Looking sharp for My Queer Career

The Mardi Gras film festival commences next week with My Queer Career, the short film competition that has launched the careers of previous winners including Legally Blonde director Robert Luketic and Academy Award winner Adam Elliot.

SBS newsreader Anton Enus -“ who joined Margaret Pomeranz, Helen Bowden and Ashley Luke on this year’s judging panel -“ said he was amazed at the quality of the films in this year’s competition.

In some of these films the production values are incredible, they’ve obviously put a lot of money into them, he said.

But not all the films cost a lot, Enus said, which proved short films were an accessible way to build the gay genre film sensibility.

We need to see our own stories on film, he said. It’s so empowering to see positive stories and stories that reflect the mosaic that is the gay and lesbian community.

It is important to give filmmakers the opportunity to tell those stories and show the levels of creativity in this community.

Amy Gebhardt is one such force of creativity. Gebhardt’s film Look Sharp is one of the finalists.

Set in a rundown apartment functioning as a photo shoot location, a damaged female photographer captures a moment of vulnerability between two Sharpie gang members in a brutal struggle for power between artist and subject.

Gebhardt said she was inspired by the lives of photographers who were willing to put themselves at risk for their art and that it was an incredible honour to be in the finals of a competition under these judges.

Stuart Vauvert, a four-time finalist, credited the competition with getting his films out to a wider audience.

You screen your stuff at My Queer Career and other festivals will see that and contact you, so it’s recognised internationally, he said.

They’ve always played everything I’ve made, which is a fantastic thing for any director, to just get it out there. It’s great, that kind of supportive festival for the queer community.

Vauvert’s film Prada Handbag, a finalist in both My Queer Career and the Melbourne queer film festival, tells the fairytale story of a girl who looks a little odd and her journey to drag stardom.

I’m a huge fan of Sydney’s drag scene, of Polly’s Follies, he said. I thought it was the perfect setting for a story about a girl who is trying to fit into a world that is so superficial.

Queer Screen presents My Queer Career at City Recital Hall, Angel Place, on Thursday 15 February from 7:30pm. Bookings at the City Recital Hall website.