TLVFest kicks off on Halloween with LGBTQ+ films and special events

TLVFest, the Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, will open its latest festival on October 31 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, which is fitting because throughout much of the world, Halloween is a holiday much celebrated by this community.

Despite the war, TLVFest is going forward and will feature the best of recent queer cinema, as well as classics, competitions, and special events, from the end of October until November 10.

The opening-night movie, The Belle from Gaza, directed by Yolande Zauberman, is a very topical documentary about Palestinian trans people who have fled Gaza to live in Tel Aviv. 

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last spring.

It tells how, while filming a previous movie in Israel, Zauberman heard about a trans woman who had left Gaza, and it details the director’s search for her.

In the course of her research, she uncovers a fascinating world of Palestinian transgender people living under the radar in Israel. 

One of the protagonists of the film, Talleen Abu Hanna, will be present at the opening night, as will Zauberman.

Anti-Zionists have sought to discredit the Middle East’s largest LGBTQ+ film event, while it has also faced hatred from religious extremists. 

That has made its organizers even more determined to present the festival to the public.

Yair Hochner, the founder and director of the festival, said in a statement on the festival website: “Anyone who tries to shut down the festival fights against the hope for freedom, justice, equality and peace.”

He said he was proud to open the festival with The Belle of Gaza, which was “one of the most beautiful, smart, sad and funniest films screened at the last Cannes Film Festival.

The film brings to the forefront the voices of brave, smart and emotional trans women who live on the fringes of Israeli society.”

The festival will honor two entertainers. Eliot (aka Ellyott) was the first female Israeli singer to come out of the closet, and she has been a major voice in the indie/pop scene here. 

Hana Laszlo was the first Israeli actress to win the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, for her role in Amos Gitai’s Free Zone, and she has shown support for the LGBTQ+ community in Israel throughout her long career. 

She will portray Dr. Ruth Westheimer in an upcoming biopic.

TLVFest will feature a retrospective of the work of Amos Guttman and will show the new documentary about the late filmmaker, Taboo: Amos Guttman, by Shauly Melamed. Guttman made four films about the gay community before dying of AIDS in 1993.

Impact of the war showcased 

The impact of the war will be felt in many of the programs, among them a screening of the movie Marzipan Flowers by Adam Kalderon, which will be dedicated to the memory of his mother, Rotem Kalderon, who was killed on October 7 in Be’eri. 

It was inspired by his mother’s life, and the profits from the screening will go to a fund to rebuild the kibbutz.

The high-profile films in the Gala section include Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, which premiered to great acclaim at Cannes this year. 

It’s a genre-bending movie about gender bending, mixing comedy, crime drama, and musical comedy.

It tells a story about a lawyer (Zoe Saldana) recruited by a Mexican drug cartel leader to arrange a gender-affirming procedure for him and help him start a new life as a woman. 

Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building) plays the cartel leader’s wife, and Israeli actor Mark Ivanir is his doctor.

Jessica Chastain won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the title role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, as the wife of the discredited televangelist Jimmy Bakker. 

Known for her outrageous fashion sense, she was one of the first and only people in the evangelical camp to speak about and to those suffering from AIDS with compassion. 

The movie is available on Disney+ but was not shown on the big screen in Israel.

Jeremy Borison’s Unspoken tells the story of a closeted gay teen in a religious community who learns that his grandfather might also have been gay.

Given what a tough year it’s been, there are a surprising number of comedies on the program. 

The movie Who Wants to Marry an Astronaut?, by Spanish director David Matamoros, is about a gay couple who break up when one wants to run off to Las Vegas to get married, and the more romantic of the two decides he is going to go solo and find a husband there.

Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby is about a woman in North Wales who works at a poultry plant and whose life is in a rut until she reconnects with an old friend.

There will be a tribute to the films of Pedro Almodovar, including screenings of All About My Mother and Bad Education.

Actress Joy Rieger’s first short film as director, I’m Not Okay, will be screened.

For those who can’t make it to Tel Aviv, a few titles will be available via VOD for NIS 10 per movie during the festival.

The full program is available at: https://www.tlvfest.com/en.