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aGLIFF Announces the Opening Night and First 5 Films for Prism 36

Entertainment

The 36th Annual LGBTQ+ Film Festival Will Take Place August 23–27, 2023

Austin’s oldest film festival and premiere LGBTQ+ film fest of the Southwest, aGLIFF announces the Opening Night and five additional films for the 36th annual festival PRISM 36 taking place in-person August 23–27, 2023 in Austin, TX. The annual event will celebrate in-person throughout the vibrant city of Austin with screenings, events, Q&As and more. More information on the festival can be found at agliff.org/prism. 

Kicking off the festival and offering something for everyone is Glitter & Doom, a jukebox musical featuring the iconic music of the Grammy®-Award winning Indigo Girls. This fantastical romance follows a musician who uses charisma as his guise and a happy-go-lucky kid about to run away to the circus, when they fall in love at first sight in this musical delight starring Alex Diaz, Alan Cammish, Missy Pyle, Ming-Na Wen, Tig Notaro, Peppermint, and Beth Malone with cameo roles from icons Lea DeLaria and Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray and Emily Saliers.

“I’m excited to kick off PRISM 36 with Glitter & Doom, a bold, queer vision full of music, dance and imagery, capturing all the possibilities of film,” said Artistic Director Bears Rebecca Fonté, “Like most musicals, the songs are the language of love, and great love demands great songs. The Indigo Girls have given us so many great songs over the years, but now director Tom Gustafson has reimagined them with all the pizazz of Moulin Rouge to turn even beloved classics into something unexpected.”

Named the 2022 Nonprofit of the Year by the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, aGLIFF cultivates the Texas LGBTQ+ community by enlightening, educating, and entertaining moviegoers through programs that enrich LGBTQ+ and ally communities while developing LGBTQ+ awareness. The nonprofit organization’s programs include Community Partnership Programs, “Queer Spectrum” Monthly Screening Series, and the Queer Black Voices Fund, all of which culminate around its annual film festival, PRISM.

“Our theme this year is ‘Find Your Friends at aGLIFF’s PRISM 36.’ We felt like going back to our roots as a gathering space for Austin LGBTQ+ individuals is more important than ever,” said aGLIFF Board President Todd Hogan. “While we’ve made significant progress politically over the past 36 years, recent legislative attacks on our transgender family and drag community threaten everyone’s right to live and love freely as humans. We believe in the universal language of film, which helps people discover shared humanity. As we continue to confront institutional bias, we are more driven than ever to educate both within and outside our LGBTQ+ community through powerful stories captured on film. We believe there is power in coming together to share our stories and celebrate our diversity. aGLIFF’s PRISM Film Festival can do that and we invite everyone to join us to catch up with old friends and meet some new friends in the process.”

For PRISM 36, aGLIFF will additionally offer a virtual component August 28 – September 4, 2023, after the in-person festival has concluded. The PRISM 36 virtual festival will not be a full line up but will include select titles playing in-person.

More information about the PRISM 36 festival will be announced over the coming weeks.

OPENING NIGHT

Glitter & Doom | US | 2023 | 115 minutes | English | Southwest Premiere

Director: Tom Gustafson |Writer: Cory Krueckberg |Cast: Alex Diaz, Alan Cammish, Ming-Na Wen, Missi Pyle, Tig Notaro, Peppermint, Beth Malone, Kate Pierson

Set to the tunes of queer icons the Indigo Girls (who make cameos as well), this whirlwind musical tale between a dour young emo singer-songwriter (Cammish) and the impulsive circus dreamer Glitter (Diaz) explodes from the streets of Mexico City like a big sparkly, rainbow firework. With both boys struggling to make it to stardom despite their meddling mothers and the distractions of a surreal Baz Luhrmann-like cityscape, there’s no need to ‘Get Out the Map’ to romance, at aGLIFF’s opening night, ‘Love Will Come to You.’

FIRST FIVE

1946: A Mistranslation that Changed Culture | US | 2022 | 92 minutes | English | Southwest Premiere

Director: Sharon “Rocky” Roggio |Screenwriters: Jena Serbu, Jill Woodword |Featuring: Cheryl Anderson, Kathy Baldock, Steve Greenberg

A conservative Christian woman who cannot reconcile the church’s teachings and her new lesbian friend who doesn’t seem at all like a filthy evil sinner, searches for reasons behind the homophobia in the modern church. Deep in the archives of the translation team of the Revised Standard Edition of the bible, she finds her answer, and even more mystery.

