NYLGFF Goes International in Tenth Year

NYLGFF Goes International in Tenth Year

by Aaron Krach

The New York Lesbian & Gay Film Festival is celebrating its 10th
Anniversary, June 4 -14, by shifting the focus towards international fare.
Nearly half of the scheduled features are from outside the United States
including films from India, Mali, Guinea, Korea and The Philippines. The
Sundance Screenwriting Award winning, "High Art," by Lisa Cholodenko is
opening the festival and the premiere of David Moreton's, "Edge of Seventeen,"
will close the fest. Several awards will be given at the end of the
festival including: Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Short and the Vito
Russo Award, which included completion funds for a promising New York based
project.

118 short films in 16 programs will run during the festival. British
director, Isaac Julien will be the subject of a "Special Independent Film
Tribute." In an effort to merge the visual with the intellectual, there are
four video clip/lecture presentations on topics ranging from "Recent Queer
Hong Kong" to Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand from the perspective of
lesbian fandom.

US premieres at NYLGFF include; British coming-of-age pic, "Like It Is," by
Paul Oremland with supporting performance from Roger Daltry; "Treyf," Alisa
Lebow and Cynthia Madansky's unorthodox Jewish lesbian documentary;
"Everything Will Be Fine," an Afro-German lesbian romantic comedy by
Angelina Maccarone; Canadian comedy, "Hayseed," by Josh Levy and Andrew
Hayes; circuit-boy documentary, "Got To Be There," by Jose Torrealba; and
the gut-wrenching, Ron Athey documentary, "Hallelujah," by Catherine
Saalfield.