Welcome to the Movies!
Reel Pride, Michigan’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender film festival, returns to the Royal Oak Main Art Theatre for its fifth edition with some fabulous films but it also is a great opportunity to see GLBT movies the way they’re supposed to be seen… big, beautiful and in the dark.
Today we can see many films just about anytime we want, on demand, sent to our homes through the mail, downloaded… we can view them on our televisions HDTVs, our tiny little iPods, our phones… we can burn ‘em. But nothing beats the experience of the big screen and the magic of the experience of sitting in the theater with your partner or your friends for that communal sense of what going to the movies is all about.
Not to mention seeing a potent line-up of GLBT features, documentaries and shorts with other GLBT people; with an audience that gets the message, gets the point and gets the jokes.
That’s what Reel Pride offers… the community feeling of seeing something of ourselves and our lives projected big-time.
Gay-related film isn’t new by any means. GLBT people portrayed at the movies has been going on for about as long as films have been made. Or at least GLBT subtexts. Ramon Novarro, the quintessential male heartthrob of the silent era, was both stunning to watch and brought homoerotic electricity to every role. Novarro was also a “known homosexual,” to use the parlance of the time. And we recall The Children’s Hour (1961) and the obvious lesbian story it told.
In the last twenty years, explicitly GLBT movies have become a staple of the film industry’s annual output.
But today’s films, many of the best of which we’re screening for you at Reel Pride are current, relevant and have a social, sometimes political importance. They deserve to be seen the way the maker made them. Big Screen. Big Theater.
One of the greatest lines in a great film, Sunset Boulevard, is Norma Desmond’s (Gloria Swanson) lament: “I am big. It's the pictures that got small.” If she only knew just how small the screens would become.
Celebrate GLBT film... Celebrate a community coming together. Celebrate the magic of films that are seen they were meant to be seen.
Welcome to Reel Pride!
Jeffrey Montgomery
Executive Director, Triangle Foundation
We make it happen!
Kevin McAlpine, Festival Director
Fred Huebener, Program Director
Katie Shannon, Film Festival Intern
Sean Rhaesa, Film Guide Coordinator
Greg Varnum, Youth Initiatives Coordinator
Bobby Proffer, Youth Afterparty Coordinator
Ron Coates, Box Office Manager
Jerry Sima, Volunteer Coordinator
Jennifer Jeannero, Festival Photographer
Your Reel Pride Michigan Host Committee:
Rosemary Blase
John Carter
John Corvino
Chene Koppitz
Lesley Lambright
Paul McCullough
Bobby Proffer
Sean Rhaesa
Delia Roland
Roland Smith
Contact Information:
Reel Pride Michigan
Kevin McAlpine, Events Coordinator
c/o Triangle Foundation
19641 West Seven Mile Road
Detroit, Michigan 48219-2721
313-537-7000 x103
kevin@tri.org
|
