Outfest Los Angeles

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
MAKE ME FAMOUS
DIR. BRIAN VINCENT | USA | 93 MIN.
SUNDAY | JULY 17 | 2:00PM | HARMONY GOLD
A madcap romp through the 1980’s NYC downtown art scene through
the lens of the colorful career of ambitious painter, Edward Brezinski,
who is hell-bent on making it. Brezinski’s quest for fame provides an
intimate portrait of the art world’s attitude towards success, failure,
fame and fortune, notoriety, and erasure. Viewers are introduced
to a series of eccentric characters who reveal the unsung painter
through their memories of both Edward’s antics and his extreme
artistic drive. Their tales also unveil the queerly rollicking history of
the Lower East Side art movement from an insider’s point of view.
MANSCAPING
DIR. BRODERICK FOX | USA | 62 MIN.
MONDAY | JULY 18 | 7:15PM | DGA 1
Director Broderick Fox crafts an intimate portrait of three queer men who
are reimagining the traditional barbershop: Richard Savvy, Australia’s
“naked barber,” is a former Sydney Mr. Leather who invites you to
leave your shame and clothes at the door, and to add the transformative
power of kink to your cut. Devan Shimoyama is a visual artist whose
barbershop painting series draws upon Afrofuturism and drag to envision
the Black barbershop as a more inclusive space. Jessie Anderson is the
proprietor of Big Bro’s Barbershop, where trans, gender non-conforming,
and queer customers don’t have to hide their true selves to get a haircut.
Together, their inspirational stories envision a path that cuts through the
toxicity of male fragility in favor of social inclusion and personal freedom.
Preceded by REGRET TO INFORM YOU Dir. Yusuf Shadeed Nasir, Benji Schwimmer
(Contributing Director), 2022, 13 min.
PREJUDICE AND PRIDE
DIR. EVA BELING | SWEDEN, FINLAND, ICELAND |
100 MIN.
MONDAY | JULY 18 | 7:00PM | DGA 2
Sweden: it’s brought us tinned herring, the Volvo station wagon,
and more queer movies and movie stars than you could possibly
imagine. At once riveting and illuminating, filmmaker Eva Beling
takes viewers on a breathlessly entertaining ride through the history
of LGBTQ+ cinema in her home country, and reveals its surprisingly
seismic social impact on culture in Sweden and abroad in the
western world. Whether it’s Greta Garbo producing gender-bending
passion projects in pre-code Hollywood, digging deeper into the
psychosexual dimensions of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, a softcore
exploitation boom, or landmark arthouse classics like Fucking Åmål,
there’s no shortage of fascinating chapters in this largely untold story
to American audiences. If you thought The Celluloid Closet and
Disclosure taught you everything you needed to know, it’s time to
bust out the ABBA Gold and take notes on your new favorite queer
movies you never knew existed.
SIRENS
DIR. RITA BAGHDADI | USA, LEBANON | 78 MIN.
SUNDAY | JULY 17 | 7:00PM | HARMONY GOLD
Pink hair glowing under stage lights, war paint applied, clad in all black,
and lips snarled, Lebanon’s Slave to Sirens is ready to shred. Maya’s
guttural vocals pierce your soul as the pulsating rhythm created from
Alma’s bass and Tatyana’s drums replaces your heartbeat. Anchoring
it all are Lilas and Shery, the guitarists whose intricate melodies, riffs,
and licks rival the complexities of life they must navigate as founding
members of the first (and only) Middle Eastern all-female thrash metal
band. Documentarian Rita Baghdadi artfully captures their friendship,
queer identities, and the myriad of challenges they face while raging
against the machine. Headbanging required.
UÝRA - THE RISING FOREST
DIR. JULIANA CURI | BRAZIL, USA | 72 MIN.
SATURDAY| JULY 23 | 1:15PM | DGA 2
NELLY & NADINE
DIR. MAGNUS GERTTEN | SWEDEN, BELGIUM, NORWAY
92 MIN.
THURSDAY | JULY 21 | 7:15PM | DGA 1
Starting from a photo and a box in an attic, Director Magnus
Gertten’s film tells the unlikely love story of two women who meet
on Christmas Eve, 1944, in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
When Nelly’s granddaughter decides to go through some of her
later grandmother’s things, the epic tale unfolds of Nelly and
Nadine. The film charts both the life they lived before they met
and their incredible journey after. This documentary takes you on
a journey of survival, espionage, tragedy and most of all, love.
PAT ROCCO DARED
DIRS. BOB CHRISTIE, MORRIS CHAPDELAINE | CANADA
90 MIN.
SATURDAY | JULY 16 | 9:45PM | DGA 1
Activist, artist, filmmaker, and entertainer Pat Rocco’s legendary career
spanned decades. Encompassing nude male erotic films, documentaries
that bore witness to crucial moments in queer history including speeches by
Harvey Milk. In this exploration of Rocco’s work and life — which features
lovingly restored versions of some of Rocco’s rarest films — filmmaker Charlie
David sits down with Rocco for exclusive interviews prior to his death in 2018.
Ever the good-natured showman, Rocco’s candid talks reveal the daring
personality required to create work that valued, desired, and celebrated
queer bodies when popular culture labeled them as shameful — revealing
this to be a vital record of an unforgettable trailblazer.
STAY ON BOARD: THE LEO BAKER STORY
DIR. NICOLA MARSH, GIOVANNI REDA | USA | 72 MIN.
THURSDAY | JULY 21 | 9:30PM | DGA 1
WORLD PREMIERE
From Flower Films and Pulse Films comes this raw and immersive
feature following competitive skating icon Leo Baker, who in the lead
up to the 2020 Olympics, is faced with the decision to transition to
become his truest self or not while competing on the international
stage at the highest level of the sport he loves. Stay on Board is
Leo’s journey balancing the gendered world of sports, society, and
skate culture, which ultimately leads him to doing the punkest thing
imaginable...
In this poetic and visually hypnotic odyssey through the Amazon
rainforest, Indigenous artist Uýra harnesses the interconnecting
power of their native, queer, and trans identities to blaze a trail of
ecological activism and LGBTQ+ pride across big cities and small
villages alike. Crafting garments of eye-popping color and objects
found along the way into stunning transformational performances,
their reveries dazzle against the decay of environmental racism and
transphobia to educate local audiences and remind them of the
transformative powers of art and advocacy. Uýra reclaims the natural
splendor and ancestral spirit of the land by brilliantly connecting
themselves and their work as a prayer to the earth, proving that
creative expression and collective action can renew the ground on
which they walk. A piece of bold and expressive cinema that seems
to hold the future in its hand, this journey is nothing short of a miracle.
Preceded by CHAAC + YUM Dir. Roberto Fatal, Xav SF, 2022, 12 min.