The All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival (aGLIFF) announced that PJ Raval’s timely documentary CALL HER GANDA will be the Opening Night selection for the 31st edition of the film festival (formerly known as the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival). Also announced was the creation of aGLIFF’s Tribute Award. The recipient of the inaugural aGLIFF Tribute Award will be filmmaker Yen Tan, a stalwart on the Austin indie filmmaking scene.
CALL HER GANDA
aGLIFF Program Director Jim Brunzell, said, “As aGLIFF enters our fourth decade and embraces a more inclusive name change, it’s exciting to be able to launch this year’s film festival with such an impactful and beyond timely documentary, and celebrate the careers of two amazing talents, and fixtures in the Austin film scene, as well as longtime friends to aGLIFF. Both PJ and Yen’s latest films are some of the best films I’ve seen in 2018.”
Raval’s CALL HER GANDA will make its Southwest premiere when it screens at the Alamo Drafthouse’s South Lamar venue (1120 S. Lamar Blvd) on Thursday, September 6. The film investigates the story of Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, who was brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine. Three women intimately invested in the case–an activist attorney, a transgender journalist and Jennifer’s mother, galvanizing a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of US imperialism.
aGLIFF will also be screening Raval’s previous feature-length documentary, BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (2013), celebrating its five-year anniversary, which follows three gay seniors as they navigate the adventures, challenges, and the surprises that present themselves in their golden years.
1985
The recipient of aGLIFF’s inaugural Tribute Award, Yen Tan will be presented with the award on Sunday, September 9, prior to a screening of his critically acclaimed film, 1985. aGLIFF will also be screening his first feature film, CIAO, celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary, on Friday, September 7. Prior to the film festival, aGLIFF will also present a special screening of PIT STOP on Wednesday. August 22 at the Dougherty Arts Center in collaboration with DAC as a free screening to mark the occasion of that film’s 5th Anniversary. Joining Yen Tan at that screening, will be members of the cast and crew.
aGLIFF also previewed an additional handful of titles including the North American premiere of Pablo D’Alo Abba’s suspenseful MATER about a stranger recruited by a lesbian couple to help them conceive a baby, and the Texas premiere of Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary STUDIO 54, which looks at the rise and fall of the infamous New York City hotspot.
TRANSMILITARY
Two films under the aGLIFF Encore banner will be Carlos Marques-Marcet’s ANCHOR & HOPE about a trio that build an unconventional relationship in order for the couple to have a child, and Gabriel Silverman and Fiona Dawson’s documentary TRANSMILITARY. The 2018 SXSW Audience Award winner profiles a group of transgender service members in the military.
To purchase passes and find more information, please go to: https://www.agliff.org.
Initial Selections for 2018 aGLIFF
Opening Night
CALL HER GANDA Southwest Premiere
Director: PJ Raval
Country: USA, Running Time: 93 min
The film investigates the story of Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, who was brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine. Three women intimately invested in the case–an activist attorney, a transgender journalist and Jennifer’s mother, galvanizing a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of US imperialism.
1985
Director: Yen Tan
Country: USA, Running Time: 80 min
Inspired by the award-winning short film of the same name, 1985 follows Adrian (Cory Michael Smith, “Gotham”), a closeted young man returning to his Texas hometown for Christmas during the first wave of the AIDS crisis. Burdened with an unspeakable tragedy in New York, Adrian reconnects with his brother (Aidan Langford) and estranged childhood friend (Jamie Chung), as he struggles to divulge his dire circumstances to his religious parents (Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis).
ANCHOR & HOPE
Director: Carlos Marques-Marcet
Country: Spain, Running Time: 113 min
In their mid-30s, Eva (Oona Chaplin) and Kat’s (Natalia Tena) humble, yet carefree, lifestyle in their London canal boat gets turned upside down when Eva presents Kat with an ultimatum: she wants a child. Kat resists, knowing that it will end the bohemian lifestyle she’s always envisaged with Eva. When Kat’s best friend, Roger (David Verdaguer), drops in from Barcelona to party with the ladies, however, the three of them toy around with the idea of creating a baby together. Forced into a corner, Kat sees no other way out but to say yes. Surprisingly, their offbeat DIY fertilization process is actually successful. As Eva enjoys her pregnancy and Roger fantasizes about his role in his new family, Kat feels like the third wheel and begins distancing herself. When Eva has an unexpected miscarriage, the group’s true feelings are laid bare, leading Eva and Kat to break up while Roger prepares to go back to Barcelona.
BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (2013)
Director: PJ Raval
Country: USA, Running Time: 110 min
Three gay seniors navigate the adventures, challenges, and surprises of life and love in their golden years.
CIAO (2008)
Director: Yen Tan
Country: USA, Running Time: 87 min
Jeff is taking care of everything Mark left behind when he died in an accident. Mark was about to have a visitor, Andrea, an Italian guy he met online. Now, Jeff and Andrea have the chance to share memories of the Mark they knew while getting to know each other.
MATER North American Premiere
Director: Pablo D’Alo Abba
Country: Argentina, Running Time: 80 min
Lena and Celeste love each other and desperately want to become mothers. One night, they go out looking for a sperm donor and choose a stranger to conceive their child with. That night Celeste meets Darío, a young man unhappy with his life and dominated by his overprotective mother. The event will set their lives on a different course, especially Dario’s, who will discover that he can do something for himself. Based on the play “Wind in a Violin” by Claudio Tolcachir.
STUDIO 54 Texas Premiere
Director: Matt Tyrnauer
Country: USA, Running Time: 98 min
For 33 months, from 1978 to 1980, the nightclub Studio 54 was the place to be seen in Manhattan. A haven of hedonism, tolerance, glitz and glamor, Studio was very hard to gain entrance to and impossible to ignore, with news of who was there filling the gossip columns daily. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two college friends from Brooklyn, succeeded in creating the ultimate escapist fantasy in the heart of the theater district. Rubell was the outgoing party-boy who wanted to be everybody’s friend and was photographed with every celebrity du jour who entered the club and Schrager was the quiet, behind-the-scenes workhorse who shunned the limelight. Studio 54 was an instant success and a cash cow, but the drug-and-sex-fueled dream soon crumbled before their eyes. With unprecedented access to Schrager, who tells the whole unvarnished story for the first time, and a treasure-trove of rare footage, director Matt Tyrnauer constructs a vivid, glorious portrait of a disco-era phenomenon, and tells the story of two friends who stuck together through an incredible series of highs and lows.
TRANSMILITARY
Directors: Gabe Silverman, Fiona Dawson
Country: USA, Running Time: 93 min
The 2018 SXSW Audience Award-winning feature film debut by Gabriel Silverman & Fiona Dawson, TRANSMILITARY follows the Emmy-nominated short film TRANSGENDER, AT WAR AND IN LOVE. Around 15,500 transgender people serve in the U.S. military (notably the largest transgender employer in the U.S.), where they must conceal their gender identity because military policies ban their service. TRANSMILITARY chronicles the lives of four individuals (Senior Airman Logan Ireland, Corporal Laila Villanueva, Captain Jennifer Peace & First Lieutenant El Cook) defending their country’s freedom while fighting for their own. They put their careers and their families’ livelihoods on the line by coming out as transgender to top brass officials in the Pentagon in hopes of attaining the equal right to serve. The ban was lifted in 2016, but with President Trump now trying to reinstate it, their futures hang in the balance again.
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