OutFest Screen Grabs, and Jeff Stryker

July 25, 2006

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5

The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival -- AKA "OutFest" -- wrapped up last week and I have a bit of postpartum depression going on, although that implies that I gave birth to it, when in reality, I did no such thing.

The Outfest folks and the filmmakers gave birth. I just ate the placenta. The point is that Outfest is my favorite time of year, my high holy days if you will, and I have many tidbits to share about it.

The fest kicked off on Thursday, July 8th with Puccini for Beginners, the charming new romantic farce from Maria Maggenti, director of the beloved The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love. Maggenti greeted the crowd and admitted that yes, she’s a “has-bian,” which I think means she’s a woman who used to identify as lesbian but is currently involved with a man.

I really hope that term catches on so that one day Anne Heche and Julie Cipher can go on The Amazing Race together and every time we see them step onto the pit stop mat or argue over airline tickets, there’ll be a graphic in the corner of the screen that says “Has-bians.”

My next Outfest outing was actually an event that I’ve hosted for the last eight years, the Home Video Gong Show. People bring video clips from home--three minutes or less, please--and we play them for the audience and judges without pre-screening them first. Yes, it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen, but so far we’ve managed to elude the kiddy porn/snuff film crowd, thank God.

READ MORE > >