INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

A peek at the 2006 LGBT Film Festival

I’m one of the judges of the Sixth Annual LGBT Film Festival, which runs Friday-Sunday, Nov. 10-12 at Key Cinemas Beech Grove, so I can’t comment on any of the award nominess. I can, however, say a few words about a couple of the non-competition movies that will be screened this weekend.

Fat Girls will be part of Friday night’s Premiere Party Prom (along with the RuPaul feature Zombie Prom). Ash Christian stars in the coming-of-age feature, which he also wrote and directed. The young hyphenate, scheduled to make a guest appearance at the screening, plays Rodney Miller, a high school senior in a small Texas town who considers himself a “fat girl” because he believes the term has less to do with weight and gender than it does to a state of mind. A gay kid with Broadway dreams, Rodney hangs out with his large, female best friend Sabrina (Ashley Fink). Together, the inarticulate pair spend most of their time copping attitute, sometimes with good reason, other times from force of habit. Over the course of the story, both of the teens get boyfriends and deal with a number of freaky situations. The ultra-low-budget feature creates an intimate, appealingly grungy ambience that makes it easy to deal with its problem areas. The music is terrific, by the way. I can’t attend the screening, so I’m counting on one of you to find out how I can get a copy of the soundtrack.

Saturday night, following the centerpiece film, The Gymnast, Indianapolis will see something truly rare: a gay movie sequel. Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds (what a classy title) follows up the 2004 original, which also screened at the Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival. As with Eating Out, Sloppy Seconds is a raunchy romantic comedy with a terribly contrived plot, uneven acting, some big laughs, some very good looking young men with great bodies and a bit of frontal nudity. The most memorable scene of the first movie was a highly erotic 17-minute scene where a girl talks dirty to a hunky straight guy over the phone while her gay friend services him. Sloppy Seconds tries to top that and fails, but the results are still enjoyably steamy.

For more information on the Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival, go to www.indylgbtfilmfest.com.