The USA Film Festival will present a special screening of The Last of Sheila (1973) with author Alonso Duralde in attendance to introduce the film on Thursday, September 26, 2024, at the Angelika Film Center Dallas. Duralde will also sign copies of his new book “Hollywood Pride” at the event.
“The Festival is pleased to welcome back our great friend and alumni curator Alonso Duralde to present this fun, whodunnit cult classic and celebrate his latest book,” said the Festival’s Managing Director, Ann Alexander.
ABOUT THE FILM — James Coburn stars as a ruthless Hollywood producer whose wife is killed outside their Bel Air home during a party. A year later, he reunites the guests — starlet Raquel Welch and her hot-tempered manager/boyfriend Ian McShane, frustrated screenwriter Richard Benjamin and his wealthy wife Joan Hackett, past-his-prime director James Mason, and loudmouth agent Dyan Cannon — for a week of fun and games on a yacht in the French Riviera that soon turns deadly. A deliciously bitchy showbiz comedy mixed with a wickedly twisted whodunnit — dressed to the nines in 1970s resort wear — The Last of Sheila will keep you laughing, gasping, and guessing.
ALONSO DURALDE — Alonso Duralde is Chief US Film Critic for The Film Verdict, author of “Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas,” and coauthor of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas Movies.” He is the co-host of the Linoleum Knife, Maximum Film!, and Breakfast All Day podcasts, and has discussed film on CNN, PBS, TCM, and ABC, as well as in numerous documentaries.
TICKETS to the film screening are $15.
BOOK — Attendees can add a specially-priced copy of “Hollywood Pride” to their ticket order. To purchase tickets and books, visit Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1003113187547
ABOUT “HOLLYWOOD PRIDE” Alonso Duralde’s latest book — For generations, members of the LGBTQ+ community in Hollywood needed to be discreet about their lives but — make no mistake — they were everywhere, both in front of and behind the camera. On the eve of the twentieth century, in Thomas Edison’s laboratory, one of the earliest attempts at a sound film depicted two men dancing together as a third plays the violin. It’s only a few minutes long, but this cornerstone of early cinema captured a queer moment on film. It would not be the last. With “Hollywood Pride,” renowned film critic Alonso Duralde presents a history spanning from the dawn of cinema through the “pansy craze” of the 1930s and the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s, all the way up to today. He showcases the hard- working actors, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, art directors, and choreographers whose achievements defined the American film industry and charts the evolution of LGBTQ+ storytelling itself — the way mainstream Hollywood decided it would portray (or erase) their lives and the narratives created by queer filmmakers who fought to tell those stories themselves. Along the way, readers will encounter a fascinating cast of characters, such as the first generation of queer actors, including J. Warren Kerrigan, Ramon Novarro, and William Haines. Early cinema pioneers like Alla Nazimova and W. Murnau helped shape the new medium of moving pictures. The sex symbols, both male (Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, and Anthony Perkins) and female (Lizabeth Scott and Greta Garbo), lived under the threat of their private lives undermining their public personas. Underground filmmakers Kenneth Anger and John Waters made huge strides in LGBTQ+ representation with their off–off-Hollywood productions in the 1960s and ’70s. These screen legends paved the way for every openly queer figure in Hollywood today. Illustrated with more than 175 full-color and black-and-white images, “Hollywood Pride” points to the bright future of LGBTQ+ representation in cinema by revealing the story of the community’s inclusion and erasure, its visibility and invisibility, and its triumphs and tragedies.
OFFICIAL SPONSORS
The USA Film Festival is supported in part by the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Presenting Sponsors include Sidley Austin LLP, Dave Perry Miller Real Estate, Gaedeke Group, Carol and Alan J. Bernon Family Charitable Foundation, Moody Fund for the Arts, Headington Company, Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District, Mary Fox and Laura Fox, Dallas Film & Creative Industries, Dallas Producers Association, MPS Studios, SAG-AFTRA and the Angelika Film Center.
