Out on Film presented by GILEAD has announced the lineup of films and events for the 37th Anniversary edition of the Atlanta-based LGBTQIA+ film festival.
Both an Oscar and BAFTA qualifying film festival, Out on Film will open on Thurs., Sept. 26 with Anthony Schatteman’s Young Hearts, about a 14-year-old who realizes he has fallen in love with his new neighbor but interactions with family and friends bring more questions than answers. The Southeastern premiere of Marco Calvani’s High Tide will take place on Closing Night, Sun., Oct. 6. The film follows a young undocumented immigrant (Marco Pigossi) searching for purpose in Provincetown, who starts an intense and unexpected new romance. The supporting cast includes Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, Jams Bland, Bryan Batt, Chrissy Judy’s Todd Flaherty and Mya Taylor.
Centerpiece screenings include Juan Pablo di Pace’s Duino, Andrea James’ and Puppett’s Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps and Kat Rohrer’s What a Feeling. Out On Film will host 15 world premieres as part of the 2024 festival.
Out On Film 37 offers a diverse selection that includes 35 features (22 narrative films, 12 documentaries and one special event), five streaming-only films and 111 shorts films (in 18 shorts programs) for a total of 151 films.
“Our 37th Anniversary presentation is a wonderful celebration of celebrated films from all around the world and from Atlanta,” explained Out on Film Festival Director Jim Farmer. “We’ve never had this much ATL in our festival. I’m also particularly proud of our short films, which includes work from Emmy nominee Nava Mau, Meg Statler, Elliot Page and Alex Hedison and Jodie Foster.”
Since its official inception in 1987, Out On Film has grown to become one of the major LGBTQIA+ film festivals in the country. Now one of USA Today‘s 2020 Reader’s’ Choice picks as one of the top 20 film festivals in North America, Out On Film hosts an 11-day film festival in the fall as well as programming throughout the year.
High TideA House is Not a DiscoYoung HeartsDuinoClose to You
The All-Movie Hotel opens this weekend, brainchild of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now film genius and wine entrepreneur Francis Ford Coppola, who remodeled and massively upgraded an economy motel in Peachtree City, Georgia, to accommodate lodging and work space for members of his production staff completing his latest self-financed film, Megalopolis, lensed in the Southern state. He has transformed the property into the hybrid 27-room luxury hotel plus post-production facility no one knew they needed; and now that it’s open for booking, it’s like a dream come true. The All-Movie Hotel is pioneering, playful, professional, practical and available to filmmakers and the generally curious. It’s the world’s first filmmaker hotel.
I had the pleasure of being the very first guest (other than the man himself!) in the hotel’s Francis Ford Coppola Suite, where the writer/director developed his recent cinematic creation, and I’m pleased to share ten observations from this delightful experience.
#10 This new facility is an unexpected glimpse into the mind of an artist/auteur.
The “All-Movie” moniker is a spin on the filmmaker’s “All-Story” publishing ventures, and Coppola’s own narrative is on display in the whimsical way he curates props, artwork, books, literary magazines and other inspiring elements throughout the new hotel. A frequenter of Atlanta’s local movie palace Plaza Theatre where he recently screened his latest cut of The Cotton Club and celebrated a birthday, and a guest lecturer at Georgia Film Academy where he found a variety of apprentices and technicians for his latest film project among the talented students, Coppola shares his generous community spirit throughout this innovative complex. You’ll find classic film-editing tools as well as the latest ultra-secure technologies throughout the building, indicative of his decades-long fascination with all the ways you can push the boundaries of cinema.
#9 It’s a truly unique space for readying sophisticated film and content.
Editing bays, ADR sound recording and mixing suites, on-site equipment and IT, screening rooms, a green room and even a recording stage for small productions or pick-up shots are rippled through the new complex with ethernet ports and secure private lines for corresponding with render farms and others in the moviemaking ecosystem. On-the-rise filmmakers and Coppola collaborators Akshay Battia and Jordan Holifield give insightful tours for businesses interested in bringing their productions to the space. One observer called said the complex is “like a film cruise ship.”
#8 The venue’s welcoming hospitality is phenomenal.
