Number 13 may be lucky for Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Fest

So, what's so unlucky about 13? The Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, presented by Three Dollar Bill Cinema and beginning its 13th annual edition Thursday, has chosen to embrace a challenging milestone.

"We just decided to have fun with it," said the festival's programming director Jason Plourde. This year's festival posters and programs feature black cats (in movie seats, some clutching bags of popcorn), and the film selection includes a number of horror movies. (Every festival handles its 13th anniversary differently: The Seattle Jewish Film Festival, earlier this year, celebrated with a bar mitzvah theme, while the Seattle International Film Festival skipped the unlucky number entirely, moving directly from 12 to 14.)

And 13, for the SLGFF, marks a festival that's bigger than ever. Its 10 days include approximately 160 films (roughly 60 features and 100 shorts, Plourde estimates) and a newly expanded roster of venues. The Admiral Theater in West Seattle will host festival screenings for the first time; other venues include Cinerama, Harvard Exit, Northwest Film Forum, Central Cinema and downtown's King Cat Theater. "We're trying to create and continue good partnerships with a lot of venues in town, be in as many neighborhoods as possible," said Plourde.

The festival opens Thursday night with a Cinerama screening of Tom Gustafson's musical "Were the World Mine," which centers on a magical high-school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Gustafson will attend with his film, which has won awards at film festivals across the country.

Closing night, on the 26th, is in a decidedly spookier vein. Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, will host a 20th anniversary screening of "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark," followed by a gala party known as The Black Cat Ball.

Gay horror film, said the festival's executive director Rachael Brister, hasn't gotten much play in the festival in previous years (though they've shown the 2004 slasher "HellBent," and the 1971 lesbian vampire film "Daughters of Darkness"). "It's been a growing genre that we've been seeing on the festival circuit a little bit more and more each year. This year we had the opportunity to do a little more of a focus on it — the films are popping up."

New horror films in the festival include Jason Davis' "Scab," Steve Balderson's "Watch Out" and the shorts package "Camp Blood." There's room for the not-so-new too: "The Hunger," with Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie, gets a 25th-anniversary screening Sunday; "A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge" (of which the festival program asks the question, "Could this be the gayest horror movie ever made ... by accident?") screens Oct. 24. And "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," led by performers of the Vicarious Theatre Company, will do the Time Warp again late-night on the 25th at the Admiral.

Local films will also be featured, most notably the world premiere of David Rothmiller's documentary "For My Wife." The film chronicles the tragic December 2006 death of Seattle audiobook narrator Kate Fleming, who died after a torrential rainstorm trapped her in fast-rising waters in her Madison Valley basement. Her partner, Charlene Strong, was devastated when a hospital initially refused to allow her to see Fleming — and has since become an advocate for marriage equality and an influential figure in passing the state's Domestic Partnership Registration Bill.

Strong and Rothmiller will attend the Oct. 19 screening at Cinerama, along with other guests (including, Plourde said, a number of politicians involved in the passing of the bill). Other local films include Kimberly Brandom's documentary "Testimony" (Oct. 18), about homosexuality and religion; the short documentaries "Bailey-Boushay House"; "This Land is Our Land: A Chorus Tour"; and the festival's three-minute-movie challenge to local filmmakers, "Super 8: Superstitions."

Elsewhere, the festival includes a number of traditions old and new. Returning are the festival's trademark singalong (this year, "Little Shop of Horrors," on the 19th) and "Gay TV Dinners," an evening of gay-themed episodes of "The Golden Girls," "Charlie's Angels," "Alice" and "Roc." New this year is an online festival in partnership with Indie-Fest: Viewers can vote for their favorite of three features and five short films shown online (www.indie-fest.com/SLGFF) through the end of the festival, and the winners get a closing-weekend screening.

Plourde and Brister mentioned a few personal favorites among the festival's long list of documentaries: "Meadowlark," about a man's coming to terms with his troubled childhood; "Wild Combination," about musician/composer Arthur Russell; "Sex Positive," about Richard Berkowitz's influence on early safe-sex awareness (Berkowitz will attend the festival); and "The Kinsey Sicks: Almost Infamous," about the drag a cappella group.

Of the subject on everyone's mind this fall, Brister noted that the struggling economy did make festival planning "a little bit difficult" in comparison to other years. "We have a lot of in-kind support, and that has not wavered," she said, also noting the festival's 300-plus volunteers. "We're able to do so much of what we do because of the in-kind support, and that allows us to add a lot of extras to the festival and bring in guests and make it a well-rounded experience."

Sounds like 13 just might be lucky after all.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com