The 17th Brisbane Queer Film Festival returns in February during Queer Month. These are just two of the events you can witness at the festival:
Grandma
With an all-star cast, a litter of cameos and playing to a packed theatre, ‘Grandma’ is a gem of a film. Starring Lily Tomlin as Elle, ‘Grandma’ is very much about family. Elle has just had a life purge, throwing out all extraneous belongings and making a wind chime out of her cut up credit cards when her granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing $600 before the end of the day. She is pregnant, and does not want to be.
Grandma
'Grandma' examines the relationships between women of all types. Elle is a feminist-academic-poet-warrior. While unpacking her longing for her deceased partner Violet and her complicated feelings for the beautiful younger girlfriend she has just dumped is a constant undertoe. Elle’s back-story slowly comes to light, peeling back her history through the various characters she hits up for cash.
There are some forced moments, but humour shines through (and for a story about two women begging various people for money for an abortion, there are some laugh-out-loud moments). The fertility issues that may face single women or lesbians wanting kids – a current affair - are treated as completely routine, rather than the story's focus. Men don’t escape lightly as there are few sympathetic male characters, but this only occurs to viewers on reflection. It is certainly not a man-hating film, ‘Grandma’ simply seems to prefer women.
Grandma
Queer Shorts 1
Playing again to a sold-out audience, this session was a mixed bag. The two strongest shorts of the night book-ended a perhaps heavier showing than necessary. The evening started with the excellent mini documentary ‘Queer Habits’, telling the story of a small conservative American town where an order of drag-queen nuns runs a monthly bingo night. The glitter and costume-filled evenings have bought the community together, raising money at first for LGBTI organisations and then broadening its scope to support the community at large. It is funny, light and warm hearted.'Remembering The Man' review.
From there, the shorts chosen veered off into more artsy and abstract territory. Next up was ‘The Fox Exploits The Tiger’s Might’, exploring power and sexuality of two teenage boys in rural Indonesia. It is a visually interesting film, shot in sepia tones and short, disjointed cut-aways, but it is also uncomfortable and at times shockingly raw.
‘Technical Difficulties Of Intimacy’ is artistically – or experimentally – shot, and explores the committed romantic relationship between two transsexual people who have not undergone gender reassignment surgery. While raising a very interesting perspective, it is also challenging to watch because of the film’s aesthetic. It is a high-energy film, leaving the viewer exhausted after its 19-minute run time.
Hole
In short, many of the films chosen were very interesting on their own, and sitting through them one after the other was educational, but not necessarily enjoyable. They could have been differently curated, interspersing more light-hearted films to give the viewer some breathing space and time to process the heavier themes.
The last film was the heaviest yet, but brilliant. ‘Hole’ follows a severely disabled man as he searches for sexual intimacy. The lead actor is extremely exposed, and opens a very private window into the basic human needs everyone feels no matter what their life circumstances, and the lengths we will go to have them filled.
The Brisbane Queer Film Festival 2016 plays at the New Farm cinemas from 18-28 February.
