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Boise’s first annual Queer as Film festival to educate, entertain
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Boise’s first annual Queer as Film festival opens tonight
with a 6 p.m. reception at The Flicks. The Business of Fancy
Dancing, written and directed by award winning author Sherman
Alexie, shows an hour later. The remainder of the festival is
housed at The BSU Special Events Center, and Friday night’s
itinerary involves three segments – the feature-length
documentary about a nightclub’s struggle to unionize
strippers titled Live Nude Girls Unite! begins at 7 p.m.,
followed by a series of shorts collectively called Boy
Trouble. The night ends with The Cockettes, a feature
premiered in San Francisco in 2001. This year’s festival
closes on Saturday after nearly 11 hours of incredible movies and
shorts. A free showing of The Celluloid Closet begins at
noon, Saturday, and is followed by a discussion panel of
distinguished Boise State professors. The panel will consist of
History Professor Jill Gill, Communication Professor Mary Rohlfing,
English Professor Marcy Newman and Communication Professor Peter
Lutze.
The festival began as an idea by Newman after a gay and lesbian
conference. The board had funding left over and many began to
wonder about another conference when Newman suggested a film
festival. Months later the board contacted him and said,
“Hey, Nick, we’re going to do the film festival and
you’re on for it, right?”
“We’ve had a disadvantage over other film festivals
which are sort of working year round,” said Nicholas Newman,
Art History professor and one of the organizers, about the ensuing
work overload and attempting to gather appropriate selections and
dates, “They might have set off in, say, February.” The
‘Queer as Film’ board began the project in May.
Thanks to the internet and diligent persistence of the board,
Newman is confident the festival will be a success.
“My main interest, and this is the interest of everybody
else, is to get things here which most people wouldn’t have
been able to see… because there’s no information about
it, and I’m talking about, in that case, feature-length films
which would have been distributed somewhat nationally on DVD or
VHS. But then there’s all those works which aren’t ever
going to come out on DVD, particularly shorts.”
Newman is particularly excited about shorts because directors
and producers are more likely to be artistically expressive and
less concerned about audience and mainstream conceptions and
ideals. The films selected have not been limited to shorts,
however. Documentary and fictional feature length films are also in
store.
“This is visibility itself,” Newman said.
“It’s about a media that puts images in front of
us… people still crave to see this representation because
most of what they’re given, even in large cities, what they
have to choose from are mainstream Hollywood productions and daily
show depictions of what alternative lifestyles to be.”
Newman believes the films can spark debate between moviegoers,
and also hopes to inspire factions of the community to attend which
are not gay or lesbian. “This can’t just be about
sexual orientation. It’s also about sexual freedom in
general, and the way that we try, how people try, to fight for
rights within a much broader notion.”
The festival is relatively inexpensive, especially for something
of this magnitude. General admission for each show is roughly $5-7,
and students receive discounts of roughly 50 percent. Tickets may
be purchased at the information desk in the SUB, or at The Flying M
Coffee House, Record Exchange, and also at The Community Center.
Tickets may also be purchased at the door, and a series pass will
be offered at a discounted $30 general admission, $18 student, save
The Business of Fancy Dancing and Celluloid Closet.
Jason Bright
A&E Writer
The Arbiter
