aGLIFF Drops Lineup

The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival offers audiences a chance to discover new LGBTQ+ films that most wouldn’t normally be able to catch on the big screen. Ticket holders will have more than 55 short films and over 30 feature films to choose from. This year's aGLIFF occurs September 8-11 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.

In its 29th year, aGLIFF continues the tradition of making a cinematic splash not only in Austin, but on the international queer film scene. There will be world premiere films and anniversary screenings of classics like Shortbus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch with star, writer/director John Cameron Mitchell attending. This year’s festival will also continue to showcase local artists, women filmmakers, and more trans storylines than you can shake a stick at.

The festival opens with the Southwest premiere of the much buzzed about Real Boy, a documentary and coming-of-age musical about a transgender teen on a journey to find his own voice. Heavily music-influenced, the film features transgender musician Joe Stevens. Director Shaleece Haas and star Bennett Wallace will be at the screening and Wallace will perform following the film.

Experimental film The Big Raincheck is also sure to stand out. Directed by Walter Reuben, the Austin-based film was first shot in 1981, abandoned and then picked up. However, they were forced to recast most of the roles because many of the original actors died from AIDS. The film centers around a young filmmaker in Austin who starts shooting his first feature film using people he knows. His close friend, and inspiration for the film, dies, and somehow returns decades later to inspire him to finish his abandoned film.

Musical documentary Bright Shadow from Brooklyn-based musician Ana Egge is perhaps the most mysterious film screening this year. Little is known about the documentary except that last year she released a music album with the same name.

The 2016 Centerpiece Film, Political Animals, is about the LGBTQ rights movement and the firsthand account of four courageous elected American women. Strike a Pose, a documentary will be screened for all the gays who remember or wanted to learn about voguing with Madonna in her infamous “Vogue” music video. The doc delves into her Truth or Dare tour and how it all came about.

The Austin premiere of Kiki closes out the festival. This award-winning documentary follows a group of New York's queer youth as they practice the performance-based Ballroom. The art form is most famously captured in Madonna’s Vogue, as well as the queer bible/documentary Paris Is Burning. Co-writer and star Twiggy Pucci Garcon will be attend the final screening.

See the full lineup below. Badges are on sale now.

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Opening Night

Real Boy

Centerpiece Film

Political Animals

Closing Night

Kiki

Anniversary Films

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Shortbus

The Watermelon Woman

Narrative Competition

Angry Indian Goddesses

Heartland

I Love You Both

Lazy Eye

Retake

Documentary Competition

Check It

Free Cece!

Growing Up Coy

Memories of a Penitent Heart

Two Soft Things, Two Hard Things

Narrative Features

Arianna

Being 17

Closet Monster

First Girl I Loved

Girls Lost

Jonathan

Paris 05:59: Theo & Hugo

Slash

Spa Night

Summertime

Women Who Kill

Documentary Features

The Big Raincheck

Bright Shadow

Film Hawk

The Freedom to Marry

Gender Troubles: The Butches

Strike a Pose

The Trans List

Uncle Howard

Short Films

Animation Shorts

"Arrival"

"Confessions of a Breastimator"

"Flotsam"

"Hanging"

"Hi, It’s Your Mom"

"Matchsticks"

"Moms on Fire"

Comedy Shorts

"Be Right Back"

"The Escape Hatch"

"Queens"

"The Radical Fairy Prince: A Love Story"

"Sauna of Dead: A Fairy Tale"

"Seeking: Jake Tripper"

"Spunkle"

"Tradesman’s Exit"

Documentary Shorts

"Alzheimer's: A Love Story"

"Bear in a Barber Shop"

"Bootwmn"

"Carl & Cecil"

"A Doll’s Eye"

"One Question"

"Pink Boy"

"These Cocksucking Tears"

"A Wig and a Prayer: The Peaches Christ Story"

Dramatic Shorts

"1985"

"Any Other Day"

"Ecstasy"

"Great Escape"

"Indian Summer"

"Lightning Bugs in a Jar"

"Talking to My Mother"

"Walk With Me"

International Shorts

"An Afternoon"

"The Border"

"Female Masculinity Appreciation Society"

"Homework"

"Mascaras"

"Mukwano"

Transgender Shorts

"Dawn"

"Eva"

"The Friend From Tel Aviv"

"Free Gender"

"Say U Will"

"Tear Jerker"

"Viktor"