Chasing Chasing Amy | US | 2023 | 95 minutes | English | Southwest Premiere

Director and Writer: Sav Rodgers |Featuring: Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, Guinevere Turner, Andrew Ahn

Trans filmmaker Sav Rodgers delves into the film that first introduced him to the LGBTQ world – Chasing Amy – despite its problematic place in the queer cannon and its very cis-het creator, Comic Book Bro Kevin Smith. Making a pilgrimage to the locations of the 1997 film with his girlfriend, Rodgers searches to understand and express why this film has meant so much to him on his journey.

Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn | US | 2023 | 94 minutes | English | Southwest Premiere

Director: Timothy Harris |Executive Producer: Al Roker |Featuring: Malcolm Kenyatta, Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta

The most important senate race in 2022, Pennsylvania, began with a primary that cut ‘straight’ to the core of what it means to be electable in America. Malcolm Kenyatta, a self-described “poor, Black, and gay kid from North Philly,” runs into the wall of two hundred plus years of Pennsylvanian history of only sending white (and straight) men to the US Senate.

Lie With Me | France | 2022 | 98 minutes | French | Southwest Premiere

Director: Oliver Peyon |Writers: Philippe Besson, Arthur Cahn, Olivier Peyon | Cast: Guillaume de Tonquédec, Victor Belmondo, Guilaine Londez

Based on the novel by Philippe Besson, this coming-of-age drama whisks a queer author back to the memories of his first love when he returns for the first time to picturesque Cognac, France, the setting of all his books.

Two Lives in Pittsburgh | US | 2022 | 91 minutes | English | Southwest Premiere

Director and Writer: Brian Silverman | Cast: Annie O’Donnell, Sky Elobar, Brian Silverman

Confronted by his child’s exploration of gender, an old-school blue-collar guy stumbles between who he has always been and who his child needs him to be. An uplifting film about imperfect people in an imperfect world.

TICKETS: aGLIFF encourages fans to consider membership to get the best access and support aGLIFF’s year-round programming. Members and badge holders have priority access to reserving tickets for individual films and events upon purchase.

PRISM 36: Early bird festival badges are available through July 23 for $95; regular price badges available at $125 beginning July 24. Memberships get the best access, support aGLIFF’s year-round programming, and include festival badges and an array of other perks depending on the level. Memberships are available now; Festival badges are on sale now at agliff.org/badges. A limited number of single tickets for the opening night film are available now for $25 and include the opening night screening, live Q&A, the opening night reception with lights bites and a complimentary drink ticket. All other single tickets will start at $15, plus applicable service fees and will be on sale one week before the festival based on availability.

aGLIFF MEMBERSHIP: Memberships start for as low as $25 a month and are available for purchase now. Memberships can be paid upfront or in monthly installments. Memberships include festival badges and an array of other perks depending on the level and range in price from $300 to $2500 and above. Memberships are available now at agliff.org/members.

PRESS:  For press needs including access to events, interviews, reviews, or film screeners please contact nicole.shiro@motleycrewmedia.com

SPONSORS: aGLIFF is made possible by the generous support of our annual partners Tito’s Handmade Vodka, KIND Clinic, Crunch Consulting, and EDGE Media Network with additional support from the Texas Commission on the Arts, Midtown Title, Estes Audiology, AFS Cinema, Galaxy Theatre Austin, and The Fowler Family.

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About aGLIFF:
Founded in 1987 aGLIFF is Austin’s oldest film festival and became a 501(c)3 in 1995. The festival began as a four-day event with just four films primarily focused on coming out and the AIDS epidemic. It has grown into a multifaceted nonprofit organization with year-round community programs and events culminating each year in the annual film festival. Originally named the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (1987) the organization changed its name in 2018 to All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival to reflect the changing landscape of how queer people identify, and as of 2020 now goes by simply aGLIFF. In 2019, the Board of Directors selected PRISM as the festival theme to highlight the way the festival can refract a single beam of art into multiple viewpoints, showcasing all the voices in the spectrum of our LGBTQIA+ community through film.

The organization’s mission is to create positive and visible film programs relevant to the lives of LGBTQIA+ identified people, to educate the community about LGBTQIA+ issues, to produce and promote the best in LGBTQIA+ community building events, and to support and partner with other organizations to enlighten the public.