From the unconventional lobby environment featuring film props and artwork evocative of Coppola’s wine country to creative lodging configurations such as a Tokyo-inspired suite, the hospitality team at the All-Movie Hotel provided attentive and sensational service at every step of the stay. Expect offers of warm towels, refreshing waters or fruit spritzers and revitalizing espressos in every nook and cranny. The team even arranged films to view in the screening room (I had a hankering for Coppola’s The Outsiders now that it’s also been adapted into a Broadway hit, plus they kindly hooked my friends and me up with big-screen viewing of the #ParisGames opening ceremony.) Those in housekeeping, security and all disciplines were remarkably friendly and shared their love of “Mr. F” as some affectionately call their imaginative leader.
#7 It’s one of the few places a guest can experience the fascinating aura of the buzzed-about Megalopolis.
Few films this year have experienced the kind of buzz Megalopolis has received after debuting at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, with IMAX release planned and national distribution through Lionsgate September 27. The film’s dystopian sci-fi and Roman aesthetic dots all facets of the All-Movie Hotel with stern statues of John Voight and Dustin Hoffman, gladiator standees, set signage, lots of towering columns and an unforgettable gilded hawk seen in the movie’s trailer and currently perched behind the hotel’s pool and patio. Being in the space where cast and crew toiled on this longtime passion project lent a magical quality to the stay. Filmed at nearby Trilith Studios and throughout Georgia with an ensemble including Adam Driver and Aubrey Plaza, Megalopolis shot on location at places such as Woodruff Park, Gas South Arena, Atlanta’s Bank of America Building, Georgia Public Broadcasting and The Tabernacle. The new All-Movie Hotel proved convenient during filming and will be so for future productions. Sources say a next production will be in-house at the hotel in the next few weeks.
#6 There are culinary wonders in this hideaway.
Leave it to a Francis Ford Coppola hotel to serve great wine, in my case delivered with fresh fruit trays worthy of “New Rome” denizens. The in-house culinary team members brought trays of room service with an array of delicacies including a delicious spinach frittata and peach pastries. It was a joy to dine right where the director has often enjoyed his morning coffee, with cooking appliances he personally picked out for the suite and for The Green Room kitchen renowned for communal cooking by the crew during the movie shoot. Talk about next-level “crafty!”
#5 It’s located in a “golf cart town” community in Georgia’s bustling filmmaking community.
Evidently Coppola enjoys golf cart communities at other resorts where he has invested, so it’s not surprising he fell in love with Peachtree City, known for winding trails to renowned restaurants such as Mediterranean eatery The Beirut. The hotel hooked me up with a red golf cart to explore the town, where my buddies and I enjoyed dinner and drinks at new tavern Hobknob as well as scenic detours to Frisbee golf courses and shopping districts via elaborate tunnels, pathways and bridges now mapped on GPS for non-natives to the neighborhood.
#4 Film history and artifacts abound.
We got to be pinball wizards on The Godfather game machines, explore other Megalopolis loot and spend time in “The Dorothy” screening room, named for Coppola’s mentor Dorothy Arzner, a trailblazer as a woman behind the camera making Hollywood films. A vintage box office window festoons this high-tech set of suites where both the director and Battia programmed classic and contemporary films for those gathered at the hotel.
#3 The amenities are lovely and make for an inspiring stay.
Screening, swimming and workouts were all on the weekend agenda with rooms for all these activities and more. Well-appointed suites included high-end cooking appliances and decor as well as comfortable beds, spacious showers and an array of amenities to help relax after a day of creating. The fitness room is still labeled the “Fitting Room,” used for costuming actors for recent shoots. Both usages of the room come with floor to ceiling mirrors, after all.
#2 It’s a hoot for fanboys, fangirls and film enthusiasts.
I brought some of my eclectic collectibles including a European Blu-Ray of Twixt and a Captain EO plush, and the staff was more than willing to discuss their own cult favorites from the Coppola catalogue and beyond. There was lots of love for One from the Heart. The elaborate posters for Apocalypse Now in the Green Room and an original piece of artwork gifted to Coppola by Akira Kurosawa when they collaborated on Kagemusha were wonders to behold for this film fan.
#1 The All-Movie Hotel is also a celebration of family.
Coppola, so celebrated for his gifted family tree of creators who join him in artistic pursuits, has clearly imbued his new complex with something for everyone, including young people who may come along for productions. Bunk beds, hopscotch, classic games an even a bevy of property cats give the property additional enchantment. Coppola is pictured with a grandchild in the suite that bears his name.
