Film festival frenzy

The Eighth Annual St. Louis International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival kicks off with the St. Louis premiere of "Bedrooms and Hallways" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8, at the Tivoli Theatre, 6350 Delmar Ave. in the University City Loop.

This year's festival features more than 30 full-length features, a documentary and two programs of short films by a variety of different directors. Many of the films were shot in foreign countries, including "Miguel/Michelle" from the Philippines (English subtitles), "Better than Chocolate," from Canada and "Das Trio (The Trio)" from Germany. Included also in the festival is the winner of four awards at the 1998 Montreal Film Festival, "2 Secondes" and the Teddy Award-winning film from the 1999 Berlin Film Festival, "Gendernauts."

A documentary, "It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School" opens the dialogue between parents and educators about homophobia. The film was made in 1996 for PBS, but KETC refused to air it.

Three collections of shorts, "Stages," "Sibling/Parents and Babies" and "A Little Song, A Little Dance" will be shown. Most of the shorts run no longer than 20 minutes and focus on everything from a young girl's desire to marry the neighbor girl to a female cop's struggle to conceive artificially.

Special guests of the SLILAG Film Festival include Sayer Frey, director of "Eileen is a Spy," and Kieran Turner, director of "24 Nights." Sayer Frey will answer questions after the presentation of her movie 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14 and Kieran Turner will follow after her film, which starts at 9:15 p.m.

The SLILAG Film Festival runs from Sept. 8-16 with feature presentations every day. General Admission to any of the shows is $6.50. Students and seniors are $5.75 andthere is a weekday 5 p.m. rush-hour price of $4. Special rates are available for multiple-ticket purchases. Tickets may be purchased at the Tivoli box office, which can be reached by phone from 4:30 to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday and 1:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at (314) 862-1100, ext. 0.

For more information and a complete schedule of events call (314) 997-9846 or visit SILAG's web site at www.slilagfilmfestival.org.