2007 MIAMI GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL UNVEILS PROGRAM LINE-UP: 100 International films to compete during 9th annual event Opening Night Gala Screening - "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Duncan Roy Centerpiece Gala Screening - "Anger Me" by Elio Gelmini Closing Night Gala Screening - "The Chinese Botanists Daughter" by Sijie Dai Career Achievement Award sponsored by HBO to Director Eytan Fox

Miami, Florida - March 23, 2007 - The celebrated 9th Annual Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, presented by Avis Rent-a-Car, The Flamingo South Beach and Sundance Channel has unveiled the line-up of the best gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender films that will be featured during the 10 day event from April 27 to May 6. The screenings will take place at Regal Cinemas South Beach, Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, Colony Theatre and the Gateway Cinemas (located in Fort Lauderdale). The announcement was made today by Festival Director Carol Coombes.

Returning this year as presenting sponsor is Avis Rent-a-Car and Sundance Channel who are joined by new presenting sponsor The Flamingo South Beach.

"Florida's number one export is oranges, the Florida license plate prominently features an orange, and significantly, thirty years ago in 1977, Anita Byrant - an outspoken opponent of an ordinance for equal rights in Miami-Dade - was the spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Growers Commission. The orange has been claimed as our branded image for 2007, as we celebrate our creativity, vibrancy and visibility across 10-days of films, parties and special events. We are especially delighted to unveil such a strong line-up of films, as the MGLFF once again stakes its position as the launch-pad festival for the new season of queer films in the U.S." said Carol Coombes, Festival Director of the MGLFF.

The 10-day festival will kick-off on Friday, April 27th with the Opening Night Gala presentation and North American Premiere The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami. Banish all notions of Merchant Ivory from your heads, as the 10-day event commences with a new vision of Oscar Wilde's classic fable of the quest for eternal youth directed by Duncan Roy (genius director of the smash-hit "AKA"). Continue to the fabulous Opening Gala after party at the Bank of America Tower Sky Terrace. Flooded in decisively luscious orange light, the building will light up the Miami skyline announcing the anticipated arrival of the 2007 MGLFF season. Watch as this Miami monument comes to life with an ultra sensory experience of sound, vision, entertainment, food, drink and camaraderie. This is the evening of the year when South Florida and the GLBT film industry come out in force to mix, mingle, twist, twirl and celebrate the vast diversity and human experience comprising the rich fabric of our community - woven onto the silver screen. (Director Duncan Roy will attend the screening to discuss the film with the audience).

On Wednesday May 2nd, the Festival will present the Centerpiece Gala and U.S. Premiere screening of Anger Me by Elio Gelmini at the Colony Theater in South Beach. Maverick film director Kenneth Anger narrates his own life and shows his body of work in this acclaimed film. Stay for the extravagant Centerpiece after party "WayOUT" as the festival takes over two blocks of historic Espanola Way with a maze of video and performance art featuring "The Wrestling Rooster Girls" who will get you in the mood for the rest of the show! Storefronts and restaurants will feature digital art, singing divas, drag flamenco lessons and queer yoga! Along the way you will encounter the digital and performance works of "Telepatia" by Dinorah de Jesús Rodriguez, "Profondo Rosso" by Rachel Hoffman, "Cowboy Midsections" by Wendy Babcox, "Disposable" by Jo Gell and Robyn Paterson, "David + Jonathan" by Jan Wandrag, and many others. WayOUT will be THE party to be at this year! (Director Elio Gelmini will attend the screening to discuss the film with the audience, Kenneth Anger has tentatively agreed to work his attendance into his schedule).

The Festival closes on Sunday May 6th with the Closing Night Gala and East Coast Premiere screening of the spectacular and visually stunning drama The Chinese Botanists Daughter by director Dai Sijie at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. In this sumptuous and groundbreaking romantic epic, forbidden love blossoms on a lush jungle island in modern China. It's a place of haunting beauty and centuries-old customs, at once a liberating Eden and a repressive backwater. Li-Ming (played by the stunning Mylene Jampan) is an orphan, sent to intern with a renowned medicinal botanist. While Li-Ming disappoints her unforgiving teacher time and time again, she forms an instant bond with his shy daughter, An. The affair that ensues is at once giddily innocent and erotically electric. Join us for our Closing party at the tropical garden paradise of Parrot Jungle Island. Leave the metropolis behind as you cross the causeway, and find yourself immersed in a lost subtropical world of Asian pageantry where the stage is set for the sumptuous Festival finale. Tempt your senses with exotic Asian infused flavors while enjoying some of Miami's most innovative DJ talent coupled with the nuances of avian encounters, starry skies and ocean breezes across the bay.

