Oakland based filmmaker
Belinda 'Beli' Sullivan
"FLOWER FOKES"
2007 USA
Sunday, August 19 / 5pm block

Gender bending flowers play the roles of humans in this most unusual animated short.  A secret is told and the juicy little truth soon hits the streets - and the club.  Flower Fokes is the wildly hilarious creation of first time filmmaker Belinda 'Beli' Sullivan.  It's nothing like we've ever seen before, and Flower Fokes will surely have audiences roaring with laughter, as they follow the antics of a little circle of lesbian, gay, and uh, straight friends.

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L.A. based filmmaker
Stanley Bennett Clay
"Ritual"
2004 USA
Saturday, August 18 / 3pm block

Gotham Entertainment and the Ralston Company of America present “Ritual”, a powerful and disturbing psychological drama written and directed by Stanley Bennett Clay, stars Clarence Williams III ( The Mod Squad & The General’s Daughter), Denise Nicholas (Room 222 and In the Heat of The Night), Angelle Brooks (The VIPs), and Shawn Michael Howard (Above the Rim).
Leon Becker (Williams III) is a successful and wealthy Malibu attorney and equally detached from his ethnic soul and the patriarch of a seemingly perfect and harmonious family. Wife and mother Sylvia (Nicholas) is on the verge of alcoholism and is threatened by her daughter Teresa (Brooks), a cunning "Electra" who seems to want to want her mother gone. And Becker’s brooding homosexual son Mason (Howard) drops out of his Ivy League school and returns home to confront his family’s problems. Yet, all these trials-by fire are the challenges along the path to survival for this African American famly.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER Stanley Bennett Clay has received three NAACP Theatre Awards for writing, directing, and coproducing the critically acclaimed play Ritual, as well as a Pan African Film Festival Jury Award for the film adaptation. The author of Diva, In Search of Pretty Young Black Men, and his latest book "Looker," we are proud to honor Mr. Clay with our Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Classic Screening Series



If She Grows Up Gay
Karen (Sloe) Goodman
Karen (Sloe) Goodman  1983  USA
Saturday, August 18 / 3pm block

This revealing documentary highlights a blue collar African-American mother who talks about her relationship with men, her rape, pregnancy, and raising her daughter with her lesbian lover.

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NYC based filmmaker
Dwight O' Neal
"Chistopher Street - The Series"
2005 USA
Sunday, August 19 / 5pm block

Through the lives of Chris and his diverse group of friends we see the challenges that four young gay men face while being young gay minorities. Each character has their own individual struggle that affects their lives within their friend circle and the world. These young men deal with troubles that range from relationship issues, sexual identity, self-love, abuse, HIV/AIDS, and acceptance not only from the world, but from themselves. Chris, Jharemy, Ashton, and Shawn are bridging the gap of lacked knowledge by enlightening the world with the truth of being a young gay adult.
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Classic Screening Series



ADAM
Andrea Stoops
 1996   USA
Sunday, August 19 / 2pm block

In this tender claymation, a little girl is mistaken for a boy and relishes the opportunity. Illuminating the innocence of first sexual experiences and the fluidity of gender identity, Adam is a delightful reminiscence of childhood.

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Oakland based filmmaker
Ronald Fulcher
"The Ceremony "
2007 USA
Sunday, August 19 / 5pm block

The Ceremony is a documentary style true story, narrated by its central character Stephen, who chronicles his journey from addiction to recovery and his desire to marry marcus the love of his life.
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Classic Screening Series

Dorothy Low
"Voguing The Message "
Jack Walworth, David Bronstein & Dorothy Low  1989  USA
Sunday, August 19 / 2pm block


Voguing: The Message traces the roots of this gay, Black and Latino dance form, which appropriates and plays with poses and images from mainstream fashion. Voguing competitions parody fashion shows and rate the contestants on the basis of movement, appearance and costume. This tape is a pre-Madonna primer that raises questions about race, sex and subcultural style.

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Deardria Nesbitt & E. Lynch
"Playing Spades"
2006 USA
Sunday, August 19 / 5pm block

Gateway Entertainment in association with Orphan's Nest Productions presents " Playing Spades" a soapy lesbian series served up in 5-minute episodes. Based on the books Back in the Day and Drama written and published by Atlanta's Deardria Nesbitt, Playing Spades follows the escapades of record execs Islande Evans and CheyAnta Edwards and their various friends and lovers.
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Premiere

William Kendall
"RockDogs - A true life series"
2006 USA
Sunday, August 19 / 2pm block

2006 Gay Games Gold Medal winning baskeball team, the San Francisco RockDogs, are the subject of this documentary trailer which focuses on the life of out gay former professional basketball player Demarco Majors, his struggles growing up and his fight to stay at the top of his game.

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Classic screening series



Los Angeles based filmmaker
Stephanie Wynne
"Train Station "
USA
Sunday, August 19 / 5:00pm block

Eddie Mae, a stud from the fifties gets caught cheating
on her girlfriend and pays a price.
Written by Ta' Shia Asanti

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Charles Lofton
"Oh Happy Day"
1996 / USA
Thursday, Augst 16/ 6:30pm block

O Happy Day imagines the early days of gay liberation for black gay men. Lofton juxtaposes images of black men from late 60s and early 70s films with images of Black Panther Party demonstrations, as a way of intentionally revising history. The soundtrack is punctuated by a 1970 quotation from Black Panther leader Huey Newton:

"There's nothing to say that a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. On the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most revolutionary..."

Huey P. Newton

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Marlon T. RIggs
"No Regret (Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien)"
1992 USA
Sunday, August 19 / 5pm block

Through music, poetry and quiet, at times, chilling self-disclosure, five sero-positive black gay men speak of their individual confrontation with AIDS, illuminating the difficult journey black men throughout America make in coping with the personal and social devastation of the epidemic.

From panic, resignation and silence to the discovery of the redemptive, healing power in being vocal and visible as HIV-positive black gay men, each tells a singular and at the same time familiar story of self-transformation-- a story in which a once shameful, unmentionable "affliction" is forged into a tool of personal and communal empowerment.
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Marlon T. RIggs
ANTHEM
1991 USA
Thursday, August 16 / 6:30pm block

Marlon Riggs' experimental music video politicizes the homoeroticism of African-American men. With images--sensual, sexual and defiant--and words intended to provoke, Anthem reasserts the "self-evident right" to life and liberty in an era of pervasive anti-gay, anti-Black backlash and hysterical cultural repression.

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Marlon T. RIggs
Affirmations
1990 USA
Sunday, August 19 / 2pm block

An exploration of Black gay male desires and dreams. Affirmations starts with an affectionate, humorous confessional and moves on to a wish for empowerment and incorporation.