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OFFICIAL SELECTION

SPECTRUM PRIDE FILM FEST

2013

Festival Gay-La, Film Fest Brunch & SPECTRUM SpeakEasy (DJ curated Afterparties)

THE NEW BLACK

FESTIVAL OPENER 8/28

 

CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS - 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza - Oakland, California

 

5pm • Reception

7pm • SCREENING


The New Black shares the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. Filmed over a three-year period, The New Black follows both champions and opponents of same-sex marriage, as both sides fight for their cause in this all important national battle for the right to marry. 

 

The New Black takes viewers into the pews, on to the streets and provide us all with a seat at the kitchen table as it reveals the previously untold stories and private conversations surrounding the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

 

Yoruba Richen’s “The New Black,” a documentary about African-American attitudes toward gay marriage, has received the Audience Award for Best Feature from the AFI Docs, Philly Q Fest and Frameline37 Showase film festivals.

 

Director: Yoruba Richens

Year of production: 2013

Running Time: 1hr 15mins

SHORTBUS

8/30- THE GRAND LAKE COFFEE HOUSE - 440 Grand Avenue - Oakland, California

 

​6:30pm • SCREENING

Shortbus explores the lives of several characters living in present-day New York as they navigate the comic and tragic intersections between love and sex. Male and female, straight and gay - and every one in between, the characters find one and other -- and eventually find themselves -- when they all converge at a weekly underground salon called "Shortbus," a mad nexus of art, music, politics, and polysexual carnality.

 

Filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell developed the film's story along with his ensemble cast, all of whom are making their feature film debuts, and who were selected after submitting videotaped interviews/auditions in response to a well-publicized open casting call posted on a website. Over a half million people visited the website and nearly 500 people sent in tapes before the final seven leading performers/characters were selected to workshop the storyline with Mitchell.The resulting film, one of the true sensations of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, presents sex and sexuality as never before seen in mainstream entertainment. 

 

Shortbus remains one of the most talked-about films in queer film memory.

 

Director: John Cameron Mitchell

Year of production: 2006

Running Time: 1hr 41mins

MOSQUITA y MARI

8/31 - THE GRAND LAKE COFFEE HOUSE - 440 Grand Avenue - Oakland, California

 

6:30pm • SCREENING

 

In a fast-paced immigrant community where dreams are often lost to economic survival, two young Chicanas contemplate life when they stir unexpected desires in each other. Mosquita y Mari is a coming of age story that focuses on a tender friendship between two young Chicanas. Yolanda and Mari are growing up in Huntington Park, Los Angeles and have only known loyalty to one thing: family. Growing up in immigrant households, both girls are expected to prioritize the well-being of their families. Yolanda, an only child, delivers straight A's and the hope of the American Dream while Mari, the eldest, shares economic responsibilities with her undocumented family who scrambles to make ends meet.

 

Mounting pressures at home collide with their new-found connection, forcing Mosquita (Yolanda) and Mari to choose between their obligations to others and staying true to themselves.

 

Director: Aurora Guerrero

Year of production: 2012

Running Time: 1hr 16mins

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Jonah Mossberg

Yoruba Richens

BIG WORDS

8/29 - THE EXCLUSIVE EAST BAY PREMIERE!

 

THE NEW PARKWAY THEATER - 474 24th Street - Oakland, California

 

Writer/director Neil Drumming's BIG WORDS is set in Brooklyn on the eve of President Obama's history-making first election. Three former members of a promising hip-hop crew cross paths again to discover that some things never change. Former frontman John, once known as Big Words, is now a working class guy who raps only to himself. James is a publicist living with his boyfriend, far removed from the days when he rhymed about getting girls. And, DJ Malik still spins records with a longing for the glory days. Together again on this landmark occasion, the pals reckon with dreams deferred and new hopes.

 

BIG WORDS is a 2013 Official Selection of Slamdance, New Voices, Frameline37 and SPECTRUM Pride.

 

Director: Neil Drumming

Year of production: 2013

Running Time: 1hr 33min

PARIS IS BURNING

8/30 - MARIO B PRODUCTIONS - 1738 Telegraph Avenue - Oakland, California

 

For over two decades, the award-winning Paris Is Burning has been igniting audiences and critics across the country and all over the world with record- breaking box office performances. An unblinking behind-the-scenes story of fashion-obsessed New Yorkers who created "voguing" and drag balls, and turned those raucous celebrations into a powerful expression of fierce personal pride. This world-within-a-world is instantly familiar, filled with ambitions, desires and yearnings that reflect America itself.

 

Paris Is Burning is an intimate portrait of one

urban community, a world in which the allure of high fashion, status and wealth becomes an affirmation of love, acceptance and joy.

 

Director: Jennie Livingston

Year of production: 1991

Running Time: 1hr 11min

HELLA BROWN

8/31 - LUKA'S TAPROOM and LOUNGE - 2221 Broadway - Oakland, California

 

Hella Brown is the second film by Feminist Porn Award-winning director Nenna Joiner whose inspired debut effort Tight Places left many wanting more. 

 

DIRECTOR INTERVIEW: http://youtu.be/9g0CcE9SdtM

 

Director: Nenna Joiner

Year of production: 2012

Running Time: 1hr 11min

FREE ANGELA and ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

9/1- THE NEW PARKWAY THEATER - 474 24th Street - Oakland, California

 

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, one of the the most talked about documentaries of 2013, chronicles the tumultuous experiences that befell young college professor Angela Davis. Free Angela by filmmaker Shola Lynch provides a brilliantly explores how African American activist, writer and scholar Angela Davis'  social activism implicates her in a botched kidnapping attempt that ends with a shootout, four dead, and her name on the FBI's 10 most wanted list. 

 

Director: Shola Lynch

Year of production: 2013

Running Time: 1hr 42mins

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Jennie Livingston

Neil Drumming

John Cameron Mitchell

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