Frameline Distribution is now offering a discount on educational titles from our partnership with Wolfe Video!
Frameline's Distribution Catalog offers more than 250 titles to Universities, Public Libraries, Community Groups, and Professional & Employee Associations. Purchase prices include public performance rights, and discounts are availble to qualifying community organizations.
Christopher Plummer Wins an Oscar for Beginners (Washington Post): At 82, Christopher Plummer made history by becoming the oldest actor to win an Oscar for his role in Beginners. Plummer won Best Supporting Actor for his role as an elderly man who comes out as gay.
"It Gets Better" Special from MTV and Logo (GLAAD Blog): "The 60-minute special followed the stories of three individuals facing challenges encountered by many in the LGBT community: Greg, a high school senior struggling to tell his friends and family he is gay; Vanessa, an out lesbian woman seeking her mother’s acceptance of her sexual orientation; and Aydian, a trans man preparing to get married."
Lea Seydoux
Lea Seydoux To Star In Lesbian Romantic Drama 'Blue Is A Hot Color' (IndieWIRE): "In recent years, rising French thespian Lea Seydoux has intermittently been crossing the Atlantic for Hollywood film roles, making appearances in Inglourious Basterds, Robin Hood, Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Midnight In Paris. And while those films have only seen her play smaller supporting or cameo roles, it's certainly brought attention to many of her films back in Europe including recent Berlin-opener Farewell, My Queen opposite Diane Kruger."
Actress Harmony Santana in Rashaad Ernesto Green's Gun Hill Road
Six LGBT Movies The Oscars Ignored This Year But Shouldn't Have (Queerty): The 84th Annual Academy Awards are coming up this Sunday, February 26 and naturally we're excited about one of the biggest nights in Hollywood! It's been an extraordinary year for queer cinema -- check out Queerty's list of six films that deserved Oscar nods but never got them. We sure do recognize a lot of films on that list -- Weekend (Frameline35) directed by Andrew Haigh, Pariah (Frameline31) directed by Dee Rees, Sons of Tennessee Williams (Frameline34) directed by Tim Wolff, and Rashaad Ernesto Green's Gun Hill Road (Frameline35) all have strong ties to our Festival. Read on to learn more!
Lesbian Filmmaker Barbara Hammer Takes Over The Tate Modern (Huffington Post): "The Tate Modern is currently presenting a major survey of the filmmaker's work this month, which will include rare screenings of Super-8 films and special performances, in addition to a showing of Hammer's new film, Maya Deren’s Sink (2011). This new short film is a tribute to Maya Deren (nee Eleanora Derenkowsky), the Russian avant-garde filmmaker who heavily influenced Hammer's work." Maya Deren's Sink screened at Frameline35.
Berlinale Teddy Awards Announced (Berlinale): Curious to know the next big names in queer cinema? Check out the Teddy Awards, which were selected by a jury at the 62nd Berlinale last week. Best Documentary went to Frameline Completion Fund recipient Call Me Kuchu!
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Frameline, the nation's only non-profit organization solely dedicated to the funding, exhibition, distribution and promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media arts, has announced the recipients of its annual Frameline Completion Fund.
Executive Director K.C. Price said, “It is such an honor to support these seven excellent film projects, each of which reflects the talent, diversity and marvelous current state of LGBT film.”
Since 1990, Frameline has awarded completion funding to more than 100 film and video projects by and about the LGBT community. Past recipients of the Frameline Completion Fund include Dee Rees' Pariah, Rashaad Ernesto Green's Gun Hill Road, Cynthia Wade’s Oscar-winning Freeheld, and David Weissman’s We Were Here: Voices From the AIDS Years.
This year, the Frameline Completion Fund received 84 submissions, the most submissions ever, and awarded a total of $25,000 in funding to seven independent film and video works that are in the final stages of production. An independent jury selected the following seven recipients of this year’s grants:
George Takei: Terrestrial Helmsman, directed by Jennifer M. Kroot
Terrestrial Helmsman examines the life of actor George Takei: a gay man, a Japanese American, and a civil rights activist who rose to fame by driving a spaceship.
Kate Bornstein is a Queer & Pleasant Danger, directed by Sam Feder
This documentary explores the rich life and work of celebrated author, gender theorist and transsexual activist Kate Bornstein. It explores Kate’s artistic practice, her influences and the way she has created language, space, and permission for generations of people to live their lives.
