Reeling, the second-oldest LGBTQ+ film festival in the world, returns to Chicago Sept. 17-24.
The festival will present nearly 40 features and more than 60 short films from around the worldthe majority of them Chicago premieres. The festival's opening-night presentation returns to the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., and to the Landmark Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark St., for the bulk of the festival. The fest's home base, Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark St., will also host screenings.
Reeling launches with the opening-night presentation of Fourth Man Out, director Andrew Nackman's comedic debut feature about a man who comes out as gay to his blue-collar friends. The festival will also present Freeheld, director Peter Sollett's ( Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist ) real-life drama about a lesbian police officer ( Julianne Moore ) fighting to leave her pension to her life partner ( Ellen Page ) when she is stricken with terminal cancer.
Fourth Man Out co-stars Kate Flannery, Parker Young and Evan Todd will attend the 6 p.m. Music Box Theatre red-carpet event and pre-screening reception before the film starts at 7:30 p.m.
Another festival entry with a lot of buzz is Stonewall, a Roland Emmerich-directed take on New York's Greenwich Village in the summer of 1969the place and time of the famed riots considered the start of the LGBT-rights movement.
Among the many other anticipated highlights are a 10th-anniversary screening of Brokeback Mountain; documentaries such as A Sinner in Mecca, Parvez Sharma's controversial, eye-opening follow-up to A Jihad for Love; the world premiere of Kiss Me, Kill Me, a murder mystery from gay film fave Casper Andreas that includes Queer As Folk's Gale Harold and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Jai Rodriguez; and a screening of Sand Dollars, a lesbian-themed romantic drama with a widely praised performance by Geraldine Chaplin, winner of the Best Actress award at the 2014 Chicago International Film Festival.
Freeheldwhich also features Chicago actor Michael Shannonmakes its Chicago premiere Monday, Sept. 21, at Century Centre with screenwriter Ron Nyswaner ( Oscar-nominated for Philadelphia ) in attendance for a post-show Q&A. Tony- and Drama Desk-winning actress Mary Louise Wilson, a Northwestern alum who played Edith Bouvier Beale in Broadway's Grey Gardens, is the subject of the documentary She's the Best Thing In It. The movie also makes its Chicago premiere Sept. 21 at Century Centre. Wilson and Nyswaner will be in attendance for a very special post-show audience talk.
Visit ReelingFilmFestival.org or call 773-293-1447 for tickets and/or more information .
Award winners from the big summer festivals that are showing in Reeling include:
Frameline (San Francisco):
Audience Award Best Feature: Margarita, with a Straw
Jury Award Outstanding First Feature: In the Grayscale
Outfest (Los Angeles):
Audience Award Best Dramatic Feature: Fourth Man Out
Audience Award Best First U.S. Dramatic Feature: Those People
Jury Award: Documentary Feature Special Recognition: Tchindas
Jury Award Documentary Feature Film: A Sinner in Mecca
Jury Award Actor in a U.S. Dramatic Feature: Curtis Cook Jr. and Kerwin Johnson Jr. in Naz & Maalik