Marc Huestis (born December 26, 1954) is an American filmmaker, camp impresario and social activist. He is best known for his motion picture ''Sex Is...'' and his in-person tributes/benefit events feting celebrities from Hollywood's Golden Age and cult personas at San Francisco's

Castro Theatre The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in San Francisco that became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street in the Castro District, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque façad ...

Early life

Huestis was born in

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...

. His mother was a dancer and his father was a video editor at NBC, where he cut the hit TV show Hullabaloo. He studied theater at

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

from 1972 to 1974. Afterwards, Huestis took the famed Green Tortoise to San Francisco & there hooked up with the colorful theatre group the Angels of Light. His interest soon veered to film, taking classes at City College of San Francisco. While getting his super 8 films developed at

Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised in N ...

's Castro Camera store, he met a group of fellow fledgeling filmmakers. Together with

Daniel Nicoletta Daniel Nicoletta (born December 23, 1954) is an Italian-American photographer, photojournalist and gay rights activist. Biography Daniel Nicoletta was born in New York City and raised in Utica, New York. In his late teens he left New York to at ...

, Ric Mears and others, Huestis founded the San Francisco Gay Film Festival, now the oldest and largest of its ilk. In 2001, in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Festival, Huestis and the founding members were given the

Frameline Film Festival The Frameline Film Festival (aka San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival) (formerly San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) began as a storefront event in 1976. The first ...

Award.

Filmography

Huestis' history as a filmmaker parallels that of the

San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival The Frameline Film Festival (aka San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival) (formerly San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) began as a storefront event in 1976. The first ...

, now Frameline Film Festival. From the early days of gay film in the 1970s when his grainy super 8 films were projected on stained sheets, to the advent of new technologies, Huestis has been dedicated to being a unique voice in the filmmaking community. He has directed the following titles: *''Unity'' (1977), a memory piece dealing with the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany *''Whatever Happened To Susan Jane?'' (1982), a spoof of underground San Francisco, circa 1980; with Wendy Dallas *''Chuck Solomon: Coming Of Age'' (1986) a profile of a San Francisco theatre director, and his strength to deal with AIDS *''Men in Love'' (1990), a fictional film about a man who travels to a New Age center to cope with the death of his lover *''Sex Is...'' (1993), the highly popular video/ film exploring the meaning of sex and sexuality within the lives of gay men; with Lawrence Helman. ''Sex Is...'' premiered at the 1993

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

, where it won a

Teddy Award The Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival (the Berlinale). In the most part, the jury consists of organisers of gay a ...

; *''Another Goddamn Benefit'' (1997), documenting 20 years of grassroots theatrical response to issues important to the gay/lesbian and HIV communities *''25 - A Brief History Of The Festival'' (2001), celebrating 25 years of the

*''Way Cool'' (2004), focusing on the protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention *''Lulu Gets A Facelift'' (2007

a feature documentary following performer Lulu, a "mid-life crisis in action" who decides to get a facelift *Huestis also served as

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

for the feature film '' The Toilers and the Wayfarers'' (1996)

The Castro Theatre Extravaganzas

In 1994, along with producer Lawrence Helman, Huestis began to present celebrity tributes at San Francisco's majestic

. The first, ''The Poseidon Event-ure'' featuring star

Carol Lynley Carol Lynley (born Carole Ann Jones; February 13, 1942 – September 3, 2019) was an American actress known for her roles in the films ''Blue Denim'' (1959) and '' The Poseidon Adventure'' (1972). Lynley was born in Manhattan to an Irish ...

, was a success, selling out the 1400 seat venue. Soon these events drew national attention, where in an article entitled "Celebration of Camp", ''Variety'' reporter Dennis Harvey commented " it took local entrepreneur Marc Huestis to perfect a meld of screen and live ultrakitsch." In the past 15 years, Huestis has produced over 25 staged extravaganzas/tributes. Significant funds from these benefit events have been raised for needy AIDS/socially conscious organizations. Celebrities that have participated in, or been honored by, Huestis' galas (both at the Castro & elsewhere) have included

Ann-Margret Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish–American actress, singer, and dancer. As an actress and singer, she is credited as Ann-Margret. She is known for her roles in ''Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), ''State Fair'' (1962), ''B ...

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,Mimi Kennedy

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, Jan Wahl,

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John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...

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, Lypsinka,

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Mitzi Gaynor Mitzi Gaynor (born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber; September 4, 1931) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Her notable films include '' We're Not Married!'' (1952), '' There's No Business Like Show Business'' (1954), '' The Birds ...

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, Reno,

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, and

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. In a feature piece in the San Francisco Chronicle written by David Wiegand, tribute Carol Lynley compared the showman favorably to such impresarios as

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and

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, and summed up her feelings about Huestis - " He's larger than life; he's larger than imagination." In 2008, Huestis was honored by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for his life achievement and work in benefiting many San Francisco non-profits.LaSalle, Mick: "Supervisors Honor Marc Huestis", ''SF Gate'' , January 17, 200

!-- Retrieved on 2009-03-12 -->

References

External links

Marc Huestis Event Videos
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Marc Huestis Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huestis, Marc People from Long Island American filmmakers LGBT film directors Living people 1954 births Binghamton University alumni