“Festival” denotes a celebratory spirit, though the public can expect moments both somber and sunny at the Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
The festival is in its ninth year and will feature a slew of short-and full-length films tomorrow through Thursday.
Roberto Appicciafoco started the festival in April 2003. He said the idea came to him after working on other film festivals, and he realized that most major U.S. cities had one dedicated to films with a gay and lesbian sensibility.
“Santa Fe in general has a very large population of gays and lesbians but very little focus as far as arts and cultural events for them, for the community,” he said.
More than 50 selections from more than 15 different countries will play throughout the week. Appicciafoco said every country has unique conditions and cultures that make the LGBTQ living experience different from place to place. Issues will be explored of course, but it won’t be all drama and documentaries, Appicciafoco said.
While most of the selections will be shown at the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill, 18 of them will play at the Southwest Film Center in the Student Union Building, including “The Grove” and “This is What Love in Action Looks Like.”
Andy Abrahams Wilson, director of the co-production “The Grove,” said the documentary is about the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
The idea came to a small group in 1988 that wanted a place to remember people who died from the disease and to connect with others who share their struggles, he said. The memorial was not officially recognized until 1996, he said.
While the film is a platform for individuals personally affected by the AIDS epidemic to share their experiences, it also chronicles the design competition that ensued when the group decided it wanted to increase the memorial’s visibility. This alternate focus, Wilson said, troubled some individuals whose stories are shared in the documentary.
“It was in a hidden-away spot in the park where it was situated, but it was mostly people going to the Japanese garden in the Golden Gate Park,” he said. “So the thing is, a lot of people walk by and don’t even realize it’s a memorial.”
Wilson said beneath the smaller conflicts the film explores is the question of the memorial’s purpose and targeted audience.
Wilson said his film does not have a concrete message or agenda.
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Chasing an answer was not his concern, and he said he was most intrigued with the fact that unlike most, this memorial is living and natural.
“The cycles of nature itself were what represented AIDS and healing,” Wilson said. “I’m very drawn to the natural world and the symbolism in nature, the essence of nature which is, in and of itself, healing.”
“This is What Love in Action Looks Like” is also a documentary that will be screened as part of the festival. Its subject is a 16-year-old boy from Memphis, Tenn. who after coming out to his parents, was sent to a Christian fundamentalist program, “Love in Action.” The boy’s parents thought the program would straighten him out, said director Morgan Jon Fox.
Friends of the boy, Fox said, gathered in protest, agreeing to do so every day.
“It suddenly became this huge situation that nobody anticipated,” he said. “That’s why I feel like it’s my duty to do something with it.”
This happened at the advent of social media networks, a tool the boy used to inadvertently draw international media attention to the protest. By the third day, Fox said CNN, Good Morning America and The New York Times were all trying to cover the event.
“That literally became a viral news story,” he said.
Despite the extensive media coverage on his story, “This is What Love in Action Looks Like” will be the first chance for the general public to hear the boy tell his story, Fox said.
Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Oct. 7 – 13
The Guild Cinema
3405 Central Ave. N.E.
Southwest Film Center in the SUB
swglff.com
