Straight Up

“We’re all tied up in gender,” says Keith Garcia, programming director at Starz FilmCenter, “and we really need to pull back on the strings and let people be who they want to be.” Examining gender stereotypes and sexuality is part of the purpose of Cinema Q, a Starz series highlighting...

By Amber Taufen

October 22, 2009

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“We’re all tied up in gender,” says Keith Garcia, programming director at Starz FilmCenter, “and we really need to pull back on the strings and let people be who they want to be.” Examining gender stereotypes and sexuality is part of the purpose of Cinema Q, a Starz series highlighting films with a GLBT slant. Straightlaced, a documentary examining gender roles in high school, takes that purpose a step further by looking at how a high-school environment affects the way teenagers choose to define themselves.

“What I really like about the film is that it wasn’t just particularly about GLBT youth,” Garcia adds. “It’s about everyone, and how everyone gets put into these little cookie-cutter molds and how weird that is. The youth are really great examples of crossing over those lines, but in ways that one wouldn’t imagine.”

Straightlaced opens tonight at Starz, in the Tivoli building on the Auraria campus, and screens through October 29; the Center and the Matthew Shepard Foundation are teaming up with Starz to promote the film to high schools, so classes on a field trip will be offered daytime screenings, as well. Visit www.denverfilm.org or call 303-595-3456 for information.
Oct. 23-29, 2009

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Amber Taufen has been writing about people, places and things in Denver since 2005. She works as an editor, writer, and production and process guru out of her home office in the foothills.

Contact: Amber Taufen

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