The Del Shores Foundation will host a one-night-only 25th anniversary benefit screening of the film Sordid Lives at the Angelika Film Center – Dallas on Tuesday, July 8 at 7:30 p.m. The evening will be hosted by the film’s director Del Shores with proceeds going toward the Del Shores Foundation and its mission to find and elevate new LGBTQ+ writers living in the South.
Also in attendance will be Emerson Collins and original cast member Ann Walker. The screening event will feature a post-show Q&A and VIP tickets that will include a pre-show mixer with Shores, Collins and Walker.
This year marks the third year the DSF has held its Writers Search and Writers Festival and so far, has awarded more than $50,000 in cash awards and production grants. The Writers Festival brings in a dozen LGBTQ+ winners and finalists from the Writers Search for a weekend of private workshops, public panels and stage readings of all three
winning scripts and has been hosted in Dallas, Atlanta and Birmingham.
“We know it’s a challenging time on so many fronts for so many people, and we’re still committed to our mission of supporting and helping bring into the world new stories from fresh LGBTQ+ Southern voices more than ever. Telling our stories is one of the most impactful ways to change hearts and minds,” Shores stated in the announcement for the event.
Shores told Dallas Voice the significance of bringing this movie to Dallas.
“As a young filmmaker, what a thrill it was to see Sordid Lives take off in several cities, including Dallas where it ran over a year at The Regent — 25 years ago,” he said in an email. “So, to return to Dallas where the Sordid fans are still ‘crazy but loyal’ makes me giddy. For this screening to benefit The Del Shores Foundation, where we facilitate the development of new southern queer artistic voices, well, it just feels full circle. Big thanks to Dallas for 25 years of Sordid love.”
As Shores mentioned, This years marks the 25th anniversary of Shores’ classic Southern film. The comedy centers on “white trash as a gay actor struggles to come out to his
eccentric, dysfunctional Texas family. When the family matriarch trips over the two wooden legs of her lover in a seedy motel room, her funeral brings three generations of the family back together in a story about learning to love the family you have as they are, not as you wish them to be.”
The film premiered at Camelot Theatres in 2001 and ran for 96 weeks, making it the longest running film in Palm Springs history. The film would go on to expand its Sordid-verse with Sordid Lives: The Series and the sequel A Very Sordid Wedding. The film’s cast includes Walker, Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges, Delta Burke, Beth Grant and Leslie Jordan.
See Shores’ video invitation to the event below:
For more information and tickets, visit the Del Shores Foundation site.
–Rich Lopez
