New Queer Anthems

Long described and too-often defined by the first three letters of the phrase “sexual orientation,” the LGBT community has grown up. Sure, the annual San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, aka Frameline, has a bevy of let’s-get-lathered flicks (And Then Came Lola and Pornography: A Thriller, to name two), as well as the perennial crop of coming-out (To Each Her Own, Until the Moon Waxes) and coming-of-age (Rivers Wash Over Me, Light Gradient) narratives. But a major chunk of this year’s lineup deals with long-term relationships and families, reflecting the maturity of a diverse community more attuned to a place in the world and ongoing satisfaction than the next hot fuck. The gamut of familial permutations runs from the black teenager raised by Jewish lesbians (Off and Running) to the 45-year love affair documented in Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement to the fictional gay couple in the feel-good Swedish comedy Patrik, Age 1.5, whose adoptive baby boy turns out to be a 15-year-old homophobe. Mind you, maturity doesn’t mean the end of fun; the Frameline Award presentation to underground pioneers George and Mike Kuchar, followed by Jennifer Kroot’s documentary It Came from Kuchar, promises plenty of camp hilarity.
June 18-28, 2009