The first edition of the ambitious groundbreaking new Scottish Queer International Film Festival kicks off on September 24th in Glasgow and queerguru welcomes Scotland’s first ever inclusive celebration of queer cinema.
For four days in different venues around our favorite Scottish city SQIFF is programming a mix of international feature films with a dedicated strand of Scottish shorts too. It’s mixed with some classic LGBT movies that been given rare big screen outings, and a host of workshops and open discussions from trans acting to the relevance of queer cinema in the 21st Century.
Here then are queerguru top picks of unmissable events at SQIFF.
Scrum: a new documentary film about last year’s huge Bingham Cup (named after Mark Bingham the gay hero of 9/11 tragedy) gay and inclusive rugby tournament involving teams from around the world competing in Sydney is premiering next month. Director Poppy Stockwell follows the journey of the tournament’s winning team and the personal stories of three gay men whose lives are changed under the tutelage of a determined coach as they vie for the honor of playing for the Sydney Convicts team at the gay rugby World Cup. With the trickle of Rugby players ‘coming out’ increasing slowly each week, the movie hits a very topical issue and goes towards helping us understanding the inbred homophobia that all sportsmen must deal with. The director and some of the players will be in attendance which is an added plus.
Peace of Mind: A fascinating documentary of the life of American artist
Flo McGarrell, who lived in Haiti before his death in an earthquake which hit the country in 2010. Locals discuss Flo’s reception as a trans man and his impact on the community art and queer movements which were developing through the
FOSAJ Art Centre in Jacmel where he worked. It is a very compelling tale of bravery and courage that shouldn’t be missed.
SQIFF Shorts : Queer Scotland . With a spectrum of styles and stories, from melodrama to animated collage, body hair to wrestling, and high camp to sobering allegory, this exciting program of short films represents a breadth of filmmaking and LGBTI and queer contexts in Scotland. Here’s one of our personal favorites : it’s called Middle Man.
What Have I Done To Deserve This? : no queer cinephile should ever pass up on a chance to see a classic
Pedro Almodovar movie on the big screen. This one from 1984 is one of his best and stars, as usual, the fabulous Carmen Maura, this time as a Madrid housewife called Gloria who lives in a tiny apartment with her husband, the taxi driver and forger Antonio; her lunatic mother-in-law, who is addicted in bottled water and cupcakes; and two teenage sons, one of them a drug dealer and the other gay. When Gloria decides to try and get her life/home in order the results are farcical and gloriously funny as you would expect from Almodovar the King of Camp himself.
Our final choice is the movie SQIFF chose for their Closing Night Gala :
Do I Sound Gay? When American journalist
David Thorpe found himself single again in his mid- forties he went into panic mode trying to work out what could possibly be wrong with him. He thought that the fact that he had always hated his ‘gay sounding’ voice may be the crux of the matter so he undertook this journey of self discovery which is both hilariously funny and extremely touching too.
queerguru caught up with him recently and talked to him (in our very gay voices) about what he discovered and learned.
SCOTTISH QUEER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
24 – 27 September 2015
