The Denver Film Society (DFS) announced today the full lineup for the CinemaQ Film Festival, taking place at the Sie FilmCenter July 21 - 24. Opening the Festival, is the documentary Strike A Pose, about seven young male dancers featured in the film Truth or Dare, revisits Madonna's controversial tour 25 years after the fact, to reveal the truth about life during and after the tour. The film screens Thursday, July 21 at 7:00pm followed by an Opening Night party in Henderson's Lounge. "What's great about this year's Festival line-up is looking at and experiencing topics and cultural happenings that have been part of the LGBT experience for decades, but through a contemporary lens," says Denver Film Society programmer Matthew Campbell. "These compelling and moving stories depict both triumph and perseverance as well as sadness and joy." This year's Festival will screen 12 feature films, including 5 documentaries and 7 narratives, 1 shorts package and will host one panel. Highlights include a 25th anniversary screening of Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, and in-person guests for Lazy Eye (Director Tim Kirkman), Political Animals (Director Jonah Markowitz), Women WhoKill (Director Ingrid Jungermann) and Bed Buddies (director Reid Waterer). The panel will focus on Lesbian voices, and host Los Angeles Film Festival Director of Programming Roya Rastegar and award-winning filmmakers Ingrid Jungermann and Jessica Devaney for a discussion about their careers and the state of lesbian cinema. The panel will be moderated by writer and film critic, Lisa Kennedy. Memories of a Penitent Heart, a moving and artfully shot documentary, with Director Cecilia Aldarondo and subject Nylda Dieppa Aldarondo in-person will close out the festival on Sunday evening at 7:00pm, with a reception preceding the film at 5:30pm. Leading up to the festival, DFS will participate in a variety of Pride Week events. On June 14, DFS, OutFront Magazine and The Center bring you a special La Cage Aux Folles/The Birdcage double feature beginning at 4:30pm ($7 DFS Member / $11 Non Member) at the Sie FilmCenter. DFS will also host a booth at PrideFest, June 18-19. All access passes ($70 DFS Member / $85 Non Member) and individual tickets are on sale now at www.denverfilm.org. Direct link to program and tickets: http://www.denverfilm.org/filmcenter/detail.aspx?id=28480 Online & Social Media: www.denverfilm.org, "like" DFS on Facebook (Facebook.com/DenverFilm), "Follow" DFS on Twitter (@DenverFilm), join the conversation using #CinemaQ. 2016 CinemaQ Sponsors: Argonaut Wine & Liquor, Biscuits & Berries, Bonfils Stanton Foundation, Colorado Film and Video Association, Colorado Office of Film Television & Media, Debt Free Guys, E.&J. Gallo Winery, Mike's Camera, Out Front, SCFD, The Center NARRATIVE Closet Monster - Canada - (Director: Stephen Dunn) Closet Monster tells the story of Oscar Madly (Jessup), a creative and driven teenager who hovers on the brink of adulthood. Destabilized by his dysfunctional parents, unsure of his sexuality, and haunted by horrific images of a tragic gay bashing he witnessed as a child, Oscar dreams of escaping the town he feels is suffocating him. A talking hamster, imagination and the prospect of love help him confront his surreal demons and discover himself. Kiss Me Kill Me - USA - (Director: Casper Andreas) In this twist on classic L.A. film noir, director Casper Andreas (Violet Tendencies) and screenwriter David Michael Barrett (Such Good People) present this sexy new gay thriller. Dusty (As the World Turns' Van Hansis) blacks out while confronting his cheating boyfriend Stephen, (Queer as Folk gay icon Gale Harold). When Dusty awakens, he learns someone has been murdered and he's the prime suspect! The gorgeous and talented cast includes Brianna Brown (Devious Maids), Yolonda Ross (HBO's Treme), Jai Rodriguez (Queer Eye), Matthew Ludwinski (Going Down in LA-LA Land), Kit Williamson (Madmen), D.J. "Shangela" Pierce (RuPaul's Drag Race), Allison Lane (The Dark Place), Jackie Monahan (The Foxy Merkins), Craig Robert Young (The Last Ship), Michael Maize (Mr. Robot) & Jonathan Lisecki (Gayby). Sit back and enjoy this over-the-top, entertaining guilty pleasure! Lazy Eye - USA - (Director: Tim Kirkman) Passions ignite and hidden secrets are revealed when a graphic designer in Los Angeles (Lucas Near-Verbrugghe) reconnects with an ex-boyfriend (Aaron Costa Ganis) he hasn't seen or heard from in 15 years. Over the course of a weekend at a vacation house in the desert, they must determine whether or not they have a future together. Written and directed by Emmy, Gotham, GLAAD and Independent Spirit Award-nominee Tim Kirkman (Dear Jesse, Loggerheads, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me) and co-starring Michaela Watkins (Casual, Wet Hot American Summer), Lazy Eye is about roads not taken, unfinished business, and the struggle to adjust to progressive lenses. My Own Private Idaho - USA - (Director: Gus Van Sant) 25th Anniversary Screening! Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way. Spa Night - USA - (Director: Andrew Ahn) Los Angeles' Korean spas serve as meeting place and bridge between past and future for generations of immigrant families; Spa Night explores one Korean-American family's dreams and realities as each struggles with the overlap of personal desire, disillusionment and sense of tradition. While You Weren't Looking - South Africa - (Director: Catherine Stewart) The changing landscape of post-Apartheid South African politics and lifestyles is portrayed through two central relationships a successful black real estate woman who is cheating on her white wife, and their bohemian daughter dating a gender non-confirming woman in the Khayalitsha township. Women Who Kill - USA - (Director: Ingrid Jungermann) Commitment phobic Morgan and her ex-girlfriend Jean are locally famous true crime podcasters obsessed with female serial killers. There's a chance they may still have feelings for each other, but co-dependence takes a back seat when Morgan meets the mysterious Simone during her Food Coop shift. Blinded by infatuation, Morgan quickly signs up for the relationship, ignoring warnings from friends that her new love interest is practically a stranger. DOCUMENTARY