Oct 13, 2006   | COMMENTS     

D.C.’s annual gay film festival, Reel Affirmations, began its 16th year on Thursday, Oct. 12, with the local premiere of gay director John Cameron Mitchell’s much-anticipated feature, “Shortbus.”

“When I saw [‘Shortbus’], I knew we had an opportunity to kick off the festival with a really powerful film and something that would set the tone for all the programming,” says Margaret Murray, the new executive director for Reel Affirmations.

With more than 50 films scheduled from Oct. 12 to 21, gay moviegoers have a lot to choose from.

“Film festivals are always at the mercy of what films are available,” Murray says. “We are just incredibly fortunate to have these really amazingly high quality films that also tell really interesting stories.”

This year’s festival includes three movie venues. The Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St., NW, is the largest of the three locations and is billed as the hotspot for the big name films, including “Shortbus,” “Loving Annabelle” and “20 Centimeters.” D.C.’s art house, Landmark’s E Street Cinema at 555 11th St., NW, has joined the screening locations for the first time this year. In line with its usual fare, the theater will be hosting some of the smaller, but no less impressive, features. Finally, the Goethe Institute, 814 7th St., NW, will be screening a special program of women’s films on Saturday, Oct. 14.

Individual tickets cost $9, except for the closing night film, “Puccini for Beginners,” which costs $15. You can purchase a Lincoln Theatre Pass for $125, which will grant you access to all the films shown at the main venue. You can also buy an E Street Cinema Pass for $75, which gets you into all the movies at the smaller location, plus three films of your choice at the Lincoln — closing night excepted.

From polished feature-length movie musicals to gritty documentaries, this year’s offerings run the gamut of experience and quality. The Blade’s reviews of the films are organized by date, so you can use this guide to help you select your choices for this year’s festival.

The following writers contributed to this article:  Katherine Volin, Joshua Lynsen, Ken Sain, Eric Goines, Amy Cavanaugh, Zack Rosen and Greg Marzullo.



Friday, Oct. 13

Loving Annabelle, 7 p.m.
Lincoln Theatre

Katherine Brooks’ “Loving Annabelle” is one of the best queer films to make its way to Reel Affirmations. Erin Kelly plays Annabelle, a rebellious teen lesbian sent to an all-girls Catholic boarding school. While there, she meets Simone (Diane Gaidry) an English teacher with her own secret gay yearnings. The relationship that develops between the two, while professionally inappropriate, is a beautiful romance that comes to an inevitably painful yet somehow liberating conclusion. With a beautiful sense of visual storytelling, Brooks frames each scene with statues of saints and angels that become benevolent witnesses to the burgeoning and supposedly forbidden love of the two women.

A+ (GM)


Boy Culture, 9 p.m.
Lincoln Theatre

It wouldn’t be a gay film festival without at least one hustler film, but at least this hustler film is way ahead of most in that genre. X (Derek Magyar) is the narrator and lead character of this story. He’s a high-priced callboy with an exclusive client list. In fact, he only has 12 clients at any one time.

And X never has sex with a guy unless it’s for cash. At least, he hasn’t since he experimented with a cousin when he was a teen. The problem for X is that he is falling in love with his roommate, Andrew (Darryl Stephens of “Noah’s Arc”). And the other problem is that his other roommate, Joey (Jonathon Trent), has fallen hard for X.

Complicating matters further, is X has lost a client and needs to find a replacement. He meets Gregory (Patrick Bauchau), an older gentleman who is in no hurry to have sex. Gregory, intentionally or not, starts messing with X’s mind. But maybe that is exactly what X needs to get past his first reaction which is to push people away.

This is the best gay hustler film since “My Own Private Idaho” and sure to be a favorite of many festival-goers.

B (KS)


Compound, 11 p.m.
Lincoln Theatre

Set entirely in the housing compound of a wealthy Philippine family, this movie is the story of a meth-addicted father, plastic-surgery obsessed mother, ...