2009 Pink Peach Competition

Pink Peach Party at Blake's

Join us Thursday, April 23, from 5:00 - 8:00 PM at Blake's on the Park (227 10th St. NE, Atlanta, 30309) for some "peachy" cocktails. Your festival pass or movie ticket stub gains you admission to the party. Then head over to Landmark Midtown Art Cinema to see THE NEW TWENTY at 9:15 PM.

2009 Pink Peach Competition Films

Like the film world in general, the state of gay and lesbian film is in a state of flux. What was once a niche exclusively made by and for members of the gay and lesbian community has now become increasingly mixed with the mainstream and it’s somewhat nebulous as to what defines a “gay film.” The Pink Peach section celebrates films with gay and lesbian content, though some might not be solely about the gay and lesbian experience. A special jury will award the Pink Peach Award presented by Turner (last year won by XXY) to a film in this section.

GREEK PETE

Director: Andrew Haigh - United Kingdom – Narrative - 70 minutes

Screening: Saturday, April 18, 9:40 PM & Wednesday, April 22, 5:00 PM

Pete arrives in London with the ambition to set himself up as a rent-boyselling himself as the fantasy guy that other guys are willing to pay to havesex with. Not only is the money for anescort better in the big city, but he has bigger goals – to earn the prize of“Best Escort of the Year,” an annual award given out in Los Angeles. His plans are complicated when he meetsLondonboyKai, a fellow rent-boy, and starts a relationship. While Pete can easily separate his job fromhis love-life, Kai has a harder time sharing his supposed boyfriend withclients. Greek Pete was filmed over a year with guys working within the sexindustry and the story is a fictional representation of their lives andimprovised from their experiences. Theprocess gives the film something of a documentary feel, giving us an intimateinsight into Pete’s life, friends, relationships, and clients - at times to anexplicit extent. Semi-improvised, Greek Pete is a fictional account of avery real life.

KILLER MOVIE

Director: Jeff Fisher - USA– Narrative – 91 minutes

Screening:Monday, April 20, 9:50 PM & Tuesday, April 21, 4:30 PM

Killer Movie tells the story of a reality television shoot that goes awrywhen its crew finds itself stranded in a remote Northern town with a killer onthe loose. Young director Jake Tanner,fresh off a cancelled reality show, has been sent by his agent to replace afired director on a heartwarming reality series about a North Dakota highschool hockey team on an unlikely winning streak. First he has to deal with spoiled celebutanteBlanca Champion, who has been hired as a production assistant, and a toughproducer who is usually yelling when she’s not making love to hergirlfriend. And there's one other littleproblem: the townsfolk are notoriously “accident-prone,” and Tanner's crewmembers keep disappearing. As the bodycount mounts, the suspects narrow. Aclever mash-up of the reality show and horror genres, Killer Movie pokes fun at our celebrity-obsessed popular culture.

MISSISSIPPI DAMNED

Director: Tina Mabry- USA – Narrative - 120 minutes

Screening:Sunday, April 19, 3:30 PM & Thursday, April 23, 1:30 PM

Taking place in 1986 and 1998 and based on a true story, three poor, Black kidsin rural Mississippi independently struggle to escape their circumstances andmust decide whether to confront what's plagued their family for generations orsuccumb to the same crippling fate, forever damned in Mississippi. Whether it’s abandonment, abuse, or dealingwith the fallout of an “unacceptable” lesbian relationship Mabry’s (writer of The Itty Bitty Titty Committee) film isepic in scope yet intimate in detail with a large cast of richly definedcharacters, and every action has a consequence that reverberates through theextended family and across a decade. Bitterly honest, and profoundly subtle, writer/director Tina Mabry successfully captures growing up in a world where possibilities andopportunities seem to die in the face of suffocating realities and evenglimmers of hope must be clinged to.

