NewFest LGBT Film Festival rolls out movie lineup

If you’re looking for some good LGBT movies to watch in New York, you can check out NewFest, New York’s LGBT Film Festival scheduled to run from October 22 to 27. For their 27th Annual Festival, NewFest will hold the New York premiere of legendary filmmaker Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato.

The NewFest festival is done in partnership with Outfest, and will be presented by HBO. Greenaway’s film will be on the first night, the US premiere of Girls Lost is scheduled on closing night, and Todd Haynes’ Carol is the Festival Centerpiece

Likewise, the Festival will run nearly 100 narrative features, documentaries, and shorts at the newly-renovated Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas, and at the recently completed screening room of The LGBT Community Center in New York City.

NewFest’s features

As mentioned, the top feature of the festival is Greenaway’s story of pioneering Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s gay coming of age during a trip to Mexico in the 1930s.

First shown to wide acclaim at the Berlinale this year, Eisenstein in Guanajuato had been hailed as one of the finest films in Greenaway’s career and was called “outrageously unconventional and deliriously profane” by Variety.

On the other hand, Alexandra-Therese Keining’s Girls Lost will close the festival, about three bullied girls who are drawn into a wild and chaotic journey when they find a magical plant whose nectar temporarily transforms them into boys.

With its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received critical acclaim, Kreining’s coming-of-age tale is a fascinating exploration of sexuality, identity and desire across the LGBT spectrum.

The third movie feature is the Centerpiece film Carol, Haynes’ highly-anticipated and award-winning lesbian romance starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. This movie won the 2015 Cannes Best Actress award for Blanchett, as well as the Queer Palm.

NewFest’s films

Other movies to be shown are Matt Sobel’s thriller Take me to the River, Mika Kaurismäki’s sumptuous period piece The Girl King about the rise and fall of Sweden’s lesbian Queen Christina, the 2015 Sundance World-Cinema Directing Award-winner The Summer of Sangaile, and the hilarious Fourth Man Out that won the Audience Award for Dramatic Feature Film at this year’s Outfest Los Angeles.

Likewise, there’s the world premiere of Eve Ensler and Katherine Fishers’ Her Story, a web series written by transgender activist Jen Richards and writer/actor Laura Zak, and directed by Sydney Freelands.

There will also be a SAG-AFTRA panel discussion on the evolution of transgender representation in film and television, to be moderated by trans activist Tiq Milan. Lastly, Olympic champion Greg Louganis will be on hand for a special screening and discussion of HBO’s Back on Board: Greg Louganis at the NewFest Film Festival. (PR)