Queer Screen heads to the mountains

Blue Mountains locals will have an opportunity to re-view their favourite moments from this year’s Mardi Gras Film Festival, as Queer Screen heads inland with a new film festival.

The three-day festival, at Katoomba’s the Edge cinema from June 12-14, will feature some of the more popular films from this year’s program, offering locals a chance to catch anything they missed and allowing Queer Screen to test the waters of a new market.

We’re not expecting it to be huge because we haven’t had a long lead up time and this is the first year we’ve done it, but so far the response from locals has been really excited, Queer Screen artistic director Lex Lindsay told Sydney Star Observer.

We’ve been trying to go to Katoomba for quite a while but there just wasn’t the right kind of cinema facility, so the Edge has finally finished their re-development.

Films screening will include Patrick 1.5, winner of this year’s audience award, I Can’t Think Straight, voted most popular lesbian film of the festival and the Australian documentary Tango with a Twist.

The festival has been deliberately scheduled to come a week after the Pink Mountains festival, Lindsay said, as Queer Screen looks at ways to make it a permanent event.

To do only one event in Sydney seems criminal when there are audiences all around NSW and parts of the country that don’t have established queer film festivals that are really hungry to see this stuff, Lindsay said.

Hopefully we can get as many queers enjoying it as they can and if the audience feedback is good and people are happy for us to be there and want us to come back, then we’ll see what we can do.

info: For more information on the Katoomba queer film festival visit queerscreen.com.au