On the Circuit: A Tale of 25 Gay Film Festivals
by Lauren Johnson

OK, we didn’t actually go to all 25, since some of them were in places like Bologna, Italy, and Sydney, Australia, but my partner and I have been making the festival rounds for the last year and a half with our short film, A Thousand Miles. Now in the festival pecking order, short filmmakers rank pretty low on the importance scale, but all filmmakers are given passes to see films and go to all the parties and eat all the free food and drink all the donated liquor (which is really why they go in the first place).

For a gay/lesbian tourist, going to a film festival in a big city is a great way to be right smack in the middle of festive gay life. Outfest, Los Angeles’ very big and very fahhabulous festival, is basically a 10-day-long gay party. Held at the Director’s Guild on Sunset Blvd. and various other venues, the festival is a very big deal, and the city sits up and takes notice. The party room is swinging any time from 11 a.m. on, and if you hang around enough, you’ll get invited to the parties even if you’re not a filmmaker. Absolut Vodka is one of the major sponsors … need I say more?

Toronto’s Inside Out Gay and Lesbian festival is another fun one. Toronto has such great public transportation that it’s easy to just jump on the subway and catch some films, go do other tourist-y things, and then go right back. The festival’s in May, so the weather is pretty good (not snowing, anyway), and Toronto is a lovely town full of gorgeous, friendly folks.

Smaller festivals to check out include: Seattle’s Three Dollar Bill Festival, the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival (not gay per se, but with a girls and boys night, and HELLO! Palm Springs itself is 40-percent gay). Watch out for the heat in Palm Springs, though. The festival is in August, and when we were there, it was a whopping 116 degrees.

• Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, May 16—26, www.insideout.on.ca.

• Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, May 30—June 16, www.hglff.org/hglff.

• Newfest: The New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, June 6—16, www.newfestival.org.

• San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (the oldest gay and lesbian film festival in the U.S.) June 13—30, www.frameline.org.

• Outfest 2002: The 20th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (probably the biggest gay and lesbian film fest anywhere), July 11—22, www.outfest.org.

• Palm Springs International Short Film Fest, August 6—12, www.psfilmfest.org.

• Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, August 22—September 2, www.agliff.org.

• Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, October 18—24, www.seattlequeerfilm.com.