Adult film star Bryan Slater will be appearing with Gage, who is now a Long Islander and is still making films. This will be an adults-only screening.

Check film schedules and reception times on the Cinema Arts Center website or the LIGLFF.