Melbourne's Queer Film and Video Festival
By Bronwen Beechey
MELBOURNE — Last year's Melbourne Queer Film and Video Festival provided audiences with the first opportunity to see Armistead Maupin's brilliant Tales of the City series, and the 1995 festival promises to be just as exciting.
Now in its fifth year, the festival aims to provide material of particular relevance to gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and others under the queer banner, as well as stimulating awareness of queer issues and culture in the community.
Highlights of the 1995 festival include Totally Fucked Up, a queer Generation X movie from Gregg Araki, the controversial director of The Living End; the acclaimed Cuban film Strawberry and Chocolate; Midnight Dancers, the story of three brothers who are dancers in one of Manila's gay bars; Bar Girls, a romantic comedy in which the gals are out and proud; and Naked Killer, in which lesbian crime fiction and Hong Kong action movie collide.
Australian works include The Blonde Man, an examination of obsessive love featuring Heartbreak High hunk Alex Dimitriadis as a bouncer in a gay bar, and Men Like Me, Susan M. Long's confronting documentary about a female-to-male transgenderist.
Other documentaries include Gay Youth, a US documentary looking at the pressures facing young people coming out in a conservative, fundamentalist environment; Out in Africa, in which five gay black African men speak of their political and personal struggles; and Straight for the Money, a series of interviews with queer sex workers.
The Melbourne Queer Film and Video Festival will run March 17-26 at the Melbourne University Cinema. For more information and to reserve tickets, phone (03) 510 5576.