New film festival to shine spotlight on gay community

By Donecia Pea – Shreveport Times

He’s the man with the diminutive stature and syrupy sweet Southern drawl that has endeared him to fans and kept them laughing for decades in his string of guest roles and recurring characters on some of TV’s biggest shows.

But Leslie Jordan is most recognizable to fans for his role as Beverley Leslie, the hilarious, closeted, snarky archrival of Karen Walker on the popular NBC sitcom “Will & Grace.”

Even off screen, Jordan keeps the laughs coming when he shares his life experiences, including his childhood memories of growing up in a devout Southern Baptist family in Chattanooga, Tenn.

“Honey, I got baptized 14 times. That’s a true story. Anytime the preacher would say ‘Come forward, lost sinners,’ I thought that was me,” Jordan said. “And my mother would always say ‘Well, son, you’re already saved,’ but I just kept thinking it wouldn’t take.”

But there’s one cause that the 54 year old is even more passionate about than comedy — spreading awareness, support and understanding of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Jordan, who’s openly gay, has worked with numerous gay advocacy organizations and is an active champion of gay rights. So when Shreveport’s PACE organization contacted him about coming to the area’s first-ever Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the answer was a no-brainer for Jordan, though he was initially shocked when he heard such an event was happening here.

“My manager called and said ‘Do you wanna go to a gay and lesbian film festival “» in Shreveport?’ and I said ‘WHAT?!’” Jordan said with a laugh. “But, I tell you what, I’ve found over the last few years that the tide has turned in the South when it comes to attitudes toward the gay community. I am very active in an organization called the Trevor Project, a suicidal hotline for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth and when we plugged in over 12 years ago, we got 15,000 calls from young kids who were questioning their sexuality and thinking of suicide. The majority of them came from the Bible Belt and it just broke my heart because that was my story.”

PACE, or People Acting for Change and Equality — a bipartisan advocacy group that works to advance equality in northwest Louisiana for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities through education about and participation in the political process ——will present the five-day festival starting with the opening reception at 6 p.m. today at the Robinson Film Center. The event includes a meet and greet with Jordan, followed by the viewing of his 2000 cult classic film, “Sordid Lives,” at 7:45 p.m.

“We really want to draw more awareness of the gay community in the Shreveport-Bossier City area for a couple of reasons — for the gay community and also the community at large. For a long time, we’ve heard a lot of loud voices that say dreadful things that just aren’t true about gay people and, if we don’t speak up, then all you’ll ever hear are those loud voices distorting and misrepresenting gay people and that hurts gay families,” said PACE film festival chair Adrienne Critcher. “We want to give the community a chance to see gay people are in the movies and are a part of everyone’s life, families, workplaces, house of worship and all extended families. If you don’t know someone who’s gay in your entire extended family, that’s likely because you’ve created an atmosphere where they’re not comfortable telling you they’re gay.”
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In addition to “Sordid Lives,” a comedy about a Texas family coping with the loss of their mother, who died while having an affair with her younger male neighbor, the festival will also feature five additional films, scheduled for each day of the event. The films include “Drool,” a romance flick starring Jill Marie Jones and Oded Fehr; “Were the World Mine,” a musical starring Tanner Cohen; “Chris & Don: A Love Story,” a documentary following the love story of author Christopher Isherwood and artist Don Bachardy; “Beautiful Boxer,” a drama based on real-life kickboxer Parinya Charoenphol; and “I Can’t Think Straight,” a romantic drama starring Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth.

The films were carefully selected and screened by PACE’s five-member film festival committee.

“We kind of wanted to not have a particular theme or focus other than it be a gay-themed movie, but we wanted something for everyone. We tried to have something that represented all the different communities within the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community. So there’s a little bit of everything,” said film selection chair Angie White.

At the same time, White said they tried make sure it was something that both gay and straight communities could enjoy. “I’m straight, but I love films. I’m a film buff, so it doesn’t matter to me, as long as it’s a good story and the ones I did see I did enjoy as a film lover,” she said. “The gay and lesbian community here has had so few opportunities to see representation of their own life and I think it’s really important for them because it provides a little bit of escapism. But also, we can learn to appreciate a different culture. Just like any film, these bring different perspectives of life.”

Critcher added, “We all like to see ourselves and enjoy seeing ourselves in film. The gays and lesbians in our community tend to feel they’re invisible and this film festival is a chance for them to go to the movies and see themselves. It helps them feel like they’re a part of the community. It also helps us develop our sense of empathy for others who are different from us and that’s equally as important.

Jordan has a special fondness for the Shreveport-Bossier City area not only because it reminds him of his Southern roots, but because he stayed here for the filming of “Sordid Lives,” which also starred Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges and Delta Burke and was later turned into a TV series on the LOGO network featuring Rue McClanahan, Caroline Rhea and David Steen, along with Jordan.

“We stayed at Sam’s Town for months while we were filming that and I made so many good friends that worked there at the hotel. Having lived in Hollywood since 1982, any chance I have to get back to the South, I’ll go. We had some good times,” Jordan said.

The film festival was a year in the making, Critcher said. “We originally thought we’d hold it in June when we have our PRIDE dinner, but we decided we wanted to wait until the fall because that’s when colleges are back in session and, that way, college student, who are interested will have a chance to attend,” she said. “We were really very fortunate because of the movie industry that’s here. One of the agents put us in contact with Jordan’s manager and we were able to get him to come here at a price that we could afford. He worked with us because he was really impressed with the work PACE is doing in the community and the fact that we have both gay and straight people working together.”

Critcher said so far the community response has been overwhelmingly positive. “We have a wide range of sponsors that are active in the community, both gay and straight, and we’re grateful for that,” she said.

Like Jordan, she said she’s seen progress in local attitudes toward the gay community. “When our son came out to us five years ago, we weren’t sure as a family how we would be received, how we would be treated. And certainly from time to time people make open remarks, but we’re open and very out. Everybody knows and if not they’re not paying attention,” she said with a laugh. “Some people’s prejudices are so innate that they forget they have them and from time to time they’ll say something hurtful, but I don’t think they think about it. They aren’t intentionally trying to hurt us. We’ve had the most positive experience being part of the gay community and we’ve made wonderful new friends in the gay community.”

Jordan has even seen his own family’s attitude toward his lifestyle change, especially after he recently took his mom and twin sisters on a gay cruise to Alaska. “I realized I always kept my gay life away from my mother and she didn’t know until this cruise that I’m pretty revered. I’m a man who buried an entire phone directory to AIDS and has been very active in gay causes. So when these men told my mom all of that, she got teary-eyed because she had no idea and said ‘Son, I’m so proud of you.’ And an amazing healing took place for me.”

Jordan will share stories like that as well as bits from his stand-up comedy show, he said. Out of all the characters he’s played throughout his long career, he counts Beverley Leslie as his favorite. “He was just so silly and I love to play silly people who take themselves very seriously,” he said. “I’ve always heard the saying that comedy is tragedy four days later,” he said. “You take something awful and if you can see the humor in it, it’s not only funny, it’s healing because somebody out there can relate.”

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