Weekend: Swirl of events builds up to film festival's Sunday finale

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Swirl of events builds up to film festival's Sunday finale

By STEVE PERSALL
Published October 12, 2006

The 17th annual Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival pays a final visit to St. Petersburg tonight, as the cinema showcase approaches its final weekend.

BayWalk 20 will present a 7 p.m. screening of In Dreams Awake, a biography of rural artist and storyteller Bill Petrie. After the show, a reception for filmmakers Tom Brown and Ed Commons that features Petrie's paintings will be held at Studio@620 620 First Ave. S.

On Friday the festival continues at Tampa Theatre with a 5:45 p.m. showing of Songbirds, one of four film events wrapped around a Frisky Friday the 13th party for women at the Sheraton Riverwalk hotel.

The festival's most anticipated film, John Cameron Mitchell's sexually explicit Shortbus, will be shown at 9:45 p.m. at Channelside 9. Shortbus focuses on a Brooklyn salon where passionate lovers cross paths in a frank manner that sharply divided audiences at the Cannes and Toronto film festivals. Because of the film's explicit nature, identification will be required.

Saturday's lineup shares nine films between Tampa Theatre and Channelside 9, beginning at 1 p.m. The day's final selection, the teenage sex comedy Another Gay Movie, will begin at 9:15 p.m. at Tampa Theatre, followed by a theme party at the Sheraton Riverwalk hotel.

Sunday's closing ceremonies at Tampa Theatre begin at 1:15 p.m. with music and an 80th birthday cake for the movie palace on Franklin Street. A collection of short films will be shown simultaneously inside the venue. The closing film selection, Q. Allen Brocka's comedy Boy Culture, begins at 7:45 p.m.

Tickets for film presentations are $9. Parties at the Sheraton each cost $15 at the door. Details about films and schedules are available the festival Web site www.pridefilmfest.com.