Film-makers out of the closet

Gay stereotypes are under fire in the American D.E.BS, a Charlie’s Angels spoof.

The premiere of a New Zealand feature film will launch the 11th annual Out Takes Gay and Lesbian Film Festival tonight. 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous (Village Queen Street, 8.30pm, and the Paramount, Wellington, on Tuesday, 8.30pm), is likely to get mainstream theatrical release early next year. Kiwi director Stewart Main will attend both screenings.

Based on the Graeme Aitken book of the same name, and set in rural New Zealand in 1975, the film is about a 12-year-old farmer's son who discovers his sexuality. The film will also be released in the US.

Festival programmer Simon Fulton says the film is a major coup for the festival but notes there are plenty of other recommended titles, including Summer Storm, (Germany) a coming-of-age, coming out story set at a Bavarian rowing camp, D.E.BS, (US) a Charlie's Angels spoof in which the spies attack gay stereotypes, and Proteus (Canada/South Africa), a love story set in 1725 about two prisoners who embark on a taboo affair.

Fulton has spent the past year whittling down 500 films from New Zealand and around the world to 100 of the best.

They include Wellington feature film Sleeping on the Floor, a lesbian love story, and six New Zealand-made short films.

"We try to have some comedy, drama, lightweight stuff, raunchy stuff, serious docos," says Fulton. "But it's dependent on what's being made."

This year there was a plethora of international documentaries on gay marriage. Fulton chose the "powerful" Tying the Knot, which he hopes will attract straight viewers, too.

He says some of the international films appeal to ex-pats, regardless of their sexuality.

"I have met and talked to people who have gone along specifically to see Israeli films or Japanese films or Spanish films or whatever. Although the festival's target audience is gay and lesbians we are very happy if straight people come along.

"You can't tell who they are anyway, as long as they behave themselves and dress fabulously."

Although a number of gay and lesbian-themed films are part of mainstream international festivals, and TV shows featuring gay characters are more common, Out Takes is "very much needed," says Fulton.

"You don't see the full range and depth of queer life in the mainstream product and certainly not on TV shows.

"Of all the films that we've screened over the 11 years of running the festival, hardly any of them have come back on general release, and very few of them can be found at video stores. I suppose it's a commercial thing, they feel that the market is small."

Organisers are expecting upwards of 8000 to attend the festival.

On screen

*What: Out Takes Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
*Where and when: Village Hoyts cinemas, Auckland, today to June 6; Paramount, Wellington, June 2-12; Regent on Worcester, Christchurch, June 9-15