KwikTix

9pm | Directed by Ron Oliver | USA | 2007 | 98 minutes | English

Starring: Chad Allen and Sebastian Spence

This new installment in the popular and critically-acclaimed Donald Strachey Mystery series finds Canada’s favorite gay private investigator, Donald Strachey (Allen), taking on the most complicated case of his career. After his long-time partner, Tim (Spence), asks him to uncover the source of an anonymous and generous donation to the Albany youth center, he gets caught in a whirlwind of deceit and danger. When the lawyer who presented the donation turns up dead, the hard-boiled Strachey must race against the clock to capture the killer before he strikes again.

Reel Pride is please to welcome Out TV as Platinum Sponsor of the Festival and supporter of the Donald Strachey film screenings.

Director Ron Oliver is planning to be in attendance at the Donald Strachey screenings. Please check reelpride.org to confirm details.

Directed by Casper Andreas, Fred M. Caruso | USA | 2009 | 90 min | English

Starring: Daniel Robinson and Joey Dudding

Paul and Eddie have just begun previews for the new Off-Broadway musical Adam and Steve Just the Way God Made ‘Em. Their lives strangely mirror the characters they are playing. Paul is looking for the perfect man and Eddie is dealing with how his sexuality and faith can mix. After yet another disastrous dating experience, Paul has an epiphany – he is done dating and just wants to be a slut like the sexy chorus boys that share his dressing room. Eddie has to tell his parents that he’s gay and is starring in a show that calls the Bible the “Breeder’s Informational Book of Living Examples.” After musical numbers with scantly clad tap dancing angels, a retelling of Genesis, tele-evangelists, a camp that attempts to turn gay kids straight, and a bunch of show tunes, everyone realizes that life gets better once they accept who they really are. And they are just the way God made ‘em.

SPONSORED BY: CRUISELINE

Directed by Heather Tobin | Canada | 2008 | 112 min | English

Starring: Hannah Hogan, Travey Rae and Shaughnessy Redden Jess (Hogan) is a suburban twenty-something in a bind.

She’s married to Trevor (Redden), and falling in love with Casey (Rae), a woman with whom she’s begun a torrid affair. Jess’s nice-guy husband wants to start a family, while Casey wants Jess to come out of the closet and move in with her. Jess’s childhood was filled with threats from her mother about the evils of lesbianism. She’s obsessed with the idea of having a “normal” family, and terrified of facing her deep-rooted desires. Living in Barrie, Ontario, a conservative town which seems to have more than its share of homophobes, reinforces Jess’s fears, despite the open-armed welcome she receives from the queer community. Jess is damned if she does, and damned if she doesn’t. Juicy lesbian drama reigns in this coming out story with a twist. Emerging filmmaker Heather Tobin’s debut feature, sometimes raw and always compelling, brims with the angst of first love while tackling a concept that many know all too well — that the path of true love never follows a straight line.

A Day at the Beach

Directed by Veronique Courtois | USA | 2008 | 3 min | English

Cartoons have fun and get lucky in love at the beach.

Directed by Robert Cary | USA | 2007 | 93 minutes

Directed by Alison Reid | Canada | 2008 | 82 min | English

Starring: Angela Vint, Megan Fahlenbock and Rosemary Dunsmore

Athena (Vint) and Lilith (Fahlenbock) are two women in love. As with most couples, they dream of having a child that is a true biological combination of them both. Although Mother Nature doesn’t work that way, modern science has found a way to make one plus one equal two. With the help of Jim, a trusted lab technician, they use sperm made from Lilith’s stem cells to inseminate Athena. And it works! Athena is pregnant with Lilith’s child. Lilith is happy to be an expectant mother, but secretly wishes she was the pregnant one. She goes behind Athena’s back and convinces Jim from the lab to help her with the same process. That causes some friction, but the couple works it out, and everything is running smoothly, until their families get involved.

Falling for Caroline

Directed by Christine Chew | Canada | 2009 | 20 min | English

To win the girl of her dreams, a klutzy young woman must overcome her shyness, an over analytical mind and a wardrobe malfunction.

Directed by Ron Oliver | USA | 2008 | 85 min | English

Starring: Chad Allen, Sebastian Spence, Margot Kidder, and Gabrielle Rose

Another mystery lands at the doorstep of Canada’s favorite gay private investigator Donald Strachey. He’s called in to help when an elderly lesbian couple (Kidder & Rose) refuses to sell their home to a powerful developer and their house is covered in homophobic vandalism. But is this apparent hate crime motivated by genuine disdain for gay culture or simple corporate greed? All the homeowners in the neighborhood have agreed to sell except for the committed lesbian couple who have no interest in the money nor any intentions of moving. Strachey (Allen) suspects that the attack is simply a way of convincing the couple to bend to big business.

As he delves further into the case he comes to terms with his feelings for an old boyfriend. Inspired by the strength of the lesbian couple he is working for, Strachey finally learns how to love again.

James

Directed by Connor Clements | UK | 2008 | 17 min | English

This politically charged Sundance film tells the story of James, a young boy who becomes the victim of a law made to protect him. The law states that teachers are to refer students to help lines and counselor when they are approach on the topic of homosexuality, or they risk loosing their jobs.

