Now in its 27th year, the Washington Jewish Film Festival presents traditional film screenings as well as related cultural and educational programs at six different theaters. Six films at this year’s festival are “Rated LGBTQ,” exploring sexuality, gender and identity on screen.
Cabaret, the hit 1972 adaptation of the stage musical classic starring Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli, which screens Sunday, May 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the Edlavitch DCJCC, and Saturday, May 27, at 12:30 p.m., at AFI Silver Theatre.
Family Commitments, an outrageously quirky comedy about a Jewish-Arab same-sex wedding, in its Mid-Atlantic Premiere Saturday, May 20, at 8:45 p.m. at Landmark E Street Cinema, and Saturday, May 27, at 6:30 p.m., at Edlavitch DCJCC.
In Between, Maysaloun Hamoud’s remarkable feature debut about three Arab-Israeli women sharing an apartment in the vibrant heart of Tel Aviv and struggling with contemporary and traditional pressures, which screens Wednesday, May 24, at 8:15 p.m., at Landmark E Street Cinema, and Sunday, May 28, at 1:45 p.m., at AFI Silver Theatre.
The Freedom to Marry, a riveting ride through history with Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto, who led the push for one of the most successful civil rights campaigns in modern history, screening on Sunday, May 21, at 5:15 p.m. at AFI Silver Theatre, and Wednesday, May 24, at 7:15 p.m., at Edlavitch DCJCC.
The Guys Next Door, a lyrical documentary about the bonds between a straight family and their gay neighbors, screening Sunday, May 21, at 6 p.m., at Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema, and Monday, May 22, at 6:15 p.m., at Landmark E Street Cinema.
Uncle Howard, a paean and an elegy to Aaron Brookner’s uncle and the film he made about his friend William S. Burroughs before his premature AIDS-related death, screening on Sunday, May 21, at 4:15 p.m., at Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema, and Monday, May 22, at 8:45 p.m., at Landmark E Street Cinema.
The Festival runs to Sunday, May 28. Tickets are $14.95 for regular screenings. Visit wjff.org.
Documentaries generally don't need an onscreen host. The camera can play host, and real-life stories can tell themselves, with offscreen prompting from research and production, and shrewd direction and editing providing context.
If a filmmaker wants to put the prompting onscreen, there's a delicate art to inserting themselves or an on-camera host into the story without stealing the spotlight from their subject.
Ryan Ashley Lowery, director and creator of the LGBTQ doc Light Up, is anything but delicate in inserting himself and two on-camera host-interviewers -- Michael Mixx and Maurice Eckstein -- into the film's still-compelling portrait of Atlanta's "community of Black same gender loving men and trans women."
A transgender woman has filed a lawsuit against hotel giant Hilton, alleging that she was assaulted by a security guard at the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre while she was a registered guest.
According to the complaint, filed in the 192nd Civil District Court in Dallas County, Kimberly Barnett, an Afro-Latina transgender woman from Nebraska, was staying at the hotel in late June while attending Dallas Pride Weekend and other LGBTQ events.
Barnett returned to the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre around 3:45 a.m. on June 24 and attempted to "valet her vehicle," according to the lawsuit.
A masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a queer woman in Minneapolis after opening fire through the window of her SUV during a confrontation in the street.
Video footage posted online shows two masked ICE officers approaching a Honda Pilot stopped in the middle of Portland Avenue near 34th Street in Minneapolis' Powderhorn neighborhood. One agent can be heard yelling at the SUV's driver -- later identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good -- telling her to "get out of the fucking car" while attempting to open the driver's door, as a second officer stands back.
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