FILM FESTIVAL OPENS MAY 29

Switch on the klieg lights. The Houston Gay & Lesbian Film Festival bows next month. On screens at six venues from May 29 through June 15, the 7th annual festival will include features, documentaries, and shorts by an international lineup of GLBT filmmakers.

This year, festival highlights include Lock Up Your Sons and Daughters: Anti Queer Films 1950-1990 at Aurora Picture Show, the microcinema in the Heights, on June 5 and 6. Bill Taylor curated this collection of purportedly educational movies that include Boys Beware, Perversion for Profit, Soapy the Germ Fighter, and a trio of truly odd videos made by family-values propagandists to reveal the alleged gay content of Disney cartoons. The show ends with The Heterosexual Agenda, a spoof of the notorious video The Gay Agenda.

Of the director of this compilation, one reviewer wrote, “Bill Taylor has a different approach to dealing with homophobia: he simply laughs at it.”

Once again, OutSmart will produce the official film festival guide, included with the May issue and available at the venues. For festival details, also check out www.hglff.org.

In May, join OutSmart at five promotional events leading to the film festival:

• May 7 – Meteor - 6 p.m.

• May 9 - Guava Lamp - 6:30 p.m.

• May 11 – Meteor - 7 p.m.

• May 14 - JR’s - 11 p.m.

• May 15 – Chances - 6 p.m.

If you have any comments about this article, please email them to letters@outsmartmagazine.com.