At Outfest, redefining gay film

In "La Mission," screening Thursday as the opening night film of Outfest, Benjamin Bratt plays a tough San Francisco ex-con grappling with acceptance of his gay son. Written and directed by the star's brother, Peter Bratt, the film had its premiere this year at the Sundance Film Festival and is indicative of a growing shift at Outfest away from pro forma coming-out stories and toward programming that locates gay themes and issues within a broader social landscape.

Outfest, entering its 27th year, is among the top tier of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) film festivals in the country, alongside Frameline in San Francisco and NewFest in New York. These fests are part of a circuit that is a de facto distribution network for many films yet also a place where the very notion of what makes for a gay film is in flux.

"Queer films are changing," said Kim Yutani, Outfest's director of programming. "Filmmakers are not necessarily only telling stories with gay characters at the center; they are interested in telling other stories too."

These evolving attitudes toward defining gay film can be read across the movies screening at Outfest under the heading "Four in Focus," featuring four first-time directors. Among those in the section is "We Are the Mods," director E.E. Cassidy's stylish look at one teenage girl's induction into the L.A.-set mod subculture of motor scooters, vintage ska and R&B and Fred Perry clothes while she explores her emergent sexual identity.

The film is just the kind of gay-adjacent filmmaking Outfest is moving to include, one that touches on gay themes without being easily classified as a "gay film." Cassidy acknowledges that having been turned down by a number of mainstream -- industry code for "not gay" -- fests, her film has been gaining traction on the gay festival circuit, which leaves her with doubts about how the film will be perceived by general audiences.

"People have told me, 'Once you go gay, you don't go back,' " said Cassidy, a Silver Lake resident. "I have to go where people want to show the film, even if I think it has a broader appeal than just the gay community."

Also screening in "Four in Focus" is H.P. Mendoza's witty, homespun musical "Fruit Fly," a story of aspiring young artists, which opens with a number extolling the virtues of San Francisco's public transit system, and "Drool," writer-director Nancy Kissam's offbeat road picture, starring "Mulholland Dr.'s" Laura Harring.