THE NEW TWENTY

Director: Christopher Mason Johnson - USA – Narrative – 90 minutes

Screening:Thursday, April 23, 9:15 PM

Five friends bond forever while attending a small liberal arts college. We meet them again in New York City, sevenyears later, as alpha-male Andrew announces his engagement to alpha-girl Julie. Thirty is the new twenty-one and it's time togrow up. Ambitious Andrew meets slyventure capitalist Louie and jumps at the chance to launch a web-based start upwith the help of Louie's investors. Butas Andrew speeds ahead in life's fast lane, the other friends seemstalled. For court jester Ben, it’ssecret sex with other men; for Tony, a commitment to love and he may have justmet the right guy; for Felix, the easy escape of drugs and the casual sex theyinspire; and for Julie, the struggle to make sense of her own desire as theonly woman in this confused chorus of men. What begins as a simple businessproposal - Andrew tries to involve the other guys in his new venture - sooncreates a rift between them all and five best friends face the disintegrationof their tight knit urban tribe.

PAOLO

Director: Andrea Franco - Peru,USA - Documentary – 82 minutes

In Englishand Spanish with English subtitles

Screening:Wednesday, April 22, 7:30 PM

Growing up in Catholic Lima, Peru, Paolo Reategui was a shy, introverted boywho was taught to repress his feminine side and act the macho part assigned tohim by society. It was only when hemoved to a new environment that he discovered all the different life options hehad, and was not afraid to begin a process of self-discovery, finally comingout of the closet. Paolo now lives asuccessful, exciting life as an openly gay man in New York, but his contentmentis tainted by old memories of rejection and loss, and won’t be complete untilhe reconciles with his origins. This isthe story of his first journey back home after eight years away from Peru. A week before the trip, Paolo decides he isalso going to look for his father, who vanished from his life when he was onlya child, in an effort to get all the pieces of his life together for once andfor all. Poignant and cathartic, thisvisit to Paolo's past reflects the inward journey of self-acceptance anddetermination, and the importance of family and roots.

SQUEEZEBOX

Director: Steven Saporito, Zach Shaffer - USA – Documentary - 91 minutes

Screening: Friday,April 17, 11:00 PM & Thursday, April 23, 2:00 PM

During the turbulent reign of Giuliani in the 90’s when Times Square was beingsold to Disney and sex clubs were shuttered in favor of fast food chains, therewas a brief shining moment when drag queens rocked New York nightlife. The epicenter of that moment was SqueezeBox,a weekly pansexual rock and roll party at Don Hill’s night club. Started as a refuge for gay rock and rollerswho felt like outsiders in both the gay and rock worlds, the party grew tobecome a landmark event in nightlife history. By bringing together two seemingly contradictory worlds, SqueezeBoxengendered a spirit of universal acceptance for everyone who passed through itsdoors. Using the SqueezeBox stage as a testing ground, artists were encouragedto bring to the stage anything they could imagine, spawning acts as diverse asthe glam rock Toilet Boys to the off-Broadway sensation Hedwig and the AngryInch. SqueezeBox, re-creates the chaotic, frenetic, and unapologeticenergy of the club and spotlights the people and the times that demandedsomething original in an ever increasingly capitalistic world.

TRAINING RULES

Director: DeeMosbacher, Fawn Yacker - USA - Documentary - 58 minutes

Screening:Sunday, April 19, 5:45 PM

Rene Portland had three training rules during her 26 years coaching basketballat Pennsylvania State University: no drinking, no drugs and no lesbians.Training Rules examines how a wealthy athletic department, enabled by thesilence of a complacent university, allowed talented athletes, thought to begay, to be dismissed from their college team. While high profile women’s college athletics was supposed to providefemale athletes with more opportunity, it was clear that it didn’t extend toall. The film follows the lawsuit filedin 2006 against Portland and Penn State by student athlete Jennifer Harris.This high profile case ignited the world of women's collegiate sports andinspired the discussions so sorely needed to end discrimination based on sexualorientation that is pervasive in all organized sports.

Short Films

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS

Director: Carrie Schrader - USA - 7 minutes

Plays in the Comedy Shorts Program

Screening: Friday, April 24, 9:45 PM

A comic morality tale about two cocky young lesbians who bite off more thanthey can chew in a Texas roadside diner.