Queer Screen Film Festival 2014
Image: The Way He Looks
The second Queer Screen Film Festival returns to Sydney, presenting some of the highest quality and award-winning films from around the world. The program consists of nine feature length films and eight shorts all of which contain non-heterosexual themes.
Paul Struthers, the festival’s director, says the public has changed with the times and films with queer themes are appealing to moviegoers regardless of sexual persuasion.
“Appropriate Behaviour screened at The Sydney Film Festival recently and was a sell-out. Our films cross over to all audiences, gay or straight,” Struthers says.
“We looked at 50 films, collated the entries and shaped a program with a range of films that should appeal to all audiences.”
The Way He Looks is an award-winning film from Brazil that centres on a blind teenager living with strict parents who falls in love with a male friend. This feel-good film explores homosexual themes through the eyes of the handicapped.
MyMy is a sci-fi short film set around Newtown which features a cast of Sydney queer artists and performers. This documentary contains fictional elements and performance art, featuring two transgender men who play very queer versions of their own characters.
Pride is a warm and witty comedy/drama from the UK which closes the film festival. Inspired by true events, this film is set in 1984 during the strike of the National Union of Mineworkers. At a gay march in London, a group of gay and lesbian activists raise money for the striking families, but the Union is embarrassed to receive their support.
“The underlying message in these films is to be proud of who you are. We are all unique and are fortunate that we can be who we want to be in the streets, unlike our brothers and sisters around the world,” says Struthers. (MM)
Sep 17-21, Event Cinemas, 505-525 George St; Dendy Newtown, 263 King St, Newtown, $19-85 (flexi-5 pass), queerscreen.org.au
