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Health & Fitness

Philadelphia QFEST 2012: Celebrating the Best of LGBTQ Cinema

A glimpse at Philly's annual festival showcasing the best of GLBTQ cinema

Philadelphia's QFest, an eleven-day festival featuring the very best of LGTBQ cinema, is annually one of the highlights of the summer.

Now in its eighteenth season, QFest kicks off Thursday, July 12. More than fifty feature films in addition to nearly three-dozen short films will be screened this year. Selections will explore topics such as marriage equality, religion and spirituality, and the transgendered community.

A number of films are already generating plenty of pre-festival buzz:

BearCity 2: The Proposal, a comedy that explores the subject of marriage equality amidst a sea of hirsute men in Provincetown.

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I’m really looking forward to this one as I was in Provincetown last summer when it was filmed. The movie features Kathy Nijimy of Hocus Pocus and Sister Act fame and is drag queen Varla Jean Merman, who claims to be the daughter of Ethel Merman and the recently deceased Ernest Borgnine.

Sassy Pants features Haley Joel Osment, who garnered fame in the hit 1990s film The Sixth Sense. The film focuses on a teenage girl who seeks respite from her mother by running away to her gay father’s trailer.

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Au Pair, Kansas centers on a widow (portrayed by one-time porn star Traci Lords) who hires a Norwegian athlete to help her raise her young sons.

Nate and Margaret, a delightful film about the unlikely friendship between a 19-year-old aspiring filmmaker and his neighbor, a 52-year-old waitress with dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian.

The film features Natalie West, who played Roseanne Conner’s best friend Crystal on Roseanne. I reviewed this flick for EDGE Publications earlier this year. It is most definitely a must-see!

The Wise Kids stars Tyler Ross, who also appears in Nate and Margaret. It’s a coming-of-age story that grapples with faith and spirituality.

Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Flicker headline Cloudburst, a story about two lesbians who embark on a road trip to get hitched and along the way pick up a sexy, virile hitchhiker.

Beauty examines a married man on the down-low who develops a disturbing obsession with his friend’s young son.

Finally, there is Positive Youth, a documentary that examines youths who are living with HIV.

QFest runs from July 12 to 23. In addition to films, it offers a number of after-parties; question-and-answer sessions with actors, screenwriters, producers, and directors; awards; and a sing-along. Check out the complete schedule and purchase tickets at the festival site.

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