Wilson Cruz will be headlining the festival’s centerpiece gala, where his body of work will be honored with a special award and party for lucky attendees. Cruz first came into the Hollywood spotlight thanks to his heartbreaking role as Rickie Vasquez, best pal to Claire Danes’ Angela Chase, in the acclaimed television series My So-Called Life. He went on to co-star in the Broadway musical Rent and be part of the cast for the final season of Party of Five. Most recently, Cruz was seen in He’s Just Not That Into You.
Scoring an actor like Cruz—who is also an active spokesperson for LGBT rights—is a huge coup for the festival’s inaugural event and co-founders Cesar Campa and Sam Aguilera are proud not to have held back just because it was the first time for Frontera. The festival is being launched to connect audiences in the El Paso/Juárez/Las Cruces region with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in order to “build bridges across borders,” as this year’s festival theme states.
The Frontera Pride Film Festival takes place June 18 to 21 in Downtown, headquartered at the historic Plaza Theatre movie palace as well as the Downtown Branch of the Public Library. “It will bring folks to the area to socialize and spend money, which supports Downtown businesses. This is just one of the ways the festival will positively effect El Paso and the rest of the region,” says Dr. Brenda Risch, local LGBT advocate and Director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Texas at El Paso.
In collaboration with Campa and Aguileara, Risch honed the film series into a condensed, long weekend film festival, pulling in many of her resources and contacts to turn the production into an annual tradition. The festival is built upon a solid foundation rooted in community outreach due to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsorship provided by the Frontera Women’s Foundation, thanks in part to the organization’s executive director, Pat Graham-Casey.
Risch hopes that attendees from the region at large as well as the local LGBT community participate in the festivals’ strong line-up of films (both feature-length and short, as well as music videos), workshops, celebrations and other activities. “Their attendance is an important form of support for this project and others like it,” she says. “If we want a varied and diverse cultural scene, we all need to participate in order to support events like the Frontera Pride Film Festival. Any arts event, including Frontera and the Plaza Classic Film Festival in August, benefits the community as a whole by providing an opportunity to enrich oneself.”
Through dedicated fundraising efforts by Graham-Casey and other founding members of the Festival, Frontera has received financial support from El Paso City Council and other donors within the community. Sponsorship opportunities for both businesses and individuals are still available, with special deals for contributors to get in early on the 2010 event, which promises special screenings and appearances by the likes of Hedwig and the Angry Inch creator John Cameron Mitchell.
While there is a lot of entertaining going on with an event like this, the Frontera Pride Film Festival most importantly aims to share information and open minds. “This is a chance to educate the community,” says Risch. “Many folks who are unfamiliar with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered life issues will have an opportunity to learn about them in a safe, non-threatening environment. Many issues that affect people with non-traditional gender identities also pertain to other marginalized groups, whether ethnically or economically. Learning more about a culture that may not be familiar to you is a way to embrace diversity and to further peace and equity in the place where we live.”
More information on what’s showing, sponsorship and lending a hand as a volunteer can be found at www.fronterapridefilmfestival.com or by calling 915.203.5059.
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This story was originally published in the May 2009 issue of El Paso Magazine available on newsstands at area Barnes & Noble stores.
