You guys. The world’s longest-running LGBTQ film festival Frameline kicks off Thursday night at the Castro Theatre and runs through the end of Pride Weekend, and boy could we use some Frameline right now. Here to open a No. 10 can of social justice, solidarity, and unapologetic fabulous flair on our currently conflicted society, Frameline’s 40th annual incarnation gets loud and proud with more than 150 screenings at the Castro, the Roxie, the Victoria, and in Oakland and Berkeley. While the Closing Night screening of the feature-length finale of HBO’s Looking is “At Rush” (that’s film festival-speak for “sold out, but you can stand in line and hope to get an unoccupied seat”), there are still tickets available for these other magnificent, thought-provoking and massively entertaining contemporary works of queer cinema.

Kiki
Opening Night vogues hard with this modern-day revisitation of the underground queer ballroom dancing culture seen in the 1990’s groundbreaking film Paris is Burning. Ballroom dancing serves as an escape for a band of New York City LGBTQ kids as they struggle with poverty, homelessness, and harassment in Sara Jordenö’s unflinching and relentlessly inspiring dance scene documentary.
Castro Theatre, Thursday, June 16, 7 p.m. and Landmark Theatres Piedmont (Oakland)
Friday, June 24 7 p.m. Get tickets here

Akron
The squee, teenage gay jock romance we’ve always been waiting for has finally arrived. Put aside your LeBron hate for 90 glorious, heartwarming minutes as we take a fictional, romantic trip to the small town of Akron, Ohio (LeBron’s real-life hometown) where two hunky football players find young love. Unsurprisingly, complications ensue as the story unfolds into a hot, young beefcake version of Romeo and Juliet.
Castro Theatre, Friday, June 17, 4 p.m. and Victoria Theatre, Saturday, June 25, 4 p.m. Get tickets here

Girl Gets Girl
It’s like a lesbian Three’s Company delivered telenovela-style in Sonia Sebastián’s dyke dramedy. A teenage girl’s “Period Party” flows heavily with adult situations, mistaken identities, comic twists and sexual innuendos in this feature-length film adaptation of the popular Spanish TV series.
Roxie Theatre, Saturday, June 18, 6:30 p.m. Get tickets here
UPDATE: As luck would have it, this film has gone to Rush. But there are 54 other outstanding lesbian films for your consideration in this year's Frameline.

'Vegas In Space', image via Frameline

Vegas In Space
The Peaches Christ Productions offering at this year’s Frameline — hostessed, of course, by Peaches herself — is the 1991 Troma Entertainment low-budget epic Vegas In Space that has played at Cannes, Sundance and most prestigiously on USA’s Up All Night. Peaches packs plenty of the film’s stars into the Victoria for this screening, including longtime local drag faves Connie Champagne, Timmy Spence, and the film’s director Phillip R. Ford
Victoria Theatre, Friday, June 17, 9:30 p.m. Get tickets here

PUSHING DEAD TRAILER from MrD on Vimeo.

Strike A Pose
Rejoice, vintage Madonna fans — here’s the documentary that shows you what the documentary Truth or Dare did not dare show you. The surviving background dancers, all of whom were hand-picked by Madonna for the “Blonde Ambition” tour, reunite to tell the inside story of what really happened on tour and to their lives afterward. Christ, have they aged well, and yes the boys will be onhand at this Castro screening to hopefully dish some serious dirt about Madge.
Castro Theatre, Saturday, June 25, 8:30 p.m. Get tickets here

Growing Up Coy
The bravest little soldier in the transgender bathroom access movement is Coy Mathis, a Colorado first-grader who won the right to use the girls bathroom in 2013. This is her story. A poignant portrait of the a family whose persistence set of a national battle still being fought today, this documentary details the very personal and very public conflict they waged on behalf of the “thousands of Coys out there”
Castro Theatre, Saturday, June 25, 11 a.m. Get tickets here

Bridge of Spies - Everywhere

I was convinced I'd be bored silly by Bridge of Spies, mainly because I'm not a fan of Spielberg's "serious" movies. When it comes to those films, he never has any confidence in his audience, hammering his points home over and over again, just in case someone in the back row was sleeping the first time the point was made. But Bridge of Spies is more of a classic espionage film than any kind of commentary on the Cold War, so it falls in an area between Spielberg's "fun" movies, and his Oscar-bait. (Joel and Ethan Coen are co-writers on the screenplay, so that might have something to do with the film's enjoyment factor, although there's nothing overtly "Coen-esque" about it.)

Tom Hanks plays James B. Donovan, an insurance lawyer who is forced to defend accused Russian spy Rudolph Abel (an excellently wry Mark Rylance), and ultimately finds himself in the middle of a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Soviet Russia. Donovan was a real guy, and the story is based on real events, which means unlike most spy movies, there aren't any big shootouts or car chases. Instead you have your basic everyman sitting in a series of very chilly German locations, fighting off a cold, while he negotiates the highest level release of not one, but two American prisoners; it's not action, but it is suspense.

