"NeonFest marks a cultural shift in Las Vegas"

By KRISTEN PETERSON

Houston has one. Minneapolis has one. So does Honolulu, San Francisco, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C.

In fact, if you zigzag across the United States, you'll find established gay and lesbian film festivals in dozens of cities. But until this year -- more specifically, this weekend -- Las Vegas was not on the list.

So when NeonFest, a three-day gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender film festival, opens today at Crown Theaters at Neonopolis, organizers say it marks a cultural shift in the Las Vegas Valley as much as it celebrates a weekend of gay cinema.

"This is a big city now, which means there's a large subset of minorities, including the gay community," said Steve Friess, board member of NeonFest and president of the Las Vegas Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, which is hosting a Sunday critics brunch and panel composed of local and national film critics.

There is a $35 fee for the brunch. All films are free and open to the public.

"In a maturing community, cultural activities make a mature city," Friess said. "Most cities have a gay and lesbian film festival."

And the absence of a true art-house theater, he said, hinders Las Vegas' ability to draw these types of films.

"The No. 1 problem in this city is that most of these films never come here. We don't have a theater that just shows independent films all the time," Friess said. "If they do come to Las Vegas, it's only for maybe three weeks. It was here and then it's gone. If you're not around you miss it. You have to wait until it comes on DVD or the Sundance Channel."

NeonFest will showcase 19 shorts, features and documentaries. Highlights include "Tying the Knot," an 81-minute account of three individuals who struggle with legal and emotional issues when their partners die, "Laughing Matters," a look at the lives of four lesbian comediennes, and "Cause of Death: Homophobia," a 51-minute documentary that explores the murders of 50 gay men who were killed in the last 20 years in Israel.

"A lot of these have social implications so anybody can relate, whether they're gay, lesbian, straight or bi," said local filmmaker Marlene Adrian, whose 12-minute short, "Becoming Me," captures the story of Ingrid Holm Garibay, a transgender woman who was born a man in Mexico and lives in Las Vegas.

"It's a story of a person who was born a little boy and always felt that he wasn't in the right body," Adrian said. "It's about the struggle the people have when they don't feel that the physical body they're in is their gender."

Adrian, who primarily creates video documentaries on the lives of women, met Garibay about three years ago, and decided it was a story that should be shared.

"I think most people are still afraid when they encounter someone they know who is a transgendered person," Adrian said.

Also locally made is "InvestiGAYtion," an eight-minute short about conservative parents who hire a private detective to follow their son to see if he's gay. The short was written and directed by local filmmaker Nathaniel Atcheson and produced by Darren Uhl.

Sunday's panel includes Newsweek's Sean Smith, KNPR's "State of Nevada" host Marc Breindel, Las Vegas Weekly's Josh Bell, KUNR's Robin Holabird (who reviews films for National Public Radio in Reno), and Jeff Crouse, founder and head of the Film Studies program at Bishop Gorman High School."

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