Batten down the hatches: The fall film festival season is upon us, when no fewer than four fests set up shop in town. The long-running Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival kicks off first on Sept. 8 – and while the name tips its hat some, the fest’s scope extends to bisexual, transgendered, queer, questioning, and intersex cinema. aGLIFF just announced its lineup this weekend: The list includes comedy Hollywood, Je T’aime, featuring Chad Allen; culture-clash lesbian love story I Can’t Think Straight; and South by Southwest favorite Sissyboy, which documents a Portland-based drag troupe. Find out more at www.agliff.org… And on Monday, Fantastic Fest (www.fantasticfest.com) announced its festival premiere of Survival of the Dead, with director George Romero in attendance. Yes, he’s been at FF before, but if ever there was a patron saint of a fest, surely it’s Romero. Scan any one of the festival’s zombie films – including the just-announced Zombieland, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson – and you can bet they owe a sizable debt to Mr. Romero. We have to admit we’re, er, rather rabidly excited about this year’s fest, which runs Sept. 24-Oct. 1, even if we know we’ll have to watch fully three-quarters of the programming through our fingers. Oh, fuck off: We squirm easily and will take no guff for it.
This article appears in August 14 • 2009.
