The 'Out Here Dayton Film Fest' kicks off this Thursday and runs thru the weekend.
All Things Considered Host Jerry Kenney spoke with festival director Jonathan McNeal of The NEON about this year’s film lineup.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Jonathan McNeal: The lineup is fantastic and we keep getting little tidbits of bonus content coming in that aren't going to necessarily be marketed. So festival goers will be in for some surprises.
Jerry Kenney: You have an opening night celebration, typically, I think?
McNeal: This year we are opening, because there was so much good content and because we've been doing well over the last couple of years, we decided to expand it. So we are now opening on a Thursday evening. That documentary is called Lady Like, which is about Lady Camden, who was a RuPaul's Drag Race contestant and professionally trained ballet dancer as well. That that'll screen with a couple of shorts. And then we're going to invite the community to just go out for a drink afterward. That's going to be kind of bonus content that people didn't know anything about.
McNeal: But Friday actually is the night we'll have our big party afterward and that will be at Lily's just a block away from the front door of the theater.
Kenney: So a nice, easy entry into the weekend film festival.
McNeal: That's right. So Thursday evening, a little more relaxed, Friday a little more high energy, perhaps, and then all day Saturday, all day Sunday.
Kenney: Let's talk about what you've secured for the rest of this upcoming festival weekend.
McNeal: So talked about Lady Like already. There are two shorts along with that one called Kings, which has some drag king components. And then Stan Behavior, which is with Ginger Minj. That's all that Thursday evening screening. One ticket gets you all of those films and then on Friday, we have a movie called Queen of My Dreams, which did premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. And that is this lovely little film that is about a woman who is — her father passes away. She has to go to the Middle East to be with family and leave her girlfriend behind in Canada. So she kind of goes back into a much more conservative culture and is trying to figure out who her mother was as well.
So we get a lot of flashbacks as to who her mother was coming of age.
Kenney: Let's talk about ticketing. You can buy a full weekend pass or try to see the movies individually as well?
McNeal: That's right. Festival passes are almost sold out, actually. They do go pretty quickly because we don't offer too many. We only offer 50 passes because it's really only a bargain if you're going to see everything. We really want encourage people to if they want to just support the festival, buy a ticket or two and then make a donation if you'd like. But those passes, we're actually holding on to seats for people for all of the shows. So it becomes a little bit of a logistical juggling act to make that happen. So we don't offer too many passes. The tickets are only $10 each.
We still have tickets for every screening right now, but I do want to mention, too, that we have a scholarship portal on our website www.outheredayton.org. If you click on that scholarship portal, you can request tickets for any screening. No matter what, we will give you free tickets if they're still available. We want to fill the house. It's not about making money, it's about creating synergy in the community.
Kenney: And I think that's a great policy for someone who may be unfamiliar with the film festival and might just want to try out a movie or two.
McNeal: That's right. So if it's just you're not quite sure you've never heard of it before, which you probably haven't for most of our titles, or if it's a financial struggle, I mean, no matter what, if you request tickets through the scholarship portal, we'll give them to you if they're available.
Kenney: Great. Let's talk about some more of the weekend lineup.
McNeal: Saturday at 12:30 a.m. is our first package of shorts. The shorts have been so popular over the years that we've actually added a second package of shorts. So there's 12:30 a.m. on Saturday and 12:30 a.m. on Sunday - two completely different packages of short films that really cover a lot of bases, short documentaries - comedies, dramas, and really cover the spectrum of the LGBTQ community. You know, at the Neon, we celebrate what gets nominated for the Oscars every year with the shorts in animated and live action and documentary. But this is an opportunity to see how really good storytelling can be done in eight, 12, or 15 minutes and tell a complete story.
A House Is Not A Disco, which is Saturday at 3:30 p.m. is a documentary about the pines at Fire Island, and it's directed by Brian J. Smith, who was a star of Sense8 the big Netflix series years ago. This is his directorial debut for a feature documentary, and actually, that day is his birthday as well. We've been trying to secure him to be here, and we're still holding out hope that he can join us Saturday evening.
Then we have a documentary about Bob Mackie, which is a really great piece, a big crowd pleaser with a lot of star power, you know, Miley Cyrus and Cher and Carol Burnett and all of these people, RuPaul, all these folks are in there that had costumes made by Mackie and talk about their relationship with Bob Mackie. And then Saturday night at 9:45 p.m. at the late show on Saturday is actually a comedy, horror film called Mother, Father, Sister, Brother Frank. And it stars Mindy Cohn, who was Natalie from The Facts of Life, as I'm sure some folks will remember. But it is a treat. And Caden Douglas the director of that film will be here with that screening.
Sunday is another shorts package at 12:30 p.m. and then Sunday afternoon at 3:15 p.m., we have a German film called What a Feeling, which is a lesbian comedy. Really a lot of fun. The committee especially likes that film. And then at 6:00 p.m. Turtles, which is a film about two older men who, one decides that in order to spice up their love-life, he has to ask his husband for a divorce, and it is a lot of fun and, you know, touching, but also poignant and funny.
Kenney: I know after each film, you gauge the audience response. Talk a little bit about how that's done.
McNeal: So we give everyone a ballot for every film that they see throughout the course of the festival and this year we got an Ohio Arts Council grant. So we're asking people to not only vote for their film, but to provide us their zip code as well so we can kind of start to get an idea of what markets we're hitting beyond just, you know, downtown Dayton fans. We want to know where people are coming from, but also what they do then is just rate the film one through four, whether they loved it or it wasn't for them and then we come up with an audience favorite of the best short and the best feature length film.
Kenney: Great, and finally ticket information?
McNeal: Ticket information - all of it's available on our website. www.OuthereDayton.org. And you know our festival name changed last year. We used to be the Dayton LGBT Film Festival but the moniker of the community has changed so much over the years, and now it's the LGBTQ plus community, and it's going to continue to evolve, I think. So instead of trying to keep up with that moniker, we just came up with something that we think has a wide embrace.
Kenney: Response to the new branding?
McNeal: Pretty great. Folks are embracing it just as they had before and I think that there's some positive feedback that it seems more welcoming.
Kenney: Great. Jonathan McNeal with Out Here Dayton, thanks so much.
McNeal: Thank you, Jerry.