The MGLFF Career Achievement Award sponsored by HBO is presented this year to prolific Israeli director Eytan Fox. Fox's mastery of the cinematic art-form, positions him as the most influential artist representing gay life in Israel today. His instinct for dramatic storytelling and his ability to weave narrative stories that leave the audience emotionally drained, but nonetheless impacted by the power of his images, place him in the pantheon of truly legendary directors. His body of work includes: "The Bubble," "Walk on Water," "Yossi and Jagger," "Florentine" (an influential Israeli television series 1997), "Song of the Siren/Shirat Ha'Sirena" and the short films "Gotta Have Heart/Ba'al Ba'al Lev" (1997) and "Time Off" (1990). (The award will be presented to Eytan Fox prior to the Florida premiere of "The Bubble" on Saturday, May 5th, 9:30pm at the Colony Theater).

The breadth and diversity of films this year also include the World Premieres of A Four Letter Word, Laughing Matters…The Men and two new clip shows LEZPLOITATION-Triple X Selects and Hollywood KINK.

The Festival is also focused on celebrating the best of Queer International Shorts; with ten specific programs embracing 18 World Premiere and 9 North American premiering shorts including 8th Annual PlanetOut Short Movie Awards, Dark Love, Futura, Real Men, Running Home, Testify, What Boys Want, What Girls Like, Youth Truths and Vengeance is Mine.

The 8th Annual PlanetOut Short Movie Awards, judged by industry professionals in the cities of Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco is sponsored by Scion presented by MGLFF and PlanetOut Inc. The $15,000 awards are the largest cash prizes in the world for LGBT shorts. The PlanetOut Short Movie Award Winners 2007 will be screened on Sunday, April 29th, 3:00pm at the Regal Cinema South Beach, followed by a celebratory after-party with all the attending filmmakers at Cafeteria.

This year's festival also features an exciting lineup of thought provoking clip presentations and special events. On Sunday, April 29 at 7:00pm, Gateway Ft. Lauderdale, the MGLFF presents the world premiere of Hollywood KINK: Leather and SM in the Movies, presented by Joshua Johnson of goLeather, which will reveal how some of Hollywood's best known movies have impacted our perceptions about leather and kink in ways that people seldom realize. In association with Parvez Sharma (Director) and Sandi Dubowski (Producer) on Monday, April 30 at 7:30pm, Regal Cinemas, the MGLFF will host a special fundraising screening of A Jihad for Love: Excerpts from a Work in Progress. This important documentary, which is seeking final completion funds, explores the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality. Following the screening of Boy I Am on Thursday, May 3 at 7:15pm, Gateway Cinema, in association with the GLBT Community Centre of Fort Lauderdale, Celeste Fraser Delgado will moderate a trans panel discussion. Confirmed panelists include: Sam Feder (director of Boy I Am), Brooke Sebold (director Red Without Blue) Dr. Marilyn Volker, Jessica Lam and Jay Beery. In association with the Flamingo South Beach and HBO, the MGLFF on Friday May 4th at 8:00pm will be showcasing the world premieres of the completed HBO LGBT Script Writing Competition, curated in association with Outfest and Provincetown Film Festivals. Featuring the best of homegrown LGBT talent in the U.S. the winning script-writers each received production assistance from HBO valued at $15,000. DJ Michelle Johnson (a.k.a Triple X) will present at 9:30pm in the Colony Theatre, the world premiere of LEZPLOITATION: Triple X Selects. Compiled from nearly 20 different sexploitation films spanning the years of 1965 through the early 80s, the clip show features sinning nuns, Swedish wildcats and sexed-up inmates. DJ Triple X will be spinning sounds from the 70s at the hot after-party at Pink in the Miami Design District. A new addition to our annual line-up ScriptLAB, showcases a feature length reading of a script in English and another language. Director/Screen-writer Mary Guzman will be presenting a performed reading of her new script Lost Dog in Spanish and English on Saturday, May 5 at 12noon at the Miami Beach Cinematheque.

