Program 17: Alaska is a Drag

Shaz Bennett / Narrative Feature, Sunday, Oct. 8 / USA / 2017 / 83 mins

Alaska is a Drag takes us to an outlying fishing village in Alaska where Leo (Martin L. Washington), a hot, young aspiring drag queen with some super smooth moves and a captivating smile, dreams of stardom. The only problem is that he’s stuck working in a cannery and is conspicuously gay in a world where being different is hardly a virtue.

Program 18: Screwed

Nils-Erik Ekblom / Subtitled, Narrative Feature, Sunday, Oct. 8 / Finland / 2017 / 97 mins

Seventeen-year-old Miku is about to embark on a dreadfully dull summer. With his parents away at the family cottage, Miku’s older brother Sebu has blitzed into town just long enough to destroy the house with an epic party. But when Sebu disappears and leaves Miku to take the fall for the rager, their parents force Miku to return to the cottage with them for the rest of the summer. Mom is so angry that not only does she take Miku’s phone away, she throws it into traffic. Now Miku is sequestered at the cottage with a very angry mother, a narcoleptic father, and no phone. Miku is screwed... but everything changes when attractive neighbor boy Elias boats into his life.

Program 19: Bad Girl

Fin Edquist / ImageOut There! Series, Narrative Feature, Sunday, Oct. 8 / Australia / 2016 / 87 mins

This taut thriller will have you on the edge of your seat, heart racing and holding your breath as you take in its unexpected twists and reversals of fortune. Sara West (Ash vs. Evil Dead) stars as the self-professed bad girl Amy Anderson, a teen whose drug use and rebellious acting out have previously landed her in a youth corrections facility. Amy’s adoptive parents (Felicity Price and Benjamin Winspear) have moved from the city to a model home in rural Australia in hopes of keeping Amy clean. All this is much to Amy’s displeasure, but unbeknownst to them, she’s already made plans to run away. When those plans fall apart, local girl Chloe (Samara Weaving) literally pulls her off a bridge railing, and the two become nearly inseparable.

Program 21: A Very Sordid Wedding

Del Shores / Narrative Feature, Special Guests, Monday, Oct. 9 / USA / 2017 / 109 mins

Writer-director Del Shores first gave us the wild and zany characters from his film, Sordid Lives, in 2000. Following that, Sordid Lives: the Series aired on LOGO. Now, Shores is back with another installment in the sordid saga, A Very Sordid Wedding.

Program 22: A Million Happy Nows

Albert Alarr / Narrative Feature, Special Guests, Tuesday, Oct. 10 / USA / 2017 / 80 mins

This deeply moving story of a couple confronting the realities of early-onset Alzheimer’s features a fantastic cast led by Crystal Chappell (Days of Our Lives, One Life to Live, and Guiding Light). Chappell stars as Lainey Allen, a soap opera star who’s retiring after 25 years in the spotlight. She and her beautiful partner, Eva (played by Jessica Leccia, One Life to Live, Guiding Light) move into an idyllic seaside home with plans to share the fruits of their labors together, removed from the stress and pressures of daily filming and celebrity life.

Program 23: The Strange Ones

Lauren Wolkstein & Christopher Radcliff / ImageOut There! Series, Narrative Feature, Tuesday, Oct. 10 / USA / 2017 / 82 mins

Part of the ImageOutThere! series. There’s something strange about brothers Nick and Jeremiah as they wind their way down rural highways on what they claim is a perfectly normal camping trip. The age difference between the two is significant, yet they’re affectionate and comfortable in each others’ company. Twenty-something Nick strikes a paternal tone with his preteen brother, protective of him and not shy to help Jeremiah work through the issues weighing on his young mind. But uneasy interactions with strangers and nervous shifting when they cross paths with police betray to the audience that there is something very unusual about these brothers and their “camping trip.”

Program 24: Philadelphia

Jonathan Demme / Narrative Feature, Tuesday, Oct. 10 / USA / 1993 / 125 mins

It’s easy to forget that there weren’t always positive portrayals of LGBT lives in popular culture. Even when dealing with a topic as linked to the gay community as the AIDS crisis, it wasn’t easy to get a film made with a gay lead. When Philadelphia was pitched, there were 10 other scripts in development about AIDS, and all dealt with heterosexual characters. However, out screenwriter Ron Nyswaner wanted our struggle with the epidemic to be told.

Program 26: After Louie

Vincent Gagliostro / ASL Interpreted, Narrative Feature, Wednesday, Oct. 11 / USA / 2017 / 100 mins

We’ve entered an era that many LGBTQ folks may not have expected to arrive as quickly as it did. We’re much closer to having true equality than ever before. This is the exact goal that the activists who came before us strove for, bled for, died for.

Preceded by: Nocturnal

Program 29: A Date For Mad Mary

Darren Thornton / Spotlight Feature, Narrative Feature, Friday, Oct. 13 / Ireland / 2016 / 82 mins

"Mad” Mary McArdle isn’t terribly likable.You probably won’t care for her right off: she’s abrasive, foul-mouthed, and seemingly very selfish. But she’s going to win you over, as will this sweet, moving, and very charming film.

Program 30: The Constitution

Rajko Grlic / Subtitled, Narrative Feature, Friday, Oct. 13 / Croatia / 2016 / 93 mins

Set in a Zagreb apartment building, The Constitution tells the story of four neighbors who have allowed their differences to divide them. But when circumstance forces them into each other’s lives, they will need to open themselves up and find a common understanding.