LA Weekly Out and Proud: The Best of Outfest 2006 In movie years great and mediocre, one thing remains true and fine about the Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, which turns 24 this week: It’s an event that queer people make for themselves. Straights are welcome, but not necessary, which perhaps accounts for why the lobbies of the Directors Guild and other festival venues fairly hum with happiness. Here, no one has to worry about whether Mom and Dad will be able to handle seeing Jake kiss Heath, because Outfest movies — despite the crossover dreams of their makers — aren’t intended for multiplex heteros, but for the men and women and transgendered beauties who fill Outfest’s theaters, and for their brethren. Outfest, in a sense, says to the larger world: “We want you to see and understand and enjoy these films we’ve made about our lives, but if you don’t come, we’ll survive, and even prosper. For these 12 days, we look to, and look after, ourselves first.” Here are 15 films from this year’s festival that made us sit up straight (so to speak) in our seats. See ya in the lobby. [...] SAINT OF 9/11 (USA) It would be lovely if the Outfest folks could somehow run director Glenn Holsten’s magnificent documentary in a continuous loop throughout the festival, as tribute to its subject, Father Mychal Judge, the Franciscan priest and New York Fire Department chaplain who died while tending to fallen firefighters at the World Trade Center’s North Tower. In a film that’s as much a tone poem to New York City as a biography, those who knew and loved and were changed by Judge conjure his life and extraordinary good works, while narrator Ian McKellen reads from the father’s speeches, sermons, interviews and journals. Judge’s words seem to send Holsten’s camera arching high above the city. The movie is full of sky. (DGA2; Fri., July 7, 8 p.m.) [...]
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