Pride Flick Picks: Vito, Kinky Boots, Vancouver Queer Film Festival

As Vancouver's Pride season heats up—with an endless assortment of events vying for your attention, energy, and money—here's a quick rundown for those of you with a cinematic bent.

If you missed the documentary Vito, about gay rights pioneer Vito Russo, which screened at this year's DOXA Documentary Film Festival, now's your chance to catch it at Denman Cinemas (1779 Comox Street) in the West End.

The informative film not only provides a well-constructed profile of Russo but it also provides a comprehensive and incisive history lesson about gay rights, the start of the AIDS movement, and gay representation in film in the United States.

Vito opens today and runs until next Thursday, except for Tuesday and Wednesday.

But if on Wednesday (August 1) your boots were made for walking (and that's just what they'll do), you can opt to attend the Vancouver Pride Society's monthly Pride Movie Night (a fundraiser for the VPS) at Denman Cinemas (6:30 p.m.).

This time around, it's the absolutely fabulous (sweetie) 2005 British comedy Kinky Boots, about a shoemaker who, after meeting a drag queen, becomes inspired to save his floundering family business by making men's fetish footwear.

Last night, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and Vancity Theatre presented the Italian gay rom-com Loose Cannons, about two Italian brothers whose sibling rivalry and plans to both come out as gay goes awry after their father suffers a heart attack when one of the sons does so. (Believe it or not, I recently met a family which has four brothers who are all gay.)

If you missed it, fear not, as the VQFF, one of the city's biggest, longest-running film festivals and a smorgasbord of queer cinema, is set to hit the city, running from August 16 to 26.

Whether you're a lover or fighter (or both), you can check out their website to browse the lineup of films and for full details and schedules.

You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at twitter.com/cinecraig. You can also follow the Straight's LGBT coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/StraightLGBT.