14th Annual NCGLFF - Featured Films

Time is running out, and Lola (NC native Ashleigh Sumner) has only one chance to salvage a job and save her relationship with new girlfriend, Casey (Jill Bennett). Wait, make that three chances. With the fast-paced, colorful, fragmented style of the epic German film Run Lola Run, this time bending tale by filmmakers Megan Siler and Ellen Seidler, chronicles the tempestuous journey of a commitment phobic photographer, Lola. Typically immune to the lesbian ways of the U-Haul, Lola discovers that she might have finally found someone worth slowing down for. But not now. Now Lola is late. Lola has to run! Navigating San Francisco like a treacherous video game, Lola has mere minutes to tame the domineering meter maid, avoid the canine-wielding park chick, grab the photos, sidestep the ex, and deliver the proofs to the bar where girlfriend Casey is meeting with a prospective client (and her ex), the euro-hottie Danielle (Cathy DeBuono, Out at the Wedding). Thrust on a relationship crash course, Lola grows ever more determined to deliver, and claim her girlfriend from the potential rival. From the Embarcadero to Dolores Park to Chinatown, Lola sprints, bikes, hitches rides and flirts her way through the streets and back rooms of San Francisco. Time grows short. Will Lola make it? With an exhilarating climax and pumping pop/rock lesbian soundtrack, And Then Came Lola is the fun-filled lesbian rom-com of 2009 complete with sexy bedroom scenes. The 6 Month Rule is a dramatic comedy about a group of friends who gather for a party which ends in disaster.

Two adventurous women in love are desperate to have their own biological child. This outlandish Canadian feature follows lab worker Athena (Angela Vint) and wife Lilith (Megan Fahlenbock) as they dare to boldly go where no couple has gone before — creating a baby with two biological mothers. Utilizing the real-life science that has created offspring in mice, Athena bravely opens her womb to the experimental procedure. When Lilith tires of rubbing Athena’s feet and fetching cupcakes and sauerkraut, she decides to impregnate herself with yet another hybrid egg. With both women simultaneously rocking their lovely lady lumps, the only thing left to do is tell the wacky family the news. Now two hungry, moody and emotional women must not only bear children, but each other’s families as well. Grab your repressed brother, judgmental mother and wine-soaked gay fathers, and enjoy the riotous fun that can only be had by combining pregnancy, science and dysfunctional families.

Javier Camara played the exceedingly empathetic nurse in Pedro Almodóvar´s 2002 film, Talk to Her, and early on in Chef’s Special he’s again at a hospital bedside-that of his long-estranged ex-wife, who is dying. But in this high-strung comedy, Camara’s Maxi is something of a bitchy queen who won’t cut anybody any slack. As a manager of a fine dining establishment in Madrid’s gay neighborhood, Maxi’s driving perfectionism fails to motivate him to be a good gay dad to his two kids, especially to his fifteen-year-old son, whose abandonment issues are manifesting as homophobia. In addition to all that, his staff wants to kill him. Maxi’s best friend and maïtre d’ is cleavage-baring drama queen Alex (Lola Dueñas). She’s had enough of men, but then she spots Maxi’s new neighbor, a hunky ex-soccer player whose ambiguous sexuality manages to turn the two friends into rivals. Driven by a series of misunderstandings and pratfalls, this Spanish romp is the perfect showcase for Camara, who walks a fine line between hysterically funny and merely hysterical. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Say hello to the miserable Fleece family. Dad abuses mom, Anora. Daughter Tabby storms around in a teenaged snit. Son Little Pete is bullied at school. Enter Imogene (Jill Marie Jones), the Kathy K. Cosmetics saleswoman who moves in next door, peddling products for the cocoa-skinned woman. Despite her arrival in a neighborhood not too keen on cocoa-skinned anything, the unstoppable Imogene proceeds to give the family a radical makeover, starting with hand lotion and ending with a road trip in her purple Kathy K. car. Along the way, Imogene swiftly replaces the fantasy man who’s been starring in frustrated Anora’s steamy daydreams, and before you can say “purple eye shadow” the daydream turns into reality. This deadpan Southern gothic features the gorgeous Laura Harring as shy Anora, and Jones, (star of TV’s Girlfriends) as no-nonsense Imogene. Under its outrageous plot, which includes racism, domestic violence, homicide and lots of masturbation, Drool is a sweet-natured story of familial love. Tabby, who narrates the film and whose animated drawings punctuate the story, charts the classic adolescent path from shock to anger to acceptance as she comes to terms with her redefined family.

