Writer/Director Stewart Wade delighted NewFest audiences in 2006 with his feature comedy debut, Coffee Date. It’s a great pleasure to open our 20th Anniversary festival with his charming second feature, Tru Loved, a thoroughly modern high school romantic comedy. Sixteen-year-old Gertrude aka Tru is a typical high school teenager from an atypical home - she is raised by her two moms, interracial couple Leslie and Lisa, who have just moved to a new town in suburban southern California, while her two dads remain in San Francisco. At school, Tru catches the eye of Lo, the closeted star quarterback who soon makes a deal with Tru to pretend they are an item. It’s seems like a perfect solution – it keeps his friends and family from asking too many questions, and it allows Tru to instantly find a place to belong in her new school. But when Tru befriends picked-upon openly gay student Walter and decides to join him in forming a Gay-Straight Alliance, she falls for GSA member Trevor, a handsome metrosexual who has been raised by his gay uncle. Her new love affair threatens to expose Lo's true desires and standing as big man on campus. Funny, fresh, and endearing, and featuring breakout performances from its young cast, especially the wonderful Najarra Townsend in the lead, plus appearances by Alexandra Paul, Cynda Williams, Jasmine Guy, Bruce Vilanch, Marcia Wallace, Alec Mapa, Jane Lynch, and Nichelle Nichols, Tru Loved is certain to appeal to gay, straight, and lesbian audiences, and is the perfect way to launch this year’s festival!  More...

One spring weekend, 30 women and transmen of color, gay and straight, gathered at a brownstone in Brooklyn to film a music video celebrating black women’s lives – and as that music video was being made, another camera recorded footage of the cast and crew. But this is no simple behind the scenes video – instead, U People captures candid and thought-provoking discussions of race, gender, and sexuality spurred on by the music video’s themes and by the intelligent, talented, and beautiful people who joined together to create it – people who are too often marginalized in front of and behind the camera. The result is an empowering and illuminating reminder of the power of community.  More...

Jack saw a mirage, Jill made it an oasis.  More...

An engaging young transman prepares to bid farewell to his breasts.  More...

Sex Positive profiles one of the most controversial figures of early AIDS activism, Richard Berkowitz, a former S/M hustler who introduced the idea that safe sex could combat the spread of the disease. Forming an unlikely partnership with pioneering researcher Joseph Sonnabend and the late performer/activist Michael Callen, Berkowitz urged the gay community to take steps to protect themselves by changing sexual behaviors while others were so fearful of homophobic backlash that they resolutely refused to entertain such an idea. Labeled as anti-sex and dismissed as a crackpot, Berkowitz was of course eventually proven right, as demonstrated in this important addition to the history of the epidemic.  More...

Gays and lesbians have obvious biological stumbling blocks when it comes to reproduction – so why not join together? That’s what Fiona and Kellie decide, turning to single gay co-worker, Darren, to father their child. Though not entering into this arrangement blindly, they certainly don’t foresee all the complications – from parental access to the color of the baby’s room – that threaten a legal quagmire. This captivating portrait navigates the uncharted waters of co-parenting and the redefining of family.  More...