Mardi Gras Film Festival launched
The 10th annual Mardi Gras Film Festival program has been announced, with the full program available at www. queerscreen.com.au. The event includes over 80 feature films, short films and documentaries, as well as the short film competition My Queer Career and a series of films by and about Canadian lesbians.
The festival runs from 12 to 23 February, opening at the State Theatre with The Trip, a nostalgic love story set in LA in the 1970s and 80s. A documentary on the drag king phenomenon called Venus Boyz will close the festival on 23 February, followed by a cross-dressed party at Gingers.
Queer Screen president Pip Newling told Sydney Star Observer that this year’s selection jumps from serious documentaries to the fantastically trashy.
I think everybody needs to see Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a re-dubbed version of a 1953 science fiction film called Killers From Space. It’s basically a queer Mars Attacks, and we’re also screening Desert Hearts at the Dendy for our other trashy night, Newling said.
Films will screen at the Palace Academy Twin Cinema in Paddington, with the exception of the opening night film and two late-night sessions at Dendy Newtown. Renovations at the Roxy cinema at Parramatta have meant that no 2003 festival films are scheduled for the western suburbs, although general manager Mary Stielow announced that Queer Screen is planning events in the greater western Sydney region for later in the year.
Queer Screen is again calling for volunteers, with those interested invited to attend a meeting on Thursday 23 January at 6pm at the ACON meeting room, Common-wealth Street, Surry Hills.
Tickets for all sessions except opening night can be booked at www.queerscreen. com.au, on 9645 1611 or at the cinema box office. Tickets for the opening night film are available only at www.ticketek.com or by phoning 9266 4800.
Printed programs will be available from next Tuesday.
