FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OUTFEST AND THE PROGRAM FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN AND GENDER (SMITH COLLEGE) LAUNCH INAUGURAL OUTFEST ON THE ROAD FILM FESTIVAL
AUGUST 26, 2016 (NORTHAMPTON, MA) SMITH COLLEGE
Smith College Program for the Study of Women and Gender and Outfest announce the launch of Outfest on the Road Film Festival. The festival runs from September 16-18 at the Academy of Music and Smith College in Northampton. The festival brings Outfest’s award-winning documentaries, feature-length films, and short film programs to Northampton for a weekend. Outfest on the Road, at Smith College, is the first festival to bring Outfest film programming to a collegiate community.
This year’s festival will offer attendees the unique opportunity to enjoy cutting-edge films that screened at the 2016 Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival and Outfest Fusion LGBT People of Color Film Festival, alongside queer film classics from the Outfest archive.
At this year’s festival, experience a beautiful film about queer love and disability, view two fresh and exciting short film programs, screen an award-winning documentary film about trans icon Miss Major, join in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of The Watermelon Woman with a viewing of the digitally remastered film, and attend a one-of-a-kind discussion with masterful independent filmmakers.
“In this moment when the vulnerability of the lives of our queer youth, queer communities, queer people of color is felt in every waking hour, it is of the utmost importance to take the time and make the space to relish in our love and beauty. Outfest on the Road does that – this is one way, over one weekend to come together as a community to enjoy queer film and queer life,” said Jennifer DeClue Festival Organizer and Assistant Professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender, Smith College
Outfest on the Road is made possible by the generous support of the Kixie Denison Fieldman ’53 endowment. This support enables The Program for the Study of Women and Gender to bring cultural programs that focus on gender and sexuality to Smith College.
During this inaugural festival, Outfest on the Road will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking feature film The Watermelon Woman (1996). The Watermelon Woman is the centerpiece screening of the festival and will be followed by a Q&A with Cheryl Dunye (director and lead actor), Alex Juhasz (producer), Guinevere Turner (co-star). The festival will open with a screening of Margarita with a Straw, which will be followed by a Q&A with Shonali Bose (director), and Nilesh Maniyar (producer).
Festivalgoers will have the great privilege of screening two short film programs that were programmed at Outfest Los Angeles and Outfest Fusion this year as well as Major!, the documentary film about legendary Trans activist Miss Major, directed by Annalise Ophelian, which won the U.S. Documentary Audience Award this year at Outfest Los Angeles. The filmmakers of The Watermelon Woman and Margarita with a Straw will join together for a panel discussion on filmmaking Saturday afternoon.
The Full Schedule:
Friday, September 16
Opening Film: Margarita with a Straw
(Q&A with director Shonali Bose & producer Nilesh Maniyar)
7:00 pm – 10:00 pm, Academy of Music
Saturday, September 17
Outfest Documentary Shorts Program
11:00 am, Academy of Music
Outfest Shorts Program
1:00 pm, Academy of Music
Filmmaker Panel with Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Alex Juhasz, (The Watermelon Woman); Shonali Bose, Nilesh Maniyar (Margarita with a Straw)
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm, Smith College, Wright Hall Weinstein Auditorium
Centerpiece Screening: The Watermelon Woman
(Q&A with Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner & Alex Juhasz)
7:30 pm – 10:00 pm, Academy of Music
Sunday, September 18
Closing Film: MAJOR!
2016 Outfest US Documentary Audience Award Winner
11:00am, Academy of Music
All Weekend, September 16-18, 2016
Student Pop-Up Art Space
Smith College, Campus Center 105, Nolan Art Lounge
Hours: Fri. 4pm – 2am; Sat. 9am – 2am; Sun. 9am – 4pm
All events are free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.
Synopsis of Films
Margarita with a Straw (Dir.) Shonali Bose, 140 mins.
A rebellious young woman with cerebral palsy leaves her home in India to study in New York, unexpectedly falls in love, and embarks on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery.
Outfest Shorts, 99 mins.
