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Sept/Oct 1999 issue (#41)
It's ironic that in a city where rainbow flags and pink triangles are ubiquitous in certain neighborhoods that the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival is only going into it's fourth year. The good news is the festival has grown exponentially, according to Kirsten Schaffer, Co-director of Three Dollar Bill Cinema the organization that produces the now annual festival. With a budget that has doubled and an office to call their own, Three Dollar Bill has been able to move from the second floor theater at the Harvard Exit, which seats 200, to the 600-seat Egyptian, well as a second screen at the intimate-scaled Little Theater.
Schaffer and Co-director Justine Barda no longer have to steal pens from their other jobs to keep the festival rolling. Schaffer, Barda and Jason Ploude, outreach coordinator, make up the entire paid, part-time staff. One dozen volunteers make up screening committees and other jobs necessary for such an event.
The films selected for the festival come from two sources. Calls for films and videos are advertised in gay and film magazines. Narrative, documentary, experimental and animated films and videos that are by and/or about lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people are screened. There are a couple of seven-people screening committees -- one for feature films and one for shorts. This year there were about 200 hundred submissions and about 20 were selected. Schaffer and Barda attend West Coast Lesbian and Gay Film Festivals in San Francisco and Los Angeles and select the other 55-70 films presented in SLGFF.
Skylar Fein, the founder of Three Dollar Bill Cinema, moved from San Francisco to Seattle and immediately noticed the lack of such a festival. The San Francisco festival has been an annual event for more than twenty years. Schaffer said before Three Dollar Bill was founded in September 1995, "It was glaringly obvious that Seattle was missing a significant cultural and artistic event that other cities had." According to Schaffer there are two main reasons why it took Seattle till the mid nineties to have its own gay film week. One reason is that in the mid-1980's through the mid-1990's Olympia hosted the Northwest International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. The Olympia festival is currently defunct, primarily because it was entirely student-run. Another major reason Seattle never had its own festival is the Seattle International Film Festival, which just celebrated its 25th year, often screens a large number of gay/lesbian films. Some people felt there was no need for a film festival devoted entirely to lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered issues.
Schaffer said that seeing a gay film with a gay audience is a totally different and more comfortable experience than with a mixed or straight crowd. Plus, Schaffer says the festival is "more than a showcase of films -- it's a place to explore queer theory and culture and come together with other gays/lesbians/bisexuals/transgendered people." The festival aims to include films that deal with issues such as race and class within the gay community.
The festival has always been hosted in theaters on Seattle's Capitol Hill. In some ways having the festival in Capitol Hill is preaching to the converted. But Schaffer said even though Three Dollar Bill has thought about bringing the festival to different Seattle neighborhoods, Capitol Hill provides the audience that sustains the event. In a city where parking is a nightmare, it's nice for Capitol Hill locals to be able to walk to the screenings. Since many gay and lesbian couples are moving to more suburban sections of the city to raise families and by homes, Three Dollar Bill hopes to bring films to other neighborhoods.
October 22 through Thursday, October 28 at the Egyptian Theater, Broadway and E. Pine Street, and The Little Theater, 610-19th Ave E. Program guides will be available in local bookstores, bars and cafes on October 12 and The Stranger will publish the complete festival schedule in the October 14 edition. Advance tickets can be purchased on a sliding scale ($6.00-10.00) beginning October 12 at Ticket/Ticket in the Broadway Market. Tickets sold at the door are $7.50. During the course of the festival there will be three panel discussions and around a dozen filmmakers in attendance.