Assembled from Art Theater Co-op/UP Center websites:
Presented by the UP Center of Champaign County, the 5th Annual Reel It UP film festival begins Tuesday, June 3, at The Art Theater Co-op in Champaign!
Each Tuesday in June, you can enjoy at least two of the selected LGBTQ fims, with the first showing at 7:30 p.m. and the second at 9:30 p.m. Two features every Tuesday, all sponsored by UP Center.
Proceeds from Reel It UP go toward supporting The UP Center in sustaining and promoting its mission to further the well-being and development of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community of Champaign County. The UP Center plays a vital role in our community by working with and serving as a resource for underserved and vulnerable populations such as rural LGBTQ youth, individuals who’ve experienced homelessness, and those who’ve endured bullying in schools.
Scheduled films include:
Tuesday June 3rd
7:30 pm – Puzzles – As civil rights for LGBT and other minority groups are won violent backlashes have been known to increase. Today LGBT people are far more likely than any other minority group in the United States to be victimized by violent hate crimes. Puzzles tells the story of a hate crime in a gay bar called Puzzles Lounge in New Bedford, MA when a teenager entered and brutally attacked its patrons. As a result two different worlds collide, a homophobic hate crime offender and his victims. Puzzles explores the correlation between American economic desperation and homophobia, intolerance, and, ultimately, violence.
9:30 pm – Valentine Road – At the height of the bullying scandal that rocked the U.S. in 2008, a 15-year-old boy named Larry King asked another boy to be his valentine in a suburban schoolyard in California. The next day Larry was dead, shot in cold blood by his 14-year-old crush Brandon McInerney. At turns shocking, devastating, and outrageous, Valentine Road bores deeply into the homophobia, sexism, racism, and class-struggle that inform everyday American life—and reveals an American justice system that is utterly unprepared to deal with the realities of teenage crime and punishment. Directed by first-time feature documentarian Marta Cunningham, Valentine Road is an unforgettable exposé of society’s pervasive and deadly intolerance of young people who don’t conform to its gender “norms.” World premiered at Sundance 2013, this film will both break your heart and fire you up into action.
Tuesday June 10th
7:30 pm – Kumu Hina – Imagine a world where a little boy can grow up to be the woman of his dreams, and a young girl can rise to become a leader of men. Welcome to Kumu Hina’s Hawaiʻi. During a momentous year in her life in modern Honolulu, Hina Wong-Kalu, a Native Hawaiian māhū, or transgender, teacher uses traditional culture to inspire a student to claim her place as leader of the school’s all-male hula troupe. But despite her success as a teacher, Hina longs for love and a committed relationship. Will her marriage to a headstrong Tongan man fulfill her dreams? More like a fiction film than a traditional documentary, Kumu Hina reveals a side of Hawai’i rarely seen on film.
9:30 pm – Trans – Trans is an extraordinary documentary feature about men and women, and all the variations in between. It is about the Transgender Community, perhaps the most misunderstood and mistreated minority in America and around the world. Inspired by the incredible story of Dr. Christine McGinn and her work as a transgender surgeon, Trans provides an up-close and very personal vision into the lives, loves, and challenges of a remarkable cast of characters of all ages and from all walks of life. Stories of confusion and courage, excitement and emotion that have never been told, until now. To anyone who has ever looked in a mirror and wondered who they really are, Trans ask another question: “Are you brave enough to find out?”
Tuesday June 17th
7:30 pm – I’m a Lesbian, Montreal. – “I am a lesbian” is what the 22 Montreal women proudly and eloquently affirm in Tina Fichter’s documentary. Behind the statement lie their experiences, their perspectives and their unique lives. The stories are personal and sensitive, proud and engaging. However, it is the words “I am a lesbian” that are at the centre of the film, giving voice to the often ignored and unheard. These words are a testimonial to the power of self-identification.
Out In Suburbia – Bold, upbeat, and powerful, this 28-minute video spotlights eleven suburban women, ranging in age from 25 to 67, who speak easily and frankly about their families, friends, and loves. A lesbian teacher talks about her struggle to come out to her students. A lesbian couple shows off the baby bedroom they have prepared for their new arrivals, twins. Out in Suburbia is perfect for beginning the process of raising lesbian issues and consciousness for the first time.
9:30 pm – Leading Ladies – The Camparis are a family of women in which everyone knows her place. Sheri is the larger-than-life, overbearing stage mom. Once a young and beautiful ballroom champion, Sheri now lives vicariously through her youngest daughter Tasi, the darling of the local amateur ballroom circuit. Sheri’s oldest daughter, Toni, is Tasi’s practice partner, the wallflower who must quietly support them all. The only consistent man in the life of the Campari women is Cedric, Tasi’s dance partner and Toni’s best friend. Find out what happens to each as they reexamine their roles in modern life and on the dance floor and learn to “Let Love Lead.”
Tuesday June 24th
7:30 pm – Such Good People – A contemporary screwball comedy, about a young gay couple, Michael Urie (Ugly Betty) & Randy Harrison (Queer As Folk), who discover a secret room filled with cash while house-sitting for wealthy friends… who die while out of the country doing missionary work to the children of Bhutan. Our characters want what everyone wants: success, family and a fabulous house in LA. But first they’ve got to work through many issues: greed, jealousy, real estate, sibling rivalry, greyhounds, labradoodles, porpoises, a million dollars, and the aforementioned orphans of Bhutan.
9:30 pm – Interior. Leather Bar. – In order to avoid an X rating, 40 minutes of gay S&M footage was rumored to be cut and destroyed from the 1980 Al Pacino film Cruising. Inspired by the mythology of this controversial film, filmmakers James Franco and Travis Mathews collaborate to imagine their own lost footage. Amid the backdrop of a frenzied film set, actor Val Lauren reluctantly agrees to take the lead in the film. Val is repeatedly forced to negotiate his boundaries during scenes on and “off camera,” as unsimulated gay sex happens around him. The film itself is constructed as a play with boundaries remaining queer in subject and form. As much a film about filmmaking as it is about an exploration of sexual and creative freedom, Interior. Leather Bar. defies easy categorization.