Marc Huestis used to spend afternoons with his mother watching "Million Dollar Movie" on New York's Channel 9. While he gloried in the same old movies shown over and over again, his mother, a stripper known professionally as Marija the Continental Gypsy, would be sewing sequins on her pasties. When he was 12, Huestis lived with his mother but would often see his father, who was an alcoholic.

But there's another side of Marc Huestis, one that prompted him to campaign for Eugene McCarthy as a 13-year-old.

The political side inspired Huestis to dream up his latest production, a benefit Friday night at the Castro featuring artists and performers who oppose the nation's involvement in Iraq and think in general that there should be a peaceful alternative to the way the Bush administration pursues foreign policy.

Huestis spent many weekends going into New York to see plays and was befriended in high school by a gay drama teacher who encouraged his love of theater. He spent three and a half years at the State University of New York at Binghamton, majoring in drama, but left without getting his degree. He wound up in Provincetown, Mass., where he danced at a place called the Atlantic House, or A-House to the P-town set. An offshoot of the Angels of Light theater collective was performing in town at the same time, and he met one of the members, Gregory Cruikshank.

A later film, "Chuck Solomon: Coming of Age," about one of the founders of Theatre Rhinoceros, won an award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1986. In 1993, Huestis made his magnum opus, "Sex Is . . . ," a documentary compiling interviews with a variety of people on the subject of gay sex and sexuality. Despite the fact that Huestis was able to tour the world with that film, and that it cost only $55,000 to make, he began to realize he'd never make a living as a filmmaker; he began his "extravaganzas," as he calls them, at the Castro Theatre.

Much later in life, Huestis, 48, a co-founder of the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, has been able to celebrate his love of old movies, especially the less-than-great ones, with a series of programs at the Castro Theatre that included films such as "The Poseidon Adventure," "Valley of the Dolls" and "The Bad Seed."

The programs have been highlighted by onstage interviews with cast members. Carol Lynley, Patty McCormack, Ann-Margret, Ann Miller and Barbara Parkins are just some of the stars who've not only talked candidly about their memories of the old films onstage, but have also happily sat back and watched the pre-screening antics and skits that have become a staple of Huestis productions.

In some ways, Huestis has come to terms with his past, and that, too, is part of his survival mechanism. For one thing, he has made peace with his father, who still lives on the East Coast. "I've come to love him very much," Huestis says quietly.