Naturally, the world’s longest-running and largest showcase of queer cinema takes place in San Francisco every June, the month that gay pride takes over the city just a little bit more than it does on any other day of the year, and this year is no different.
Frameline just announced a lineup of 153 films that will be screened at the 42nd annual San Francisco LGBTQ film festival. The festival runs from June 14 to June 24 and will include narratives, documentaries, episodics, and short films from 39 countries including 25 world premieres. There are all sorts of hidden gems and subjects to fit every proclivity, but here are some standouts playing at theaters in SF, Oakland and Berkeley.
Opening night features a documentary about transgender people in the military. The movie, which won the Audience Award at the SXSW Film Festival, follows four transgender soldiers who make up some of the 5,000 transgender military personnel whose careers are on shaky ground under the new Commander-in-chief.
Playing June 14 at 7pm at the Castro Theatre
This BBC drama starring Vanessa Redgrave tells the story of Michael and Thomas, British officers who return home together at the end of World War II.
Playing June 15 at 9:15pm at the Castro Theatre
Narrated by drag chanteuse Justin Vivian Bond, this documentary is about the gospel-themed drag shows that go down in a small Arkansas town just as the town prepares for a historic vote on an anti-discrimination ordinance.
Playing June 17 at 9:15pm at the Castro Theatre
This Sundance award winner from Iceland is a haunting, beautiful story of a struggling single mom whose life unexpectedly collides with that of a female refugee.
Playing June 19 at 6:30pm at the Castro Theatre
It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues In School
This year’s Frameline Award will be given posthumously to filmmaker Debra Chasnoff, who died last year of breast cancer. The Academy Award-winning documentarian made educational films that helped change public opinion and promoted understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ families. Her first film, 1984’s Choosing Children, is said to have inspired many gay and lesbian couples to raise families of their own. The Frameline tribute will be accompanied by a screening of her seminal documentary, It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues In School.
Playing June 20 at 4pm at the Castro Theatre
This series made its world premiere at the inaugural Cannes International Series Festival in April and is eligible for Frameline’s inaugural Episodic Audience Award as well. The story follows a struggling stand-up comedian who teams up with his best friend—who moonlights as a dominatrix.
Playing June 20 at 9:15pm at the Castro Theatre
The festival’s Centerpiece U.S. Feature stars S.N.L. alum Molly Shannon as an Emily Dickinson who's not exactly an introverted reclusive spinster. Director Madeleine Olnek rejects this conventional image and reveals the poet as passionate, bold, witty and very gay.
Playing June 20 at 6:30pm at the Castro Theatre
Starring Matt Smith (The Crown, Doctor Who), this biopic dramatizes the life of photographer and sexual outlaw Robert Mapplethorpe from the beginning of his friendship with punk poet laureate Patti Smith to his success as a provocateur and then to his ultimate struggle with AIDS.
Playing June 21 at 6:30pm at the Castro Theatre
Watch the first three episodes of a groundbreaking new series, that follows some of the most fascinating contestants from RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Playing June 23 at 1:15pm at the Castro Theatre
This gay parenting dramedy stars Steve Coogan and Paul Rudd as a Santa Fe couple whose glamorous lifestyle is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a secret 10-year-old grandson who shows up on their doorstep.
Playing June 23 at 6:30pm at the Castro Theatre
The festival’s closing night film takes you behind the velvet rope at Studio 54, the infamous New York disco that epitomized the swinging, snorting 1970s. The documentary reveals never-before-seen archival footage and candid interviews and is immediately followed by Frameline's disco-themed Closing Night Party at The Oasis.
Playing June 24 at 7pm at the Castro Theatre
Tickets go on sale for al Frameline screenings on May 29th.