"BoY" Selected for the 2009 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (Frameline 33)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Jeffrey Winter, Orly Ravid
New American Vision
TEL: 323.466.3536
CELL: 818.679.8751
jeffrey@newamericanvision.com
orly@newamericanvision.com

http://www.boythemovie.com/

AURAEUS SOLITO’S LATEST FILM, “BOY” TO BE SHOWN AT 2009 SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LGBT FILM FESTIVAL (FRAMELINE 33)


San Francisco, CA - “BoY,” the latest film by internationally acclaimed director Auraeus Solito (“The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros”) will be shown at the 2009 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (Frameline 33) on Friday, June 19, 2009 at 9:30 pm and on Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 4:15 pm. Both screenings take place at the Victoria Theater, located at 2961 16th Street, San Francisco, CA, USA 94103.

Set in a vibrant urban landscape in the Philippines, “BoY” is a coming-of-age story about a young middle-class man who falls in love with a dancing rent-boy (a.k.a. "macho dancer") named Aries. The young budding poet, who is unnamed, observes lip-synching drag-queens and dancing rent-boys in a gay bar one evening and finds himself attracted to Aries. Selling his prized collection of action heroes and comic books in order to afford Aries for one night, the poet brings Aries home for the New Year. Sparks fly while celebratory fireworks go off outside the house and the men forge a fragile connection that neither of them is certain will last. This is an idealistic, coming-of-age tale of a young man who arrives at his first lesson about love, and who learns to grow confidently into his own sexuality. Principal cast members include Aeious Asin, Aries Pena, Madeleine Nicolas and Nonie Buencamino.

“BoY” is enjoying rave reviews from moviegoers and critics alike. One critic praised the film for its “nuanced sociopolitical commentary to a lengthy, lovely, languid love scene…” A viewer from the 2009 Torino GLBT Film Festival, where the film held its world premiere last April, noted that the film has “the most beautiful love scene in the festival.” The Seattle International Film Festival calls the connection between the two central characters “sweet and fragile in a way that brings a freshness to the film.”

The film is also attracting a different kind of attention in some parts of the world. The government censors in Singapore banned the film from being shown in that country in March, after organizers of the international film festival there selected the film for its competition. According to the Singapore government censors, “BoY” was banned because members of the censorship board “felt that the film normalised homosexuality and that the homosexual scene was prolonged and explicit and filmed in a romanticised manner.”

According to Solito: “Initially, I was so happy that the film festival in Singapore selected the film for competition. It however became a great disappointment that the censors in Singapore disallowed the film from screening in the festival. The phrase "normalises homosexuality" and "romanticise" very clearly articulates their homophobic view. To the censors, I want to send the message: "Gay people also make love."

Auraeus Solito's first feature film The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros won 15 international awards. A gay love story set in Manila, Solito's film was a part of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the Las Palmas Film Festival, and the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and won three awards at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. His film also earned a Best Foreign Film nomination at the 2007 Film Independent's Spirit Awards. TULI, his second feature film, won Best Picture and Best Director at the Digital Competition at the 2005 CineManila Film Festival and the NETPAC Jury Prize at the Berlinale, International Forum for New Cinema; 2nd Prize for Best Feature Film at the Montreal Film Festival. He made Philippine Science, his third dramatic feature film, in 2007, which won awards at the 14th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema in France.

To purchase tickets for “BoY,” please visit Frameline’s website at http://www.frameline.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=1766&FID=45

For more information about future film festival venues and details about ordering a copy of the film when it becomes available on DVD, please visit the film’s website at:

http://www.boythemovie.com/


###