With the Ninth Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival only six weeks away (July 10-22), festival organizers are able to make several key announcements about the two-week-long event.
Among the many guest filmmakers and actors the Festival will bring to Philadelphia this summer will be the openly gay actor Peter Paige, known to millions as Emmett in Showtime’s “Queer as Folk.” Details of Mr. Paige’s activities during his festival visit will be announced in a few weeks.
The Festival will open on Thursday, July 10th, at the Prince, with the world premiere of “Latter Days,” a poignant romantic drama between two unlikely lovers – a West Hollywood party-boy and a sexually repressed Mormon missionary.
On Wednesday, July 22, the Festival will close at the Prince with the Philadelphia premiere of “Party Monster,” starring Macaulay Culkin in his first adult role as Club Kid promoter-turned-killer Michael Alig. The film co-stars Philadelphia native Seth Green (the new film “The Italian Job,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Chloë Sevigny (“Boys Don’t Cry”) and openly gay Wilson Cruz (“My So-Called Life”).
Following the tremendous success of the Philadelphia Film Festival’s Broad Street screening this past April, the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will screen the disco camp classic “Xanadu” on Wednesday, July 19, at the Penn’s Landing Great Plaza. The 1980 film stars Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, and the event is made possible in part by the support of the Penn’s Landing Corporation.
The Festival will present screenings in three Center City locations: the Prince Music Theater; the Ritz Five Theater; and the Independence Seaport Museum, following its well-received debut as a venue for the 2003 Philadelphia Film Festival.
The Festival’s full program and schedule of events will be announced mid-June at the Philadelphia Film Society website.
