Utah’s own lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender film festival is in its 10th season and growing. The Damn These Heels! Film Festival will be held July 12-14, at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. It was recently recognized by IndieWire as one of the 10 most notable LGBT film festivals in the country.
This year’s festival will include 21 feature films from nine countries – more than double the films slated for last year’s festival – and screenings will be in both the Jeanné Wagner and the Black Box Theatres. For the first time, audience members will vote for their favorite feature film via balloting after each screening. The winner will be announced July 15 and then screened during the DTH! Year-Round slot on July 18 at Brewvies Cinema.
Individual tickets for DTH! LGBT Film Festival are $6 per screening and can be purchased online arttix.org. A limited number of 10 tickets passes will be offered for $30 and include access to opening night celebrations. All-access packages are also available online.
For tickets and more information, go to damntheseheels.org or utahfilmcenter.org.
ANIMALS
Directed by Marçal Forés
Not rated | 94 min | 2012 | Spain
Catalan w/English subtitles
This thriller is a very unconventional coming-of-age tale and an intoxicating blend of fantasy and cold reality as it follows a shy teenager’s perilous period when exciting but troubling sexuality enters into his formerly innocent world.
San Sebastian International Film Festival 2012; BFI London Lesbian + Gay Film Festival
BALLROOM RULES
Directed by Nickolas Bird + Eleanor Sharpe
Not rated | 77 min | 2012 | Australia/Germany
A passionate group of Australian same-sex ballroom dancers battle homophobia, injury and personal drama as they pursue their dreams of competing at the Gay Games in Germany.
BRUNO AND EARLENE GO TO VEGAS
Directed by Simon Savory
Not rated | 97 min | 2013 | UK/USA/France
Earlene arrives at Venice Beach after running from a desperate situation, only to become fast friends with an Australian skater who is also lost. Together, they set out into the desert to find themselves.
CHASTITY BITES
Directed by John V. Knowles
Not rated | 95 min | 2013 | USA
In the early 1600s, Countess Elizabeth Bathory slaughtered more than 600 young women, believing if she bathed in the blood of virgins that she would stay young and beautiful forever. Still alive today, she’s found a perfect hunting ground.
CONTINENTAL
Directed by Malcolm Ingram
Not Rated | 95 min | 2013 | USA
The story of Continental Baths, a well-known New York City establishment for gays during the late ’60s to 1974.
South by Southwest Film Festival 2013; Frameline Film Festival 2013; BAMcinemaFest 2013
FIVE DANCES
Directed by Alan Brown
Not rated | 83 min | 2013 | USA
FIVE DANCES is a creatively adventurous narrative feature film set in the New York ‘downtown’ modern dance world.
Opening Night, Dance On Camera – Film Society of Lincoln Center 2013
FRAUENSEE (Women’s Lake)
Directed by Zoltan Paul
Not rated | 86 min | 2012 | Germany
German w/English subtitles
A middle-aged couple in the German countryside has unexpected visitors that cause trouble in their already tenuous relationship.
Toronto InsideOut Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival 2012; Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival 2012
FRIER FALL (Free Fall)
Directed by Stephen Lacant
Not rated | 100 min | 2013 | Germany
German w/English subtitles
A promising career with the police, a baby on the way – Marc’s life seems to be right on track. Then he meets fellow policeman, Kay.
Opening Night, New Film! MOMA 2013; Berlin International Film Festival 2013
G.B.F. – Opening Night
Directed by Darren Stein
Not rated | 92 min | 2013 | USA
What happens after Tanner is outed by his classmates and becomes the “gay best friend” for three high school queen bees?
Tribeca Film Festival 2013; Frameline Film Festival 2013; Closing Night – Outfest 2013
GEOGRAPHY CLUB
Directed by Gary Entin
PG-13 | 85 min | 2013 | USA
At Goodkind High School, a group of students of varying sexual orientations form an after-school club as a discrete way to share their feelings and experiences.
Toronto InsideOut Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival 2013
GORE VIDAL: United States of Amnesia
Directed by Nicholas D. Wrathall
Not rated | 83 min | 2013 | USA/Italy
This is an unashamedly opinionated film. In Gore Vidal’s America, the political coup has already happened.
Tribeca Film Festival 2013 – Frameline Film Festival 2013
HOT GUYS WITH GUNS
Directed by Doug Spearman
Not Rated | 103 min | USA | 2013
Imagine Lethal Weapon only with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as ex-boyfriends.
Frameline Film Festival 2013
I AM A WOMAN NOW
Directed by Michiel van Erp
Not rated | 80 min | 2011 | Netherlands
Dutch, German, French w/English subtitles
The first generation of transsexuals who had their sex change in Casablanca in the mid-1950s to 1960s take stock of their lives.
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
I AM DIVINE
Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz
Not rated | 90 min | 2013 | USA
How Divine, who’s also known as Harris Glenn Milstead, became John Waters’ cinematic muse and an international drag icon.
South by Southwest Film Festival 2013; Frameline Film Festival 2013
IN BLOOM
Directed by Chris Michael Birkmeier
Not rated | 87 min | 2013 | USA
The relationship of a young couple disintegrates in the dog days of Chicago summer as the neighborhood is being terrorized by a serial killer.
Toronto InsideOut Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival
LAURENCE ANYWAYS
Directed by Xavier Dolan
Not rated | 168 min | 2012 | Canada/France
French w/English subtitles
An astonishingly crafted exploration of the 10-year relationship of a male-to-female transsexual with her lover.
Opening Night, Un Certain Regard; Winner, Best Actress; Winner, Queer Palm – Festival De Cannes 2013
MARGARITA
Directed by Dominique Cardona + Laurie Colbert
Not rated | 90 min | 2012 | USA
When cash-strapped yuppies fire their teenaged daughter’s lesbian Mexican nanny, Margarita, they set off a chain of events that lead to her deportation.
PEACHES DOES HERSELF
Directed by Peaches
Not rated | 80 min | 2012 | Germany
Peaches herself likes to describe it as “The Jukebox Musical that got a Sex Change!”
Toronto International Film Festival 2013, Sundance London 2013, BAMcinemaFest 2013
THE RUGBY PLAYER
Directed by Scott Gracheff
Not rated | 90 min | 2013 | USA
The film explores the life of Mark Bingham, one of the passengers of United Flight 93 on Sept. 11.
SUBMERGE
Directed by Sophie O’Connor
Not rated | 97 min | 2013 | USA
A Generation Y love story presented as a fetish sex drama, Submerge explores the need of Generation Y for constant stimulation and instant gratification underpinned by a sense of entitlement.
Frameline Film Festival 2013
WHO’S AFRAID OF VAGINA WOLF
Directed by Anna Margarita Albelo
Not rated | 83 min | 2013 | USA
The day after her 40th birthday, Anna comes to the conclusion that it’s time for the madness to stop. She lives in her friend’s backyard tool shed, her career as a filmmaker isn’t paying her bills, and worst of all it’s been 10 years since she’s had a girlfriend.
Frameline Film Festival 2013
Damn These Heels! gay film festival announces their lineup.
Can't they come up with a name for that festival that includes all of us, not just drag queens?
Oh, I thought it was about bread. (teehee)
Damn These Heels! gay film festival announces their lineup.