THE FIGHT SOCAL'S LGBTQ MONTHLY MAGAZINE JUNE 2019

“CHANGING
THE GAME”
“ADAM”
“THIS IS
NOT BERLIN”
NISHA
GANATRA
“STRAIGHT UP”
“CIRCUS OF BOOKS”
Outfest
—the Los Angeles
based non-profit
organization promoting equality by creating,
sharing, and protecting LGBTQ stories
on the screen—has announced its 2019
Achievement Award recipient, Nisha
Ganatra, and its galas, including Opening
and Closing Night, for the 2019 Outfest Los
Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, presented by
HBO. The nation’s premiere LGBTQ festival
will be held July 18-28, 2019.
Nisha Ganatra, an Emmy-nominated
and Golden Globe Award-winning director,
producer and screenwriter, will receive
the Achievement Award, Outfest’s
highest honor, presented in recognition
of a body of work that has made a significant
contribution to LGBTQ film and
media. Her most recent feature film, Late
Night starring Emma Thompson and
Mindy Kaling, was picked up by Amazon
Studios after debuting at Sundance
Film Festival. In a time where women
and people of color still make up only a
fraction of directors, Ganatra is breaking
barriers in both film and television as a
multi award-winning female filmmaker
including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Girls and
Transparent, for which she received a
Golden Globe Award.
The annual festival will open on the
evening of Thursday, July 18th at the
Orpheum Theater with Rachel Mason’s
intimate and absorbing documentary,
Circus of Books, about L.A.’s legendary
gay pornography emporium run by her
parents, Karen and Barry Mason. The film
was recently picked up by Netflix.
Additional gala screenings include: Adam
(U.S. Centerpiece), Ariel Schrag’s novel
adaptation of the same name directed by
Outfest alum and Transparent producer
Rhys Ernst; Hari Sama’s Sundance hit This
Is Not Berlin (International Centerpiece),
set in the 1980s Mexico City queer music
scene; Michael Barnett’s Changing the
Game (Documentary Centerpiece) which
focuses on three resilient transgender high
school athletes fighting to compete as their
authentic gender amidst national scrutiny;
and Straight Up (Breakthrough Centerpiece),
a sharp and witty Los Angeles-set comedy
written/directed by and starring newcomer
James Sweeney.
For the complete lineup for the 2019 Outfest Los
Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival visit www.outfest.org.
46 THE FIGHT | www.thefightmag.com