FEATURES/DOCUMENTARIES
2007 MIAMI GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL

• 2:37 (Director Murali K. Thalluri/ East Coast Premiere)
  Drama about six high school students whose lives are all affected by a tragedy in their school. The student's individual stories all unravel each with its own explosive significance
   
• 2 MINUTES LATER (Director Robert Gaston / Florida Premiere)
  On the mean streets of Philly, a closet-case insurance adjuster named Michael discovers that his estranged twin brother Kyle has gone missing. Already on the case is Abigail, a no-nonsense lesbian private eye who does all her work in a slinky cocktail dress.
   
• A FOUR LETTER WORD (Director Casper Andreas / World Premiere)
  A "typical" gay guy meets a hunky artist in a club opening him up to a possible relationship as they discover each other's secrets and desires; he finally realizes that perhaps love is more than just a four letter word in this amusing and surprising romantic comedy
   
• AMNESIA: THE JAMES BRIGHTON ENIGMA (Director Denis Langlois / South.Florida Premiere)
  Fictional account of amnesiac James Brighton, a handsome young American who was found naked and confused in an empty parking lot in Montreal. What precisely led to the traumatic memory loss is the basis for this mysterious haunting tale.
   
• ANGER ME (Director Elio Gelmini / U.S Premiere)
  Centerpiece Gala
  A documentary about experimental filmmaker, writer and gay icon Kenneth Anger features generous excerpts from Anger's life works, with extended commentary from the artist, and places Anger in context among his peers in experimental art and film while reminding us of his often overlooked encounters with other film luminaries such as D.W. Griffith, Sergei Eisenstein, and Jean Cocteau.
   
• BOY AM I (Directors Samantha Feder and Julie Hollar / Florida Premiere)
  A documentary of three young transitioning female to male transgenders in New York City as they go through major junctures in their lives.
   
• EAST SIDE STORY (Director Carlos Portugal/South Florida Premiere)
  A closeted Latino working in his grandmother's Mexican restaurant falls in love with an equally closeted hunky realtor.
   
• ELECTROSHOCK (Director Juan Carlos Claver/Florida Premiere)
  When a mother discovers her daughter's lesbian relationship she places her daughter in an institution sanctioning electroshock therapy to cure her condition. A moving drama about two women's love for one another despite the repressive Spanish Franco era.
   
• EMILE NORMAN: BY HIS OWN DESIGN (Director Will Parirnello/South Florida Premiere) From his humble beginnings on a ranch in the San Gabriel Valley to designing window displays for department stores and creating headdresses for movie musicals to his 30 year openly gay relationship during the 40's and 50's. Emile Norman is truly a hidden treasure in the pantheon of openly gay artists.
   
• FOUR MINUTES (Director Chris Kraus/ Florida Premiere)
  Tough young Jenny is serving time in a women's prison in Germany. She meets her match in an elderly woman who has been teaching piano to the inmates since World War II. Shaped by their violent pasts, both women find comfort and love in each other's company.
   
• ITTY BITTY TITTY COMMITTEE (Director Jamie Babbit / East Coast Premiere)
  A high school graduate and all American girl finds her purpose and herself after she hooks up with a group of radical feminist terrorists.
   
• KING AND THE CLOWN (Director Jun-ik Lee / Florida Premiere)
  On a tightrope high above cobblestone streets begins one of the most beautiful and extraordinary love stories ever filmed. Set in Korea in 1502 a colorful rag-tag acrobat-clown duo entertains a monarch with a thirst for comedic spectacles.
   
• LAUGHING MATTERS…THE MEN (Director Andrea Meyerson / World Premiere)
  In this documentary that intersplices stand-up material with candid interviews, viewers are given the opportunity to at once laugh and simultaneously understand the voyage that has led these performers to the stage...and what performers! Featuring Bruce Vilanch, Alec Mapa, Scott Kennedy, Andre Kelly and Bob Smith.
   