Like many of the filmmakers’ great works, his All-Movie Hotel continues to grow and expand – a work in progress, always. New landscaping is expected to further shroud the space from commercial lots that bookend it, and my tour guides shared more monitors and technologies continue to be installed,
Special thanks to general manager Luvia Martinez and the whole team for helping customize and optimize my experience! Clearly I encourage a visit.
Here, Francis Ford Coppola describes his vision of the All-Movie Hotel:
Additionally, here’s a link to the hotel’s site and reservation engine:
Not since perpetual screenings of 1975’s cult musical indie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, for which costumed moviegoers with ritualistic call-backs literally bring rice, newspapers, frankfurters, squirt guns and more and break out into “Time Warp” choreography in unison, has a movie theatre event been so poised to prompt audiences into a frenzy of interactivity. I am hereby dubbing Taylor Swift The Eras Tour, the indie concert movie coming October 13, 2023, The Taylor Swiftie Picture Show and bring you some perspective and tips to prepare for the full bejeweled majesty of the interactive experience (and you know I love musicals!)
As most of us were about to let the proverbial month of August slip away like a bottle of wine, it was announced on the last day of that fateful month that footage captured during pop princess and prolific songwriter Taylor Swift’s Los Angeles leg of her record-breaking concert tour was actually a secret movie made outside the Hollywood studio system and would soon screen across the U.S. via AMC Theatres and other multiplexes as a near-three-hour concert movie. Here’s the trailer. What a treat for all those who couldn’t afford the live concert or get the in-demand tickets! But is the singer ready for her close-up? Swift is no stranger to the screen, all the way back to the 2009 Hannah Montana: The Movie days with fellow child star Miley Cyrus. Swift has starred in a documentary about her political awakening and has had small parts in pedigreed movies: I am one of the few cheerleaders of the guilty-pleasure Cats but not of the smarmy drama Amsterdam, although the getaway car sequence toward the beginning will turn some heads. This new Eras concert movie will undoubtedly be the ingenue breakthrough for a woman who has already broken live concert records globally. Based on pre-sales alone, Taylor Swift, already a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will now be one of the biggest movie stars of the year, and her movie was actually lensed in L.A., it turns out, so maybe it was kinda made in Hollywood. Normally it wouldn’t be good karma to spoil the ending, but many have already followed along and know the set list, but here are ten tips to “Make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it” and enhance your in-theatre experience:
Costumes are a big part of the experience as fans (self-proclaimed “Swifties!”) sport clothing and accoutrements based on the various “eras” of the country crossover artist’s legendary young career, so whether it’s a glittery heart around the eye as a nod to the Lover album or an homage to the cottage-core of her mid-pandemic works, determine what you’ll wear to the affair.
Some longtime fans paint a blue “13” on their hands in honor of Taylor’s favorite number (the film even premieres on this “lucky” day!) During the “Fearless” era, Swift scribed the blue 13 on her guitar-strumming hand.
Friendship bracelet sharing is a thing to add to the communal experience. I found some fun ones on Etsy that I have ready to trade. My favorite has little letters spelling “Starbucks” in honor of a sometimes misunderstood lyric in the song “Blank Spaces.”
There will be merch, so plan for long lines to snag those commemorative popcorn tubs and tumblers. One to use and one to collect?
Plan to flash a light to honor the legacy of Taylor Swift’s opera singing grandmother during the emotional song “Marjorie” with lessons from her titular relative.
There will be more call-backs than there were in Polyester by John Waters (movie with a famous Odorama scratch and sniff card). Plan on chants at the bridge of “Cruel Summer,” a double-clap during “You Belong with Me,” a triple-clap on the beat before “My ex-man brought his new girlfriend” during “Shake It Off,” the audience refrain “1,2,3, Let’s Go, B*tch!” during “Delicate” (right after “You can make me a drink…”) and much more chronicled on sites such as Bustle. There’s even a moment during “Anti-Hero,” when the audience may re-assure the songstress “Taylor, You’ll Be Fine.”
It’s been a year of female empowerment, with the success of Barbie and all, so expect a loud unison of “F*** the patriarchy!” during the 10-minute song “All Too Well.” As that song is largely believed to be about a relationship with a certain Oscar nominated actor named Jake, you may also see some not-so-flattering homemade t-shirts about the thespian or even the scarf he allegedly never gave back to Taylor after their brief relationship.
During the song “Bejeweled,” when Taylor sings the word “shimmer,” fans flutter their fingers. You kinda have to study TikTok for some of these!
