The Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival announced its 2019 lineup last week and, once again, it's filled with a vast array of compelling titles. Presented by HBO, this year's Outfest Los Angeles will showcase films in 26 languages from 33 different countries. The festival will open at the Orpheum Theatre on Thursday, July 18 with Rachel Mason’s Circus of Books, a documentary depicting an L.A. bookstore that doubles as a gay erotica emporium. Some highly anticipated world premieres include Rodrigo Bellott’s Tu Me Manques, inspired by his Bolivian hit play, Megan Rossman’s The Archivettes, featuring New York’s Lesbian Herstory Archives, and Molly Hewitt’s absurdist comedy Holy Trinity, depicting the queer artist community in Chicago. This year, Outfest Los Angeles is celebrating 37 years of visibility.
International and North American centerpieces include Graham Kolbein’s documentary Queer Japan, a profile of the personalities and groups found in Japan’s LGBTQ community; Kai Kreuser’s Label Me, depicting an imbalance of power in a relationship between a Syrian refugee and a German man; and Samuel Van Grinsven’s Sequin in a Blue Room, in which a teenager embarks on quest to find a stranger that sparked his interest. The documentary Queering the Script, including GLAAD's Megan Townsend, will also screen at Outfest.
Other centerpieces include Martha Stephen’s period drama To The Stars, a Sundance hit starring Malin Akerman, Tony Hale, and Adelaide Clemens. Mike Doyle’s romantic comedy Sell By will also be featured, along with Changing the Game, a documentary depicting the lives of several trans young athletes executive produced by GLAAD’s Alex Schmider, and Bit, a feminist vampire thriller starring Supergirl lead Nicole Maines.
Changing The Game - Trailer from SuperFilms! on Vimeo.
On Wednesday, July 24, the festival will also return to Ford Theatre for its Outfest Under the Stars screenings. The Trixie Mattel documentary, Moving Parts, will kick off the event followed by a live performance by RuPaul’s Drag Race star Trixie Mattel. The following day will feature LGBTQ ally Kathy Griffin’s introduction to her concert film A Hell of a Story. Other special events and hot tickets include the 3rd annual Trans Summit featuring keynote speaker Angelica Ross from FX’s hit series Pose; a panel on the future of Asian LGBTQ representation in media, Crazy Queer Asians, including a discussion with Ian Alexander (Netlfix’s The OA), Sherry Cola (Freeform’s Good Trouble), Nik Dodani (Netflix’s Atypical, CBS’s Murphy Brown), and Jake Choi (The Sun is Also a Star); and a first look at Marc Cherry’s CBS All Access series Why Women Kill, starring Lucy Liu, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste, with cast in attendance.
On Sunday, July 28 at The Theater at the Ace Hotel, the festival will close with Sundance favorite Before You Know It, a family comedy by Hannah Pearl Utt. Utt also stars alongside Alec Baldwin, Judith Light, and Mandy Patinkin. Visit outfest.org for a complete listing of films and ticket information, or call 213-480-7065 Monday-Friday, 10:00am-6:00pm.