• LULU GETS A FACELIFT (Director Marc Huestis / East Coast Premiere)
  The life of a drag queen and her decision to undergo surgery in this hilarious comedy of one persons attempt at a triumphant comeback.
   
• NINA'S HEAVENLY DELIGHTS (Director Pratibha Parmar /East Coast Premiere)
  More scrumptious than a Chicken Shakuti and featuring a soundtrack full of Bollywood classic and pop hits a delightful love story of a young Scottish Asian woman and a charismatic business woman who has taken over her family's restaurant.
   
• NO REGRET (Director Leesong Hee-Il / Florida Premiere)
  A teenager in Seoul leaves his orphanage to begin work as a male escort. His life takes a dramatic change when he meets a young wealthy man and they fall into a passionate relationship.
   
• OUTING RILEY (Director Pete Jones / East Coast Premiere)
  After the death of both parents, Irish-Catholic Bobby Riley is persuaded by his sister to tell his straight-laced brothers that he is gay - but it turns out that everyone is harboring a secret themselves.
   
• RED WITHOUT BLUE (Directors Brooke Sebold and Benita & Todd Sills / East Coast Premiere)
  The intimate bond between two identical twin brothers is challenged when one decides to transition from male to female.
   
• SAVING MARRIAGE (Directors John Henning & Mike Roth / Florida Premiere)
  The heart of New England now finds itself at the epicenter of a nationwide debate on the future of marriage in America. In this fascinating documentary filmmakers Mike Roth and John Henning take us inside the hearts and homes of those most affected by this issue and to the center of the campaigns of citizens turned activists fighting for a cause that effects the entire nation.
   
• STRAY CATS (Director Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil / Florida Premiere)
  A straight woman and her gay best friend are committed to their non committal boyfriends. Drawn together by their parallel lives, they devise a scheme leading to a riveting confrontation.
   
• THE BUBBLE (Director Etyan Fox / Florida Premiere)
  Three young Israelis, two guys and a girl, share an apartment in Tel Aviv's hippest neighborhood. Trying to put aside political conflicts and focusing on their lives and loves, these progressive 20-somethings are often accused of living in an escapist bubble until a young Palestinian man enters their lives.
   
• THE CHINESE BOTANISTS DAUGHTER (Director Sijie Dai / East Coast Premiere)
  Closing Night Gala
  A sumptuous and groundbreaking romantic epic, forbidden love between two women blossoms on a lush jungle island in modern China. It's a place of haunting beauty and centuries-old customs, at once a liberating Eden and a repressive backwater.
   
• THE CURIOSITY OF CHANCE (Director Russell P. Marleau / Florida Premiere)
  An out and eccentric teenager recruits a bizarre circle of friends made up of oddball outcasts, a straight jock he's in love with and a drag queen to help him bring down the homophobic bully threatening his peaceful high school existence.
   
• THE GYMNAST (Director Ned Fair / South Florida Premiere) Jane, a former Olympic trained gymnast is grappling with aging and marital issues. When she is recruited to perform in a Vegas-style aerial ballet act, her athletic passion is reignited. Her partner, Serena, a hard-edged Korean-American dancer whose knife fetish is just the beginning of her mesmerizing appeal awakes in Jane same-sex desires.
   
• THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Director Duncan Roy / North American Premiere)
  Opening Night Gala
  Dorian Gray is a perfect 18 year old with a mysterious past. When a bad boy artist becomes smitten with him, he launches a bold seduction and makes his conquest the star of a video installation that takes the city by storm. But the video creates an all-consuming vanity problem for Dorian, the fear of growing old and ugly which leads ultimately to a bargain with the devil.
   
• THE TWO SIDES OF THE BED (Director Emilio Martinez Lazara / U.S. Premiere)
  A sequel to the hit Spanish feature "Other Side of the Bed" which depicts what happens when some familiar characters, finally ready to commit, discover that their girlfriends have a few surprises up their sleeve.
   
