This time last year, when OUTFEST LA’s Queer Film Fest should have been celebrating its 42nd Anniversary, it had to shut up shop with a melodrama breaking out into a very public, nasty spat between its Executive Director and its Board.OUTFEST was dealing with a financial deficit that had left it with just one employee — its interim executive director, Christopher Racster- and the nonprofit was in turmoil last year, telling donors it was in “serious financial jeopardy” and needed to raise $750,000. It laid off its staff, including employees who decided to form a union.

Evidently, all that drama has played out, and although no one is rushing forward to talk about winning or losing (?),  but as far as Queerguru is concerned, the best part is OUTFEST IS BACK.  Actually, the new 4 Day Fest is called OUTFEST NEXT  ….. and they issued this statement ” We are beginning our return, renewed and ready. After a season of rebuilding and refocusing, we’re thrilled to present OutfestNEXT—four powerful days of cinema celebrating the resilience, joy, and artistry of LGBTQ+ storytelling.  With a new Board of Directors in place, and as part of the restaffing initiative, Outfest is collaborating closely with Queer Filmworkers United (QFU) union to ensure that Outfest team members are supported by the union’s guidance on creating a world-class work environment.  We want to wish them all the very best, and hope from now on, any drama remains up on the screen.

We have been through the  new program in great detail to come up with Queergurus Top Picks of Must See Movies 

ALL THAT WE LOVE: The combination of multi-award-winning queer filmmaker Yen Tan (Pit Stop, 1985) and Margaret Cho is inspired casting. Cho stars as Emma, who sort of loses the plot after the death of her beloved dog. This midlife crises of hers that follows creates chaOS for everyOne in her life Including her estranged ex-husband (Kenneth Choi) their free-spirited daughter  on the verge of emigrating (Alice Lee) and her gay best freind (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) who is also dealing with the recent loss of his husband. Cho is in her element in this role havIng to deal with an avalanche of different feelings  such as aging, friendship, parenthood, mortality, past loves, second chances, and the profound connection we all have with our pets. Totally unmissable

Sydney Sweeney packed on 30 lbs of muscle to play the lead in this biopic of the lesbian boxer Christy. She doesnt just have to just deal with her fights in the ring, but wjhat is tougher are the personal battles against abuses at home.  Sweeney gives a career best performance and its is matched with  another strong performance from Katy O’Brian as Lisa Holewyne, Christy’s one-time rival-turned-frenemy, and much later, her wife.

Drive Back Home, written and directed by Michael Clowater, is a dour triumph. This character-driven road movie, starring Alan Cumming, painstakingly scrapes through layers of hurt and humanity. But it does it with a salty tenderness. It’s a story of two estranged brothers who barely have a shared vocabulary, except maybe the word ‘faggot’. Weldon (Charlie Creed-Miles)  is a monosyllabic but stoic plumber. His flamboyant brother Perley (Cumming) is a mystery to him. Perley is fragile, but superior acting, a veneer of expensive clothes hiding a poverty of hope. The brothers were torn apart by the horror of their childhood, living with a murderously violent father. The film’s starting point is the father’s funeral which eventually creates the space for them to reunite.

Niñxs Filmmaker and activist Kani Lapuerta filmed this over 8 years in the small town of Tepoztlán, in the mountains of central Mexico. (Side note, you have to be at least the 7th generation of your family to be called a local!) Her subject was Karla (15 years old at the end of the film), a very imaginative trans girl who had the unqualified support of her unconventional hippy parents, but still had to deal with abuse from other children and adults in this remote conservative town.  In this remarkable piece of guerrilla filming, Lapuerta returned to continue the project over the years, and the two of them formed a tight, extraordinary bond in which we could see Karla mature so much earlier than others of her age.  In this, her directing debut, Lapuerta very astutely allows  Karla the space to tell her story on her own terms, so we are able to watch her use her vivid imagination to power her through the tougher parts of her transitioning and also to further her very natural sense of humor.

PERRO PERRO : Two couples spend a long weekend in one of the wooden houses at Tigre.  While being there, IMDb synopsis states: Juan finds a stray man acting like a dog, he cares for him, and his girlfriend cautions against getting too attached.  What we notice at first in this fictional queer romantic drama is two male friends on a boat are calling tenderly to something/someone off camera,  and what emerges is a naked, isolated, beautiful specimen that the group address to as a dog in the kind of dreamy story we watch.  This is a rare animalistic tale of longing and detachment, beautifully shot  in the tradition of Marco Berger´s aesthetic of insinuation.

https://www.outfest.org › next November 6 – 9

for full reviews on over 2000 queer films check out www.queerguru.com and whilst you are there be sure to subscribe to get all the latest raves and rants on queer cinema …best of all its FREE