Two great docos in one night

Two great docos in one night

If you haven’t yet been down to check out Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF), tonight’s the night.

The program features two great documentaries, We Were Here and The Advocate for Fagdom

Check out the bios below:

We Were Here

We Were Here is a profoundly moving documentary about the unfolding of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Francisco by people who lived through that era-defining time. Neither dry nor academic, David Weissman’s superb film is alive with humanity and resilience, providing an invaluable personal insight into a crisis that changed the queer community forever.

We Were Here focuses on five San Francisco residents whose lives changed suddenly, and drastically when their city shifted from a hotbed of sexual liberation to the epicentre of a devastating disease. From their different vantage points as caregivers, activists, researchers, as friends and lovers of the afflicted, and as people with HIV/AIDS themselves, the interviewees share stories which are not only intensely personal, but which also illuminate the much larger themes of that era: the political and sexual complexities, the terrible emotional toll, the role of women – particularly lesbians – in caring for and fighting for their gay brothers.

Interweaved throughout is archival imagery of San Francisco from the 70s, when the city was a bastion of sexual freedom of expression, through the 80s and beyond when the epidemic took its toll. David Weissman – who moved to the city in 1976 and brings a personal understanding to this history – has created a landmark film that is essential viewing.

Shortlisted for the Best Documentary, Academy Awards
Nominated for Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2011

SCREENING 6pm, Wednesday March 21 at ACMI Cinemas

The Advocate For Fagdom

There is only one Bruce LaBruce. Provocative, transgressive, loved and feared, LaBruce has challenged audiences for over twenty years with groundbreaking films that have celebrated the most extreme sexuality, perversions and political ideology. This portrait sheds light on the obsessions and drive of the radical who offended so many with such films as No Skin Off My Ass, Skin Flick, Hustler White, The Raspberry Reich and L.A. Zombie, which was banned in Australia in 2010.
Scenes from his films and fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of the filmmaker at work are woven with interviews with some of the biggest names in queerness including John Waters, Harmony Korine, Gus Van Sant and the man himself. The Advocate for Fagdom gives us an artist at war with cultural norms; a filmmaker who embraces the queerest of identities, however perverse, rather than striving to mirror a more accepted form of heteronormity. (GS) Melbourne Premiere

Warning: Graphic scenes of violence and high level sex scenes.

SHOWING
Wed, Mar 21 10.15pm at ACMI Cinemas

Tickets on sale here: www.mqff.com.au

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One response to “Two great docos in one night”

  1. We Were Here is stunning. For those who were too young to have lived through the 80s/90s AIDS period as an adult, like myself, this doco puts you there through first-hand accounts like no other film I’ve seen. Highly recommended.