SIFF 2013 Is Upon Us…With 24 LGBTQ Films Including “Peaches Does Herself”

The one and only musical icon known as Peaches, has her own movie, “Peaches Does Herself”and it’s playing at SIFF 2013.

Thursday was Press Day for the 39th Annual Seattle International Film Festival which runs May 16 through June 9  which means we can start talking about what’s coming to this year’s mega festival. We already know that Joss Whedon’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” is the Opening Gala at McCaw Hall on the 16th…and, that it very quickly sold out. Apparently, there are a lot of crazy “Firefly/Buffy/Angel” fans out there anxious to see Captain Mal, Wesley and Winifred/Illyria on the big screen gettin’ their Shakespeare on. Not to mention that Mr. Whedon and the actors who played those characters are all scheduled to be at the gala. SQUEE!

We’re gonna contain ourselves and limit this discussion to the films lumped under the LGBTQ category at SIFF 39. There are 24 films/programs under that heading including a program of shorts, several documentaries, foreign entries and a smattering of dirty stuff, some silly and some serious. What would gay programming at a film festival be without a stupid gay sex comedy or two, and some seriously filthy stuff to ruffle our petticoats?

SIFF’s annual “Gay-La” is usually a silly/stupid sex comedy but this year it’s more in the line of a fun teen comedy; more “Glee” than “Eating Out”. “GBF” stands for Gay Best Friend and this comedy from director Darren Stein (“Jawbreaker”) is the kind of film you can take your grandma to…it even has several familiar faces in it, including Harry Potter’s Luna Lovegood and Will & Grace’s Karen Walker…

“GBF” is so low budget they apparently can’t afford a website but I swiped this synopsis off their Indiegogo page:

Social warfare breaks out in a suburban high school when the three clique queens who rule the school compete for this year’s must-have teen girl accessory – the G.B.F. (or Gay Best Friend).

GBF tells the story of two closeted best friends, Tanner (Michael J. Willett, United States of Tara) and Brent (Paul Iacono, The Hard Times of R.J. Berger). Brent longs for the spotlight and has a plan that will make him the most popular kid in school. He believes that coming out will make him instantly popular, as the newest must-have teen girl “accessory”: The G.B.F. Tanner on the other hand, would rather fly under the radar and graduate from high school without ever being noticed.

When things don’t go according to plan and Tanner is outed instead of Brent, the two boys go from B.F.F.s to instant frenemies and the three most popular girls in school — queen-of-mean bombshell Fawcett (Sasha Pieterse, Pretty Little Liars), drama club diva Caprice (Xosha Roquemore,Precious) and sweet, Mormon good-girl ‘Shley (Andrea Bowen, Desperate Housewives) launch an all-out social war to win Tanner’s status-enhancing friendship.

Adorable!

“GBF” is this year’s SIFF Gay-La and screens Wednesday, June 5th at The Egyptian on Capitol Hill…no word on where the after party will be. We’re guessing it won’t be at The Social…

For those of you LOOKING for the dirty stuff, then you’ll have at least two options and they both involve James Franco. He’s the star and co-director of “Interior. Leather Bar” the film he co-made with Travis Matthews about the missing footage from the controversial Al Pacino film from the Eighties, “Cruising”. We’ve got an interview with Travis Matthews over HERE…you’ll remember he’s also the director of last year’s film, “I Want Your Love” which played at the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.

Mr. Franco is only the producer of “Kink”, the documentary from filmmaker Christina Voros and a behind the scenes look at the website, Kink.com. It’s a gritty/witty look at the world of s/m and fetish porn and fun for the entire family…if your family is over the age of 18 and into penis stomping or tit torture.

Check out the NSFW trailer!

Kink by Christina Voros trailer by Flixgr

If you don’t appreciate the zexy film genre, then you can check out “Bwakaw” a film from the Philippines about a lonely old gay man and his dog (bring a hankie!); or, “Laurence Anyways” the new film from Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan about the relationship between a woman and the Laurence in her life who reveals to her a desire to transition to life as a transwoman…you might need a hankie for this one, too. It’s a drama…and French Canadian.

I don’t have the time or patience to go over ALL 24 queer films at SIFF 39…we’ll touch on more of them in the weeks ahead, but we’ll end with a film that will have a lot of people in Seattle excited. She’s a fierce musical diva who “Gaga’d” long before Miss Germanotta tottered around in her first Gerber processed meat dress…the one and only Peaches has created and stars in her first “electro rock opera”, “Peaches Does Herself”. Here’s a lovely synopsis from the website:

“Peaches Does Herself  tells the story of a young woman who, inspired by a 65-year-old stripper, begins to make sexually forthright music. Her popularity grows and she becomes what her fans expect her to be: transsexual. She falls in love with a beautiful she-male, but gets her heart broken and then ventures on a path of self-discovery.”

The movie features all of Peaches’ greatest hits: 22 songs…she calls it “The Jukebox Musical that got a sex change!”

Here’s the trailer…it just became my “Must See” film of the festival… Arty farty yet kind of filthy but with a radical/political/genderfuck/queercore edge to it.

You can currently buy passes to the festival but individual tickets don’t go on sale until May 2 so just sit tight for a few more days. If Peaches sells out, we’ll make SLGFF bring her back in the fall…