10 LGBTQ films you don't want to miss at Reeling Film Fest

ChicagoPride.com
September 19, 2018

Chicago’s Reeling Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 20 and runs through Sept. 30. Reeling - the second longest-running film festival of its kind - prides itself on showcasing the best LGBTQ films each year. Here are our five most anticipated entries for Reeling 36.

A full schedule of this year’s films is here.

Pictured: DEVIL'S PATH, screening Sunday, Sept. 23

Related: Former Chicagoan Danny Bernardo brings 'Jerky' to Midwest premiere at Reeling

Chicago’s Reeling Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 20 and runs through Sept. 30. Reeling - the second longest-running film festival of its kind - prides itself on showcasing the best LGBTQ films each year. Here are our five most anticipated entries for Reeling 36.

A full schedule of this year’s films is here.

Pictured: DEVIL'S PATH, screening Sunday, Sept. 23

Related: Former Chicagoan Danny Bernardo brings 'Jerky' to Midwest premiere at Reeling

Freelancers Anonymous - Reeling Opening Night

Reeling’s 36th edition kicks off with this Chicago-based fizzy screwball comedy. Stuck in a dead-end job with an impossible-to-please boss played by a hilarious Alexandra Billings (TRANSPARENT, GOLIATH), Billie (Lisa Cordileone, EASY ABBY) has a meltdown and quits. Now what is she going to tell her demanding fiancé Gayle (Natasha Negovanlis, ALMOST ADULTS) who’s planning a lavish wedding? When she meets a ragtag group of other underemployed women, Billie is struck with the idea of cultivating their skills to create an app for freelancers. Billie takes the risk of her life, lying to Gayle in order to buy time. When the wedding and app launch party are booked for the same day, will the sly, resourceful Billie be able to keep it all together? This delightful romp from director Sonia Sebastian (GIRL GETS GIRL) features an outstanding supporting cast of seasoned laugh getters including Jennifer Bartels (AMERICAN WOMAN; BROKEN), Megan Cavanagh (A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN; SCROOGE & MARLEY), and Amy Shiels (TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN).
7:00PM

Matt Smith (THE CROWN; DR. WHO) gives a fearless, unabashedly sexy performance in this long awaited biopic as Robert Mapplethorpe, arguably one of the most important artists of the 20th century, who discovered himself both sexually and artistically in New York City through the ‘70s and into artistic renown in the ‘80s before his untimely passing from AIDS in 1989. Timoner’s unapologetically frank movie explores Mapplethorpe’s life as he and then girlfriend Patti Smith (Marianne Rendon, IMPOSTERS) move into the famed Chelsea hotel, home to a world of bohemian chic. Photographing his new found circle of friends of artists, musicians, socialites, film stars, and members of the S&M underground, Mapplethorpe soon discovers his unique photographic gifts. Enabled and emboldened by his lover and art patron, Sam Wagstaff (Tony Award winner John Benjamin Hickey), Mapplethorpe’s erotically charged photos shocked the art world, setting off a firestorm of controversy that is still being played out today in the court of public opinion.
9:30PM

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

RIOT tells the story of the courage and passion behind Australia’s first Gay and lesbian Mardi Gras. In the late 1970s when homosexuality is still a crime in Sydney, a group of activists – some friends, some lovers, some just committed to their search for equality – don fancy dress, join hands and parade down Oxford Street – unaware that angry police lie in wait and that history is about to written. Gay rights pioneer Lance Gowland, uncompromising and utterly charming, is the leader of this eclectic band that includes a passel of his lovers, a lesbian couple fighting a losing custody battle, and others. Damon Herriman is superb as Gowland, heading a marvelous ensemble cast playing the real-life figures. Walker’s spirited, moving retelling of Australia’s Stonewall crackles with energy and fiery passion, culminating in the riot that finally changed hearts and minds Down Under.
7:15PM

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

Yad (Majd Mardo), a handsome Middle Eastern medical student in Amsterdam, quits his hard partying lifestyle to spend the summer in a small Dutch city with his parents. A temp job as a domestic working for the energetic Ans (Jenny Arean) leads to Yad meeting her hunky blonde grandson Joris (Josha Stradowski). The erotic fireworks between the two are off the charts and their affair is the perfect respite from their respective family problems. But can this be more than just a hot, summer fling? Can the possibility of love bridge the cultural differences threatening to tear the seductive heartthrobs apart? This ultra-sexy romantic dramedy offers something beyond the usual pleasures of a young gay love story, and the conflicts with their families have nothing to do with Yad and Joris’s sexuality, marking JUST FRIENDS as a truly modern tale of queer love.
9:15PM

