Pride Film Fest – providing year-round LGBTQ film programming presented in streaming and occasionally in-person formats in Chicago – has announced its programming for late February through early April. The slate for this five-week period will include two dramatic features, a documentary feature and two programs of shorts. The festival website is at http://pridefilm.org/
Streaming from February 22 through March 5 will be the feature-length German documentary TUNTEN ZWECKLOS, which delivers a look into gay life in Germany over the past 40+ years through the history of an activist group called the Hamburg Bollenmädels. The next offering, from March 1-12, will be YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER, a dramatic feature from Canada that is the story of a teenage girl sent to live in a Jehovah’s Witness community who falls in love with a devout Witness girl. From March 8 -19, Pride Film Fest will offer five winning short films from the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival of India.
The offering for March 15 -26 will be the 2022 feature BEFORE THE NEXT TEARDROP FALLS, from Hong Kong. In it, a wealthy breeder of horses faces changes in all aspects of his life as he pursues a dream of becoming a filmmaker but finds his most dramatic change will come as he begins to recognize the truth of his relationship with the chauffeur who has been his most loyal friend. The final program of the month will be BESTS OF THE FESTS – a collection of award-winning shorts from LGBTQ festivals around the world.
Access to the films is $12.00 per film. Monthly memberships are also available for $10.00 per month which entitles the purchaser to view short and mid-length programs for no additional charge and to view the feature length films for $7.00 per film. Tickets for the individual programs are now on sale at https://www.goelevent.com/OpenSpaceArts/e/Search. Membership passes are available at https://www.goelevent.com/OpenSpaceArts/Membership/Sale.
LISTING INFORMATION – PROGRAM DETAILS
February 22 – March 5, 2023
TUNTEN ZWECKLOS (2021, Germany, 1:23)
Directed by Mirek Balonis and Jutta Riedel
Written by Jutta Riedel
Documentary of the 40+ year history of the Hamburg Bollenmädels, a group founded by nine gay men in the late 1980’s that has been celebrating diversity in German life by dressing in women’s clothing at public events ever since. The film includes interviews with members from throughout the group’s history, discussing topics from childhood, coming out, sexuality, and the AIDS crisis, to the caregiving and death of parents. Through archival media and animation, the film also becomes a portrait of different generations of gay people and the gay movement in Germany.
TUNTEN ZWECKLOS.
March 1 – 12, 2023
YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER (2022, Canada, 1:36)
Written and Directed by Mark Slutsky and Sarah Watts
When teen Jaime is sent to live in a Jehovah's Witness community, she falls hard for a devout Witness girl and the two embark on an intense affair with consequences that will reshape the rest of their lives.
You Can Live Forever.
March 8-19, 2023
BEST OF KASHISH
An award-winning collection of five short queer films from The KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival that has been held in Mumbai, India since 2010. The film festival screens LGBTQ films from India and around the world and is considered one of the top five LGBTQ film festivals in the world.
The films featured here in DEAR BHARGAVA – the story of a son who has distanced himself from his family because he fears they will disapprove of his orientation; HER CANVAS – in which an artist reflects on her relationship with her lover, KINAARA (The Caress) – two women in a doomed relationship as India is partitioned in 1947; MAN & WIFE - a man confesses to his wife on their wedding night that he likes to dress as a woman; and THODI SI KHUSHI (A Bit of Happiness) - A handicapped man and a transperson who are living together as a couple find a bit a happiness on a rough and tragic day of their lives.
March 15-26, 2023
BEFORE THE NEXT TEARDROP FALLS (2022, Hong Kong, 2:35)
Written and Directed by Zhikun Zhang
Hai is the successful and wealthy owner of a horse ranch who begins to follow his dream of making films. As he is reinventing himself through his filmmaking, his mother, wife, and business partner all choose to abandon him, leaving him with his best and only friend, his chauffeur Mingtao. Amidst all these changes, Hai begins to realize that Mingtao is important to him in ways he hadn’t fully understood.
Before the Next Teardrop Falls.
March 22 – April 3, 2023
BESTS OF THE FEST
Five shorts from LGBTQ festivals around the world.
Films from the United States include WE’RE HERE – a story of resistance against the heterocentric establishment; NEIGHBORHOOD STRANGER – in which an older gay man helps out a younger neighbor who was recently outed as gay; THIS MOMENT – a young women envisions how her life will evolve after she comes out to her parents as Lesbian; and LOVIE DOVIE – about a young marine biologist who must come to terms with her sexuality when she is unexpectedly charmed by a new girl in her class. SEÑORITA (YOUNG LADY) is a film from Peru telling the story of Romina, who has always felt different but after seeing Madonna and Britney kiss at the 2003 VMA’s, becomes aware of an important part of herself that was always there.
From Neighborhood Stranger.
ABOUT PRIDE FILM FEST
Pride Film Fest showcases the breadth of world LGBTQ film to express the variety and complexity of queer life across the globe. Programming includes films previously lauded in global film festivals alongside new films curated through the Pride Film Contest.
Pride Film Fest began in 2012 as Queer Bits, an in-person event curated by Pride Films and Plays. In 2022, Open Space Arts became the sponsor for the now independent, year-round streaming program, Pride Film Fest. Pride Film Fest is a member of the Chicago Alliance of Film Festivals.
David Zak is the director of Pride Film Fest, a program of Open Space Arts. Open Space Arts is a non-profit organization dedicated to performances related to contemporary issues. This past summer, Open Space Arts presented the world premiere of THE KRAMER PROJECT, a dramatic adaptation by David Zak of Larry Kramer’s seminal 2004 speech, “The Tragedy of Today’s Gays.”