There’s a part of the live concert with secret songs surprising nightly audiences, so there are several tunes from the multi-day L.A. stint to choose from – although it doesn’t appear this will be like the movie Clue with different variations of film prints to stimulate multiple trips to the theatre. Those multiple viewings will likely happen for fans anyway!
Most of all, have fun! There’s a long tradition of movie gimmickry designed to lure fans into movie houses, from 3-D and Cinerama to “The Tingler.” In this case, consider the fans already lured. This is your chance to make the next in-person sensation akin to the sing-along version of TheSound of Music or taking a page out of the customs invented by those Rocky Horror fans who have sung and danced in the aisles for nearly 50 years.
Joel Sartore’s larger than life images of animals – especially endangered species – have been made iconic projected on world monuments such as The Empire State Building and The Vatican in the documentary Racing Extinction, and an Atlanta-based foundation is honoring the anthropomorphic auteur for his work to capture and share portraits of every animal on earth and to mobilize people into action to protect them.
On the eve of being honored as Captain Planet Foundation’s “Exemplar,” for his life’s work, famed photographer and National Geographic fellow Sartore proclaimed, “We are the last generation that can save our full complement of species.” He said the Internet gives everyone unprecedented access and power to make a hyperlocal difference saving animal species and preserving biodiversity.
Based on the animated TV series in its name, Captain Planet Foundation was co-founded in 1991 by Ted Turner and producer Barbara Pyle and helps make grants to and operates hands-on environmental education projects that serve children in 50 U.S. states and 26 countries. One of its programs, Project Hero, challenges kids to save endangered pollinator species in Georgia, California, Colorado and Texas. The foundation’s annual gala is Atlanta’s largest environmental education fundraiser and assembles game changers in helping save the earth and its resources.
The brown throated three-toed sloth “always looks happy; and because he’s slow-moving, he’s easy to photograph.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at PanAmerican Conservation Association
This exquisite, vulnerable juvenile mandrill “saw himself for the first time in my lens.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
“We laid out white paper, and this Sumatran tiger laid right down and knew just how to pose, paws crossed.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at Miller Park Zoo
“This giant anteater and her baby are amazingly special beings that consume ants and termites.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at Caldwell Zoo, Tyler, Texas, USA
“I photographed the hawksbill sea turtle at a rehab center. Most are in trouble, many captured in fishing nets.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org Xcaret, Mexico, North America
“This solenodon was rather irritated, awakened from a nap.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at Parque Zoologico Nacional
The Fiji banded iguana is quite rare. The photographer smiled: “Reptiles stand still.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at Los Angeles Zoo
There are few volcano rabbits, like this one from Mexico, left in the world: “They live on a slope with limited range.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at Chapultepec Zoo
Joel Sartore calls the red wolf “a remarkable success story. We were down to just 20 of them, and they were saved by a conservation program.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at the Great Plains Zoo
The spectral tarsier is nocturnal, “so he posed with those big eyes in the dark.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at Night Safari
“This critically endangered Sumultran orangutan is female, and she arrived in the white room ready for her close-up.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas
“We put up our light to photograph the weeper capuctin, and he grabbed a banana before preparing to dramatically pose.” Photo: Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark NatGeoPhotoArk.org at Summit Municipal Park
Sartore urges individuals to #SaveTogether by eating less meat (the production of this food product is energy intensive), eliminating lawn chemicals that permeate soil and watching how you spend money: many products are made from old growth tropical forest wood or palm oil that specifically harms orangutans and birds. He also encourages support of zoos and aquariums, where some animals only exist in abundant human care. “When we quit caring about nature, we stop saving it,” he said.
Sartore has photographed 7,500 of 15,000 captive species to date and estimates 12 more years to fully complete Project Ark. He captures portraits on black and white backgrounds with signature eye contact to help make the animals even more relatable to humans: “All animals get an equal voice.” Some of those animals are now extinct, such as the Rabbs’ fringe-limbed tree frog, who died of old age in his loving home at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Among Sartore’s contemporary inspirations are Ted Turner, who manages midwestern ranches, Laura Turner Seydel, with whom he serves on Defenders of Wildlife, and his fellow Conservation International board-mate Harrison Ford, who wrote the forward to his book.
Joel Sartore’s larger than life images of animals – especially endangered species – have been made iconic projected on world monuments such as The Empire State Building and The Vatican in the documentary 