Before the Indigo Girls and before Ani DiFranco, there was Ferron, whose plaintive and poetic songs provided the soundtrack for an entire generation of lesbians. Nearing 60 and feeling the urge to reconnect with her audience, Ferron reunites with her band to perform a concert after nearly a decade away from the spotlight. Internationally award-winning director Gerry Rogers (My Left Breast) is there to capture the moment. Ferron is an icon of women’s music: a folk-rock singer songwriter often compared to Bob Dylan for her intricate lyrics backed by guitar-driven melodies. Back in the day, Ferron gave the movement serious musical cred with her melancholy ballads, and at times caused controversy by including men in her band. Girl on a Road picks up Ferron as she reunites with her band and hits the road after a ten-year absence. The film documents the kick-off Vancouver concert, celebrating Ferron in performance and in backstage interviews. She and her band members recall good times and bad, from Ferron’s first performance (“someone had slipped me a hash brownie”) to her brief and disastrous involvement with Warner Bros. Records: “They didn’t know what to do with me.” In stories onstage and off, Ferron recalls her chaotic childhood and her need to write songs that reflected her lesbian experience. Girl on a Road is, above all, a snapshot of a survivor.

Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, For My Wife is a heartfelt documentary that humanizes the struggle for full LGBT marriage equality. On December 14, 2006, a torrential rainstorm hit Seattle. Water flooded into the home of Kate Fleming and Charlene Strong. Kate, an award-winning audio book narrator, tried to retrieve equipment from her small basement studio but became trapped by the rising waters. When a rescue team finally freed Kate, she was unconscious and rushed to the hospital. It was there that Charlene was denied access to Kate by a social worker—because they weren’t married. Kate’s sister had to be called to give Charlene the necessary permission to be with Kate in her final moments. The humiliation and discrimination Charlene faced at the hospital and the funeral home compelled her to testify to the Washington legislature, an act that became influential in passing the state’s historic Domestic Partnership Registration Bill. This powerful documentary humanizes the struggle for full marriage equality. Downstream is a short film from Switzerland about two 70-year-old ladies who, for decades, have been walking along with each other. In summertime, their daily ritual is to swim down the river that flows through their home town. As the current carries them down the river, they meditate on friendship, love and becoming older. What will it be like to have to live without one's partner after three decades together? They ponder the unthinkable: what will either of them do if the other passes away? Their lives are so interwoven after decades together that it's hard to imagine. Downstream: In Swiss/German with English subtitles.

