World of Gay Cinema

The 37th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival puts a special emphasis on bold documentaries this year, while continuing to showcase a wide array of LGBT features and shorts. (June 20-30 at the Castro, Roxie and Victoria Theatres in SF, with select encores at the Elmwood in Berkeley.)

White Night In 2006, director LeeSong Hee-il was hailed for shooting the first Korean gay feature, "No Regret," which climaxed at two freshly dug graves. In his latest, a young man, Won-gyu (Won Tae-hee), returns briefly to Korea as a German airline steward. His exile was prompted by a violent homophobic incident, which continues to haunt him. Won-gyu initiates a one-night-stand with a sexy motorbike courier, Tae-jun (Lee Yi-Kyung). The chemistry between the pair is electric - there are hints of an online tryst - but the bike boy bristles at his slightly older companion's refusal to commit to more than a hotel quickie. In-between bouts of hot sex, the men argue about the possibilities for a dignified life in South Korea, where homosexuality is still thought of as shameful. The bike boy rejects money for sticking around until his companion's plane leaves at dawn. The steward complains that the attack left him exposed and friendless.

A sudden eruption of violence is especially shocking because we have been lulled into thinking that the boys are playing in a nocturnal ghost town, a sleeping city. Is there a future for homo love in a land still at war on so many levels? (Castro, 6/20; Victoria, 6/28)

Concussion As Abby (Robin Weigert), a wealthy lesbian housewife, rides home with her wife and kids in the family bus, she's just been struck in the head at her son's Little League game. The blow becomes a catalyst for a series of huge life changes.

Writer/director Stacy Passon explained what drove her to finish her first feature script in six weeks in a Sundance web chat. "She tells her wife, 'I've had it, I'm going back to work.' Her version of that is to actively source sex. We need to show her at her most vulnerable, when she was filled with rage and jealousy, because some people can have it all, and she couldn't. If you've been sexually abandoned in your life and your marriage, how do you find intimacy again?" (Castro, 6/20)

C.O.G. In director Kyle Patrick Alvarez's funny adaptation of a David Sedaris essay, a book-smart white boy hatches a plan to spend a summer picking apples alongside a young lady he imagines to be his girlfriend. Samuel makes his first mistake when the girl stands him up on the ride to Oregon. Sedaris fans will relish the opening montage as Samuel is assaulted by a full array of Greyhound bus denizens, from the trash-talking, pregnant black woman to the tattooed Jesus freak just out of prison.

Freshly out gay actor Jonathan Groff is adept at channeling a prideful sissy-boy on the verge of hilarious pratfalls with two middle-aged Mr. Wrongs: a dildo-collecting apple-plant supervisor, and a Bible-thumping vet, an Oscar-worthy turn from openly gay actor Denis O'Hare. Alvarez nails the novelist's eye lurking under the Sedaris wit. "The story took confusion about homosexuality and mixed it with a religious confusion. It was funny, kind of dirty, and felt really cinematic." (Castro, 6/22)

Pit Stop As he did with his Dallas-based first feature "Ciao," Malaysian-born Yen Tan has made the Hill Country towns around Austin (Bastrop, Dripping Springs, Lockhart) feel like the center of a universe where queer love can flower but it's never easy-going. This is not Red State America but a sophisticated exurbia where a first date might play out at a French-language movie, even if the date is too pooped to read subtitles. Hunky, divorced construction contractor Gabe (Bill Heck) and forklift operator Ernesto (Marcus DeAnda), just losing his young male lover, bump into each other way short of cute. Do they have a future? With deliberate pacing and character insights, Tan seems settled in to watch the Lone Star state turn ever-so-slightly purple. (Castro, 6/21; Elmwood, 6/27)

Interior. Leather Bar. In 1979, director William Friedkin sought an exotic backdrop for his script about a serial killer stalking gay men in New York. Tapping his mob contacts, Friedkin got permission to scout the legendary Mineshaft leather bar, accompanied by a retired NYC police detective. "Wally escorted us to an area where we had to strip down to our jockstraps, shoes and socks. Uncle Mort had a .38 strapped to his right ankle. Everyone was in a jockstrap, some with leather boots and vests, executioner masks or leather jackets. Men of all races, colors, and social status mingled as equals."

