Written by Julieta Gozalo
As we enter the month of August, film festivals around the country continue to move their programming online as a new normal is developed. This week, The All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival (aGLIFF) kicked off their programming for two weekends from August 6 – 16.
For their 33rd anniversary, aGLIFF will feature 65 films, shorts, and events centering the LGBTQIA experience. This year’s theme for the festival is PRISM, which is meant to “highlight the way our festival can refract a single beam of art into multiple viewpoints, showcasing all the voices in the spectrum of our LGBTQ+ community.”
Still from the film Mankind.
Founded by Scott Dinger in 1987, the company initially premiered over the course of four days four films focused on the AIDS experience and coming out. Since then, it has celebrated over 30 years of showcasing films around the queer experience. In 2018, the festival rebranded itself from the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival to its present name.
Festival organizers also are planning several online social events including “The Big Quiz Thing,” a movie trivia night, and “Bingo Bonanza,” hosted by Miss Richfield 1981, as well as events and conversation to accompany aGLIFF’s Queer Black Voices Fund.
Pier Kids still.
The Queer Black Voices Fund was created in response to the recent events surrounding the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Javier Ambler, among other incidents of police brutality toward the Black community.
“The fund has been set up to ensure that queer Black filmmakers, directors, writers, and actors are represented as part of aGLIFF programming every year,” stated aGLIFF’s official press release. “The organization will begin awarding grants next year to cover costs associated with submitting and showing qualified films as part of their annual festival and year- round programming. The fund also will be used to cover travel expenses to bring filmmakers to Austin for special events surrounding the festival when possible.”
aGLIFF board member, Lenore Shefman of Shefman Law pledged to match donations made to the Queer Black Voices Fund up to $5,000. aGLIFF aims to raise the additional $5,000 before the conclusion of the upcoming aGLIFF 33: Prism festival.
Click here to contribute now to the Queer Black Voices Fund.
Below is a glimpse of the exclusive online events that will take place over the two weekends during aGliff:
MASTERCLASSES
Masterclass with Farihah Zaman – “This Must Be the Place”
Thursday, August 13 | 8:00 pm CST
Farihah Zaman is a Bangladeshi-American filmmaker, critic, and curator. Her first feature is the award-winning documentary Remote Area Medical, followed by This Time Next Year (2014 Tribeca Film Festival) and the doc-fiction hybrid Feast of the Epiphany (2018 BAMcinemafest). She produced the Sundance award-winning Netflix Original, Ghosts of Sugar Land, which was Oscar shortlisted. She has written for noted industry publications and has a diverse background in film.
Zaman will examine and discuss, “How do you make films about places that are respectful to the community and true to your own experience?”
Still from the film Lonely Prince.
PANELS
Panel – Looking Past the Pandemic: Queer Festivals and Fest Programmers on Artists and Advocacy
Tuesday, August 11 | 7:30 p.m. CST
While we have been stuck indoors, the world has changed around us. As we look ahead to the next evolution of the festival landscape, how will the relationship between festivals and filmmakers evolve? On the frontlines of a sometimes bitter cultural warfare, how do festivals use their position to advocate for their artists and elevate their struggles and stories? Will we ever meet in person again? Featuring DOC NYC and Athena Film Festival programmer Opal H. Bennett, Inside Out Executive Director Andria Wilson, NewFest Director of Programming Nick McCarthy, and aGLIFF’s own Artistic Director Jim Brunzell III.
FREE to badge holders
Pay-what-you-can, $10 suggested contribution for non-badge holders
Queer Film Theory 101
Thursday, August 13 | 7:00 p.m. CST
After a lifetime diet of heteronormative Hollywood fare, Queer Film Theory 101 dissects films from the past and points out the hidden queer narratives. Even the most normative cinematic offering will become beautiful homosexual propaganda when pressed into shape by a warm, powerful queer palm. Basically, they ruin films for straight people and yell about the characters that made us feel gay. This promises to be an enlightening conversation from our panel filled with memories of films gone by and good laughs about how they shaped our gay realities.
Actors Sal Lopez and Luis Aldana in the film Acuitzeramo.
FILM Q&A’S
There will be live virtual question and answer conversations throughout every day of aGLIFF 33: Prism. These Q&A’s will feature the directors, producers, composers, and actors, and writers of the featured films. Some of the films scheduled for Q&A’s include “The Capote Tapes,” “Making Sweet Tea,” “The Right Girls,” “Surviving the Silence,” “Julia Scotti: Funny That Way,” “Breaking Fast,” “Women in Blue,” “Out Loud,” “Milkwater,” “House of Cardin,” “Pier Kids,” and “Dramarama,”. Recent additions include “Give or Take”, “Alice Junior”,”Surviving the Silence”, “Milkwater”, and a secret screening.
Memberships and badges for both weekends can be purchased at agliff.org/badges, with members given priority access to tickets for film streams and entry to live online artist conversations, Q&A’s, panels, masterclasses, and other festival activities.
To find out more about the festival, visit their website.