QFest 2024
In a literal citywide alliance movie theaters from the Alamo Drafthouse (both the Mason Road and Vintage Point locales), the Rice Media Center, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Brown Auditorium, a theater in Galveston, and the Aurora Picture Show will play films from this year’s QFest, running this Thursday, July 25 through July 29. Officially the festival, The Houston International GLBT Film Festival is in its 17th year.
Starting on Thursday each location will host a cumulative two-dozen films, retrospectives, and short film programs. A complete list can be obtained at this website. Here are some of the highlights.
Henry Kyle has been making some of the most innovative docs and films in recent years but to actually see them you would’ve had to go to prestigious film festivals or know somebody who knows somebody. American Cowboy (1998) a documentary on rodeo lifestyle has yet to be duplicated and Room (2005) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Kyle has been around the block, and his latest film Fourplay should move him to the top percent of the list of current cool directors. (Shane Carruth, James Wan, whomever people are talking up at the moment.)
Fourplay the title reflects the foreplay that goes on between the characters. In a series of four vignettes, Kyle unravels the mysteries of the human heart and the human libido.
One episode that takes place in a public bathroom has a pure Euro sex farce vibe. Another ep that depicts a paralyzed man and a transsexual who shows up to attend to him has as much tension and drama as any scene from Before Midnight, another contender in this year’s heaviosity award. Henry will conduct a Q&A along with Gary Chason, who plays a role in Fourplay and is also like Kyle a former Houstonian who cut his teeth in Space City in film before moving on to greener pastures. Fourplay unwinds Friday, July 26 at the Aurora Picture Show.
Other highlights include screenings of classic horror films like Prom Night and Scream at the Alamo, and the Houston premiere of James Franco’s Interior Leather Bar, which imagines the possible deleted scenes from the 1980 film Cruising (Rice Media Center, Saturday, July 27). Cruising the Al Pacino starrer is also playing the next day at the MFAH. Closing night, Monday July 29 features G.B.F. (at the RMC) with star Andrea Bowen who will host the post-film Q&A.
– Michael Bergeron
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