Hanks brings his expert comic timing to the role, making Donovan inherently likable and relatable, while Spielberg brings his expert craftmanship to the direction. Even when I don't like a Spielberg movie, I still appreciate that he knows how to tell a story well and has a firm grip on all the tools at his disposal. Happily, the result this time is a solid bit of entertainment that probably won't garner any Oscar nominations — which is a sure sign that it's actually worth seeing.

Crimson Peak - Everywhere

Guillermo del Toro meets Jane Eyre. Read my review here.

Goosebumps - Everywhere

For those made of more delicate stuff and who can't deal with the stabbings and bleeding walls found in Crimson Peak, you can join the under-15 crowd for this "horror" movie based on the popular series of kids books. It stars Jack Black as R. L. Stine, the author of said books, whose imagination literally sets loose monsters in his small town.

Steve Jobs - Everywhere

Does Michael Fassbender do a better job than Ashton Kutcher at playing Steve Jobs?

Ha ha ha ha of course he does! And while this movie may not convince you that there needs to be so many movies and documentaries centered on the guy, at least this one is filled with the fast-talking dialogue of Aaron Sorkin and the frenetic direction of Danny Boyle.

Victoria - Embarcadero

Crime drama about a Spanish girl working in Berlin who finds herself involved in a bank robbery. The film's gimmick is it was all shot in one long take, (literally long; it runs over two hours), in real time, with much of the dialogue improvised. Of course, that doesn't mean it's any good, just that it's unique.

MUSIC: San Francisco's favorite crooner, Utah-born singer/songwriter Spencer Day, performs tonight at the one of the city's newest music venues, the Rrazz Room located at Hotel Nikko.

COMEDY: Let hilarity wash over you with the comedic stylings of Arj Barker, Kristopher Tinkle ("Tinkle" = hee!), and Matt Morales. They hit the mic tonight at Punchline.

*FILM: SF Indiefest is going on, folks. Tonight check out , 7:15 p.m. at Roxie Cinema; Most Likely To, 7:15 p.m. at the Victoria Theater; Liberty Kid, 9:30 p.m. at the Roxie Cinema; Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, 9:30 p.m. at the Victoria Theater; or Never Belongs To Me, 11:45 p.m. the Roxie Cinema. Check out the festival's entire schedule here.

CLUB: Vaudeville and burlesque meet the Reagan-era tonight when the Hubba Hubba Revue goes Totally '80s. Devo tribute band Mongoloid performs, as well as Jerk Headroom, Revolva, Lady Satan, Sparkly Devil, Alotta Boutté, Casey Castille, Twilight Vixen Revue, the Whirling Pervishes, Peekaboo Burlesque, Dottie Lux, Your Little Chernoby, Ariyana Le Fey, and Gorilla X. It all goes down and comes off at DNA Lounge.

The listed events were chosen by the editors of SFist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.

The recently-released website post-consumer.com is addressed to “anyone who has played or attended an indie rock show in Santa Cruz between 1999-2004.” We did! We were there! We remember the tall, handsome fellow with incongruous Ugg boots and a microphone on a stick who recorded shows in every bar, basement, living room and attic during the golden years of Santa Cruz indie rock!

And now you can be there, too – Nicholas Taplin’s hoard of live recordings (or half of it, anyway) is now available on the web (in streaming 128kbps mp3 format).

The archive includes not only Santa Cruz bands, but also touring bands (many from K Records) who played in Santa Cruz (our particular favorite is Victoria-based quartet Frog Eyes).

A particular highlight of post-consumer.com is the work of celebrated ukulelist and Big Bang! lo-fi music festival organizer Oliver Brown (shown here at a Joey Ramone tribute show at Santa Cruz's Rio Theater). Sadly absent, though, is the whiskey-soaked, train-hopping, punk-Americana of The Devil Makes Three--not to worry, though, the DM3 just released a re-mastered version of their 2002 debut CD, including 4 live and demo songs from the Santa Cruz era. You can pick it up at the two-night CD release party at the Independent, this Friday and Saturday night (doors 8:30, $15).

Many members of the Santa Cruz diaspora now call the Bay Area home. Our snapshots of them in the old days, after the jump.

Last night 24-year-old Memorial Oak Grove tree-sitter Nate Hill fell on his tushie after plummeting 40 feet out of the tree. He suffered both a broken wrist and ankle, but is in fine, fighting, camera-ready condition.

He was trying to get out of the tree, via a traverse line, to visit his poppa waiting down below. But it seems that he was not, in fact, on the line, and then took a nasty fall while trying to ride the non-existent traverse. Ouch. According to NBC 11, "Hill said although he does not want to place blame he believes the accident would not have happened if the university had not put up a fence around the grove." Oh, come now. One, if Hill hadn't been 40 feet up high in a tree to begin with, succumbing to the temptations of gravity, he wouldn't have fallen. Two, he "thought he was connected to a traverse line but he was mistaken." So? It's your fault, you sexy, klutzy bear.

