Vito Russo was at the forefront of every gay rights movement from Stonewall to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, as a passionate advocate for justice in the newly formed ACT UP, and a co-founder of GLADD. In 1981, he published his landmark book The Celluloid Closet that examined the way Hollywood depicted homosexuality. It was the most extensive record to date of LGBT representation on screen, and forced an examination of film's often-homophobic messages. It still remains the definite text on the subjects and is studied worldwide. With heartwarming and humorous interviews of Vito's family and friends (Armistead Maupin, Jeffrey Freidman, Rob Epstein, and Lily Tomlin among them), and clips from an astonishing collection of film treasures, Vito presents a moving portrait of the person who paved the way for and proved the importance of LGBT film festivals like ours. Even after his death in 1990, his story continues to inspire and his mark on the gay community is unquestionable. (Description adapted from the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.)

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Woman’s Lake takes places in the magical and largely undiscovered landscapes of Brandenburg, the hinterland around Berlin, which is crisscrossed by Europe’s largest network of interconnected lakes. A glorious long weekend in the waning days of summer. The protagonist, Rosa, is a guardian of the lakes and waterways in the magical hinterland north of Berlin. Besides professional fishing, she is in charge of protecting the environment and issuing f ishing licenses, therefore she is a thorn in the side of amateur anglers and tourists. Rosa’s lover Kirsten, a successful architect, lives in a lakeside bungalow, and together the couple play host to two brash and self-confident young students on a weekend break from Berlin. The four women’s intense sexual attraction is fueled by their profoundly different hopes, dreams and worldviews.

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We begin our run at the coolidge-corner-theater with two midnight screenings of John Cameron Mitchell’s acclaimed film Hedwig and the Angry Inch which tells the story of an ‘internationally ignored’ rock singer, Hedwig, and her search for stardom and love. Born a boy named Hansel who searches for love, Hedwig reluctantly submits to a sex change operation in order to marry an American G.I. The operation is botched, leaving her with an ‘angry inch’. Finding herself divorced in a Kansas trailer park, she forms a rock band and encounters a lover, Tommy, who leaves her, steals her songs, and becomes a rock star. Touring with her pan-Slavic band, The Angry Inch, Hedwig shadows Tommy’s stadium tour, performing in near-empty restaurants for bewildered diners and a few die-hard fans. Somewhere between the crab cakes and the cramped motel rooms, between the anguish and the acid-wash, she pursues her dreams and discovers the origin of love.

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