Memories of a Penitent Heart - USA - (Director: Cecilia Aldarondo) Combining a wealth of recently discovered home movies, video, and written documents with artfully shot contemporary interviews and vérité footage, Memories Of A Penitent Heart is a documentary that cracks open a Pandora's box of unresolved family drama. Originating from filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo's suspicion that there was something ugly in her family's past, the film charts her excavation of the buried family conflict around her uncle Miguel's death, and her search for Miguel's partner Robert a generation later. After two years of dead ends, Robert turns up: but he's not the same man. He's reinvented himself as Father Aquin, a Franciscan monk with twenty- five years of pent-up grief and bitterness. For the first time, a member of Miguel's family wants to hear Aquin's side of the story-but is it too little, too late? A story about the mistakes of the past and the second chances of the present, Memories Of A Penitent Heart is a cautionary tale about the unresolved conflicts wrought by AIDS, and a nuanced exploration of how faith is used and abused in times of crisis. Political Animals - USA - (Director: Jonah Markowitz) Political Animals celebrates legendary civil rights victories of the first four openly gay elected California state politicians - who were all women: Carole Migden, Sheila Kuehl, Jackie Goldberg, and Christine Kehoe. Documenting the tough struggles they endured, the film celebrates their pioneering success in the fight for Equality, and the sweet victories these unforgettable women created to pave the way for lasting and significant social change. The Pearl - USA - (Director: Christopher LaMarca, Jessica Dimmock) The Pearl explores the raw emotional and physical experience of being a middle aged to senior transgender woman against the backdrop of post-industrial logging towns in the Pacific Northwest. The film leans into the struggle of those who were reared and successful as men and have reached middle age or later with a burdensome secret that they can no longer keep. Reel In the Closet - USA - (Director: Stu Maddux) Living among a people convinced that their community began in 1969, a reclusive film tech discovers how happy and satisfying it was to be queer before Stonewall when he restores hundreds of hidden home movies made by LGBT people dating back to the 1930s. But time is running out for he and others around the world to save what's left before the films are destroyed by the unknowing or unaccepting families of those who made them. Strike A Pose - Neatherlands/USA - (Director: Ester Gould, Reijer Zwaan) In 1990, seven young male dancers - 6 gay, 1 straight - joined Madonna on her most controversial tour. On stage and in the iconic film Truth or Dare they showed the world how to express yourself. Now, 25 years later, they reveal the truth about life during and after the tour. Strike a Pose is a dramatic tale about overcoming shame and finding the courage to be who you are. SHORTS 1985 - USA - (Director: Yen Tan) A dying man prepares to move in with his estranged mother. He makes an appointment with a beauty consultant to hide his symptoms. Bed Buddies - USA - (Director: Reid Waterer) Longtime gay friends wake up after drunkenly sleeping together and try to make sense of the suddenly blurry line between friendship and love. Partners - USA - (Director: Joey Ally) Professional and life partners Kate and Leigh have shared everything for years, from their apartment to the popular bar they co-own. When a slump in their sex life forces them to reconsider their relationship, they must confront how intertwined their lives have become. These C*cksucking Tears - USA - (Director: Dan Taberski) In 1973, the son of a tenant dairy farmer released the first and only gay-themed country music album. But with only 1000 copies made, the album soon disappeared and became a gay urban myth. Forty years later, Lavender Country was rediscovered and lauded by critics as 'resonant and wonderful...a rare act of bravery and honesty. Vessels - USA - (Director: Arkasha Stevenson) Vessels follows Diamond, a young Latina transgender woman living in Los Angeles. Diamond works at a garment factory for meager pay and is unable to afford healthcare let alone the breast implants she desperately desires. When her friend Hope shows off her new breasts she obtained through illegal black market silicone injections, Diamond is presented with an opportunity to gain the more feminine physique she has wanted her entire life. The girls go visit the "pumper," Prayleen, who helps Diamond sculpt the body of her dreams. When AIDS Was Funny - USA - (Director: Scott Calonico) Recordings of press conferences at the Reagan White House reveal the shocking indifference, and sometimes outright derision, which the administration dealt with the growing AIDS epidemic. PANEL Filmmaker Focus Presents Lesbian Voices CinemaQ Panel Join Los Angeles Film Festival Director of Programming Roya Rastegar and award-winning filmmakers Ingrid Jungermann and Jessica Devaney for a discussion about their careers and the state of lesbian cinema. The panel is moderated by local film critic Lisa Kennedy. Media Contact: JoAnna Cintron Denver Film Society Marketing & Communications Manager joanna@denverfilm.org 303.601.6891 ### About The Denver Film Society Founded in 1978, the Denver Film Society (DFS) is a membership-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit cultural institution that produces film events throughout the year, including the award-winning Starz Denver Film Festival and the popular, summertime series Film on the Rocks. With a vision to cultivate community and transform lives through film, the Film Society provides opportunities for diverse audiences to discover film through creative, thought-provoking experiences. The permanent home of the Denver Film Society, the Sie FilmCenter, is Denver's only year-round cinematheque, presenting a weekly-changing calendar of first-run exclusives and arthouse revivals both domestic and foreign, narrative and documentary - over 600 per year, all shown in their original language and format. DFS's one-of-a-kind programs annually reach more than 200,000 film lovers and film lovers-in-training. | 