"UC Police Chief Victoria Harrison said that the school built the new fence as a security measure prior to the forcible removal of the protesters from the trees," which should be happening...sometime soon.

But here's to a speedy recovery, Hill. (Little tip: tell the doctors that codeine upsets your stomach, and you'll get the good stuff.)

image credit: NBC 11

It's a grab bag of short films from here until Saturday -- the screenings are loosely categorized by theme ("But A Good Crazy" we think is our favorite, though "A Tragedy Called Love" sounds good too) and they're showing all the screenings at both the Victoria and the Red Vic. Check out the rest of the schedule here.

The festival goes from tonight through Saturday the 11th. And if you like beer and music with your films, there's a kickoff party tonight too, at the Victoria starting at 9 with Felonious, and a closing night party at the Victoria on Saturday, featuring the Lovemakers.

At the Castro this weekend, the organists are warming up -- it's time for the Silent Movie Festival. This year's lineup features a series of Hal Roach comedies, a Cecil B. DeMille over-the-top epic, and a documentary about silent movie restoration (which also has organ accompaniment, in case you were wondering.)

Meanwhile, just down the street at the Roxie, you've got the Frozen Film Festival. The Frozen Film Fest features all types of indie movies (animated, docs, and international features) and has an eclectic array of Bay Area documentaries, foreign films, and some other cool-looking movies too. They get their name from our famously-chilly summertime weather, which is when they hold the event. Movies screening include edgy animation, a bunch of documentaries about various Bay Area related issues (among the issues covered: recycling, the AIDS marathon, our local bluegrass scene, the UC Berkeley extension school debate, and violence in Richmond), and some intriguing other movies (a 1966 horror/girl band movie, and a movie hosted by Leonard Nimoy about space).

Both festivals run Friday to Sunday -- so make sure you check 'em both out.

Update: In fact, so many film fests, we left one out! There's a launch party tonight for the SF Shorts film festival next month (Aug. 8-11). It's at the Victoria (16th and Mission) at 8 p.m., and features short films from the festival, free beer, and the band Persephone's Bees.

The shorts, as shorts tend to do, varied wildly in length, subject matter, and quality -- but we did enjoy Samara Halperin's , a stop-motion Lego animation of a risque construction site (pictured above, which also had excellent music). We also found ourselves drawn into the soap-opera-like Homotopia (denoting the sellout gay bad guy in the movie with a NEWSOM t-shirt was a nice touch, we thought).

Even in the YouTube age, there's something very cool about watching short-length films on a big screen. The excitement of the filmmakers was palpable, and it's great to see we've got so much different types of talent in the area. We were hoping for more shots of the city in the movies, but we basically always think that for anything set in San Francisco.

Tickets tickets tickets! We're having so much fun giving these Frameline film fest passes away!

Today's giveaway? A movie whose title is too risque for the Gothamist vulgarity standards! is about the polysexual rock club of the same name in Manhattan, and how much fun it is to go out dancing in New York. It's screening tonight!

There's concert footage of everyone that's anyone in the current New York music scene (we can't tell for sure, but it looks like you might get Bloc Party, the Rapture, !!!, and the New York Dolls, among many others) and some great dance scenes from the party itself.

Motherf***** is playing TONIGHT at 7 p.m. at the Victoria. Enter and win passes for you and a friend! We'll announce a winner by around 3 p.m. today, so you can make plans. And if you don't win, you can pick up tickets here ($10).

After the soft focus melancholy of , we trotted over to The Victoria on 16th Street for some hard core lesbian porn at the Frameline film fest. We though we were all bad-ass but we learned a sad sad lesson about ourselves on Friday night.

We are soft. Soft like a weak little doughboy. We tried to be all "whatev," but basically we ran screaming from the theatre before the movie ended, our eyes bleeding and our hair on fire from what we had just witnessed. Superfreak (about the spirit of Rick James possessing our heroine at an all-girl party) is NOTHING like the lame lesbian porn you see on Cinemax.

The rest of your potentially-NSFW review, after the jump. Yowza!

SFist Mihi, contributing.

--As part of this month's Queer Arts Festival, the LGBT Community Center presents "Are You There God? It's Me, Ben McCoy" (brilliant title), a genderqueer performance about gay culture that's described as a "roller coaster of emotion." 8 p.m., $8-15, 1800 Market Street (x Octavia).

--Julia Serano reads from her new book, , a collection of personal essays about the intersection of feminism and transsexuality. Cody's Books, 1730 Fourth St. in Berkeley, 7 p.m.

--And don't forget Frameline! Tonight's action-packed schedule includes a series of FTM shorts at the Roxie, a documentary about Bay Area queer roller derbies at the Victoria, and the controversial The Bubble, about a gay Israeli/Palestinian couple, at the Castro.