Films and more films

In its second year as QFest, and 16th as one of the preeminent gay and lesbian film festivals in the land, the annual summer series formerly known as the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is striking new chords.

Acknowledging the changes over the decade in independent gay cinema, in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement, and in the culture at large, artistic director Ray Murray, managing director Carol Coombes, and their QFest team have broadened the scope and amped up the programming. The festival began Thursday with twin opening-night offerings - the homegrown You Can't Have It All and the lesbian love story Elena Undone - and runs through July 19, serving up 125 films, with more than 95 directors, producers, and stars expected to be in attendance.

And running parallel to QFest is a Danger After Dark minifest - 11 horror, cult, exploitation, and just-plain-strange affairs hand-picked by DAD curator Travis Crawford. (See story at right.)

"I don't think people really recognize the difference and the changes that have happened over 16 years," Murray says of the mainstreaming of gay and lesbian culture, and the challenge to keep the fest relevant.

When Murray and his colleagues launched in 1995, "we were the only game in town," he recalls. "If people wanted to see gay films, they could see a couple on VHS, but that was about it. And now it's all out there. People can go to Netflix and see just about every gay film ever made."

That apparently hasn't dampened enthusiasm for the festival. Last year's attendance topped 24,000, and advance ticket sales this year have been strong, Murray reports. And QFest is mixing things up: There are "post-gay" titles, as Murray puts it, where the characters may be gay or lesbian, but their sexual identity isn't a factor in the story. There is a strong section of narrative films from Latin America, too.

And there's a whole program built around the Beat movement of the 1950s and its legacy, with documentaries on William S. Burroughs and Warhol superstar Candy Darling, and the Philadelphia premiere of Howl, with James Franco as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Howl, which opened the Sundance Film Festival in January, also stars Jeff Daniels, Mad Men's Jon Hamm, and Mary-Louise Parker.