Cruz'n Through Fusion 2010
By Chris Carpenter
Despite its growth in popularity throughout the years, Outfest Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival still hasn’t come close to showing every LGBT film produced each year around the world. Thankfully, we have Fusion: The Los Angeles LGBT People of Color Film Festival, to supplement Outfest and provide a unique showcase of the diversity within our own community.
Prolific stage, film and television actor Wilson Cruz will be the recipient of the 2010 Fusion Achievement Award. Cruz made television history in the 1990s as an openly gay teenager on the acclaimed My So-Called Life. He also played the HIV-positive transvestite, Angel, in Rent on Broadway.
The Latino actor’s other credits include ER, The West Wing, Noah’s Arc and Rick & Steve, the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, as well as the feature films Nixon, Party Monster, Coffee Date and He’s Just Not That Into You.
Cruz also co-stars in this year’s Fusion Gala film, The People I’ve Slept With. This delightful comedy by acclaimed gay director Quentin Lee (Drift, Ethan Mao) focuses on Angela (Karin Anna Cheung), a sex-loving woman who discovers she is pregnant and isn’t quite sure who the father is. In Angela’s quest to find the mystery dad, everybody has advice: her gay best friend (Cruz), her conservative sister (Lynn Chen) and a handsome conquest (Archie Kao).
Veteran actor James Shigeta (Flower Drum Song, Die Hard) co-stars as Angela’s fitness-obsessed father, and the hilarious Randall Park, who nearly steals the show as “Nice but Boring Guy,” one of her baby’s prospective fathers. Written by Koji Steven Sakai, this accomplished film is a must-see.
The traditional “Legacy Screening” this year is 1967’s Portrait of Jason, a movie noteworthy for its being filmed on one wild night at New York’s Chelsea Hotel. Considered a landmark among non-fiction film, Portrait of Jason is the raw record of a confessional conversation with gay, African-American hustler recounting his life and times. Director Shirley Clarke was a key figure in the American avant-garde and has been an influence on filmmakers and video artists throughout the past 40 years. The film screens on March 13.
Also being presented on March 13are the Fusion Shorts Programs. These series of LGBT short films include the striking Boy Meets Boy, by director Kim-Jho Gwang-soo, as well as stories about transgender youth, a sexually conflicted, jazz musician and a butch girl with a crush on a married woman. This year’s movies hail from around the world.
Fusion 2010 takes place March 12 - 13. Screenings, parties and related events take place at various locations throughout Hollywood. For more information about Fusion and to buy tickets, visit www.outfest.org.