NEWS

The feature films, short films, exhibitions, events and workshops that will be showcased at the fourth outing for East London’s Fringe! Queer Film and Arts Festival, has been announced. And this year, thanks to the support of Arts Council England and Film Hub London, the festival will extend from a long weekend to a week-long festival, running from November 3rd-9th November.

The art strand will open with a joint private view of punk art installation Pauline Boudry / Renate Laurent: No Future/No Past and RCA Queer: Skin/Cells on 4th November. The heart-warming documentary Peter de Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn opens the film festival on November 6th, with a drinks reception, followed by a Q&A with the film-makers. The closing night, in partnership with London and Sydney-based online film viewing and discovery platform FilmDoo, sees the premier of Finnish film Open Up To Me at the Hackney Picturehouse on 9th November.

Fringe! inclues UK premieres such as Naomi Campbel, an experimental film following a trans* woman who turns to reality TV for surgery and Out in the Night, a doc following a group of friends whose New York night out ends with them being branded a ‘gang of killer lesbians’. Something In Between, a personal political doc about transition and Popular Education Terror, a post-gender DIY musical odyssey, will get their international premieres. Also screening will be the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Annual Academy Awards, the acclaimed The Circle.

The Visual Arts programme will showcase work created especially for Fringe! including Jeffrey Hinton’s new project Willy Nilly, as well as a retrospective of the work of Stuart Sandford. Other exhibitions include Ken. To Be Destroyed by Sara Davidmann, previously shown at homotopia and further developed especially for Fringe!

A specially curated programme ‘There’s a Dyke In The Pit’ will pay tribute to the queercore and Riot Grrrl movements through a day of film, conversation and live music, culminating in a screening of Jill Reiter’s ‘lost film’ In Search of Margo-go starring Kathleen Hanna.

Fringe! takes place in a range of venues across including the Hackney Picturehouse, Rio Cinema, the Rose Lipman Building – this year’s festival hub, Forge & Co, Looking Glass Cocktail Club, Dalston Superstore and more. The festival includes 20 feature films, 15 programmes of short films, 5 exhibitions, 17 events including 5 panel discussions and 4 workshops. Among the film-makers and artists attending are Jill Reiter, Sébastien Lifshitz, Slava Mogutin & Brian Kenny (Superm), and Antonio da Silva. The full programme is online at fringefilmfest.com, tickets are available on the website and from participating venues.

Described as a ‘colourful, hilarious and poignant feature film about love and redemption’, Shining Moon hopes to take us into Latino gay and drag culture, but to do that it needs your help as it’s launched an Indiegogo campaign with the hope of raising the $35,000 it needs to plug its funding gap and get it in the can.

There is also at least one rather unusual perk if you give enough money, and if you like ass and have $7,000 spare, the key actors will moon you in a personal video! It certainly makes a difference from just getting a copy of the film or having your name on a website.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘Renato and Ivan are two middle aged actors, living in a gay relationship that has become monotonous and unexciting over the years. Their precarious lives are stretched to the limit as they try to find ways to make quality theater in Chile, a country which cares less and less about art and culture.

‘Their daily routine suddenly changes when Anibal, a handsome young filmmaker who is not gay casts them in a film based on a famous drama about the lives of Lola and Ana, two poor, outcast, elderly drag queens who were once bright lights in the Latino LGBT firmament. The deeply human story of Lola and Ana will reveal their restrictions, dreams, fears and joy.

‘However, Renato and Ivan are also part of a society that segregates and discriminates and they must overcome their own prejudices to play such challenging characters – Lola and Ana, who likes to show up with their fantasy names Luna and Sol.

‘As Renato and Ivan confront their own demons and heal ancient sorrows they discover a new opportunity to defeat their fears, redeem themselves as talented actors and find new meaning to their own personal lives.’

You can take a look at the fundraising video below, and if you like the look of the movie, head over to Indiegogo to head out. [Read more…]