This short film program is one of the signature short film programs of Outfest Los Angeles known as Girls Shorts. This slate of films offer cinematic glimpses into lives and loves of queer women. Being hip and queer in L.A. is hard enough – try looking for love or a baby! This year’s girls’ shorts are whip-sharp and poignant, finding humor in lez divorce; insemination via a partner’s brother; and the reality that, in L.A., juice can replace sex. Girls’ shorts embody a fresh spirit, birthed from the L.A. filmmaker base you know and love.
BRIX AND THE BITCH Dir: Nico Raineau, 10min. PARTNERS Dir: Joey Ally, 6min. JO COOL Dir: Natalia Leite, 12min. SPUNKLE Dir: Lisa Donato, 13min. WEDLOCKED Dir: Puppett, 12min. VIRGIN TERRITORY Dir: Emily Robinson, 15min. ANGELINO HEIGHTS Dir: Molly Manning, 19min. VAMONOS Dir: Marvin Lemus, 12min.
Outfest Documentary Shorts 78 mins.
The short documentaries included in this program bring together films that screened at this year’s Outfest Fusion LGBT People of Color Film Festival as well as Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival. These seven short documentaries showcase bold new voices of queer cinema in their exploration of the lives of queer people of color who find a way to balance creative passion and family while embracing their personal truths.
MADE OF SUGAR DIR: Kevin Rios, 6min. NEW QUEER SOUTH: INSTABABY Dir: Rosie Haber (Smith alum), 7min. GONNA SIP THAT SIP, HIT THAT DIP: THE EMERGING QUEER HIP-HOP MOVEMENT Dir: Willyum Beck & Chasson Gracie, 13min. GAYSIANS Dir: Vicky Du, 13 min. BROCKINGTON Dir: Sergio Ingato, Maggie Sloan, & Mason Sklut, 8min. POSHIDA: HIDDEN LGBT PAKISTON, 30 min. LIBERTAD Dir: Brenda Avila-Hanna, 9min.
The Watermelon Woman (Dir.) Cheryl Dunye, 90 mins.
Set in Philadelphia, The Watermelon Woman, is the story of Cheryl (Cheryl Dunye), a twenty-something black lesbian struggling to make a documentary about Fae Richards, a beautiful and elusive 1930’s black film actress popularly known as “The Watermelon Woman.” While uncovering the meaning of Fae Richards’ life, Cheryl experiences a total upheaval in her personal life. Her love affair with Diana (Guinever Turner, Go Fish) a beautiful white woman, and her interactions with the gay and black communities are subject to the comic yet biting criticism of her best friend Tamara (Valerie Walker). Meanwhile, each answer Cheryl discovers about the Watermelon Woman evokes a flurry of new questions about herself and her future. At the films conclusion, the Watermelon Woman is clearly a metaphor for Cheryl’s search for identity, community, and love.
MAJOR! (Dir.) Annalise Ophelian, 91mins.
MAJOR! explores the life and campaigns of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a veteran of the Stonewall Rebellion and a survivor of Attica State Prison. More than just a biographical documentary, MAJOR! is an investigation into critical issues of how the Prison Industrial Complex represents a wide-spread and systematic civil rights violation. Told with love and humor, Miss Major’s activism for transgender civil rights intersects LGBT struggles for justice and equality from the 1960s to today.
Festival Contact Information
Jennifer DeClue, Assistant Professor
Program for the Study of Women and Gender
Smith College
jdeclue@smith.edu
Website: http://sites.smith.edu/outfestontheroad
Facebook: www.facebook.com/outfestontheroad
Twitter: #outfestontheroad
Outfest
Founded by UCLA students in 1982, Outfest is the leading organization that promotes equality by creating, sharing and protecting LGBT stories on the screen. Outfest builds community by connecting diverse populations to discover, discuss and celebrate stories of LGBT lives. Over the past three plus decades, Outfest has showcased thousands of films from around the world to audiences of nearly a million, educated and mentored hundreds of emerging filmmakers and protected more than 36,000 LGBT films and videos.
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