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Outfest preview

The 25th annual Outfest LGBT film festival kicks off July 12 in Los Angeles. Here's a sneak peek at what to expect.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted July 9, 2007
Outfest preview

For 25 years Outfest has been the nation’s leading gay and lesbian film festival. Five films in this year's lineup takes a pointed and provocative look into a controversial issue with the series "Queers in Christ."

It’s a topic that dominates Save Me, the festival’s opening-night film, as well as its documentary centerpiece For the Bible Tells Me So . Both films played to plaudits at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and both examine the contentious divide between the worlds of religion and homosexuality. Not specifically in the series but sure to be just as controversial is The Bubble—the latest film from Yossi & Jagger director Eytan Fox—which adds a religious wrinkle to its gay love story: One lover is Israeli and the other is Palestinian.

The Bubble may also embody an additional trend in this year’s lineup—being gay isn’t every film's primary complication. In Itty Bitty Titty Committee the characters are feminist revolutionaries first and foremost, and their sexualities have already been dealt with before the film even starts unspooling. The surfer at the center of Shelter is surprised to find himself falling for another guy, played by Brad Rowe, but the real challenge for him is maintaining a relationship with his sister’s young son. Other films—notably the sci-fi story Socket and the dark thriller You Belong to Me—are genre flicks that just happen to have gay protagonists.

But it wouldn’t be a gay film festival without campy, outrageous entertainment. This year’s offerings include both the RuPaul vehicle Starrbooty and the Tori Spelling world premiere comedy Kiss the Bride (directed by Latter Days’ C. Jay Cox), which was developed in Outfest’s own screenwriting lab.

The festival’s committee will also honor director Bill Condon with its 2007 Achievement Award and present his film, Dreamgirls, in a sure-to-be-raucous sing-along at the outdoor Ford Amphitheatre.

For reviews of these Outfest films—as well as many, many others—be sure to check Advocate.com daily July 12 to July 23.

Buchanan is The Advocate's film critic.

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