With more than 100 international shorts, documentaries and features, the Philadelphia Film Festival hits theaters Oct. 18-28. While there are only a handful of queer films, they are all worthwhile.
One of the funniest comedies this year, “Gayby” (9:35 p.m. Oct. 19 and 7:15 p.m. Oct. 21 at Ritz East, 125 S. Second St.), is writer/director Jonathan Lisecki’s feature-length version of his fabulous short of the same name. Jenn (Jenn Harris) is a yoga instructor who is impregnated — the old-fashioned way — by her gay best friend Matt (Matthew Wilkas). After some comically awkward sex, “Gayby” focuses on Jenn and Matt’s experiences dating various men, as each struggles with having to save sex for baby-making purposes. This terrific film, full of smart situations and smartass one-liners, benefits from the knockout punch of Lisecki’s witty script and Harris’ brilliant comic timing. Wilkas kind of plays the comic straight man — er, gay guy — for Harris’ antics, but his potential romance with hunky Scott (Mike Doyle) is heart-stirring, and features a magical kiss. Lisecki wisely writes himself a memorable supporting turn as Matt’s sarcastic best friend, Nelson. “Gayby” thankfully resists diaper jokes — but includes a clever aside about kale — and reveals a nice heart underneath the characters’ amusingly neurotic and insecure exteriors.
Another highlight of the fest is “Young & Wild” (9:50 p.m. Oct. 27 and 2:40 p.m. Oct. 28 at Ritz East), a funny and naughty Chilean drama about a horny 17-year-old girl, Daniela, who blogs about her sexual impulses. Told in a series of “gospels,” the film has terrific scenes of Daniela, who has ultra-religious parents, exploring her bisexuality. The scenes in which she fools around with a female coworker are erotic, and her explicit encounter with her boyfriend — who sports an impressive erection — will also set tongues wagging. Not since “Y Tu Mamá También” has there been such a perceptive and stylish Latin-American film about teenage sexuality.
An inspiring documentary about Ugandan LGBT activists, “Call Me Kuchu” (2:50 p.m. Oct. 20 at Ritz Bourse, 400 Ranstead St.; noon Oct. 23 at Ritz East; and 5:20 p.m. Oct. 24 at Rave, 4012 Walnut St.) profiles David Kato, the first openly gay man in Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal. Filmmakers Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malike Zouhali-Worrall offer a sense of his brightness when he describes his first time in a gay bar or attending a church for gays.
The film focuses in part on a legal battle waged by Kato and lesbian human-rights activist Naome against Giles Muhame, managing editor of “Rolling Stone,” a local paper that publishes the contact information of LGBTs and calls for their hangings. “Kuchu” traces the court case through its decision, but it is what happens after the verdict — Kato is murdered and his activism is recognized internationally — that makes this film so powerful.
“Yossi” (7:25 p.m. Oct. 19 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at Ritz East), the sequel to queer classic “Yossi and Jagger” (also playing at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at Ritz East), picks up 10 years after the original film. The bereft Yossi (Ohad Knoller) is now a heart specialist (heartache metaphor, anyone?) who jerks off to porn, eats bad take-out and uses old photos of himself to pick up guys on the ’net. He eventually finds the strength to tell Jagger’s mother about their relationship — in one of the most incredible, moving sequences captured on screen this year.
What follows feels like a letdown.Yossi meets Tom (Oz Zehavi), but the relationship that develops isn’t quite believable. What Tom sees in this sad, older, overweight guy who reads “Death in Venice,” listens to “old” music and doesn’t like to be touched, never scans. Yet, Knoller gives an astonishing performance, and his quiet, introspective moments speak volumes.
Knoller and writer/director Eytan Fox spoke with PGN about revisiting Yossi.
Fox said, “I wanted to save Yossi and deal with stuff he and I have to deal with. We left him in such a terrible place in the former film.”
Knoller had mixed reactions.
“I was scared to touch the same character again,” he said. “I love the way ‘Yossi and Jagger’ ended. When you are doing a sequel, you are answering the questions that people who see the film have — you are ruining something. What was important for Eytan and I in doing this film was to justify doing a second film.”
See you at the movies.
For more information about the Philadelphia Film Festival, visit www.filmadelphia.org.