For the past 13 years, Sacramento’s own Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Film Festival has been a unique opportunity for both the film community and the gay and lesbian community. This year, the festival, which ran from Oct. 6 to October 10, brought hundreds of film lovers together for a different sort of theatrical treat–the viewing of movies not considered “mainstream” by other local theaters.

SIGLFF, at the Crest Theater, showed both straight and gay audiences alike movies that Century or United Artists don’t show. “It’s so wonderful how they capture the basic human emotions involved with all the different sexualities,” said Lisa, a festival attendee who declined to give her last name.

SIGLFF has grown in popularity over the years, going from a sold out, one night event, to it’s current five nights, while establishing itself as a fixture in the Sacramento gay and lesbian community.

“[Saturday] is our biggest night. [Friday] we probably had about two thirds of what we had [Saturday]. Opening night we had about two thirds of what we had tonight, and Thursday night we had about a third of what we had [Saturday],” said festival president David van der Griff. “It has been a lot of fun. It has been great. Not only is it a film festival, but to the Sacramento gay and lesbian LGT community, its and annual event. People really look forward to it.”

SIGLFF has established a loyal base of fans and volunteers from the community with people getting involved for many different reasons, despite the fact that it’s smaller than many other international film festivals,”Friends of mine told me I should volunteer, because I enjoy going to film festivals. I’ve been going to Sundance for years,” said Michael Dennis, a volunteer at the festival and member of the selection committee that is responsible for the yearly program.

“I’m a film buff, and, particularly, I like gay and lesbian cinema. I went to a dinner party and met the president and she was telling me about [the festival] and I said that’s a fabulous idea and she said I should come to the next board meeting, and see if you wouldn’t be interested in getting on board,” said van der Griff.”I went a couple of years ago, but I like this one a lot better,” said Claire, a festival attendee who declined to state her last name.

“This is much more intimate [than Sundance]. I know many of the people that come to this,” Dennis said.

Despite its modest stature and intimate setting, the festival does have its share of both aspirations and problems, according to van der Griff.

“Obviously, we would like to have full houses every night, but I think the people who are interested in film is a limited number of people. And then particularly in gay film as well. And I think that some of the program, we are an international film festival, so I think to the general gay and lesbian community who may even be interested in film, there may be a bias against going out and seeing international and foreign language films. I mean, I’ve actually had people say to me I don’t view films with subtitles.”

The festival has been run in early October since 1992 in order to help celebrate “National Coming Out Day” on Oct. 11. More information about the film festival can be obtained at the festivals website http://www.siglff.org/ or by calling (916) 689-3284.