NewFest 2019: New York LGBTQ Film Festival Announces 'Hallokween' Genre Program

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NewFest 2019: New York LGBTQ Film Festival Announces 'Hallokween' Genre Program
At Screen Anarchy we are excited about the rise of genre cinema that speaks to and about the LGBTQ community. This year's NewFest has a trio of genre pics that should thrill and delight audiences at this year's 31st annual festival. 
 
You will get to see Michael Elmore's vampire flick Bit, led by trans actress Nicole Maines from Supergirl. Freddy fans can catch Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen's doc Scream Queen: My Nightmare on Elm Street. And if aliens are your thing then Santiago Loza's Spanish language Brief Story From The Green Planet should please you. 
 
Hallokween announcement follows. 
 
NEW YORK’S LGBTQ FILM FESTIVAL SETS 2019 LINEUP 
FOR ‘HALLOKWEEN’ GENRE PROGRAM
 
NewFest, York’s leading LGBTQ Film and Media Arts organization, has revealed the ‘HalloKween’ genre-focused lineup for the 31st Annual New York LGBTQ Film Festival. The 2019 program, held the week before Halloween, includes the Nicole Maines (CW’s “Supergirl”) led transgender vampire film BIT; the documentary SCREAM QUEEN: MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, about the controversial sequel of the Wes Craven classic that prematurely ended Mark Patton’s acting career; and the Spanish alien rescue mission film BRIEF STORY FROM THE GREEN PLANET, which won the coveted Teddy Award at this year’s Berlinale Film Festival. The announcement was made today by NewFest Executive Director David Hatkoff and Director Of Programming Nick McCarthy.
 
“Following the inaugural and highly successful HalloKween spotlight at last year’s festival, which saw all three features delight sold out screenings,” said director of Programming Nick McCarthy, “we’re delighted to reintroduce this popular program of fears and queers with three distinct and varied selections that are inclusive of representations across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, lending an intersectional lens to a genre that has always shown commitment to outsiders who take over to control their own narratives against evil forces.”
 
BIT, starring trans actress and activist Nicole Maines, follows trans teen Laurel (Maines) as she graduates from her small-town high school and immediately sets her sights on Los Angeles. She meets a mysterious group of girls — vampires, looking to recruit her into their glamorous, alluring world, where they have complete agency over their lives. But as Laurel becomes entrenched in their ways, she begins to doubt whether she’s ready to become one of them. 
 
SCREAM QUEEN: MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is a documentary that sets the record straight about the controversial sequel to A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, which ended Mark Patton’s acting career, just as it was about to begin. Scream Queen follows Patton as he travels to horror conventions across the U.S.
 
BRIEF STORY FROM THE GREEN PLANET follows a young girl as she finds out that her grandma has spent her final years in the caring company of a cute purple alien, and embarks on a journey through small-town Argentina with two close friends to deliver the creature back to its origins.
 
As a pre-festival bonus, NewFest will also be hosting a 35mm screening of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE as part of “Coming Out Again,” NewFest’s ongoing monthly retrospective series in partnership with Quad Cinema. The screening will take place on Tuesday, October 8th at Quad Cinema and tickets will be on sale soon. 
 
NewFest ‘HalloKween’ Program
 
BIT
Dir. Brad Michael Elmore, USA, 2019, 90 min
New York Premiere
 
Think Los Angeles is soulless? Try surving the city’s underground feminist vampire scene. In this comedic-horror flick with a flair for the postmodern, Laurel (SUPERGIRL’s Nicole Maines) leaves the suburbs hoping to catch a breather and a couple of good rock shows while crashing with her with her brother Mark (James Paxton) in the City of Angels. Instead, she quickly finds herself swept up in a faction of vampires with hazy motives. Led by a centuries-old, discerning sanguisuge by the name of Duke (Diana Hopper), entry into this clique might be more than Laurel bargained for. As the age-old queer girl adage goes, she must find out whether they want to befriend her, date her, or turn her—before it’s too late.
 
HalloKween Centerpiece
SCREAM QUEEN: MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Dir. Roman Chimienti, Tyler Jensen, USA, 2019, 100 min
New York Premiere
 
Following a successful stint on Broadway alongside stars such as Cher, Karen Black, and Sandy Dennis, closeted actor Mark Patton launched his film career with a prominent role in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE in 1985. What initially seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime soon became a horror story worthy of its own midnight movie. Appreciated fondly by razor-gloved connoisseurs the world over, FREDDY’S REVENGE’s intricately crafted gay subtext decimated its lead’s job prospects in a single swipe. In SCREAM QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, Patton finally strikes back.
 
A consistently compelling film essay that also offers a glimpse at the human collateral of the AIDS epidemic in Hollywood, Tyler Jensen and Roman Chimienti’s documentary follows the disenchanted actor as he goes on tour during ELM STREET 2's 30th anniversary, coming face-to-face with the screenwriter who sealed his fate and the queer fans who have reclaimed this homophobic horror as a cult classic.
 
BRIEF STORY FROM THE GREEN PLANET
Dir. SantIago Loza, ARGENTINA/GERMANY/BRAZIL/SPAIN, 2019, 75 min
New York Premiere
 
In the eerie early moments of this mezmerizing Teddy Award winner for Best Feature film at this year’s Berlinale,, Tania--a transgender club performer--finds out that her grandmother has died. When she brings her two friends (the depressed Daniela and the dancey Pedro) to visit her late relative’s home, they discover that Tania’s grandmother spent her last years with a very special pal of her own: a small blue alien. Now Tania, Daniela, and Pedro must journey through rural Argentina to bring the alien back home before time runs out for the creature. Told through a genre-focused lens with a dry, Almodóvarian sense of humor, this bold tale of friendship fully satisfies the itch for a queer version of E.T. or THE GOONIES, while giving life to themes of self-discovery, embracing who you are, and the true meaning of home.
 
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