• TICK TOCK LULLABY (Director Lisa Gornick / East Coast Premiere)
  When a lesbian couple searches for a sperm donor, they go cruising for strangers like a pair of horney queens. One of the women is a cartoonist and her imagination springs to life with three hilarious stories interweaving throughout about the pangs of motherhood and parenting

SHORTS
2007 MIAMI GAY & LESBIAN FILM FESTIVAL

• 41 SECONDS (Director Rodney Sewell / North American Premiere)
  A man's ego is bruised when his girlfriend casually mentions that his best friend is a better kisser than him.
   
• 5 TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS (Director Travis Cook / East Coast Premiere)
  In this split screen narrative, John and Korey, find a unique and lasting connection through a sequence of intimate conversations.
   
• A NATURES CHOICE (Director Raquel de Antonio & Edgar Alcala / World Premiere)
  Self defined transgender-male Marc Cummings puts forward the concept that sexual dysphoria is nature's way of playing Russian roulette with your biology and not a choice, a behavior or a condition
   
• AIRPLANES (Director Jen Heck /Florida Premiere)
  1st Runner Up PlanetOut Short Movie Awards
  Tells the love story of two teenage girls from the moment they first see each other to their eventual break-up
   
• ATTACK (Director Timothy Smith / Florida Premiere)
  A neo-Nazi skinhead is apprehended because he has attacked two black teenage boys. Although in time things turn out to be not as they appear.
   
• BLACK MEN AND ME (Director Michele Clarke / U.S. Premiere)
  Shot in a barbershop, a traditional gathering place for black men, the Director reflects on her masculinity while having her head shaved
   
• BLINDFOLDED (Director Isabel Coll / Florida Premiere)
  Everything is not what it seems in this cautionary tale about hooking up with a mysterious on- line date
   
• BLOOD (Director Kolton Lee / Florida Premiere)
  A young Black boxer finds passions are deep and difficult outside of the ring.
   
• BUG CRUSH (Director Carter Smith / South Florida Premiere)
  The woods prove to be much more sinister than Ben, a high school loner, with a crush on a dangerously seductive new boy, could ever have anticipated, in this creepy mesmerizing award winning film.
   
• CHECK OUT (Director Jenn Garrison / World Premiere)
  When Corey and Max encounter a gorgeous woman at the deli counter the race is on to see which team this longhaired beauty plays on.
   
• COLIN: INTERIORS (Director Peter Lindhout / East Coast Premiere)
  Meet Colin, a campy effeminate guinea pig who has lots of opinions about gay life-style living
   
• CREMMATE: MUFFY (Director Diane Wilkins / South Florida Premiere)
  Two pussy-obsessed softball lovers demonstrate their new breakfast product
   
• DADDY (Director Sid Karger / World Premiere)
  A one-night stand leaves Wayne with a strange and hilarious craving for pickles and ice cream.
   
• DAMAGE (Director Allie Sultan / Florida Premiere)
  A quiet high school student takes matters into her own hands to get the girl she wants.
   
• DARK ROOM (Director Ronen Amar / Florida Premiere)
  Israeli High school student Zohar betrays his boyfriend Shimi in the middle of the night in a misguided attempt to affirm his heterosexuality to his schoolmates.
   
• DAVID +JONATHAN (Director Jan Wandrag / Florida Premiere)
  After David defeats Goliath the King takes an interest in him
   
• DAVEY AND STU (Director Soman Chainani / South Florida Premiere)
  A heartwrenching look at the intensity of adolescent romance and forbidden love.
   
• DIRTY LOVE (Director Michael Tringe / Florida Premiere)
  A young fresh-to-the-scene teen is exposed to the darker underbelly of Los Angeles during a moment of embrace.
   
• DISPOSABLE (Directors Robyn Paterson & Jo Gell / Florida Premiere)
  On her way to Las Vegas, a woman takes a gamble on the pretty hitchhiker she picks up
   
• DO THE MATH (Director Mary Guzman / Florida Premiere)
  Weaves together slam poetry with keenly observed imagery to document a young Latina's journey.
   
• DONNY AND GINGER (Director Jon Bush / World Premiere)
  The dramatic relationship between a cop whose job is to protect the streets and his unconditional love for a drag queen who works them.
   
