Director Peter Bratt's La Mission will open the 27th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival on Thursday.

La Mission premiered earlier this year to rave reviews at the annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

In the middle of the Hispanic San Francisco district of La Mission, Che (played by Benjamin Bratt, Law and Order) is the baddest Chicano on the block. A hard knocks life lived behind prison bars and Tequila shots, Che prods on for his beloved son, Jesse.

Che's macho world is crushed when he discovers that Jesse is gay. He responds to the revelation by violently severing all ties with his son.

La Mission is the story of how a proud father and a lost son mend their relationship, breaking with the violence of the past.

Three siblings have three equally moving stories to share in Director Kimberly Reed's documentary Prodigal Sons.

Reed returns home to do some fence-mending and difficult soul searching in Montana after a long absence. She's no longer Paul, the all-American football player. Todd is gay, and adopted brother Marc's resentment is about to boil over when he learns about his famous family lineage. The whole family is in transition as the cameras roll. Powerful filmmaking.

“I started out believing this film was about Marc's quest for identity, but it was about my own,” Reed says in her director's statement. “I thought my transition was complete, but instead Marc taught me I was only halfway, and that I had to somehow resurrect the first half of my life I had buried alive.”

Unwrap a holiday treat early with Make the Yuletide Gay, which premiered in Toronto earlier this year, but has remained fairly closeted since. The movie gives the old comic premise of “meet my parents at Christmas” a gay spin. It includes the genre's three requisites: the fawning but clueless parents (the Gunnundersons), the distant parents (the Stanfords), and the cute couple who yearn for a Merry Christmas curled up in a stocking hung by the chimney with care (Olaf and Nathan).

Problem is Olaf, the big college gay rights advocate, remains closeted to his lovable parents. So when boyfriend Nathan decides to join the holiday cheer at the Gunnunderson home … well, you've seen this film, right? (Pssst: Gay double entendres and homo hijinks ensue.)

Still, Director Rob Williams' latest film is a sweet treat certain to be a gay family Christmas favorite.

Meanwhile, Director Jason Bushman's first feature film Hollywood, Je T'aime will have its world premiere at Outfest.

Parisian Jerome's life is a forlorn mess after heartbreak. In an attempt to mend himself, he travels to Hollywood to be discovered. It happens in the most unusual way, but not before Jerome walks on the beach with Ross, played by Chad Allen (Save Me), and befriends some wacky Angelenos. Will Hollywood save Jerome?

(Yuletide and Je T'aime will also screen at this year's Philadelphia Qfest, which also opens July 9.)

Gay Entertainment Report is a feature of On Top Magazine and can be reached at ontopmag@ontopmag.com.