A recap of opening night of Outfest 2009

The problem with attending opening night of Outfest is you don’t get home until near 2 a.m. and are all bleary-eyed when you try and write a recap the next morning. I’m so tired I don’t even know my own name right now!

But I’ll do my best to share with you who and what I saw at the star-studded affair at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown LA and the after-party at nearby Club 740. Among the famous faces were surprise guest Chaz Bono who kicked things off (see seperate post), Lisa Kudrow and Christina Ricci on hand to honor writer-director Don Roos, Josh Brolin and Diane Lane, producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks, and actor Benjamin Bratt and his writer-director brother Peter Bratt.

My guest Michael Finnegan and I met at a nearby restaurant Caloric Kitchen on 8th Street before the screening and had a nice dinner and catch-up gab since he had just returned from a vacation in Europe. Then we walked the short distance to the Orpheum and settled into our very excellent seats near the front the theater.

Following Chaz Bono’s appearance, Kudrow and Ricci took the stage and charmingly roasted and paid tribute to their Opposite of Sex director Don Roos who received the 13th annual Achievement Award in recognition of his body of work which has made a significant contribution to LGBT film and media.

Ricci praised Roos for his ability “to tell very complicated stories with layered characters who are very flawed but redeemable.”

Added Kudrow: “Whether his characters are gay, pregnant, religiosu or confused, they never represent political issues – they represent human beings. That’s how he makes very complicated very accessible … He continues to bring us some of the most beautifully crafted, honest stories.”

(I will feature Roos’ exceptional, sensational and very funny acceptance speech in a separate post)

Outfest Executive Director Kirsten Schaffer gave a powerful speech before the screening began about where we are in LGBT history and the role of movies.

“This truly is a time for change in the lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer community. fro  teenagers to elders, we are in the streets demanding that our rights, our families and our love be recognized, equalized and legalized.”

“I believe that cultural change is the driving force behind political change and cultural change is led by art,” she added. “For over a quarter of a century, Outfest has nurtured the voices of artists, encouraging filmmakers to tell their stories and helping those stories reach a broad platform. movies have this incredible ability to bring people together, to open eyes and ears and minds and create change in the lives of reAl people.”

The Bratt brothers were on hand to introduce their movie La Mission which was not always easy to sit through but completely worth it.

“Ir’s a tremendous, tremendous honor to be able to participate let alone be the opening night film of Outfest. and the fact that it’s 2009 and so many gay men and women are still fighting for their civil rights makes that honor that much more great,” Peter Bratt said. “One of the questions that often comes up in interviews is whether the film is an urban Latino film or a gay film. To me the interesting thing is not which one it is, to me the interesting thing is why the question is even asked.”

Benjamin Bratt, who acknowledged that “the very sexy Josh Brolin” was in the audience, pointed out that the film’s shoot in San Francisco happened to coincide with the filming of Milk: “I kind of like to think of La Mission as the opposite side of the same coin as Milk is on because while they are both very different films, they both depict the struggle for gay civil rights and the fight to find tolerance in the culture and acceptance. It’s interesting too because when you think about San Francisco, it’s really just seven miles by seven miles and yet there are just these unseen borders and it’s not the least bit ironic that the Mission District butts right up against Castro and yet they seem like two entirely different worlds. Like Milk, we hope that our film is a kind of bridge between communities and a spark to have a dialogue that continues to be ongoing.”

As a Latino gay man, I may have felt it more deeply than most because I could relate to the parent wanting so badly to love the child but unable to get past their own homophobia. And I loved how the son in the film has such a strong sense of himself in his teens and realizes that while painful to him, it really is his father’s problem.

I was parched and dashed out to get a bottle of water during the movie and bumped into Tommy O’Haver, the director of such films as Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss and Ella Enchanted. We gabbed for several minutes before I ducked back into the theater.

** Thanks to Lydia Marcus for the photo of the Orpheum marquee!

After the screening, Michael and I joined our pal Trevor Daley and his friends and went to the After-Party that was crammed with people. I was especially happy to see my Outfest pals Frank Pond and Michael Graham who I have something of a Same Time Next Year relationship with. I see them every year at Outfest going back at least 6-7 years and rarely in between. Frank was among the LGBT folks invited to The White House last week and he shared with me some of that experience.

Flitted about the party until nearly 2 a.m. which is why this post is so tardy!