QFest 2015: The 19th Annual Houston International GLBT-Q Film Festival – Liz in September/Liz en Septiembre (A TRIBUTE TO FINA TORRES at MFAH)

QFest 2015: The 19th Annual Houston International GLBT-Q Film Festival (at various venues July 23–27), features Houston premieres selected from the 2015 international film-festival circuit.

On opening night, filmmaker Justin Kelly introduces his docudrama I Am Michael, starring James Franco as a former gay-rights activist whose conversion to Christianity leads to the founding of an anti-gay ministry.

Also screening at the MFAH: Kristen Wiig in Nasty Baby, a drama from Chile’s Sebastián Silva (who attended the Museum’s LATIN WAVE film festival in 2009 with his film The Maid); the Venezuelan drama Liz in September, about a woman hiding her terminal illness; and the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential, with Tab Hunter and producer Allan Glaser in person.

A TRIBUTE TO FINA TORRES
QFest and Senorita Cinema will present a Lifetime Achievement Award to acclaimed Venezuelan director Fina Torres, whose career began in 1985 with ORIANA, winner of the Camera d’Or at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. Ten years after her auspicious debut, she directed 1995’s CELESTIAL CLOCKWORK, an international hit that led to her biggest and best known film, 2000’s English-language WOMAN ON TOP, starring Penelope Cruz.

After the award ceremony, QFest will present Ms. Torres’ newest film, LIZ IN SEPTEMBER, based on Jane Chambers’ play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, in which a strong willed woman resolves to face her imminent death without sentiment, only to find herself falling in love.

Liz in September
Liz en Septiembre
Directed by Fina Torres
2014, in Spanish with English subtitles
Venezuela
100 minutes
DCP

Introduced by director Fina Torres.
Señorita Cinema will present its inaugural Achievement Award to director Fina Torres.

Liz (Patricia Velasquez), a party girl and notorious womanizer, invites her friends to a Caribbean beach resort to celebrate her birthday. However, Liz is keeping a secret: she is terminally ill and believes this may be her last opportunity to be surrounded by those she loves.

Eva (Eloisa Maturen), a married woman who finds herself stranded at the resort after her car breaks down, is warily accepted by the women, and Liz’s friends soon dare her to seduce Eva.

Eva harbors her own tragic secret, and what begins for Liz as a potential conquest becomes something neither woman anticipated.

Based on Jane Chambers’ classic novel, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove.

QFest is a sponsored project of the Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP). Vist q-fest.org for the complete schedule.