Girl Seeks Girl is Spain’s answer to The L Word. In this sexy and cute show, we are introduced to a group of ladies looking for love in all the right and sometimes wrong places as they play musical beds to their hearts’ desire. This episodic series has been packaged into a feature length presentation to make its North American Debut for all the ladies! Nines is a butch player in the series. She wakes up from a one-night stand with Monica but soon discovers she is far more interested in pursuing Monica’s bi-curious roommate, Carmen, who she bumps into in the kitchen on her way to making a quick exit. Things get complicated because Monica was expecting more than a one-night tryst from her efforts with Nines and hoping for a long term relationship. Employing the complexities at which Spanish film and television-makers excel, we next learn that Carmen has a boyfriend, albeit a lying, cheating boyfriend. Nonetheless she is involved in a heterosexual relationship. But who doesn’t love a challenge? These girls sure have their work cut out for them as they navigate life, love and the pursuit of sexual satisfaction in fast-paced Madrid. Made by and for women, this series is what Latinas, and the women who love them, have always wanted…a lesbian novella with sexy Spanish girls. Girl Seeks Girl is a guilty pleasure that will have you yearning for more. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Even more of those beautiful Girl Seeks Girl ladies! As their lives comically, passionately and tragically intersect, the adventures continue. These characters have an infectious sincerity that exudes depth and reality without having to try too hard. Girl Seeks Girl is both a rare gem and a guilty pleasure ---ndash the kind of guilty pleasure that will make all your lesbian friends, lovers, and frenemies smile along with you in the dark. Scriptwriter Olga Iglesias and director Sonia Sebastián have produced a heart-warming, funny award-winning series that features a talented and sexy cast. With dialogue that sizzles and a heart bigger than Madrid itself, Girl Seeks Girl has that sublime quality akin to recognizing the joy of a particular moment as you experience it. You won’t want the fun to end. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Hannah Free tells the story of a decades-long love affair between Hannah — an adventurous, butch lesbian with gruff charm — and Rachel, a pristine, married homemaker with a religious upbringing. Set in a present day nursing home, Hannah is forbidden from seeing the now-comatose Rachel, due to her not being “family.” When a mysteriously kind student promises to help Hannah gain access to Rachel’s room, Hannah is forced to reconcile her own desires with those of Rachel’s family and, oddly enough, Rachel. Through a series of flashbacks and past incarnations that Hannah imagines in her old age, the viewer is treated to the passionate beginnings of their relationship, which was both tumultuous and enduring. Hannah, marvelously played by icon Sharon Gless (Cagney & Lacey, Queer as Folk), manages to convey the introspection that comes with age, while still being spunky and sharp. Though Hannah is out and unashamed while Rachel is much more reserved, both characters are revealed to be courageous in entirely different ways. The film easily questions matters of same-sex partners’ rights, the definition of family and the difficulties surrounding seeing your loved ones become old and fragile. Together from childhood until they were seniors, Rachel and Hannah’s relationship is multi-layered and poignant — sometimes an entire lifetime isn’t even long enough to be with the person you love.

At last year’s NCGLFF, novelist-turned-screenwriter Shamim Sarif presented The World Unseen. Now Sarif and her beautiful stars are back with the more contemporary story of a couple negotiating the challenges of family and societal expectations and their own preconceptions as they struggle toward happiness. When Tala and Leyla meet, the attraction is immediate; cloaked at first in a friendship that soon gives way to their growing passion. Forthright Tala, a well-to-do Palestinian Christian raised in Jordan, is the self-confident one. Shy, aspiring writer Leyla, a Muslim living in London with her Indian immigrant parents, is much less sure of herself. Tala is on her fourth engagement, and determined to accede to her powerful family’s wishes, even if it means she can never be with the woman she loves. While tackling big picture issues of religion, racism, and ethnic differences, I Can’t Think Straight also delves into the more intimate matter of family. Tala and Leyla must choose which is more important: family approval, or the love that burns within their hearts for one another.

Cut is a short animated film about a woman who gets a haircut on lunch and gets more than she bargained for. Catherine Crouch’s The Gendercator uses the “Rip van Winkle” model to extrapolate from the feminist 1970s to a frightening 2048, where politics and technology have conspired to mandate two gender “choices”: macho male or Barbie babe. In this dystopian future, those whose gender presentation does not comply will be gendercated. Mel’s indecision about moving in with her new girlfriend is aided by a possessed alarm clock in Linda Andersson’s When The Time’s Right. In the delightful animated Canadian short, The Girl Bunnies, two female bunnies living across the world from one another fall madly in love, travel to the ends of the earth, then adopt eight chicken eggs to raise a family! A lonely woman finds a magical shop where she can craft an ideal mate in Make-A-Mate. Brad and Sally get more than they expected when they go to the beach on a beautiful sunny day in A Day at the Beach. Remember Me is a suspense thriller set in a futuristic world where remembering can be a medical procedure and love and pain can be erased. In the futuristic sci-fi short, Shift, we meet the Switchcocks, an all-girl revenge gang who make their living by taking on vengeance contracts. One night, Lexi, gang member by night, courier by day, hooks the gang up with the dangerously potent drug called Shift. After sampling the drug, the gang runs amok, taking vengeance on an Enclave drone ---ndash without a contract, and just for fun. Lexi awakens the following day and must deal with the aftermath and her own role in the gang's actions. A Drag King Extravaganza is a revealing documentary which revolves around the yearly IDKE Conference (International Drag King Community Extravaganza).

