Diversity in Film
Presenting the 2016 Long Beach QFilm Festival
The Long Beach QFilm Festival returns to the historic Art Theatre September 8-11, 2016. The Long Beach event is the longest running film festival since 1993. The QFilm Festival presents a slate of films that reflect the diversity and experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities.
PalacioMagazine.com spoke with Porter Gilberg, the QFilm Festival’s Co-Executive Producer and Executive Director of The Center.
The 2016 QFilm Festival
According to organizers, more than 1,500 people attend The QFilm Festival each year for a mix of West Coast, Southern California and local premieres. The festival also showcases acclaimed features on the film festival circuit.
Festival co-producer Porter Gilberg notes that audiences will have an opportunity to hear from filmmakers and cast members for discussions after each screening.
Opening Night at QFilm Festival
The QFilm Festival will open on Thursday, September 8 with the Long Beach premiere of “Jewel’s Catch One.” The documentary is about the queer black woman who established Los Angeles’s landmark nightclub “for gays, lesbians, bis, tris, and otherwise.”
Jewel’s Catch One
Rob Williams’s “Shared Rooms” will follow with its Los Angeles premiere. The film is described as “a sexy and moving story focused on several different gay men whose path inadvertently cross between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.”
Shared Rooms
Killers and Closing Night at QFilm Festival
The rest of the week’s schedule includes two acclaimed “killer” features that will have their local premieres on Friday night, September 9. “Women Who Kill” and “Kiss Me, Kill Me.” Women.. is a “dark comedy of manners involving two ex-girlfriends who have become true-crime podcasters.” Kiss Me…is “about a man who is accused of murdering his unfaithful boyfriend.”
The Festival closing night presentation on September 11 will be “First Girl I Loved.” The film is a Sundance Film Festival award winner. The story revolves around a love triangle between two high school girls and a jealous male best friend.
Sharing the closing night honors is “Paris 05:59: Theo and Hugo.” The QFilm about two men who meet in an underground sex club is a winner of the prestigious “Teddy” Audience Award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
QFilm Festival Information
For more information on The 2016 QFilm Festival and to purchase tickets, visit www.qfilmslongbeach.com.
About The Center of Long Beach
The LGBTQ Center of Long Beach
All net proceeds from the festival will benefit The LGBTQ Center of Long Beach and its community outreach programs.
The Center is located at 2017 E. Fourth Street in Long Beach. The Center provides a variety of health, social, advocacy, legal, and service programs to the LGBTQ community in Long Beach. They serve approximately 25,000 clients annually. For more information on The Center, visit www.centerlb.org.