News Release

The festival is sponsored by the Baltimore Film Forum (BFF), the Diverse Sexual and Gender Alliance (D-SAGA) at Johns Hopkins (formerly known as B-GALA), and the Baltimore Alternative. "We are happy that we have opened the festival up to more voices in the community," said Stephen Kent Jusick, the festival's curator and a 1992 Johns Hopkins graduate who works in the film industry in New York City. "This year, we have more programs telling the stories of women, people of color, and youth." Most of the films to be screened were produced in the last two years, which have witnessed a blossoming of films about alternative sexuality.

"The Baltimore Film Forum is proud to produce the 1994 Baltimore Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, because it furthers our mission to increase community awareness of the great diversity within one of the major art forms of this century," said Victoria Westover, executive director of the Forum. Some highlights of the nine programs to be screened at the BFF in The Baltimore Museum of Art include:

Fri., Oct. 28

The festival's guest of honor, black British film maker Isaac Julien, will appear at a screening of two of his films; The Attendant, and the Baltimore premiere of A Darker Side of Black, which explores homophobia in rap music. Co-sponsored by Donna's at the BMA.

The 11 programs taking place at The Johns Hopkins University include several programs on gay youth; on Saturday, Oct. 29, a documentary about teenagers, Out: Stories of Lesbian and Gay Youth, is co-sponsored by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. The festival wraps up with "Gender Bending," a program of short films all about camp and cross-dressing, on Sat., Oct. 29.

All films will be screened at either the Baltimore Film Forum at The Baltimore Museum of Art, Charles and 31st Streets, or at three locations on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus in Baltimore: Shriver Hall, Room 3 in Shaffer Hall, and the Bloomberg Center's Schafler Auditorium. Parking for Shriver and Shaffer Halls is available immediately upon entering the university from Art Museum Drive. Parking convenient to the Bloomberg Center is located along San Martin Drive.

Tickets are $6 general admission, and $5 for students, seniors, BFF and BMA members. For information or a free program guide which includes maps and detailed listings, call the Baltimore Film Forum at (410) 889-1993. Advance tickets may be charged to a credit card by calling (410) 235-0100.