LGBT life on the Lavender screen at film festival

Join the longest continuous LGBT film festival in Colorado with the 12th annual Pikes Peak Lavender Film Festival – in celebration of diversity. This film festival features the best in queer cinema, discussion and gala parties in the country.

The three-day-long festival takes place from Sept. 23 – 25 at the Colorado College campus in Colorado Springs.

Lavender brings films from across the world to the big screen in Colorado. From the Bronx and Los Angeles to Iran, Algiers, France, Canada, Rumania, Norway and England, you are sure to experience a worldly weekend.

A special invitation, in the form of a discounted full-festival passes, are being offered to out-of-town LGBT members (including Denverites). Get your festival pass for $60 and attend 18 films – nine features paired with nine short films – along with all the associated events of the weekend including a Saturday after-party at Underground Nightclub and a Sunday brunch.

Friday

Leave it on the Floor
In Los Angeles, young men, most of whom have been kicked out of their homes for being gay, create their own families by becoming members of the ‘Ball’ scene where they compete as groups or ‘families’ in the weekly dance contests. The story follows the House of Eminence with its attractions, love stories and drama that is played out through song and dance numbers.

Saturday

Circumstance
This film garnered the ‘Top Audience Award’ at Sundance. Iranian-American director Mary Keshavarz filmed this story in Lebanon and Iran. It travels alongside two young lesbians in love against a backdrop of growing turmoil in repressive Iran.

A Few Days of Respite
A French film about two Algerians under threat of deportation who flee their native country for a more accepting life in Paris.

Jamie and Jessie are not Together
From the director of Hannah Free comes this lesbian romantic comedy musical set in Chicago that explores best friend status, a secret crush and jealousies.

Private Romeo
A film about cadets who are studying Romeo and Juliet at a modern military academy. Transposing scenes and dialogue from Shakespeare’s play, this film is the supercharged retelling of the classic forbidden-love story.

Sunday

Gun Hill Road
This film opened the Los Angeles and San Francisco’s LGBT film festivals and was a Grand Jury nominee at Sundance. Gun Hill Road captures the conflict of a Latino family in the Bronx that is struggling through the father’s homecoming from jail and the son’s transition from Michael to Vanessa.

Night Watch
This film is a BBC production authored by Sarah Waters of Tipping the Velvet. Adapted from the novel with WWII as the backdrop, Night Watch follows ambulance drivers during the bombing of London.

Christopher and His Friends
Also a BBC production, this film is based on Christopher Isherwood’s Cabaret memoir of his time in 1930s Berlin.

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same
The festival ends with this witty and cheesy sci-fi flick which addresses the search for big feelings.

Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door. The theater is large and seats are always available. To contact the Pikes Peak Lavender Film Festival for a full schedule and details visit http://pplff.org or call 719-633-5600 and ask for Sara Griffin or Alma Cremonesi.