OUTSIDE THE FRAME

ALTERNATIVE QUEER FILM FEST WILL SPOTLIGHT SOCIAL JUSTICE FILMS

Press contact: Kate Raphael, 510.381.1287, katrap40@gmail.com

May 18, 2015, San Francisco–Progressive queer films will be highlighted at Outside the Frame: Queers For Palestine Film Festival, a radical alternative to the popular SF International LGBT film festival, known as Frameline.  Outside the Frame will present cutting edge films and live presentations that place queer liberation in the context of broader international movements for justice.  Outside the Frame brings together filmmakers and performers opposed to Israeli policies in Palestine and in protest of the pinkwashing of the SFLGBT film festival through the Israeli Consulate’s cash donations.

Kicking off the festival Friday night will be CRIMINAL QUEERS (Chris E. Vargas and Eric A. Stanley, 2012), a political farce featuring Angela Davis that imagines a prison break with a queer twist.

Saturday afternoon’s program will include films exposing the brutality and lawlessness of the Israeli occupation, and Israel’s public relations campaign to brand itself as a gay Mecca in the mid-east.  PINKWASHING EXPOSED (Dean Spade, 2015) follows a group of activists in Seattle as they confront their pro-Israel counterparts during the propaganda-fueled “Rainbow Generations tour.”

Also in focus Saturday will be transgender films. StormMiguel Florez and Annalise Ophelian will be on hand to preview and discuss an excerpt from his forthcoming documentary, MAJOR, a biopic about Miss Major, a formerly incarcerated Black transgender elder and activist.  A veteran of the Stonewall Rebellion and a survivor of Attica State Prison, Miss Major thrived as a transgender community leader and human rights activist. REINAS DE LOS ANGELES (Byron Jose, 2014) presents the oral histories of transgender immigrant women and drag queen performers who bring to life the stages of Latino gay bars in Los Angeles.

THE PASSIONATE PURSUITS OF ANGELA BOWEN screens Saturday night.  The feature film by Jennifer Abod is a lively biography of noted dancer, professor and black lesbian feminist activist Angela Bowen. The film traces Bowen’s unusual life from her inner-city childhood to the most prestigious universities and ballet stages in the U.S.

The festival wraps up Sunday with Patty Berne’s Sins Invalid, a celebration and exploration of sexuality and disability, followed by SIN VISA, directed by Bassam Kassab and produced by San Jose-based Zarco Films.  Sin Visa begins with a group of undocumented immigrants crossing the border, led by a “coyote.” Their journey is arduous, but Marco makes it to San Jose, where he works in restaurants and sends money home. With the help of his gay, Arab college counselor, he perseveres despite being undocumented. Shorts including “THE PATH TO COMING OUT: INTERVIEWS WITH QUEER LEBANESE”, and “ENTER THE PINK VOID,” will also screen.

Outside the Frame Film Festival grew out of community protests against the LGBT Film Fest produced by Frameline and partially sponsored by the Israeli Consulate in recent years.  Outside The Frame grew out of organizing against Frameline’s ”pinkwashing”– helping Israel market itself as a bastion of freedom for queers while denying basic human rights to Palestinians.  The alternative festival is organized by QUIT!, Gay Shame and Mithyleen: Bay Area Arab Queers for BDS, along with a range of social justice groups including Jewish Voice for Peace, SWANABAQ (SouthWest Asian and North African Bay Area Queers), the Arab Film Festival, Queer Women Of Color Media Arts Project, Art Forces, Aswat-Palestinian Gay Women and the Arab Resource & Organizing Center.

Frameline announced last week that since they did not select any Israeli feature films for screening this year, the 2015 festival will not have financial support from the Israeli consulate.

“We are glad that Frameline will not be pinkwashing Israeli apartheid this year and we believe that pressure from the community is having an impact,” said a spokesperson for Outside The Frame.  “However, Frameline has not changed its policy on working with the Israeli government or agreed to support the Palestinian’s people call for an Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel.  We will continue to pressure them to stand up for justice.”

More information: https://outsidetheframefest.org/

EVENT DETAILS:

Who: Queers for Palestine (quitpalestine.org)

What: Outside the Frame: Queers For Palestine Film Festival

When: Friday-Sunday June 19-21
Friday June 19, 7-9 pm
Saturday June 20, 1:30-3:00 pm, 3:30-5:30 pm,8:00 -10 pm
Sunday, June 21, 1:00-3:00 pm, 3:30-5:30 pm

Where: Brava Theater, 2781 24th Street San Francisco, CA.

Cost:  Free