"Hollywood je t'aime," the lightly comic story of a vacationing Frenchman who decides to make a go of it in Los Angeles as an actor, comes into Outfest after just playing as one of the few gay-themed films at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
"What makes a film gay now?" asked "Hollywood" writer-director Jason Bushman. "Is it gay plot, gay filmmaker or just a queer take on life? I don't know.
"I don't feel stuck on the gay circuit," said Bushman of his film's screening schedule. "I'm happy to be there. But with that said, it's unfortunate a lot of the world sees a mainstream festival as having more credibility."
Especially in light of the uncertainty in the film business in general, and in the independent sector in particular, the business surrounding LGBT filmmaking is surprisingly healthy, with cable television and home video deals still available to a large number of films -- as well as screening fees from many festivals (though not Outfest).
On the flip side, moving from the gay-fest circuit to theatrical distribution for general audiences remains in many ways a largely unattainable goal for many LGBT filmmakers. "That is probably the biggest, most difficult issue of all," said Jeffrey Winter, co-president of the sales, marketing and distribution firm New American Vision. "Crossover is a major, major issue. People who make gay films in no way are afraid of being called gay filmmakers anymore, but do they want their films to be seen by straight people? Absolutely. And it is very hard to get those films out of the gay ghetto."
Many filmmakers are left to navigate the strange festival calculus of where to premiere in hopes of maximum critical exposure and perceived credibility before settling into a slot on the gay-fest circuit, where a film can play all over the world.
"It's not a disparagement to niche festivals when a filmmaker wants to go somewhere with more mainstream appeal," said Basil Tsiokos, former executive director of NewFest and currently a documentary programmer at the Sundance Film Festival. "They have to do what is best for their film."
Also among the screenings at Outfest is a retrospective series celebrating the 20th anniversary of Strand Releasing, a Culver City-based distribution label that has long mixed gay-friendly films with esoteric art-house fare. Indicative of the label's hard-to-define taste, the festival is screening Gregg Araki's epochal 1992 film "The Living End"; "Love Is the Devil," a biopic of the painter Francis Bacon; "Party Monster," an outlandish true-crime story; Isaac Julien's "Young Soul Rebels"; and Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's bittersweet debut film "Show Me Love."
"I think there are good stories, and good movies to see," said Kirsten Schaffer, Outfest executive director on what the appeal of the festival might be to non-gay audiences.
"There are very few of our movies that are just of interest to a gay audience," Schaffer continued. "I think the majority of our movies are of interest to people. I also think that Outfest is a welcoming place. I wish we could send out an alert that says, 'We love everybody. We welcome everybody.' No one's checking your gay card at the door."
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mark.olsen@latimes.com
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Outfest 2009
Where: Seven venues around town, showing 182 films and videos
When: Thursday through July 19
Price: Most tickets $9 to $18
Contact: (213) 480-7065 or www.outfest.org
