QFest 2016: The 20th Annual Houston International GLBT-Q Film Festival – Uncle Gloria: One Helluva Ride (at Ripcord Bar)

QFest 2016: The 20th Annual Houston International GLBT-Q Film Festival (at various venues July 21-25), features Houston premieres selected from the 2016 international film-festival circuit.

For 2016, QFest: The Houston International LGBTQ Film Festival will mark its 20th anniversary, making it the second longest running LGBTQ film festival in Texas, and the second longest running festival of any kind in Houston.

A five-day, citywide event, QFest is co-presented by some of Houston’s most renowned arts organizations, including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Rice Cinema, Aurora Picture Show, Asia Society Texas Center, DiverseWorks and The Houston Museum of African American Culture.

Curated to highlight the best of Contemporary Queer Cinema, QFest continues its commitment to the past, featuring a yearly selection of revivals showcasing everything from overlooked masterworks to campy, outrageous audience favorites.

Vist http://www.q-fest.com/ for the complete schedule.

At Ripcord Bar Sunday, July 24, Uncle Gloria: One Helluva Ride. Directed by Robyn Symon.

“Uncle Gloria: One Helluva Ride!” is a darkly funny stranger than fiction film full of family drama and fireworks.

During a nasty divorce, Butch, the 67 year-old Jewish macho and homophobic owner of a South Florida auto-wrecking company hides from the law…as a woman setting of a twisting tale of discovery. Naming herself after her two idols – Gloria Estefan and Gloria Steinem, she decides to remodel herself in much the same way Butch once lovingly restored his old cars.

As a senior citizen, she undergoes a risky sex change operation, becomes a dominatrix then a transgender activist, finds, love all while trying to reconcile with her dysfunctional family.

The film was selected for a prestigious Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellowship with the International Documentary Association, as it’s fiscal sponsor. It is produced, directed and edited by two-time Emmy-award former PBS producer, Robyn Symon.

While it has a twisting plot and lots of humor, Uncle Gloria is an important film about letting go of labels and accepting people for who they are regardless of their gender expression.  With the cultural spotlight on gender rights and specifically transgendered people, this film couldn’t be timelier.

Letting go of labels and accepting people for who they are is the core message of our film and our plan for community outreach. Gloria’s personal transformation, her attempts to reconcile with her family and her gender-bending relationship with Dan’s forces us to look beyond gender labels and accept people for who they are- in their hearts not their parts.

Another inspiring message of the story is that regardless of how old you are, it’s never to late to be who you want to be or do what you want to do with your life. As Gloria, who was 66 when she had her sex change operation, reminds us, “if you want to do something, do it now because tomorrow may never come.”

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