Wicked Queer Opening Night Film: VIVA!

The Boston LGBT Film Festival returns to the ICA for the opening night of its 32nd edition with a screening of Viva. For more than three decades, the Boston LGBT Film Festival has celebrated the latest in queer cinema, bringing to Boston the best contemporary films by, for, and about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Viva stars Héctor Medina as Jesus, a young hairdresser working at a Havana nightclub that showcases drag performers, who dreams of being a performer himself. Encouraged by his mentor, Mama (Luis Alberto García), Jesus finally gets his chance to take the stage. But when his estranged father Angel (Jorge Perugorría) abruptly reenters his life, his world is quickly turned upside down. As father and son clash over their opposing expectations of each other, Viva becomes a love story as the men struggle to understand one another and reconcile as a family. Viva was a hit at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival, and is Ireland’s entry for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award this year.