Directed by Wendy Jo Carlton | USA | 2009 |86 min | English

Starring: Sharon Gless, Maureen Gallagher, Kelli Strickland, Ann Hagemann, Jacqui Jackson

Sharon Gless (best known for Queer as Folk and Cagney & Lacey) stars in this timeless story of two women in love, but unable to openly be a couple. Based on a stage play, Hannah Free explores their lives together in flashbacks and present time. As Rachel (Gallagher) lays dying, Hannah (Gless) battles to make the short journey between her room at the nursing home and Rachel’s, but there are many obstacles to overcome along the way. Hannah has always been a wandering free spirit, but she stays tethered to Rachel. Their love endures through childhood, war, marriage, infidelities, children, and old age, but will something stop them now? Touching and haunting, this love story told through the ages is both sad and encouraging, a must-see for anyone who has loved and lost – or still has hope for

the future.

Best Feature Film 2009

Audience Award – Philadelphia AQ-Fest

SPONSORED BY: Uwsa LGbT* cenTRe

Remember the Eyes

Directed by Nathalie Camidebach | USA | 2008 | 15 min | English

Their eyes meet one evening across the park, Kindra watches Camille as she works out, but there is another challenge to this budding relationship than meets the eye…. or is there?

Directed by Rob Williams | USA | 2009 | 89 min | English

Starring: Keith Jordan, Adamo Ruggiero, Kelly Keaton, Derek Long and Hallee Hirsh

Make the Yuletide Gay is one Christmas present worth opening early! Nathan Stanford (Ruggiero from Degrassi: The Next Generation) and Olaf `Gunn´ Gunnunderson (Jordan) are out-and-proud college boyfriends whose campus life consists of flirting with their professors, dishing with their friends and making out in their dorm room. As classes break for the Christmas holidays, the boys head in separate directions to spend the holidays with their families. But when Nathan´s parents abandon their son for a holiday in the Holy Land, Nathan decides to surprise his boyfriend and he shows up on the Gunnunderson´s Wisconsin doorstep. Gunn´s Fargo-esque mom and dad are polar opposites of Nathan´s cold and distant parents. Gunn´s parents welcome his “friend” with open arms and plates laden with cookies. It quickly becomes apparent to Nathan, however, that there is one major problem with this Christmas card-perfect picture — Gunn has never come out to his family. As Nathan urges his boyfriend to break open the closet door, Gunn’s mother busily tries to reunite him with his high school sweetheart. Gunn is left in the middle, terrified of losing his family if he reveals his secret and afraid of losing Nathan if he doesn’t.

SPONSORED BY: Rainbow Pride Mosaic

The Island

Directed by Trevor Anderson | Canada | 2006 | 6 min | English

How would you imagine an island of gays? Walking through the snowy plains of Canada, Trevor Anderson tells us his version of this fantasy.

Stubblejumpers

Directed by David Geiss | Canada | 2008 | 48 min | English

In the fall of 1975, at the University of Saskatchewan, Doug Wilson placed an ad in the students’ newspaper, seeking to start a campus gay group. This seemingly benign action would serve as the catalyst for a dramatic unfolding of events, shaping the future of Wilson’s life, and also marked a turning point in the gay movement on the prairies and all over Canada. This imaginative biographical docudrama is a true tale of his activism and achievements, his poetry, performance, and politics, his love and his life.

General Idea: Art, Aids and The Fin De Siécle

Directed by: Annette Mangaard | Canada | 2008 | 48 min | English

GENERAL IDEA achieves celebrity status in Europe in the 1970s. Treated like rock stars, they exhibit in major museums in Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris and are invited to make video-art for Dutch television.

The 1980s bring the first labeled cases of AIDS. GENERAL IDEA responds by making art that addresses the plague virus. In an unforgettable coup, it appropriates the well-known “LOVE” painting by Robert Indiana and replaces those four letters with AIDS, for the now world-famous logo. GENERAL IDEA continues to tour Europe and North America with massive political installation pieces that chronicle the devastating spread of the disease and its impact on their community, including an early end to the lives of two members of GENERAL IDEA.

AA Bronson, the sole survivor of GENERAL IDEA, narrates this documentary lending personal relevancy to a poignant story of art and sexual politics. GENERAL IDEA: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle is a tale of love, fame, overwhelming loss and, ultimately, of renewal.

Boystown (Chuecatown)

Directed by Nacho G. Velilla | USA | 2009 | 89 min | Spanish (English subtitles)

Starring: Javier Cámara and Lola Dueñas

Chef Maxi (Camára) has plenty on his plate. Between running a high-end restaurant, keeping it in the black and corralling his unpredictable staff, who could begrudge him a foul-mouthed outburst, or two, or several? His best gal pal and next door neighbor Alex (Dueñas) is desperate to find a good man while sous-chef Ramiro can’t put his hard-partying days behind him. Add to the mix an unexpected reunion with two estranged children and a blossoming gay romance with a closeted international athlete, and you’ve got one troubled gourmet. Now the Michelin Guide food critic is coming to review his restaurant and it whips Maxi into a frenzy. He must learn to juggle the new dynamics his children and lover bring to the table, with over the top, hilarious results.

SPONSORED BY: HaiR XèTRa and LiqUoR MaRTs