• DOORMAN (Director Etienne Kallos / East Coast Premiere)
  A Latino doorman begins to unravel emotionally when he is seduced and then dumped by a privileged college kid who lives in the building
   
• DULCES (SWEETS) (Director Carlos Ruano / World Premiere)
  Jesus, a 20-something guy is about to give up on his on-line blind date Laura ever showing up, when a "friend" of hers arrives.
   
• EMBEDDED (Director Matthew Toffolo / World Premiere)
  Snared by their respective partners, Thomas and Voytek have to face the consequences in this dramatic tale of two couples who stay together because of their own fears and insecurities.
   
• FAMILY REUNION (Director ísold Uggadóttir / Florida Premiere)
  Katrín discovers that some family members have secrets of their own when she returns home to her native Reykjavik for her grandfather's 70th birthday celebration.
   
• FEET OF CLAY (Director Carrie Preston / East Coast Premiere)
  It soon becomes clear that size does matter when two couples take a weekend vacation together.
   
• FLOAT (Director Kareem Mortimer / World Premiere)
  Set in the picturesque but homophobic small island of the Bahamas, Johnny, a young Caucasian painter, travels to an artists retreat to seek clarity and vision and finds instead unexpected love and adventure in the shape of Romeo, a handsome and sexually ambiguous Bahamian
   
• FROCKS OFF-JAMEL (Director Rosetta Cook / Florida Premiere)
  Furtively Jamel dons his mother's nuptial couture. The dress is at once the bane, the blessing and the tool of reconciliation for the years that follow.
   
• GOT….? (Director Stephan A. McKenzie /Florida Premiere)
  Don't forget to put this on your shopping list.
   
• GROUCHO (Director Medardo Amor, Angel Luis Rodriguez Suarez / North American Premiere)
  Enrique and Andrés, two thirty-something professionals are visited by David, their closeted 16-year-old neighbor. When David comes onto Enrique everybody's lives are impacted.
   
• HAPPENSTANCE (Director Joyce Draganosky / World Premiere)
  Beth finds out that she has a lot in common with Samantha, her son's new girlfriend.
   
• HAPPY HAMPTONS HOLIDAY CAMP FOR TROUBLED COUPLES (Director Greg Pak / Florida Premiere)
  A hiccupping fit seems to fix the problem in Kim and Vim's relationship.
   
• HEARTS AND HOTEL ROOMS (Director Justin James / World Premiere)
  Brian and Jimmy go their separate ways after an unforgettable night. Will their hearts lead them to each other again?
   
• I JUST WANT TO BE SOMEBODY (Director Jay Rosenblatt)
  Orange juice, the religious right and gay activists in Miami-Dade are brought together in this documentary muse on Anita Bryants life and influence
   
• K (Director Juan Martin Simons / Florida Premiere)
  Who says a hustler can't fall in love - and with the boy next door, no less?
   
• KADEN (Director Harriet Storm / South Florida Premiere)
  In this namesake short, we follow Kaden Rushford a transitioning female to male, through the physical and psychological preparations for top surgery.
   
• last exit (Director Nicola Marsh / North American Premiere)
  3rd Runner Up PlanetOut Short Movie Awards
  The past and the present gets muddied when Cody travels with her girlfriend to her conservative hometown to visit her best friend Heather and her husband.
   
• LESBIANS: THE MUSIC VIDEO (Director Laura Terruso / World Premiere)
  A musical homage by super-cute singer Clay Drinko
   
• LOVE, STRUCK (Director Susan Ali / Florida Premiere)
  Cupid's boozing it up on the job, so his aim is a little off. With the wildly weaving flight of arrows, a romance destined for two luscious lesbians gives way to hilarious mayhem.
   
• LUCKY MAN (Director Dan Faltz / East Coast Premiere)
  In this black and white film noir homage, Casper Anderson finds out he's messing with the wrong man, when he uncovers a brutal hard-drinking private detectives secret.
   
