Film Festival Preview

Quick Picks

Six Hot Tickets for the SWGLFF

Cloudburst

Academy Award winners Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck) and Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot) play Stella and Dot, a longtime lesbian couple. When Dot has a minor accident, she’s hustled off to a retirement home by her granddaughter—now it’s up to Stella to bust her out. (Sunday, Sept. 30, 6:30 p.m. Guild Cinema)

Facing Mirrors

Iranian female director Negar Azarbayjani introduces audiences to two very different fictional women: one is a naive traditionalist forced into driving a cab for her jailed husband, the other is a wealthy and rebellious pre-op transsexual. (Tuesday, Oct. 2, 8:45 p.m., Guild Cinema)

Keep the Lights On

Director Ira Sachs (The Delta, Married Life) contributes this semi-autobiographical film about an independent filmmaker who falls in love with a closeted (not to mention married) lawyer in early 2000s Manhattan. (Wednesday, Oct. 3, 9 p.m. Guild Cinema)

North Sea Texas

From Belgium comes this 1960s-era coming-of-age drama set in a quiet town along the North Sea. In it, a young boy deals with the affections of a neighbor girl and the attraction he feels for her brother. (Friday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m. Guild Cinema)

The Skin I’m In

After a night of blackout drinking in Berlin that left him with a near-fatal head injury, Broderick Fox decided to go on a spiritual quest to find his true self. His journey was chronicled in this documentary—and in a deeply symbolic full-back tattoo that marked his body in a “permanent and beautiful way.” (Sunday, Sept. 30, 1 p.m., Southwest Film Center)

Varla Jean and the Mushroom Heads

New Orleans drag queen Varla Jean attempts to revive her failing career by producing a puppet-based children’s show in this campy, music-filled comedy. The results are very wrong and extremely funny. (Saturday, Sept. 29, midnight, Guild Cinema)