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.