In the wake of the financial issues that halted Outfest, which provided a space in Los Angeles for LGBTQ+ filmmakers to honor indie cinema for over 40 years, the CinePride Film Festival is launching to celebrate queer excellence.
Running Sept. 11-14 at the Landmark Theatres Sunset in West Hollywood, CinePride will screen 30 to 40 films across a range of genres, with the goal of highlighting intersectionality during a time of major political upheaval. The 17 categories will range from best narrative feature, documentary feature, web series to TV pilot, with selections chosen by a group of critics, filmmakers and community leaders.
“It’s important that these spaces exist because we’re being silenced,” CinePride’s executive director Cecilio Asuncion tells Variety. “The difference with this festival is that we’re appealing to a lot of allies and really fostering those relationships, along with the need for education when it comes to the world of entertainment.”
Asuncion and the CinePride Film Festival board, comprised of transgender model Arisce Wanzer, Mano Y Mano Media founder Winston Emano and San Francisco LGBT Center founder Sabrina Riddle, aim to provide educational opportunities through workshops, filmmaker Q&As and panel discussions during the festival.
As a filmmaker and Filipino immigrant with experience submitting films to LGBTQ+ festivals like Frameline, Asuncion wants to bridge the knowledge gap. He candidly recalls the time he submitted a project to Outfest; when he asked why his project wasn’t accepted, he was told to submit specifically to Outfest Fusion.
“And I was like, ‘What’s Outfest Fusion?’ And it’s the day specifically for colored filmmakers,” Asuncion explains. “That didn’t sit very well with me because that would mean you’re ghettoizing the ghetto. And that also means the default of LGBTQ+ was white. That’s what’s different with CinePride.”
Asuncion is joined on the executive team by programming director Miguel Santos, who currently serves as COO of Whoopi Goldberg’s All Women’s Sports Network, and development director Michael Daly, who brings his experience as an experiential marketing consultant.
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