Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival 2009

aGLIFF is excited to support Leadership Austin’s event this coming Tuesday, May 15 from 7:00pm–10:00pm at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. The City Terrace will be transformed as the setting for the Brightest Party Ever. Leadership Austin will celebrate the event in “Pop Art” fashion, with the glowing Austin skyline as the perfect backdrop for this one-of-a-kind party featuring bright colors, cool funky lighting and live art.

In addition, Leadership Austin will be recognizing three inspiring local leaders for their ongoing commitment and dedication to Central Texas. This year’s honorees are Charles Barnett (Exceptional Award for an Honorary Alumnus), Sam Planta (Polly Scallorn Community Trustee) and Courtney Clark (Ascendant Award).

There will be plenty of exciting auction items available to win at the event including a pair of aGLIFF 25th Annual Season Film Festival Badges for this October 2012. Come support our community friends at Leadership Austin by purchasing your tickets to attend the Brightest Party Ever HERE!

Well, thanks to aGLIFF filmmaker Mike Skiff, I have new wallpaper. It’s Queen B leading a crowd of beautiful people at the Phoenix Pride Parade in a line dance singing, “Born This Way,” with a hate spewing picket line in the background.

The video starts off with about 5 minutes of the typical toxic sludge that so often comes out of these confrontations where hateful people come to high profile LGBTQIA events simply to remind the participants that they are going to hell. Emotions are clearly charged and some of the talk isn’t for the faint of heart. But! Just when you start thinking, “Why am I watching this, this is making me feel bad,” a truly wonderful development emerges when Queen B gets her own mic and, with the help of her fun-loving and very happy backup dancer (Who IS that guy? I want meet him!), incites a pink-clad line-dancing riot of priders to rise above the vitriol and completely drown out the megaphones of the haters. Suddenly, everyone’s having fun again!

This is exactly what is needed to counter the ignorance and shame-peddling of the picketers who chose to express themselves in the way that these “official street preachers” do. After all, expression is central to so many issues concerning our community, and rising above the basic back-and-forth is vastly more impactful, to say the least. Of course both sides are preaching to their own choir, but if anyone on the fence regarding their opinions of queerness were to see this video, it’s obvious that pink line dancers have a much more compelling argument.

The video can be seen on Instinct Magazine’s article or on Towelroad.

Luckily, not all protesters were looking to bash the Phoenix Pride Parade. Here’s an encouraging photo of Christian protesters showing their compassion through their support of parade attendees:

Thank you for sharing this Phoenix Pride moment with the community, Mike! Have a look at the aGLIFF review of Mike’s film, Kink Crusader, from last year’s aGLIFF Film Festival Program.

Contributed by Matt Labonville, aGLIFF Contributing Writer

Today marks the beginning of the 15th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival in Austin Texas and it is with great pleasure for aGLIFF to introduce to you their exciting LGBTQIA lineup!

Film stills from Robert’s Paintings by Shelley Niro

The full Cine Las Americas Film Festival schedule of programming can be found here. Shows start tonight, Tuesday, April 24, and run through Sunday, April 29, so don’t miss the exhibition and promotion of Latin and indigenous filmmaking here in Austin, TX. Cine Las Americas designs and implements bilingual media arts education programs for minority youth in Austin. Many thanks to Cine Las Americas for all you do for the community and for your continued support as a participating aGLIFF Community Partner

Contributed by Matt Labonville, aGLIFF Contributing Writer