Even critics of "Cruising" have cited its vivid record of gay nightlife in the decade before AIDS. In 2012, James Franco and Travis Mathews corralled a gaggle of actors of various persuasions to recreate sex scenes believed cut from "Cruising." Following a graphic four minutes of this new footage, Franco raps with Val, the young straight actor he's cast to play Al Pacino's undercover cop. "What about leaving something to the imagination?" "It's not porn for titillation. We're telling a story." "What story are we telling?" "About a guy who's uncomfortable and goes undercover. Friedkin was going to a dark, evil place."

Preceded by "In Their Room: London," the 2009 episode of Mathews chatting bedside with gay men as they do their out-on-the-town rituals. (Castro, 6/23)

Valentine Road Marta Cunningham follows the story behind the 2008 classroom shooting death of California queer teen Larry King by classmate Brandon McInerney. "Brandon was 14 years old when he committed the crime, he was looking at 53 years to life without chance of parole, and I thought, 'That's not right, either.' It's not right to kill somebody in the middle of English class, but is it right for him to be tried as an adult?" (Castro, 6/26)

But I'm a Cheerleader In her 1999 feature debut, Jamie Babbit attempted to turn camp on its head and produce a message comedy using a veteran of John Waters' early "exercises in poor taste," Mink Stole; a '70s cult actor, Bud Cort (Harold and Maude); and a wigless RuPaul Charles. Under its candy-colored surface, "Cheerleader" is an angry comedy. Preceded by the 1999 short "Sleeping Beauties," as part of the Frameline Award tribute to Babbit. (Castro, 6/21)

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia In 1948, 23-year-old Gore Vidal's notorious gay novel "The City and the Pillar" becomes both a bestseller and the cause for his expulsion from the literary pantheon by the homophobic New York Times. This setback pushes Vidal off to Hollywood, where he follows William Faulkner's advice and writes for money. Unable to merely be a paid hack, Vidal laces his "Ben-Hur" script with a queer subplot.

Director Nicholas Wrathall provides an incisive, witty montage of Vidal debunking the myths of Pax American. JFK: "One of the most charming men I've ever known, one of the most intelligent, and one of the most disastrous presidents we've ever had." Vidal, as the queer intellectual scold, inspires revealing vitriol from bully-boys William F. Buckley and Norman Mailer. (Castro, 6/26)

Paul Bowles: The Cage Door is Always Open Director Daniel Young details how Bowles' novel "The Sheltering Sky" afforded him a comfortable life in Morocco while inspiring the Beats. Vidal has a sublime cameo, stroking a cat. (Castro, 6/24)

I Am Gay and Muslim Chris Belloni explores the tiny, precarious space available to gay Muslim Moroccans. (Roxie, 6/21)

In the Name Of "Father, how did you get to a shithole like this?" As the ruggedly handsome Father Adam (Andrzej Chyra) is asked this leading question by a parishioner, we grasp the soul-crushing realities confronting religious men who have taken vows of celibacy they can't possibly keep. Running a kind of Boys Town for hard cases, Father Adam must decide what he wants from attractive reform-school lads. Director Malgowska Szumowska delivers a fresh take on the Catholic Church pedophile scandal. (Castro, 6/25)

Valencia This ambitious, homegrown Bay Area feature benefits and suffers from its 18-segment/multiple casts-and-director format. Ultimately we forgive its artsy sins due to its pure punk heart. (Castro, 6/21; Elmwood, 6/27)

Camp Beaverton: Meet the Beavers Ana Grillo & Beth Nelsen do a Burning Man version of The Fear of Flying, as women on every spot of the LBT continuum find a safe space for fun. Would Erica Jong applaud the Beavers' Strap-on-a-thon? (Roxie, 6/23)

Alaska is a Drag "As the late Bruce Lee used to say, 'Fear not the man who's practiced 10,000 kicks, fear the man who's practiced one kick 10,000 times.'" Shaz Bennett's African American cannery worker is trapped between dreams of disco balls and a fist in the face. The novel premise and incendiary screen chemistry between Martin L. Washington Jr. and his white-boy "savior" Spencer Broschard suggest a feature in embryo. (Fun in Boy Shorts, Castro, 6/22, 30; Fire We Make, Victoria, 6/23)