The sixth annual Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Film Festival begins Thursday night at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

The Wexner Center has shown GLBT film and video since it opened in 1989 but did not start featuring such films in a festival until recently, said Dave Filipi, associate curator of film and video at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

“Six years ago we decided to do one month where we focused on gay and lesbian cinema and make it a small series. I think the first year we did it, we only showed three films,” Filipi said. “It truly did start out as an experiment. Would it burn out the audience, or would there really be an audience that would support something like that?”

Audiences were receptive, and the experiment paid off. Along with the films, the festival also invites filmmakers to speak to audiences about their work.

This year, director John Greyson will introduce his film “Proteus,” which will be shown on Saturday night. The film is based on factual events involving an 18th-century Dutch sailor who was imprisoned in the Cape Town penal colony for sodomy, and the resulting ten-year relationship he had with a local herdsman while there.

Among the notable works being shown at the event, is Arthur Dong’s “Family Fundamentals,” a documentary which examines parents who do not accept their gay children.

“We showed his last film, “Licensed to Kill,” where he went and interviewed people who had been convicted of hate crimes, trying to discover what was going through their minds and who these people were,” Filipi said. “I think this new film, “Family Fundamentals,” kind of continues that train, examining gays and lesbians growing up whose parents don’t approve of them.”

Brett Beemyn, coordinator for Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Student Services, said his office plays an active role in the publicity and selection of films for the yearly festival. They look for selections that address issues within the entire GLBT community, he said.

“I think that’s wonderful that they are inclusive and recognize it’s important to have films that speak to the range of people within our community,” Beemyn said. “That’s not very common in film festivals, especially small film festivals.”

Serious portrayals of members of the GLBT community have been a rarity in mainstream Hollywood pictures, Beemyn said. Instead, they are usually placed in the role of comic relief or local color, he said.

Hollywood may be making some steps forward in its depictions, though.

“I think there actually has been progress made. Has there been a lot? I would say probably not. I think that most GLBT films that are of that quality are still largely having to be made independently,” Beemyn said.

Patrick Galloway, development director at Stonewall Columbus, said he was proud the Wexner Center will be hosting such an event.

“I really applaud the Wexner Center for taking on a festival that takes on issues of the GLBT community,” he said.

Such festivals give people outside of the GLBT community a valuable insight into the issues faced by people within the community, he said. Because of exclusion from the Hollywood mainstream, films with GLBT themes have usually been made in the independent arena, Filipi said.

“I think most queer cinema scholars would identify there definitely was this GoldenAge of queer cinema that was probably from the mid-’80’s to mid-’90’s, and I don’t think we’re in that anymore,” he said.

GLBT VI will run at the Wexner Center for the Arts from Thursday to Saturday. Tickets are available at the Wexner Center.