R U GOING 2 SAN FRANCISCO?

I've never been to San Francisco for Pride shindigs, but I've heard that it's one hell of a swingin' time. Friends tell me that one of the highlights is the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, presented by a queer film outfit called Frameline.

As a temporary staffer at Frameline, my good friend Meg has been busting her rump to set up the four day conference that accompanies the film festival. Entitled Persistent Vision 2006, the conference runs June 19-22 and features celluloid hotshots like actress/writer Guinevere Turner (Go Fish) and Hedwig himself, John Cameron Mitchell (who just showed his sexually explicit, eyebrow-raising new film Shortbus at Cannes). For more information on the festival and the conference, mosey on over to www.frameline.org.

Those of us who won't be tramping around Fisherman's Wharf anytime soon will have to improvise and stir up some queer film action in our own living rooms. May I suggest the excellent German lesbian/transvestite drama Unveiled? For your perusal, here's a review I wrote recently:

UNVEILED
(Wolfe Video, $24.95)

Male and female impersonators can be hilarious, as seen in the comedy classics Tootsie and Victor/Victoria. Movies like Yentl and Boys Don’t Cry prove that gender reversals have dramatic potential, too.
Unveiled, a sensitive and well-acted German film directed by Angelina Maccarone, is a worthy addition to second category. After an extremely limited theatrical release in the U.S., it deserves to find a much larger audience on video. Lesbians will undoubtedly love it for the strong female characters and the passionate girl-on-girl action. But the story is so gripping and intelligent that it should appeal to all discerning viewers, regardless of their sexuality.
Named by The Advocate as one of the top 10 films of 2005, Unveiled has the additional distinction of being banned in Iran. Watching the film in light of Iran’s hyperconservative views on women’s rights and homosexuality, it’s not hard to see why.
In a dynamic and convincingly androgynous performance, Jasmin Tabatabai portrays an Iranian woman named Fariba. Persecuted due to her love affair with another woman, she flees to Germany and gets clearance to stay by assuming the identity of a dead man.
She lives in a male boarding house and gets an illegal job at a sauerkraut factory, rousing some suspicion from her male coworkers when she refuses to shower after work. Soon she befriends Anne, a fellow factory worker played with grace and compassion by Anneke Kim Sarnau. Anne is suspicious of Fariba’s true identity, but in an erotic bedroom scene she proves that she’s ready, willing and able to prove her love when Fariba finally reveals that he’s a she.
A happy ending for Fariba and Anne is about as likely as a post-road trip vacation to Club Med for Thelma & Louise. The story is not without hope, though. Without giving away any plot specifics, Unveiled gives Fariba the last laugh. She proves that, with enough chutzpah, women from fundamentalist countries (or any country for that matter) can trump misogyny and homophobia.
The DVD’s notable extra feature is "Everyone, Everywhere," a short film about the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Sir Ian “Gandalf” McKellen narrates.