In just a little under two years, the Northampton-based Out! For Reel Film Series has firmly established itself as a strong cultural leader in the lesbian, gay, bi, and trans community. Since launching in the fall of 2008, the series has twice filled the 800 seats at the Academy of Music, and brought thousands of filmgoers to its screenings and associated events—an Out! For Reel event surrounds the main course with all sorts of delectable small plates, including door prizes and a rollicking after-party. It’s a festival success story rarely seen outside big cities, with the added bonus of raising awareness of LGBT stories.
This Friday at the Academy, the group presents the second annual Lesbian Film Fest, which this year carries a theme, “In Celebration of Love.” The anchor film is Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement, a powerful documentary about two women who, after 42 years of love and struggle, finally have a chance to marry legally in Canada. Screening with it are episodes of We Have To Stop Now, a popular lesbian Web series starring comic Suzanne Westenhoefer as a couples therapist; and Falling For Caroline, a romantic comedy two-reeler about a klutzy young woman looking for love.
The films start at 7:30 p.m., but at half past nine the party shifts to the Grand Ballroom at the Hotel Northampton, where an after-party is expected to draw several hundred revelers for a night of dancing and celebration. Tickets for the films, the party, or both can be had at the Academy box office or online at OutForReel.org
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Across the bridge at Amherst Cinema, another film with social justice connections unspools in a free screening on Tuesday afternoon. Unnatural Causes examines the so-called Latino Paradox, which shows that recent Mexican immigrants to the U.S. tend to be healthier than the average American despite a higher poverty rate. Frankly, I’m not sure this is a huge paradox when one looks at our respective diets.
More interesting is the fact that after five years in America, the immigrant population is 50 percent more likely to have developed health problems. To many, that fact signals an inequality in our health care system; to discuss the issue the screening will include a forum facilitated by Dr. Barbara J. Love and Amherst Human Rights Director Eunice Torres.
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Finally, in what could be considered a justice issue for film nerds, Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress comes to Amherst Cinema. Long acknowledged as the primary inspiration for the original Star Wars film, Kurosawa’s minor masterpiece is the story of two bumbling peasants—George Lucas would recast them as droids R2-D2 and C-3PO—who get roped into an adventure involving missing treasure, warring factions, and a princess on the run. See it Sunday at 2 p.m. or on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com
