{"id":7055,"date":"2019-08-13T16:18:56","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T14:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/?p=7055"},"modified":"2019-08-16T16:29:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T14:29:48","slug":"canada-the-vancouver-sun-jose-screened-in-vancouver-queer-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/en\/canada-the-vancouver-sun-jose-screened-in-vancouver-queer-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada, The Vancouver Sun: Jos\u00e9 screened in Vancouver Queer Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the largest queer arts event in Western Canada, and in 2019 the festival features work from 27 countries, more than 50 events, and four spotlights<\/em><\/p>\n

When: Aug 15-25<\/p>\n

Where: Cineplex, SFU\u2019s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, York Theatre, VIFF Vancity Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse<\/p>\n

Tickets: from $10, queerfilmfestival.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

A recipe for disaster turns into a surprisingly warm and uplifting experience in Gay Chorus Deep South. The documentary follows the San Francisco Gay Men\u2019s Chorus on a tour of the Southern United States, but confrontations between the openly gay singers and red-state residents turn out to be few and far.<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety per cent of the tour was positive and beautiful and uplifting and so hopeful, and then 10 per cent was that tension and conflict and opposition and hate,\u201d director David Charles Rodrigues said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I wanted to represent in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Screening as part of the 31st Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Gay Chorus Deep South is one of more than 100 films being presented.<\/p>\n

Presented by the non-profit Out on Screen, established in 1989, the festival features Canadian and Vancouver premieres, work from 27 countries, more than 50 events, and four spotlights. It\u2019s the largest queer arts event in Western Canada.<\/p>\n

Highlights include the opening gala, Song Lang. Set in 1990s Saigon and filmed in Vietnam, it\u2019s won 13 film awards including the 2018 Vietnamese Golden Kite Award for Best Feature Film.<\/p>\n

Closing film An Almost Ordinary Summer is a feel-good LGBTQ comedy from Italy in the style of the romantic comedies of American director Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, Something\u2019s Gotta Give, and It\u2019s Complicated). The centrepiece film is Jos\u00e9, a Guatemalan entry which won the 2018 Queer Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Vancouver premieres include Lizzie, a reimagining of the Lizzie Borden murders starring Chloe Sevigny and Kristin Stewart, and Tell it to the Bees, a UK film starring Manitoba-born Anna Paquin.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festival also includes more shorts than in previous years. While feature length films are often what gets audiences excited, festival artistic director Anoushka Ratnarajah thinks short films deserve more attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re kind of underrated by audience members who aren\u2019t necessarily film buffs,\u201d Ratnarajah said. \u201cThe short film has an ability to tell a story in such a succinct, compact and beautiful way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most submissions, whether local, national or international, are shorts as well. \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting for me to represent and uplift the work of short filmmakers this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ratnarajah selects films along with programmer Justin Ducharme and a committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a pretty broad palette when it comes to movies,\u201d she said. \u201cI love everything from arthouse films to action-y, popcorn-y blockbusters.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, she wants to feature content in the festival \u201cthat is representative of the many communities we seek to serve.\u201d This means programming that recognizes and reflects \u201cqueer people who have intersectional identities,\u201d including queer people of colour, Indigenous queer people, queer people with disabilities, queer immigrants, and trans folks.<\/p>\n

Ratnarajah is gratified to have been able to assemble Desi Queer, a South Asian-themed showcase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt explores the relationships queer people have in their own countries and in diaspora,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a queer person of colour those experiences are complex, no matter where you\u2019re located. That\u2019s exciting for me as a queer South Asian woman, because I never saw that kind of representation when I was a young person.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Ratnarajah\u2019s at the mercy of the film industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften people will ask, \u2018why isn\u2019t there a film about this, or about this?\u2019 My response is \u2018because the film industry is still not a very accessible industry for a lot of marginalized people.\u2019 That means those kinds of films are not necessarily getting made, especially from people who have those lived experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selecting films based on the kind of relationship the filmmaker has to the story being told is also important, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to program films that can be exploitative. I don\u2019t want to show tragedy porn or poverty porn, the kind of problematic representations that can be made by people who don\u2019t have those lived experiences. So I look to see who\u2019s behind the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gay Chorus Deep South doesn\u2019t really tick any of those boxes, since it\u2019s coming from a director (Rodrigues) who identifies as straight and is about a community that has seen its share of representation (white American male), at least in queer cinema. But that hasn\u2019t slowed down its momentum on the festival circuit, where it\u2019s picked up multiple audience awards. Rodrigues thinks he knows why.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve been noticing, and been very thankful for, and the reason I feel we\u2019ve already won 14 audience awards around the world, is two things: people are interested in hearing these more human stories. They need something more than sensationalist news, or the rhetoric on Facebook. I feel like the film is able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s a very hopeful and positive film. I\u2019ve seen a lot of other films during the festival runs, and I love many of them so so much. But I haven\u2019t seen one yet that gives us hope, that shows the positive side of humanity. One that shows, in the end, that we can figure this out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vancouver Sun<\/a> by Shawn Conner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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