Movie lovers will have a new opportunity to take in LGBT films this month in Delaware.
LGBT film festival OUTflix will debut in Newark Sept. 8-11 and also make a Wilmington appearance Sept. 15 and 18.
The series, which includes 12 full-length feature films and a number of shorts presentations, is being staged as part of the Newark Film Festival and WilmFilm Festival.
Co-programmer Larry Peterson has been involved with LGBT cinematic efforts in Delaware in the past, including an LGBT series at the University of Delaware where he taught film classes.
Peterson said Barry Schlecker, executive producer of both festivals, approached him to discuss an LGBT component to the events as a way of building new audiences for this year’s programming.
While Delaware has seen LGBT film festivals in the past, none have lasted beyond a few years, Peterson said.
“I’ve been disappointed that not many people in the gay community seem to support gay films,” Peterson said. “I’ve been going to QFest since it started, and we get maybe 12 or 15 people from Delaware who go up to it, but when we’ve tried for film events here, the turnout’s been disappointing.”
Peterson has much higher expectations, however, for OUTflix, the largest LGBT film festival the state has seen.
“We’ve got a really great group of people working on this and we’ve just exhausted every mechanism we can think of to get the word out about this,” he said, noting that social media like Twitter and Facbeook have been beneficial in reaching new audiences. “We’re really hoping to build a following in Delaware for gay and lesbian films.”
OUTflix will include a wide range of genres and will showcase the many facets of the LGBT community, Peterson said.
The films will include content dealing with gay male subjects, several that focus on lesbians and one transgender-themed movie, while half of the shorts will center on gay males and the other half on lesbians.
“We’ve tried to be very conscious of all of the diversity under the LGBT umbrella,” Peterson said.
The festival will include documentaries like “Saint of 9/11” that profiles a gay chaplain and Sept. 11, 2001 hero, romantic comedies such as “Finding Me: Truth,” dramas such as “Beginners,” which details coming out later in life and LGBT athletic film “Out for the Long Run.”
A few of the films were screened at QFest, others are still making their rounds in the festival circuit and still others, like the 1996 film “Lilies,” may have been off the LGBT radar for some time.
“We’re trying to balance some new interesting films with some that are a little older and others that aren’t on the market yet,” Peterson said. “The buzz about this is really exciting, so we think it will be a really good time.”
For information, visit www.newarkfilm.com.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].