Reel Affirmations
Encyclopedia
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, all-volunteer LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Founded in 1991 and held every year in mid-October, Reel Affirmations is the third largest LGBT film festival (in terms of attendance) in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the largest all-volunteer film festival in the world.
Organization
Reel Affirmations is a program of One In TenOne In Ten (organization)
One In Ten is a non-profit, all-volunteer LGBT arts organization in Washington, D.C. Its largest program is Reel Affirmations, the third largest LGBT film festival in the United States and the largest all-volunteer film festival in the world.-Governance and history:One In Ten is overseen by a...
, a Washington, D.C.-based LGBT non-profit arts organization. One In Ten is overseen by a board of four officers and nine board members. Until 2009, a full-time, paid executive director oversaw the day-to-day operations of the organization but is now run by the board and three volunteer directors. All One In Ten programs, including Reel Affirmations, are conceived, organized and implemented by volunteers.
Planning for Reel Affirmations begins after the conclusion of each year's festival. Deposits are placed to secure venues, and corporate sponsors are secured (an ongoing process which lasts until August). Programming teams for feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s, women's shorts
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
, men's shorts, and documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
begin researching and screening films in February. Films are secured by contract beginning as early as May, although most contracts are not finalized until early July. A coordinating committee oversees implementation of VIP
Very Important Person
A Very Important Person, or VIP is a person who is accorded special privileges due to his or her status or importance.Examples include celebrities, heads of state/heads of government, major employers, high rollers, politicians, high-level corporate officers, wealthy individuals, or any other...
relations, hospitality, volunteer coordination, marketing, embassy relations, public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
and other aspects of the film festival.
Most funding for Reel Affirmations comes from corporate sponsorships and ticket sales. Additional support comes from grants
Grant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...
provided by the D.C. city government.
Reel Affirmations previously sponsored a two-day film festival which coincided with Capital Pride. The program began sponsoring monthly film screenings titled RA Xtra beginning in 2000, but stopped these after RA15 in 2005. RA Xtra resumed in November 2010. The organization also sponsors "Divas Outdoors" a two-movie outdoor screening of classic gay-related movies at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post (heiress to the Post cereal fortune).
Early years
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
residents of Washington, D.C., who wished to found a gay arts organization. They began meeting in 1990, and founded the LGBT arts organization One In Ten
One In Ten (organization)
One In Ten is a non-profit, all-volunteer LGBT arts organization in Washington, D.C. Its largest program is Reel Affirmations, the third largest LGBT film festival in the United States and the largest all-volunteer film festival in the world.-Governance and history:One In Ten is overseen by a...
, with Reel Affirmations as the organization's first program. The four sought the advice and input of Frameline
Frameline Film Festival
Frameline is a nonprofit media arts organization that produces the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, the oldest film festival devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender programming currently in existence...
, then the largest LGBT gay film festival in the U.S. With financial and administrative assistance from Frameline, the first Reel Affirmations film festival opened on October 11, 1991. The first festival venue was the Biograph Theater in Georgetown
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown is a neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years...
. The 10-day festival screened 62 feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s, short subject
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
s and documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
to 2,500 attendees. The opening night film was My Father Is Coming, and the closing night film was Together Alone
Together Alone (film)
Together Alone is a 1991 drama film written and directed by P.J. Castellaneta.-Plot:Bryan meets a man called Bill in a bar. They go back to Bryan's home and have unprotected sex. Later, they wake up and talk. Bryan discovers that Bill's real name is Brian, and that he is bisexual...
.
In 1992, the festival expanded to screen its opening night film at the Cineplex Odeon Embassy Theatre in the District. Author Armistead Maupin
Armistead Maupin
Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. is an American writer, best known for his Tales of the City series of novels, based in San Francisco.-Early life:...
opened the festival. RA2 screened 76 short and feature-length works shown at the Biograph.
The following year, the festival screened 24 features and 44 shorts and added screenings at the Goethe-Institut
Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
and Charles Sumner School
Charles Sumner School
The Charles Sumner School, established in 1872, was one of the earliest schools for African Americans in Washington, D.C. Named for the prominent abolitionist and United States Senator Charles Sumner, the school became the first teachers college for black citizens in the city and the headquarters...
. With the film festival on firm financial footing, Frameline did not provide administrative and financial support for RA3.
The festival continued to expand in 1994, screening 130 films and dropping smaller venues (Biograph, Sumner School) while adding larger ones (such as the West End 1-4 cinema). The festival also conducted a screening at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
—one of the first gay events to be held in a federal
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
building. 1994 was also the year the festival scored its first U.S premiere.
