TIGLFF Day 11 - The Grand Finale

This is the last installment of my reviews of the 2005 Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Yesterday was the last day of the festival so there won’t be anything more to review…

We got downtown about 12:30 PM. We sat at a table across in TECO Plaza strategically located for some of the best people watching. People watching is still one of my favorite pasttimes. It’s one of the reasons I like to hang out at Busch Gardens so much.

The first film of the day was Fish Can’t Fly. This documentary shows the struggle people go through reconciling their homosexuality with their spiritual needs. A lot of emphasis was placed on the dismal failure of so called "ex-gay programs". People from all over the country were interviewed for this film. Many scenes were shot here in Tampa at Potter’s House Fellowship, a church ministering mainly to gay people. I wish all people would see this film, especially Christians. (5 stars)

Next on the shcedule were a couple films we decided to skip so we headed back out to the tables across the street. We got dinner from Pipo’s booth and sat down to a wonderful roast pork meal. We met up with a few friends and had a grand time chatting. Bill and Tony weren’t familiar with downtown Tampa so I led them on a brief walking tour. Shortly after returning to the theater area the dinner buffet was ready to open. There were appetizers from Chipotle and pizza from Pappa John’s. Jim had been complaining all day he really wanted pizza… wish granted!

Before the final feature was a short called The Sadness of Johnson Joe Jangles, probably the most bizarre film I’ve ever seen. If not the most bizarre, then certainly in the top five. The film has the feeling of one of those Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. It starts out with a scene on a train in the old west. One of the male characters is pregnant and gives birth to a donkey. Then it really starts getting bizarre…

Festival organizers saved one of the aboslutely best films of the festival for the grand finale. Adam & Steve is a comedic love story filmed in lower Manhattan. That’s enough for me to like it. Two guys meet, fall in love, and they are tragically separated. Seventeen years later the meet again, fall in love again, then discover that they knew each other before. The movie is filled with sight gags and one-liners that keep you laughing almost nonstop. (5 stars)

After the movie we headed out into the street again to say good bye to friends old and new. One of my most precious memories of the festival will be the fellowship. It was an incredible experience to be in a 1446 seat theater filled to capacity with members of the gay community. I met a lot of people. People that I felt instant connections with like festival volunteers Brian and Clicky. I regret that I never learned Clicky’s real name. He had a clicker counter and clicked it each time we entered the theater. His warm smile and friendliness was something I looked forward to each day. I’m sure I’ll run into him again, I hope real soon, and then I’ll be sure to find out his real name.

Plans are already underway for next year’s festival. Planning is also afoot for monthly screenings of gay interest films. Kind of like mini-festivals all year long!

So many movies… so little time…