GLBT content @ Salem Film Fest!

The 2009 Salem Film Festival, to be held April 17-26, 2009 features 10 days of innovative and independent films spanning genres from drama
to comedy, documentary to animation, shorts to feature-length presentations.
Among the many films being shown, highlighted are a few of special interest to the GLBT crowd.

Visit http://www.salemfilmfestival.com/ for ticket info and listings of all movies, dates, news and information on how you can get involved!

-THE LOST COAST
Pacific NW Premiere!
Directed by Gabriel Fleming
United States, 74 Minutes, Drama
FRI., APR 17, 8:30pm

The Lost Coast examines the haunting and emotional conflicts that arise when three old high-school friends reunite one Halloween night in San Francisco. Now twenty-somethings without much direction in life, they intend to party the night away. Jasper joins Lily and Mark as they venture into the Castro District, where the revelry is underway. Mark, who dated Lily in high school, now flaunts his homosexuality; Lily is barely able to hide her bitterness. And Jasper, though engaged to be married, has memories of his own regarding Mark: a sexual encounter on a camping trip to the California coast that left Mark longing for more and Jasper in denial. It’s no wonder that while embarking on a quest to score Ecstasy they find only rising tensions as submerged feelings resurface. Over the course of their evening in San Francisco the three are forced to confront this past, which has held them all in suspended animation. The Lost Coast expertly explores the complexities of sexuality, repression and isolation with a quiet, measured grace.

-PEDRO
Directed by Nick oceano United States,
90 Minutes Drama
FRI., APR 24, 6:15pm & SUN APR 26, 3:00pm
Filmmaker Alex Loynaz in attendance
Film Hosted by Scott Hossner

Penned by Milk’s Oscar winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, Pedro celebrates the extraordinary life of Pedro Zamora, who, as a roommate on MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco in 1994, fought tirelessly to promote AIDS awareness and inspired tolerance toward the LGBT community. For such a relatively short life, Pedro lived an epic one. The film spans from his birth in Cuba as the youngest of eight children, to his immigration to the United States, his transformation into an AIDS activist, to entering the nation’s collective consciousness through televisions across America. Readily apparent is the fact that Pedro was not only a man of action but also one of great heart and soul, as shown by his deep relationships with his fellow costars, his partner and his close-knit family. His death at age 22 provoked a worldwide outpouring of grief and Oceano’s film is a warm-hearted tribute to the extreme level of passion and honesty with which he lived his life.

-READY? OK!
Directed by James Vasquez United States,
91 Minutes Comedy
SAT., APR 25, 12:15pm

As a harried single mother in Normal Heights, USA, Andrea is having a tough time of it. Although her son Joshua is a smart, happy and enthusiastic ten-year-old, she worries that he’s on the wrong track. With each summons to the Mother Superior’s office at Joshua’s private school, Andrea searches for answers to a nagging problem: how can she convince him that aspiring to be on the cheerleading squad, relishing the art of the French braid and calling Maria von Trapp his most influential role model is just not what little boys do? In this quirky and touching take on the modern family, one woman must strip away all her illusions to seek a kind of peace with herself and her son. With comically truthful performances and a healthy dash of wacky farce, Ready? OK! explores a family on the verge of either destruction or elevation. Sometimes all it takes to figure things out is a deep breath and the perfect cheer.