The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival is celebrating 22 years as the oldest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Intersex film festival in the southwest.
"This year we received about 400 films in the mail that we had to go through and determine what we were actually going to show," Program Director Jake Gonzales said. "We accepted only 100, so it's very interesting to see what themes come up every year, for example this year we've got a lot of lesbian-themed interest films, whereas normally we only get about 25 percent, this year was closer to 50."
Sharon Gless from "Cagney & Lacey" and Michael's mother in "Queer as Folk" is scheduled to attend to premiere her new film "Hannah Free".
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aGLIFF
News 8’s Paul Brown sat down with one of the organizers.
 
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aGLIFF also took some area youth under their wing and taught them to be filmmakers
"Over eight weeks this summer, we taught them the entire filmmaking process, from preproduction through marketing and distribution," Gonzales said. "They got a better education in eight weeks than I did in four years of film school."
The young people's works will premiere at the festival.
The two films, "La Vida Bella" and "That's So Gay", will play during the Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Saturday, Sept. 12 starting about 7:15 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar.
"La Vida Bella follows the life story of a 17-year-old biracial gay youth and his whole issue is trying to deal with the pressures of his family, his friends, and then the pressures of the LGBT community elders that are telling him how easy his life must be, now that he's been able to come out a lot earlier," Gonzales said. "It kind of delves into the fact that it's not easier, it's just different."
"That's So Gay" is a documentary about the use of language and anti-gay bullying in Texas public schools, which includes an interview with State Rep. Garnet Coleman.
The festival takes place Sept. 8-13 at the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse. A special screening, or world premiere, as it has been dubbed, will take place Saturday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. For more information, check out aGLIFF.org.
