The Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival will wrap up three days of films calling out the diversity of life with a screening of LGBTQ shorts on Saturday.
LADFF’s goal is “to provide filmmakers, actors and stories of diverse backgrounds with a place to showcase their voice without judgment or insincere reflection; free of stereotypes and degradation. “
It does that with this week’s festival, produced with the support of WeHo Arts, a program of the City of West Hollywood Arts Division and Arts & Cultural Affairs Commission.
Screening of the Saturday night LGBTQ shorts will begin at 8:30 p.m. at Let Live Theatre (The Actors Company) at 916 A North Formosa Ave. between Romaine Street and Willoughby Avenue. Tickets, $10, can be purchased online.
The shorts include “You Deserve Everything” (dir Goran Stolevski), “Heads or Tails” (dir Eva von Schweinitz), “He Who Has Two Souls” (dir Fabrice Luang-Vija), “Baggage” (dir Sarah Ball), “Breakfast” (dir Tyler Byrnes) and “The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo” (dir Brian Jordan Alvarez).
A Q&A with the filmmakers, moderated by Calpernia Addams, will follow.
Opening night shorts on Thursday at 7 p.m. are: “Shazam” (dir Royston Innes), “Ina” (dir Muffy Levy), “Hollywood and Sunset” (dir Clinton Cornwell), “America Heard: Refuge of Hope” (dir Yasmin Mistry) and “Fishing in the Moonlight” (dir Christian Monnier).
At 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, LADFF will screen the following “I Am Still Here” (dir Mischa Marcus), the story of 10-year old Layla, stolen from her family and thrown into America’s child sex industry. Stories are drawn from interviews with survivors form the fictionalized account of Layla’s journey as she confronts the monsters of her past and embraces the hope for her future.
Friday night opens with a screening at 7 p.m. of two films: “Tag” and “Public Intimacy.” “Tag” (dir Patrick Green and Steve Tirona) tells the story of a colorful day in the secret life of a graffiti artist looking to make a mark.
“Public Intimacy” (dir Luciana Canton), from Brazil, uses four separate narratives to explore the ways we deal with sexuality and love on public and private levels.
At 9 p.m. Friay LADFF will screen “Appellation” (dir Tracy Mathewson), “The Followers of Gilgamesh” (dir Abdul Jabbar Maki), “ Vexed” (dir Marc Cartwright), “The Shadow Forest” (dir Andrzej Cichocki) and “Breakfast” (dir Tyler Byrnes).
Films on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. include “Amma” (dir Yilin (Reinhard) Yin), “Chad, I Love You” (dir Eleanor Evans-Wickberg), “Luke” (dir Dylan Reiss), “Alphabet Mission To Mars” (dir Nathaniel R. Snell), “Life Rolls On” (dir Reagan Yorke), “Within” (dir Kai Armstrong) and “Slide” (dir Jayden Gillespie).
On Saturday at 3 p.m., the films will be “Well Done” (dir Riccardo Di Gerlando), from Italy, which tells the story of a young man who goes to visit an art museum and is fascinated by a symbolic picture, and “Go Penguins!” (dir Randy Caspersen), which follows a theater troupe’s journey to produce a Broadway-style musical featuring children and young adults with developmental disabilities in lead and ensemble roles.
At 5:30 p.m. Saturday there will be a screening of three short films, each from a different country, dealing with the way people with disabilities perceive themselves. “The Sky Is Blue Everywhere” (dir Gina Wenzel), “Being Seen” (dir Paul Zehrer) and “Inner Me” (dir Antonio Spanò). All proceeds from the screening of these films will go to Team Gleason, with is devoted to helping me with ALS.
At 7 p.m. on Saturday, LADFF will screen five comedies: “2 Self Help Books Away From Being Perfect” (dir Lopez Williams), “Wheels of Fortune” (directors Louise Lenihan and Simone Tunbridge), “Well Done” (dir Riccardo Di Gerlando), “Coming Out” (dir Nicholas Paul Ybarra) and “Andre The Anti-Giant” (dir Kim Saltarski).