• NIGHT FALLS FAST (Director Mark Jackson / Florida Premiere)
  Vale's chronic addiction, and past resentments set in motion a cataclysmic chain of events that force him to re-evaluate the stark choice of giving up or fighting to live
   
• OUCH! (Director Ken Wardrop / Florida Premiere)
  A crotch level tale about what some boys have and some boys don't have in between their legs.
   
• OUTSIDE (Director Jenn Kao / Florida Premiere)
  Somewhere in the future, the mother of all wars has left Earth unrecognizable. Life starts to have meaning for Debbie - beyond the sensory transdermal hallucinogenic she rubs in her palms - when she meets a wild free Outsider
   
• PASSION FOR FOOTBALL (Director Rut Soso & Maria Pavon / North American Premiere)
  A bored woman finds some passion of her own as her boyfriend devotes his time to the radio.
   
• PRIVATE LIFE (Director Abbe Robinson / North American Premiere)
  Grand Prize Winner PlanetOut Short Movie Awards
  Ruth leads a humdrum life doling out wages in a textile mill. A secret train ride and rendezvous with a man reveals that nothing is quite what it seems.
   
• 'QUEENS' LAND (Director Matthias Cerwen / North American Premiere)
  Three manly men dish the dirt on who's gay and who's not in this hilarious outback short.
   
• QUEER STREETS (Directors Alex Waterfield, Sarah Feightner, Brooke Sopelsa World Premiere)
  The filmmakers follow the lives of seven LGBT teenagers as they tell their personal stories about knock-backs, addictions, ambitions, hope and a fierce determination to escape the streets and make it
   
• REAL MEN (Director Sean Hanish / World Premiere)
  In a grungy testosterone fueled bar, best friends Luke and Marcus test the boundaries of their relationship to discover what a "real man" is.
   
• RUNNING HOME (Director Karla Di Benedetto / East Coast Premiere)
  Ostracized by Christian parents and navigating a relationship with a closeted girlfriend, a young woman has to side-step Mitchell, her cruel brother in-law to be reconciled with the person who really means home to her.
   
• SCARRED (Director Damien Rea / North American Premiere)
  2nd Runner Up PlanetOut Short Movie Awards
  In this beautifully told mysterious tale, Rafi's physiognomy betrays his past, drives his destiny and conclusively influences the dynamics of his new relationship.
   
• SELF: BY ALISON CARSEN (Director Alison Carsen / East Coast Premiere)
  A West Hollywood based Capricorn exposes her life to date on the cusp of her twenty-seventh birthday.
   
• SEOUL TO SOLE (Director Paul Detwiler/ East Coast Premiere)
  An adopted Korean teenager journeys from a strict Mormon upbringing in Utah to Southern California. Through a spiritual program of recovery, Wade, supported by friends and his lover, makes peace with his Asian-Gay-American self.
   
• SERENE HUNTER (Director Jason Bushman / World Premiere)
  Handsome commitment phobic Luc is constantly on the hunt for men. Life gets complicated when he falls for young and horny Sebastian just when Jon, his gorgeous but unavailable "summer lover" flies into town from LA.
   
• signage (Director Rick Hammerly / World Premiere)
  An encounter with a young deaf man forces forty-one year old Lex to face the reality of growing older in today's youth obsessed and gay bar driven culture.
   
• SUCCUBUS (Director Alison Reid / South Florida Premiere)
  Lilith and Athena have exhausted all scientific attempts to have a child together. A clever acrobatic plan to steal a test-tube of baby making potion puts pressure on their relationship.
   
• team queen (Director Leah Meyerhoff / Florida Premiere)
  The new girl in school is thrown into a topsy-turvy madhouse in this gender-bending, fire- breathing, post-punk rock 'n roll prom tale scored by Triple Crème.
   
• TESTIFY (Director Darius Monroe / Florida Premiere)
  Cyrus Biggs, a Southern Baptist Pastor is a powerful motivational speaker, but the truth about oneself is often painful to articulate
   
• THE CARESS OF THE CREATURE (Director Stewart McAlpine / East Coast Premiere)
  In this short tribute to a 50's sci-fi classic, a foreman's life is forever changed when he is touched by a sea creature while taking a dip in a lake.
   
