22nd connecticut
gay and lesbian
film festival
Friday 5/22 - 7:30 pm
I Can’t Think Straight
Shamim Sarif, 2008, UK, 82 min
Tala, a London-based Jordanian of Palestinian origin prepares for an elaborate wedding with her Jordanian fiancé, when she encounters Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend Ali. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other but the attraction is immediate. Tala’s feisty nature provokes Leyla out of her shell and soon both women reveal their feelings for each other. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made and escapes back to Jordan where her chain-smoking high-brow mother finishes preparations for an ostentatious wedding.
As family members descend and the wedding day approaches, simmering family tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself. Meanwhile heartbroken Leyla relishes her newly found sense of identity and self-respect and moves on with her new life – much to the shock of her tradition-loving Indian parents. Single again, Tala flies back to London – but it will take more than just a date set up by Ali and Leyla’s sister Zara to win Leyla back.
Join us for the Opening Night Party after the film
PROGRAM
Dancing to Happiness (Tanz Ins Gluck)
Barbara Seiler, 2008, Switzerland, 17 min
(In Swiss German with English subtitles)
A lesbian fairy tale involving love, dance and the overcoming of social prejudices.
PRECEDED BY:
Shorts Program: Out and About
Downstream (Im Fluss)
Cecilia Barriga & Claudia Lorenz, 2007, Switzerland, 6 min
(In Swiss-German with English subtitles)
For decades, two 70-year-old Swiss ladies have been walking along with each other. In summertime, their daily ritual is to swim down the river that flows through their home town. As the current carries them down the river, they meditate on friendship, love and becoming older.
Don’t Mess With Texas
Carrie Schrader & Tricia Cooke, 2008, USA, 6 min
A comic morality tale about two cocky young lesbians who bite off more than they can chew at a Texas roadside diner.
Twirling Earl
Don Newcomb, 2008, USA, 2 min
TWIRLING EARL twirls the baton in front of the gay pride parade, till his toss goes astray.
Good Art/New Poetry WORLD PREMIERE
Kurt Uccello, 2009, USA, 7 min
This experimental film by Connecticut filmmaker Kurt Uccello blends poetry and imagery in telling a story of art, relationships and casual sex.
Second Guessing Grandma
Bob Giraldi, 2008, USA, 9 min
A simple story exploring a poignant few weeks in the life of a twenty-something gay man who finally comes out to his beloved grandmother in the Jersey City house he was raised in - in spite of mounting pressure from his domineering mother and west village live-in boyfriend.
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