Gayby, directed by Jonathan Lisecki
Best friends Matt (gay and heartbroken) and Jenn (straight and single by choice) fulfill their old promise to have a child together – the old fashioned way. “Gayby” is an irreverent comedy about friendship, sex, loneliness, and the families we choose.
Big Joy Project, directed by Steven Silha and Eric Slade
This documentary explores the exceptional life of James Broughton, Beat poet, filmmaker, and affectionately known as the “Father of West Coast experimental film.”
The Happy Sad, directed by Rodney Evans
This feature-length narrative follows two couples, one black and one white, whose lives collide as they navigate open relationships and sexual identity. The Happy Sad explores the questions that alternative twenty- and thirty-year olds face in a culture where there appears to be endless possibilities for sex but also a resistance to any definitive model for a proper relationship.
The New Black, directed by Yoruba Richen
This documentary uncovers the complicated and often combative histories of the African-American and LGBT civil rights movements. Specifically, the film examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar: the black church.
We Were There, directed by Emmanuelle Antolin
Through interviews and archival material, We Were There reveals the personal, political, and cultural impact of the lesbian response to the early AIDS crisis. “We Were There” is the first documentary to explore the untold story of the lesbian response to AIDS.
The Frameline Completion Fund was established in 1990 to provide support to filmmakers whose work is consistent with the goals of Frameline, and brings much needed financial assistance to exciting new LGBT media arts projects. Submissions are accepted for documentary, educational, narrative, animation, and experimental projects about LGBT people and their communities. The Fund also seeks to bring new work to under-served audiences; with this in mind, submissions by women and people of color are especially encouraged.
The Frameline Completion Fund is supported in part by the Bob Ross Foundation.
Frameline in collaboration with TILT presents the Generations Film Workshop, a FREE 10-week, intergenerational, beginning video production workshop for LGBTQ Youth and Elders. Participants learn everything from scriptwriting and storyboarding to shooting and editing on Final Cut Pro. Best of all, Generations Filmmakers build relationships with a wonderful community of new LGBTQ filmmakers and have their collaborative film screened at the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival! Participants also receive a guest filmmaker pass to the festival and a stipend for full participation in the workshop.
December is Pariah month here at the Frameline office - we couldn't be more excited about the theatrical release of this amazing film! Pariah opens in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles on December 28th, with a wider release scheduled for January 6th.
Q&A with Filmmaker Dee Ress (FilmLinc): "Director Dee Rees recently visited the Film Society of Lincoln Center and spoke with Program Director Richard Peña about the film’s evolution from a script written longhand when Rees was an intern on a Spike Lee project to the acclaimed feature it has become."
From ‘Pariah,’ an Ingénue in Her First ‘Fancy-Fancy’ Dress (The Carpetbagger - New York Times): "Ingénues need a good backstory, and Ms. Oduye delivers: she was several years into pre-med studies at Cornell University before she took an acting class and decided she wanted to change paths. She moved back to the city, worked odd jobs – handing out flyers, doing toy demonstrations, folding clothes at Old Navy – and took more acting classes. When she was 28, she saw a casting notice for Ms. Rees’s student film, the short that eventually became Pariah."
Pariah Nominated for Film Independent Spirit Award (indieWire): The film received a nomination for the John Cassavetes Award, which is given to the best feature made for under $500,000. Thrifty! This article includes a full list of nominees, as well.
Kim Wayans on Her Role in 'Pariah' (New York Magazine): "The film depicts the discomfort of a family in Fort Greene as their teenage daughter, Alike, played by Adepero Oduye, sneaks out to lesbian nightclubs and starts dressing like a boy. It won Breakthrough Director honors for Dee Rees at the Gotham Independent Film Awards and has been nominated for Independent Spirit Awards for best film made for under $500,000 as well as best actress for Oduye. The movie is also something of a new beginning for 50-year-old Kim: It’s her first shot at a dramatic role."
Pariah: Dee Rees' Debut Movie - From Dee Rees' Unique Life Story Comes Universal Truths (Color Magazine): "When it came to telling Alike's story, comfortable was the last thing that Rees wanted to make her audience feel. From the very first scene of the film, showing Alike and her friend, Laura (Pernell Walker), at a lesbian dance club, the director sets the tone for her film with a soundtrack that blasts out Reema Major's 'Cocky,' featuring lyrics that can't be repeated here."
