Mardi Gras Film Festival 2015

Mardi Gras Film Festival 2015

This year’s Mardi Gras film festival presents a complex look at what it means to be gay.

From February 19th till March 5th, The Mardi Gras Film Festival will be held at Event Cinemas on George Street and has a sensational line up of films. The festival hasn’t even begun and some of the sessions on the program are already sold out such as The Circle, The 10 Year Plan, Drown and Tru Love.

The 2015 festival will feature seventy diverse short films, films and documentaries from a range of genres. From its humble beginnings in 1993, the Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney is one of the top five queer festivals in the world.

“This is the 22nd year running of the Mardi Gras Film Festival and I’m very proud to support it,” Paul Struthers Festival Director said, “The films challenge the stereotypes of queer cinema and I believe that this is an important element in the film industry today.”

“Our aim was to have people under 18 come along and enjoy the festival,” Struthers explains, “All About E, The Way He Looks, Boy Meets Girl and Boys are a few 15+ flicks that teenagers are able to come down and enjoy. We’re also screening Frozen so the whole family can come down and enjoy the night.”

“However, the films I’m most looking forward to are Queen of Amsterdam, Castahana and She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry,” Struthers further explains, “As these films tackle the bigger issues from our LGBTIQ history.”

This festival not only supports Australian films but also international productions. Derby Crazy Love directed by Maya Gallus and Justine Pimlott, American Vagabond directed by Susanna Helke, Anita’s Last Cha-Char directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo and Boys by Mischa Kamp are a few exemplary examples of international films featured for this year.

In particular, the Australian film All About E directed by Louise Wadley, is the City Hub’s movie to watch. All About E is a soul searching film about a Sydney DJ named E with the help of her gay best friend Matt. Whilst balancing the nightclub life, lesbian lovers and family, E is on the pursuit find out who she is and what she is made out of.

However, E and Matt stumble on some stolen stash of cash and decide to hit the road. Travelling as far away as they possibly can, the pair decided to find sanctuary in the bush and to meet with E’s broken love, Trish. We spoke to Louise Wadley about the film.

 

Q. Are you excited to have your film, All About E, to be a part of Sydney’s Mardi Gars Film Festival?

A. “I am thrilled to be part of MGFF – Over the years they have nurtured so much new talent and have been a great supporter of the project. We are really looking forward to a night on the rainbow carpet with our wonderful cast and enjoy Justine Kerrigan’s stunning cinematography on the enormous screen in Event’s 800-seat cinema.”

 

Q. What was your inspiration for this film and why?

A. “I loved the way that both Muriel’s Wedding and Strictly Ballroom used Humour as a vehicle to deliver a thoroughly entertaining film with a slightly more serious underlying message. I hope that All About E does just that.”

 

Q. What is your favorite characteristic about E and her best friend Matt?

A. “I love the friendship between E and Matt and how they go from fighting to laughing in a heartbeat. You know they are besties by the way they squabble and tease each other and press each other’s buttons, but also by how they know exactly what the other needs. Like at Port Kembla when the normally talkative Matt knows it’s best to just listen in silence when E is talking about how complicated it feels for her to come back, and the steelworks where her father has worked so hard to give her ‘the good life’.”

 

Q. Why is this film important to you?

A. “I have wanted to see different heroines in Australian cinema for some time. It feels like we are stuck in Home and Away territory and don’t ever see a different Australia, unless we turn on reality TV or The Voice. E is that heroine. She’s complex. She carries the burden of expectations of her Lebanese migrant family as she struggles to work out who she is. Everyone has dreams but not everyone has the courage to pursue them, or even know what their dreams are. E is on a journey to find that out, to be her authentic self. It’s a universal story; it’s what we all struggle with.”

Feb 19th – Mar 5th, Event Cinemas, George Street, prices may vary see: http://queerscreen.org.au/mgff/ticketing/

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