Jenni Olsen’s 575 Castro St. reveals the play of light and shadow upon the walls of the Castro Camera Store set for Gus Van Sant’s film Milk. So quiet, so still. All the better to showcase the range of emotions evoked by Harvey Milk’s words on the soundtrack. Following the death of Trista’s girlfriend, the comforting shoulder of straight gal-pal Monica turns into more in Desi Del Vallle’s beautiful Back to Life, a gentle story of love between friends. Lie Together is set on one afternoon when Margot and Claudia’s relationship is sliced open to reveal those moments when what is, what was, and what could be, collide. For a newcomer, sex with a woman can be daunting. What better way to learn than to hire a prostitute? Over sushi dinner, white wine and soft music, the two women both reconsider the prejudices they have about themselves, and about one another in the lyrical Spanish short, At Home (or love as well). Katerina, the 15-year old repressed school girl in Holy Water, is just like every other girl in her Catholic private school. But unlike the rest, she dares to try to figure out what to do with her hormones. Does the memory of that first soft kiss lessen the blow of the anger and relationship fatigue? A jug of wine, a loaf of bread - but wait - what kind of bread? Buttery Top is Catherine Crouch’s dramedy about a first date with extra baggage. And in Remember the Eyes, two women will find love despite their own personal challenges. At Home and Holy Water: In Spanish with English subtitles.

No drugs. No drinking. No lesbians. For more than 25 years, Penn State University women’s basketball coach Rene Portland made her training rules eminently clear. While the school administration turned a blind eye to Portland’s homophobic coaching philosophy, talented young players were harassed, threatened and even thrown off the team and stripped of their college scholarships. The women on Portland’s squads were forbidden from associating with any classmate suspected of being a lesbian and forced to either hide their true identities or give up their dreams of competing in the sport on which many had banked their futures. But in 2006, sophomore Jennifer Harris took on the Penn State machine and its iconic coach, and, with the assistance of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, sued for discrimination. Award-winning filmmakers Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker have woven a powerful web of evidence, interviews and the emotional and heartbreaking stories of players who have suffered under Portland’s long, intolerant tenure. Claiming the Title: Gay Olympics on Trial explores the additional homophobic hurdle on the already arduous road to athletic excellence. When a gay athletic group started the Gay Olympic Games in the mid-’80s, the U.S. Olympic Committee sued for use of the Olympic name and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Berated Woman is the funny story about an Orthodox Jewish woman who finds herself strongly attracted to the Aryan Supermom bent on converting her to Christianity. Both women want something from the other, but what is each willing to sacrifice to achieve her goals? To win the girl of her dreams, a klutzy young woman must overcome a wardrobe malfunction and the bad lesbian habit of over-processing in Falling for Caroline. In Girl Talk, everyone wants to know about Kelly’s date, but she isn’t talking. Mary is closeted college sophomore in How Do I Say This? I’m Gay, who gets flustered at the first meeting between her mother and girlfriend, Alex. Mary’s gay dorm-mates encourage her to reveal her sexuality to her mother in a brilliant musical spectacular! What is your sex toy story? This side-splitting short elicits an eyebrow raising assortment of true tales about sex with objects in Kat-I’s Sex Toy Stories. Who is the queerest of them all? That’s the question in the comedic short film Queerer Than Thou. A parody of the cult 90s TV series “My So-Called Life,” So-Called Living is a lighthearted short about those transitional times in adulthood when all the awkward angst-filled longing of adolescence comes rushing back. Shafted is the hilarious tale of Lindsay, a femme lesbian who finds that her ex has taken all of her sex toys after their break-up…and she is outraged. Lindsay seeks solace in her friends, only to find that it is commonly accepted that femmes get ”the shaft” when it comes to post-breakup sexual property. From director Diane Wilkins comes A Gathering Storm, a madcap parody of the anti-gay marriage ad recently released by the National Organization for Marriage. And remember the NCGLFF short film favorite, Worst Case Scenario: Butch Edition from a few years back? Well, you’re gonna love the sequel: Worst Case Scenario: Femme Edition!