Industry | Entertainment |
---|---|
Founded | 1985 |
Headquarters | New Almaden, California , |
Products | Motion pictures |
Website | http://www.wolfevideo.com |
Wolfe Video is the oldest and largest exclusive producer and distributor of LGBT films in North America.
Founded in 1985 in New Almaden by Kathy Wolfe, [1] the company began as a consumer mail order distribution company for lesbian VHS videos but has evolved over the years to become a full-service distributor of LGBT films. Wolfe releases LGBT films on DVD in North America as well as doing film festival bookings, foreign sales, US digital delivery, and broadcast sales for its library of more than one hundred feature films and dozens of shorts and documentaries.
Notable Wolfe releases over the years include the film Big Eden , the 20th Anniversary DVD release of Desert Hearts , Were the World Mine , and Thom Fitzgerald's AIDS drama 3 Needles . Significant Wolfe DVD releases in recent years include the Sundance Film Festival award-winner Undertow , the acclaimed French drama Tomboy , the praised Polish cyberthriller drama Suicide Room, the multiple award-winner Gayby , and Swedish lesbian romance Kiss Me (With Every Heartbeat ). Wolfe has also released two films by the writer and director Stephen Cone, including The Wise Kids and Henry Gamble's Birthday Party . [2] [3]
In June 2012 the company launched a new worldwide LGBT movie-watching platform, WolfeOnDemand. [4] [5]
In 2015, Wolfe Video donated its complete DVD library of lesbian movies to the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives. [6] [7]
Jenni Olson is a writer, archivist, historian, consultant, and non-fiction filmmaker based in Berkeley, California. She co-founded the pioneering LGBT website PlanetOut.com. Her two feature-length essay films — The Joy of Life (2005) and The Royal Road (2015) — premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Her work as an experimental filmmaker and her expansive personal collection of LGBTQ film prints and memorabilia were acquired in April 2020 by the Harvard Film Archive, and her reflection on the last 30 years of LGBT film history, in The Oxford Handbook of Queer Cinema, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in 2021. In 2020, she was named to the Out Magazine Out 100 list. In 2021, she was recognized with the prestigious Special TEDDY Award at the Berlin Film Festival. She also campaigned to have a barrier erected on the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent suicides.
Desert Hearts is a 1985 American romantic drama film directed by Donna Deitch. The screenplay, written by Natalie Cooper, is an adaptation of the 1964 lesbian novel Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule. Set in Reno, Nevada in 1959, it tells the story of a university professor awaiting a divorce who finds her true self through a relationship with another, more self-confident woman. The film stars Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau with a supporting performance by Audra Lindley.
The Frameline Film Festival began as a storefront event in 1976. The first film festival, named the Gay Film Festival of Super-8 Films, was held in 1977. The festival is organized by Frameline, a nonprofit media arts organization whose mission statement is "to change the world through the power of queer cinema". It is the oldest LGBTQ+ film festival in the world.
Loving Annabelle is a 2006 American romantic drama film written and directed by Katherine Brooks. Inspired by Mädchen in Uniform, it tells the story of a boarding school student who falls in love with her teacher.
Pornography: A Thriller is a 2009 American mystery/thriller film, written and directed by David Kittredge.
Andrew Haigh is a British filmmaker.
BearCity 2: The Proposal is a 2012 American gay-themed comedy-drama film written and directed by Doug Langway. It is a sequel to his 2010 film BearCity.
EastSiders is an American dark comedy web series created by Kit Williamson. It premiered on YouTube on December 14, 2012, and began streaming through Logo TV's website on April 23, 2013. Set in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, the series follows couple Thom and Cal (Williamson) as they struggle with infidelity and substance abuse. It also explores the relationship between Kathy, Cal's best friend, and her boyfriend Ian as they reach their six-month anniversary, making it Kathy's longest relationship.
The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives is a grass roots archive dedicated to collecting, protecting, and conserving lesbian and feminist women's history. The Archives was founded in 1981 as the West Coast Lesbian Collections (WCLC) by Lynn Fonfa and Cherrie Cox in Oakland, California.
The Perfect Wedding is an independent film co-created by New York Times Bestselling Author Suzanne Brockmann, Edgar Award Finalist Ed Gaffney, and Off-Broadway actor Jason T. Gaffney. In 2013, it won the Bud Abbott Award for Feature Length Comedy at the Garden State Film Festival. It was filmed in 2011 and released on VOD/Streaming and DVD from distributor Wolfe Releasing in 2013.
The Wise Kids is a 2011 American drama film written and directed by Stephen Cone and starring Molly Kunz, Tyler Ross, Allison Torem, Matt DeCaro, Sadieh Rifai, and Stephen Cone. An ensemble, coming-of-age piece, the film follows a group of young members of a South Carolina Baptist church as they confront issues of homosexuality and a crisis of faith.
Stephen Cone is an American filmmaker who has received recent early career retrospectives on the Criterion Channel, MUBI and at the Museum of the Moving Image, as well at Berlin's Unknown Pleasures Festival and Manchester's Bigger Than Life..
Indie Rights, Inc. is an American distributor of independent films, based in Los Angeles, California. Indie Rights is a subsidiary of Nelson Madison Films and was incorporated in 2007 to act as distributor for other independent filmmakers. The corporation began as a private MySpace group where the makers of independent films could get information about the changing face of film distribution; founders Linda Nelson and Michael Madison created Indie Rights so that distribution contracts could be signed by a legal entity. The corporation distributes films largely through video on demand services, though more recently it has overseen such theatrical releases as We Are Kings and Fray, both in 2014.
Tru Love is a 2013 Canadian drama film written, directed and produced by Kate Johnston and Shauna MacDonald.
Nasty Baby is a 2015 Chilean-American drama film written and directed by Sebastián Silva and starring Kristen Wiig, Silva, and Tunde Adebimpe alongside Reg E. Cathey, Mark Margolis, Agustín Silva, Alia Shawkat, Lillias White, and Anthony Chisholm.
Tiger Orange is a 2014 American drama film directed by Wade Gasque and written by Mark Strano and starring Strano and Frankie Valenti as Chet and Todd, two gay brothers struggling to reconnect after their father's death.
Henry Gamble's Birthday Party is a 2015 drama film written and directed by Stephen Cone.
Naz & Maalik is a 2015 American drama film written and directed by Jay Dockendorf and starring Curtiss Cook Jr. and Kerwin Johson Jr. It follows two closeted Muslim teenagers over the course of a summer afternoon, as their secretive behavior and small-time scheming accidentally lead them into the crosshairs of FBI surveillance.
Liz in September is a 2014 Venezuelan romance drama film directed by Fina Torres. The screenplay is an adaptation of the American play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove by Jane Chambers. A work-in-progress project of Liz en Septiembre screened at the 2013 Miami International Film Festival, followed by the theatrical premiere in Caracas, Venezuela on October 3, 2014.