• THE PREACHER AND THE POET (Director Dean Hamer / Florida Premiere)
  While one man of god delivers a graphic sermon about the evils of homosexuality, a poet vows to fight for justice and equality in memory of a gay young man.
   
• THE PRODIGAL SON (Director Tony Radevski / East Coast Premiere)
  In this emotional documentary, Ljubica, a traditional first-generation migrant Macedonian, is torn between loyalty to her husband, Alexo, and devotion to Ted, her 40-something son, whom Alexo hasn't spoken to for 15 years since Ted outed himself to his family.
   
• THE ESSAY ASSIGNMENT (Director Jennifer Lin / East Coast Premiere)
  Straight high school student Nicole Kim explains why she decided to write about marriage equality as her essay assignment in 8th grade
   
• THE GENDERCATOR (Director Catherine Crouch / World Premiere)
  At a hippie retreat in 1973, sporty-dyke Sally drops too many party favors and passes out under a tree. One deep sleep later, Sally awakes in the year 2048 to discover that scientific advances in sex reassignment surgery have wiped out notions of butch or androgyny - yikes!
   
• THE INCREDIBLE DYKE (Director Kurt Koehler / World Premiere)
  Don't make her angry…. an unassuming woman turns a distinct shade of magenta in this hilarious lesbian homage to a Marvel comic's super-hero from the 70's.
   
• THE RED FRONT (Director Adam Goudchaux / World Premiere)
  Set in Germany during the Second World War, a captured gay writer has to make a grave choice when asked to give his hand to a handsome malevolent Nazi officer.
   
• THE RED ROOM (Director Rebecca Whitehurst / East Coast Premiere)
  A beautifully choreographed exploration of space
   
• THE SCIENCE OF LOVE (Director Joyce Draganosky / Florida Premiere)
  Sydney, a scientific anthropologist has invented a test, Ileana; her department chair believes that love is scientifically immeasurable. The stage is set for a battle of egos, samurai swords and stiletto heels.
   
• THE WALK THROUGH CLOSET (Director Matt Mills / Florida Premiere)
  A young gay teen comes to terms with who he truly is in this liberating documentary
   
• TRANSGENDER EXPRESS (Director Laure Schwarz / Florida Premiere)
  An interactive video game propels Laure through outer space and time.
   
• WET SHAVE (Director Martina Priessner / North American Premiere)
  An everyday ritual becomes highly charged in this delightful ode to taking care of one's facial hair.
   
• WHERE WE BEGAN (Director Marc Saltarelli / U.S. Premiere)
  4th Runner Up PlanetOut Short Movie Awards
  Bittersweet memories resurface when two ex-lovers, Timothy and Christian, come together in the place they first met.
   
• WRONG BATHROOM (Director Shani Heckman/ Florida Premiere)
  Unlike politics, the closer one is to the center in the gender continuum the more problematic even the most basic human necessities are.

The 9th Annual Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is presented by Avis Rent-a-Car, Flamingo South Beach and Sundance Channel. The Festival's Awards sponsor is HBO.

Additionally, the Festival is sponsored by Comcast, Tylenol PM, Regal Entertainment Group, and O-TV Creative Services.

The Official Host Hotels and Delegate Center are The Hotel of South Beach and the Park Central Hotel. The official airline sponsor is Jet Blue Airways. Other major sponsors include: Majestic Properties, HSBC, Williamson Cadillac Hummer, Miami Boutique Hotels, The Angler's Boutique Resort, Blue Capital Management, Passport Magazine, Logo TV, Majestic Properties, Miami Boutique Hotels, Passport Magazine, here!, Second Floor Productions, Mellon United National Bank, Icandee Productions, Perrier, Ultra & Pandora Events, PlanetOut.com, Gay.com, Window Media, Express South Florida, 411 Magazine, Wire Magazine, Genre, New Times, She Magazine, City Link Magazine, and GLAAD.

The Festival is indebted to the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners; the Miami Beach Visitor & Convention Authority (VCA) and the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Miami Downtown Development Authority; and the Aqua Foundation for Women. As well, the Festival is supported by a grant from Dade Community Foundation, Greater Miami's permanent endowment made possible by generous donors since 1967.

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