WINNERS OF THE 2020 OUTFEST FILM FESTIVAL

The largely virtual 2020 Outfest Film Festival has ended and I have mixed feelings about the experience. While I certainly missed attending the fest in person and the wonderful sense of community that comes with watching these films with a captivated audience, I am just thrilled that the event was able to still happen with so many other film festivals forced to cancel. Watching the fest at home may not be an ideal setting but it's still better than not having the opportunity to discover these new LGBTQ feature films and shorts.

As I'm not a big fan of drive-in movies, I did not attend any of the screenings held at the Calamigos Ranch in Malibu but I did watch several films through the Outfest Now streaming site. The screenings were available for a 72 hour time period which had some advantages as usually the films would have one showing in a theater, maybe two, and then would be over. But with the convenience of this extended time to watch a movie, I found myself rarely watching in one sitting. This is not a good plan for me since I tend to get distracted by other activities demanding my attention while being at home. One disappointment involved beginning to watch the sexually graphic Brazilian film, "Vento Seco (Dry Wind)" one day but by the time I had remembered to finish this intriguing movie, it was no longer available to screen.

This year's Venice Film Festival is occurring right now involving actual screenings with audiences in theaters (utilizing temperature checks and social distancing) which is an optimistic sign. I'm hopeful that we will be able to cautiously return back to theaters to celebrate and enjoy film together again very soon.

Here is the list of winners from the 2020 Outfest Film Festival:

Grand Jury Awards: 

Grand Jury Prize for Best U.S. Narrative Feature: "Minyan"
U.S. Narrative Feature (Special Mention): "Tahara"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay (U.S. Narrative): Emma Seligman, "Shiva Baby"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Performance (U.S. Narrative): Sasha Knight, "Cowboys"
Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Narrative Short: "In France Michelle is a Man’s Name"
U.S. Narrative Short (Special Mentions): "Tape" & "Flex"
Special Mention for Performance: Chris Petrovski, "How to Say I Love You at Night"



Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature: "Your Mother’s Comfort"



Documentary Feature (Special Mention): "Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short: "Heavenly Brown Body"
Documentary Short (Special Mention): "Where My Girls"
Grand Jury Prize for Best International Narrative Feature: "Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones)"



International Narrative Feature (Special Mention): "Alice Junior" & "Dry Wind"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Performance in an International Narrative Feature: Thiessa Woinbackk, "Valentina"
Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay (International Narrative): Faraz Shariat & Paulina Lorenz, "No Hard Feelings"



Grand Jury Prize for Best International Narrative Short: "Babydyke"
International Narrative Short Film (Special Mention): "Instructions to Let Go"

Audience Awards:

Best Narrative Feature: "Los Fuertes (The Strong Ones)"
Best Debut Narrative Feature: "The Obituary of Tunde Johnson"
Best Narrative Short: "Kapaemahu"
Best Experimental Short: "Canis Major"
Best Documentary Feature: "P.S. Burn This Letter Please"
Best Documentary Short: "Where My Girls" 

Special Programming Awards:

Emerging Talent: Terrance Daye, director of "Ship: A Visual Poem"
Award for Freedom: "Freedia Got a Gun"
Artistic Achievement: "Magic Hour"

And here are a few of the films I watched during the fest. "Shiva Baby", the feature film debut from writer/director, Emma Seligman, is an expansion of the short she made for her thesis project while attending NYU in 2018. Rachel Sennott (who played the character in the short) is Danielle, a bisexual college student who attends shiva following the service of a close relative with her parents (Fred Melamed and Polly Draper). This becomes very uncomfortable for Danielle when her former girlfriend, Maya (Molly Gordon) and Max (Danny Deferrari), an older gentleman who she's currently having a sexual relationship with are both at this Jewish observance. 

With strong feelings still for Maya (which her overbearing mother wants to insist was just a "phase" and tries to keep them apart) and the discovery that Max not only knows her parents but is also married with a baby, Danielle struggles as she goes through an emotional rollercoaster. Ms Seligman's script is filled with biting wit and hilarious situations yet this comedy is unable to maintain an energetic pace throughout despite the fine work of the cast. Even only at seventy-seven minutes (sixty-nine longer than the original short), "Shiva Baby" feels overextended, never fully justifying a need to bolster this slight story.

The multi-tasking Matthew Fifer co-wrote, edited, co-directed (with Kieran Mulcare) and stars in "Cicada", an intimate, romantic drama with a script loosely based on experiences from the filmmaker and co-star, Sheldon D. Brown. Fifer plays Ben, a sexually-fluid young man in New York who had been dating women but is now "back on the dick" as one female friend succinctly puts it. And while most of his encounters are random and purely sexual, that changes when Ben meets Sam (Brown), a closeted, African-American tech worker. As this relationship begins to blossom, some dark traumas from their past that each man has tried to keep buried comes to the surface. This leaves the couple unsure if their potential romance will be able to hold-up as they each struggle to deal with these difficult, personal challenges. 

The film touches on sexual abuse, religion-based homophobia, PTSD, cultural biases and their racial differences in ways that feel contemplative and emotionally authentic. But "Cicada" is also playful and sexy, with lovely moments of romantic gestures and heartfelt conversations. Like some first-time directors, Mr. Fifer has jammed too many ideas and themes in to his debut feature. Yet "Cicada" is still a moving, passionate and highly enjoyable first film that successfully helps place a spotlight on a promising new filmmaker.

And my favorite film from the fest was "The Capote Tapes", a documentary from Ebs Burnough, that uses recently discovered recordings that offer insight on the famed novelist, Truman Capote from some of the people who knew him best. George Plimpton had planned on writing a biography on Capote and interviewed several friends and colleagues of the mercurial writer. The film is built around these tapes, examining Capote's life and career from his troubled childhood in Alabama to his escape as a young man to New York City where he had several acclaimed short stories published before his 1948 first novel, "Other Voices, Other Rooms" would make the unabashedly gay writer an improbable overnight sensation. 

Even with his unusual vocal affectation, diminutive stature and wild fabrications, Capote's razor-sharp wit and assured gift of conversation made him a welcome guest at many social gatherings, allowing him to mingle comfortably with the celebrated members of international high society. His fame continued to grow with the publication of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and what he referred to as a "nonfiction novel", "In Cold Blood". This book, which details the 1959 murders of members of the Clutter family in Kansas, would take six years for Capote to finally complete and the experience would take it's toll on him. 

Capote's downfall began when he dared to bite the well-manicured hands of the wealthy socialites (like C.Z. Guest, Lee Radziwill, Gloria Vanderbilt and Babe Paley) who had befriended him when he announced his next novel called "Answered Prayers". After he allowed Esquire magazine to publish four chapters, these barely-veiled stories revealed the secrets of these women that had been shared with him in confidence. And although the book was never fully completed, many of these aristocratic ladies, who he referred to as "swans", would never speak to Capote again. We don't really learn anything new about Capote in this fascinating doc yet "The Capote Tapes" brings in to focus how he was able to achieve great success based on his astounding talent and largely on his own terms, despite the many challenging obstacles he faced by society at the time as an openly gay man.