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.