The Ryan and Amy Show features Vancouver sketch comics and filmmakers Ryan Steele and Amy Goodmurphy. Credit: prideoftheocean.com
Four-time Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis. Credit: greglouganis.com
The week-long Hawaiian cruise in October 2014 will be aboard Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America. Credit: Norwegian Cruise Line
Openly gay four-time Olympic champion Greg Louganis has joined organizers of the Pride of the Ocean film festival cruises to announce their 2014 cruise lineup. The cruises will commemorate two important dates next year on the gay calendar: the 45th anniversary of Stonewall and National Coming Out Day.
Cruise director James Pollin and his programming partner, Emmy Award-winning producer John Scagliotti, are organizing two weeklong Pride of the Ocean film festival cruises and one “sampler weekend” cruise, called A Taste of Pride of the Ocean.
In June 2014, Pride of the Ocean’s first festival cruise will set sail out of New York City, commemorating the June 1969 Stonewall rebellion. It’s also Pride of the Ocean’s fifth anniversary cruise.
The seven-day cruise to Bermuda aboard the new Norwegian Breakaway will embark from Manhattan on June 1 and return June 8.
Films chosen for the cruise will reflect the many changes that have taken place since Stonewall in politics, history, religion and sports.
“I have been involved with LGBT media since Stonewall, so this Pride of the Ocean festival is an opportunity to showcase some films that have made a difference in the struggle for LGBT freedoms that we now enjoy,” says Scagliotti, who is still in the process of reviewing films for the cruise.
Confirmed is a screening of After Stonewall, which first aired nationally on PBS for the 30th anniversary of Stonewall. The film has won many honours on the gay film festival circuit, including Los Angeles’s Outfest Audience Award.
In addition to opening and closing cocktail parties, the Stonewall cruise will feature a performance by Vancouver’s Ryan and Amy Show, with sketch comedians and filmmakers Ryan Steele and Amy Goodmurphy.
“The Ryan and Amy Show will complement the Pride of the Ocean programming perfectly,” Scagliotti says. “Our cruises are a blend of stimulating independent films and the enjoyment and relaxation you want on a vacation. Ryan and Amy will enhance your experience of both.”
Fans of the Ryan and Amy Show are also eligible for a $75 per person discount when they use a special promotional code to book a cabin; full details can be found on the Pride of the Ocean website.
In October 2014, Pride of the Ocean will feature a seven-day Hawaiian cruise, with an Asian/Pacific LGBT film focus.
The Norwegian Pride of America will set sail from Honolulu on National Coming Out Day, Oct 11, tour the five Hawaiian Islands and return to port in Honolulu on Oct 18.
The cruise will feature a Bon Voyage Luau to celebrate National Coming Out Day, with the promise that “passengers will get leid.”
Pollin and Scagliotti also have planned a teaser to the two larger cruises, a festival sampler weekend cruise. A Taste of Pride of the Ocean will sail in January 2014, departing Miami for Nassau on Jan 31 and returning to port in Miami on Feb 3.
Organizers say that since the ship is heading for the Bahamas, the cruise will feature a screening of Bahamian director Kareem Mortimer’s film Children of God.
The cruise will also feature a cocktail party and a panel of funny shorts.
Louganis is also promoting the scheduled 2014 release of the biographical feature-length documentary, Back on Board, which will tell his life story as the Olympic champion returns to diving after a long absence.
For more information on Pride of the Ocean or to register for these cruises, visit prideoftheocean.com.
You can also check out Pride of the Ocean videos on YouTube.
Why you can trust Xtra