During the 19 years the Sacramento International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival has existed, LBGT people have made tremendous political strides and increased their visibility by about a thousandfold.

They have not, however, shown much eagerness to sit and watch nonfiction films about their political strides and increased visibility. At least not in Sacramento.

"We didn't get the attendance last year for documentaries," says Michael Dennis, a programmer for the nonprofit festival running tonight through Saturday at the Crest Theatre.

This year, the festival has skipped documentaries altogether for a lineup of scripted shorts and features highlighted by the behind-the-scenes musical comedy "The Big Gay Musical," showing tonight, and the romantic comedy "I Can't Think Straight," playing Friday.

As light - and decidedly non-documentary - as these films are, they still offer substance, Dennis and fellow programmer Patti Barcena say. That's important, Barcena says, since "part of our mission is education."

"Gay Musical," which follows the on- and offstage lives of two actors (Daniel Robinson and Joey Dudding) starring as a couple named Adam and Steve in an off-Broadway show, isn't quite as irreverent as it sounds.

"It's fun, but it also has (content) about being true to yourself, safe sex and religious intolerance," Dennis says.

"I Can't Think Straight," which pairs a British Indian Muslim woman (Sheetal Sheth) with a Palestinian Christian woman (Lisa Ray), weaves in plenty of religious and sociological issues as well.

"I think that makes it a better movie," Barcena says of the serious content within the romantic comedy from writer-director Shamim Sharif, who also made "The World Unseen," a period drama about two Indian women in South Africa that played the Sacramento festival last year. "World Unseen" also starred Sheth and Ray, who are quickly becoming the Bogie and Bacall of lesbian-themed movies set among the Indian diaspora.

With sponsors harder to come by in this down economy, and with last year's event drawing fewer people than anticipated, festival organizers have trimmed the usually four-day festival to three days. The programming, however, remains top-tier, with the Sacramento festival continuing to show the same marquee LBGT films that headline festivals in bigger cities.

The festival also offers a deal with its $25 pass, which includes admission to all programs and receptions.

Yet despite its solid track record and bargain prices, the Sacramento International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival remains something of a hidden gem on the local film scene.

"I talk to people who don't even know the festival exists, and they have lived here 10 years," Dennis says.

Festival organizers have targeted those people with outreach efforts such as one last month at Second Saturday - and by constantly seeking out programming that is "fresh and different," Barcena says.

This means films such as "Paris Noir," a moody, evocative short in which a young gay man falls for a woman, and "U-Haul: The Music Video," a hip-hop parody based on that old joke about what lesbians do on a second date (rent a U-Haul!).

Those shorts play with "Gay Musical," and "Think Straight," respectively. But Saturday evening's program consists entirely of shorts, which always are a hit with the Sacramento audience, Barcena and Dennis say.

"People don't get to see shorts very often on a big screen," Barcena says. Especially not on a big screen at a theater that just celebrated its 60th anniversary and the restoration of its marquee.

"It just makes the event so much more alive," Barcena says of the Crest Theatre setting.

Call Bee arts and entertainment critic Carla Meyer, (916)