Canal Street Online Manchester

Queer Media Festival reviewed

Queer Media Festival reviewed

HOME was most certainly where the heart is when the Queer Media Festival descended for a day of celebrating all things LGBT in the cinema and beyond.

The festival returned to Manchester for the third year and organiser Jamie Starboisky did a fabulous job, combining cinema pieces with panel discussions from leading LGBT names in the arts.

From my point of view, the panel discussions were the most engaging with contributions from the wonderful Kate O’Donnell (trans performer), Shannon Yee (playwright) and Abigail Ward (DJ and co-founder of the online Manchester District Music Archive) amongst others. These informal chats between panels and audience were brilliant and inspiring in equal measure.

In the cinema we kicked off with the Young Programmers Shorts Selection, a hand picked crop of LGBTQ+ short films. In honesty, this was a mixed bag for me, the first couple of shorts gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach but then things took a decided upswing as we were treated to the incredibly powerful Breathe, the subtle yet emotional Little Doll and the brilliant Passing. It never fails to amaze me, the quality and diversity of LGBTQ short films, if you haven’t delved into this world you really should, there are a lot of gems out there.

The cinema also hosted the MobDoc film screenings. These were 60 second documentaries filmed on an iPhone and were incredible. Inspired by the work of Irish Journalist, Eleanor Mannion, who was on hand to present highlights from her own documentary, The Collectors, the work showed the versatility of using a smart phone to produce works and a new genre is instantly born.

In the evening it was the pulling power of Madonna that was in evidence as the documentary Strike A Pose was shown, an update to the groundbreaking In Bed With Madonna which caught up with the dancers from the Blond Ambition tour twenty five years later to see how their lives have panned out. 

This film is both heartbreaking as well as inspiring to see how life normalises after being thrust into the spotlight at such a young age and how their individual relationships with Madonna panned out. Sadly the diva herself is absent apart from archive concert footage, it would have been interesting to see how she feels about her young proteges all these years on.

The last word should go to festival organiser Starboisky on how he felt the event went. 

“Thank you to everyone who made this weekend’s Queer Media Festival 2016 at HOMEmcr so amazing. It was truly a wonderful day and reading the comments on the feedback forms people have left the festival feeling it has been fun, eye-opening, thought provoking, amazing, enlightening, friendly, inclusive, interesting, informative, engaging, inspiring, life changing and life affirming to be amongst like minded queers. 

Fantastic job from everyone involved and a big thank you to HOMEmcr and everyone who came along for making our event such a special success! Favourite quote: "It was much more in-depth and inspirational than I thought it could be". So we look forward to seeing you all at next year's festival!!!

"Be proud...whatever it is be proud, because everyone is someone!" Jose Xtravaganza”

By Chris Park for Canal St Online

Published: 17-Nov-2016: (3988)

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