By its fifth anniversary in 1995, Reel Affirmations was the fourth-largest LGBT film festival in the United States in attendance, with more than 12,000 attendees. Although the festival screened only 102 films that year, it expanded to a fifth large venue (the AMC Courthouse Theatre in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
). A year later, it dropped two of its smaller venues in favor of the 275-seat Goldman Theatre in the D.C. Jewish Community Center
Jewish Community Center
A Jewish Community Center or Jewish Community Centre is a general recreational, social and fraternal organization serving the Jewish community in a number of cities...
in Dupont Circle.
Lincoln Theatre years
Lincoln Theatre (Washington, D.C.)
Lincoln Theatre is a theater in Washington, D.C. located at 1215 U Street, next to Ben's Chili Bowl. The theater, located on "Washington's Black Broadway", served the city's African American community when segregation kept them out of other venues. The Lincoln Theatre included a movie house and...
located near U
U Street Corridor
The U Street Corridor is a commercial and residential neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C with many shops, restaurants, nightclubs, art galleries, and music venues along a nine-block stretch of U Street. It extends from 9th Street on the east to 18th Street and Florida Avenue on the west...
and 14th Streets
14th Street Northwest and Southwest (Washington, D.C.)
Fourteenth Street is a street in Northwest and Southwest Washington, D.C., located 1¼ mi. west of the U.S. Capitol. It runs from the 14th Street Bridge north to Eastern Avenue....
, N.W. RA8 screened more than 140 feature films, shorts and documentaries at the two venues.
1999 was a turning point for Reel Affirmations. Several years of declining attendance by women led festival director Sarah Kellogg to create a special women's program. The event, known as the Women Filmmakers Brunch, has continued ever since and features women filmmakers, screenings, and a discussion of films with particular appeal to women. RA9 also was the only LGBT film festival of the season to screen Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry (film)
Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë...
. The award-winning film debuted in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, screened at Reel Affirmations, and then opened in theaters nationwide.
In honor of the festival's continuing success, the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance bestowed its 2004 Distinguished Service Award on Reel Affirmations festival director Sarah Kellogg. In 2006, RA 16 screened more than 100 movies to more than 30,000 attendees during its 10-day run.
Recent years
In recent years, in addition to the Lincoln Theatre, the film festival has used several locations including the Goethe-InstitutGoethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
, Sixth & I Synagogue, and Landmark E Street Cinema (all in Washington, D.C.), as well as the AFI Silver
AFI Silver
The AFI Silver is a three-screen movie theater complex in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C. in the United States of America. It plays both art-house and mainstream movies...
theater in Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
.
In 2009, Reel Affirmations struck a relationship with the Shakespeare Theatre Company
Shakespeare Theatre Company
The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. Their self professed mission "is to present classic theatre of scope and size in an imaginative, skillful and accessible American style that honors the playwrights’ language and intentions while viewing their...
and held its annual film festival at the company's Sidney Harmon Hall. However, festival executive director Margaret Murray left in November 2009 after four years as RA head—leaving the festival with about $40,000 in debt. According to the Washington Blade, an LGBTQ newspaper in D.C., a number of factors were responsible for the debt: A diminishing number of corporate sponsors, the timing of Murray's resignation, lack of preparation by RA for Murray's departure, an increasing number of popular LGBTQ events competing with the festival in October, fewer advertisers in the festival's program booklet, poor weather during several days of the 2009 festival, discontinuation of the festival's VIP program (which left it dependent on single ticket sales), and a heavy drop in single ticket sales. Many board members left the organization, new board members were recruited, and three volunteers took over RA's day-to-day operations.
In July 2010, RA organizers announced that the film festival would move from October 2010 to April 2011 because of funding shortfalls. One news source reported that RA organizers had intended to hold an October film festival, but a community fundraiser brought in only $5,000—far less than hoped, and not enough to allow an October festival to occur. The move to April was prompted, in part, by the hope that a $75,000 D.C. government grant would allow the festival to occur. However, on March 8, 2011, RA officials announced that the April event was being cancelled because of continuing heavy debt and because several grants had not been awarded to the organization. RA organizers now say that the 20th Reel Affirmations LGBTQ film festival will be held October 13-22, 2011.
Awards
Reel Affirmations presents four major awards each year. Each award is bestowed based on audience balloting. Honors are given for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Male Short, and Best Female Short.Reel Affirmations also formerly distributed a Plant A Seed filmmaker grant at the end of each festival. The grant was established in 2000. It was supported by audience donations and a silent auction held throughout each year's festival, and varies in amount from year to year. The grant was awarded by the One In Ten board to a filmmaker or filmmakers who have previously produced a feature film, short or documentary. The grant was intended to help the filmmaker complete a current work in progress.