Queer Screen recovery on track

Queer Screen is back in the black and planning the 2012 Mardi Gras Film Festival.

However, the annual QueerDoc LGBTI documentary film festival will not be held this year in order to consolidate the organisation’s financial position.

The Queer Screen 2011 cash appeal raised $20,000, enough to erase the organisation’s debts.

“We now have no debts, so we can make the decisions we’re making relatively stress-free and focus on the future rather than being stressed out because we’ve got debts to pay and issues paying them,” Queer Screen president Monica Considine told the Star Observer.

“However, it does mean that we’ve let go of QueerDoc this year in order to ensure we get ourselves back on track.

“We’re simply not in a position to take it on. It was always a loss-making event or a break-even event and so the board felt that this year we would not put on QueerDoc and, given our limited resources, that we’d focus on the larger Mardi Gras Film Festival.”

In place of QueerDoc, the organisation will hold one-off screenings through the year to raise funds for Queer Screen. The recent screening of the Mike Mills film Beginners netted the organisation a couple of thousand dollars.

However, Considine said the Queer Screen board was confident it would be in a position to hold QueerDoc again from 2012 and that the restructuring of the organisation towards a more volunteer-based model would make it more resilient and adaptable in the future.

Queer Screen is holding an open day for potential volunteers on September 11 at 2pm at Darlinghurst’s Heffron Hall.

It is particularly interested in hearing from people with skills in bookkeeping, fundraising, events management, publicity, marketing, office administration, hospitality and technical support.

“This year, it’s simply a matter of restructuring,” Considine said. “What we’re moving towards to make the organisation more robust is that we’re trying to change it so a lot more of the volunteer activities and the membership activities are coordinated by members and volunteers so it’s self-sustaining, whereas previously a lot of that was coordinated by staff.”

INFO: Queer Screen Open Day, 2pm, Sunday, September 11, Heffron Hall, Queen Street Studio, Cnr of Burton and Palmer Sts, Darlinghurst.