aGLIFF Presents the World Premiere of Drive and Other Works by Alpha, Tonight

aGLIFF, or the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, tonight hosts the latest in its 2006 Filmmaker Series, which presents works by up-and-coming queer filmmakers and donates any proceeds from ticket sales to support their future projects.

Austin-based auteur Alpha's first effort, a documentary short piece entitled What Can 2 Girls Do Together?, debunked common misconceptions that straight males hold about lesbians and earned her a reputation as a guerrilla filmmaker. Since then, she's directed and co-edited numerous narrative shorts (Never Again) and feature length films (How To Pick Up Girls: A Guide for the Dating Impaired), including AVN Award-nominated works like Home Cookin', Gallery Erotica (Pro-Am Film) and Gonza: Wanna Be A Porn Star? (Best Comedy Film). In addition, Alpha teaches Guerrilla Filmmaking courses at UT, runs an erotic/independent features production company called Passion Fruit Video (may be NSFW, we're not sure) geared towards the lesbian market, and is something of a "performance artist and poetry slam dynamo," according to her aGLIFF biography.

Tonight's program includes two recent narrative shorts and a feature length film. From aGLIFF's site:

“Drive” (2006) A world premiere featuring a surrealistic story of two ill-fated lesbian lovers. As the two go off on a wild ride, they seek to discover who’s behind the wheel and who will survive the drive.

“Confessions” (2006) A dark, moody black and white film about lesbian secrets and the voyeuristic culture we live in. The film was produced through improvised roles and scripts and the “story” was created from their collective work.

“Chronicles of Halycon” (2005) This film is pure campy fun that answers the question: what if Xena really “was” a lesbian? What if the warriors in Monty Python and the Holy Grail were cute Amazon butchies? Featuring lesbian heroes on horseback and loopy comedy moments, this film was original filmed as an hour-long television pilot and featured flashy special effects and an anti-war theme that suits the times.

A Q&A session and mingler will follow the screening.

[aGLIFF Presents: The Films of Alpha]

The Films of Alpha and World Premiere of Drive
Wednesday, Aug 16
Arbor Cinema at Great Hills Trail
7:30pm
$10 General, $8 aGLIFF Members
[Tickets]

Photo by Roxanne Mitchell