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

In the early ‘90s, two strangers, Noah (Stephen Twardokus) and Patrick (JD Scalzo) meet in a wilderness park where gay men cruise for sex. What seems like a random encounter quickly descends into a horrific nightmare. With recent disappearances and attacks, the two men soon find themselves on the run, drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse. As they flee further into the woods they begin to understand that the greatest danger may be closer than either of them realizes. Will these strangers be able to work together to survive or will their own secrets and lies lead them to be the next two victims? Gay indie acting fave Montgomery (PORNOGRAPHY: A THRILLER; SOCKET; FINDING MR. WRIGHT) makes his directorial debut with this creepy, sexy thriller that will have you guessing until the last moment.
7:15PM

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

When timid 25-year-old New Yorker David (David Schachter) volunteers to be a “buddy” to an AIDS patient, the community center assigns him to Robert (Geoff Edholm), a 32-year-old gay activist from California who has been abandoned by his friends and lovers. With each subsequent visit to his hospital room, the growing bond between the two men unfolds as Robert recalls his life as a handsome, confident and pioneering gay activist to David, who records his thoughts about their visits in a journal. This early queer cinema classic, the first dramatic feature film about AIDS, has long been unavailable and will be shown in a new digital restoration. Reeling’s connection to BUDDIES couldn’t be more personal: it played on opening night of the festival in 1985 to a sold-out crowd at the Music Box with director Bressan in attendance.
9:15PM

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

Renowned for his erotically outrageous films (VOYAGE; UTOPIANS; AMPHETAMINE), Scud pushes the envelope even further with ADONIS, his seventh feature. It’s the story of Yang Ke (Adonis He Fei), an actor with the Beijing Opera, whose dreams of stardom are fading now that he’s pushing 30. When he loses his job and is down on his luck, he finds himself answering ads for “nude outdoor model” gigs and soon ends up participating in what will become his ticket to infamy: a gay porn film that becomes a sensation in the underground. As Ke descends further and further into a world of hedonism as a hotly desired sex worker, he finds himself increasingly emotionally detached. When Ke accepts the invitation of a mysterious, masked client (played by gay porn star Eric East) on his 30th birthday, even he might have found his limits. Filled with the mind blowing visuals and ultra-sexy cast director Scud is renowned for, ADONIS may well be his most provocative film. Contains graphic visual content; viewer discretion advised.
7:00PM

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

In this bittersweet, deeply human drama from award-winning writer-director Yen Tan (PIT STOP; CIAO), Manhattan transplant Adrian (Cory Michael Smith, GOTHAM; CAROL) returns to his Texas hometown for Christmas during the first wave of the AIDS crisis, hiding both his HIV status and his sexuality from his religious conservative mother (Virginia Madsen, SIDEWAYS) and father (Michael Chiklis, THE SHIELD). Adrian reconnects with his younger brother, who may be questioning his own budding sexuality, and his estranged childhood pal and onetime girlfriend (Jamie Chung), while struggling with whether to reveal his true nature and health challenges.
7:15PM

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

When narcissistic, womanizing TV star Walter Campbell (Matthew Glave, GRACE AND FRANKIE; FEUD; THE WEDDING SINGER) discovers that his latest fling is pregnant, he figures he better break the news to his estranged adult daughter Nicole (Jana Winternitz, THE THINNING) in person by crashing her vacation in Big Sur. As a favor to Nic, he agrees to bring her friend Kim (Emily Bett Rickards, ARROW), along with him on the drive. When they arrive at their destination, Walter realizes he’s unknowingly invited himself to his daughter’s wedding with Kim. Surrounded by Nic’s closest gal pals, he’s a fish out of water. But that isn’t the biggest problem – he’s learned something about Kim on the trip up that might mean he has to ruin the wedding. What’s a father to do? Gallagher’s delightfully dark wedding dramedy, a Slamdance Festival favorite, offers some surprisingly insightful answers.
7:15PM

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

Studio 54 Closing Night Film of The 2018 Reeling Film Festival

Studio 54 was the epicenter of ‘70s hedonism – a pulsating pleasure palace that not only redefined the nightclub but also came to symbolize an entire era. Its co-owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, one introverted and straight, the other flamboyantly gay, seemed to come out of nowhere. The extraordinary success of the first of the mega clubs with its restrictive door policy and mix of sex, drugs and glamorous celebrities is detailed, as are the factors that brought the phenomenon crashing down. Underneath all the glittery excess is the story of the two owners. Schrager finally opens up to filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer (VALENTINO; SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD) about his improbable friendship with the late Rubell, a victim of AIDS. Thirty-nine years after the velvet rope was first slung across the Studio 54’s hallowed threshold, here is the film that finally tells the real story behind the greatest club of all time.
5:00PM

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