PACE film festival aims to shed light on community
People Acting for Change and Equality will host its largest public event, the North Louisiana Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Sept. 6-12 at Robinson Film Center.
The festival includes a meet-and-greet reception with Del Shores, Emerson Collins and Willam Belli of the festival’s hallmark film, “Southern Baptist Sissies.” In addition to screening and promoting high-quality independent films, “it’s a very public way of letting people know there is a strong gay community in Shreveport,” Jeremy Abbott, chairman of the event, said.
“It’s all about breaking down the stereotypes,” Abbott said of the festival. “We try to get more and more mainstream people to come to the festival so they can hear our stories.”
PACE, which was founded in 2005, started the film festival four years later, in 2009. The group wanted to create an event that would give high visibility to the gay community in a region that is traditionally very conservative. “That’s the key to our film festival – visibility,” Adrienne Critcher, political director for PACE said.
On their website, www.pacelouisiana.org, PACE describes themselves as “a bipartisan organization that works to advance equality in Northwest Louisiana so that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community can lead open, honest, responsible and safe lives at home and in the workplace.” PACE’s activities range from the overtly political, like conducting mayoral forums before elections and lobbying legislators on gay-related policies, to those designed to enhance the quality of life for the LGBT community, like the film festival.
Not only that, Abbott said, but the festival is a way to attract the “creative class,” a phrase coined by public policy expert Richard Florida to denote high-talent and technologically skilled workers. Florida’s research found that cities that are able to attract and retain the creative class are ones that not only tolerate but also embrace a high level of diversity and in particular are especially welcoming to gays and lesbians. “If you have a community where gay people can thrive, it helps your economy,” Critcher said.
This year, the festival will screen 12 feature-length films, plus a full slate of short films. “This year, we really wanted to focus on getting more films in the festival,” Abbott said. A committee headed by film selection chair Brad Campbell carefully selected each of the films. Although they tell the stories of LGBT characters, Abbott and Critcher think their appeal is universal. “The diversity [of the LGBT community] is just as rich as it is in the straight community,” Abbott said.
Critcher said the films are also important because they combat the misinformation about LGBT people that she said is rife within the Shreveport-Bossier City community. “Gay people have felt like they have to be invisible,” she said. “A community where a lot of people are closeted allows bigots to spread vicious rumors. We feel like our film festival has made a really big difference in our city.”
To watch trailers and get specific showtimes, go to nlglff.org/Films. Tickets to all of the films must be purchased from the Robinson Film Center either online, www.robinson lmcenter.org, or at the box ofi ce, including tickets to the screening of “Southern Baptist Sissies” following the reception.
The reception will take place at 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 7 at Robinson Film Center. Tickets can be purchased through the NLGLFF website, nlglff.org and are $20 each through Sept. 3 and $25 at the door. The ticket price includes heavy hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.
After the reception will be a screening of “Southern Baptist Sissies,” written, directed and produced by Del Shores, who also wrote and directed “Sordid Lives,” a lm that spawned a TV series of the same name. Originally an award-winning play, “Southern Baptist Sissies” tells the story of four gay boys who grow up in the Southern Baptist Church and how each of them deals with the conflict between church doctrine and their sexuality. Afterward, there will be a Q&A session with Shores and two of the stars of the film, Willam Belli and Emerson Collins, who was also one of the film’s co-producers.
Critcher and Abbott encourage the entire Shreveport-Bossier City community to turn out for the festival. “Don’t make assumptions,” Abbott said, “and embrace new ideas with an open mind; it makes things so much better.”
– Kelly Powell
