Queer Screen's annual Mardi Gras Film Festival continues to bring Sydney audiences an outstanding selection of LGBTQI+ films from around the world. Every year we are proud and inspired to see works from our phenomenal UTS filmmaking community represented with the best of them.
Stills from a selection of films being screened at the Mardi Gras Film Festival. Top row (L-R): What Do You See?, Becoming Colleen, Concern for Welfare. Bottom row (L-R): Birds of the Borderlands, Silvania, Tomgirl
In February, make space in your calendar to see these queer cinema gems:
Sat 16 Feb 3:00 PM
Birds of the Borderlands by Jordan Bryon (B Communications in Media Arts Production, 2010)
Since graduating in 2010, award-winning filmmaker Jordan Bryon has been making human rights films for NGOs in Afghanistan, Jordan, Palestine, Uganda, Peru, Ecuador, India, Japan and Australia. Jordan's films touch on issues such as refugees; the rights of women, children, and prisoners; death and dying and mental health, disability, homelessness, slum innovation and more, and LGBTQI stories. Jordan is currently living and working in Afghanistan, and creates cross-platform participatory storytelling projects with marginalised communities. Birds of the Borderlands is Jordan’s compelling 2018 guerilla doco about four people living their queer identities on a knife’s edge in the Arab world.
More information: Tickets | Trailer
Mon 18 Feb 7:00 PM
What Do You See? by Margaret McHugh (PhD candidate)
Margaret McHugh is a video artist, documentary filmmaker and current UTS PhD candidate, whose works have been exhibited all over the world. In her doctoral research, she explores the representation of women’s stories in film, and in her documentary What Do You See? Margaret introduces us to Sereena, who, tired of justifying her transsexuality and being asked why she is the way she is, flips the lens back on the audience and asks us what we see in her.
More information: Tickets
Tue 19 Feb 7:00 PM
Concern for Welfare by Fadia Abboud (B Communications in Media Arts Production, 2007)
Fadia Abboud’s final film at UTS in 2007 was In the Ladies Lounge inspired by a photograph of two lesbians in drag in a Beirut lounge in 1926. The film won awards in the 2007 Mardi Gras Film Festival, and Fadia is back again in 2019 to showcase her SBS short Concern for Welfare. In this film, we meet Ali, a gay probationary constable struggling with her brother’s controlling behaviour and confronting the value of family after finding the body of an elderly man who died alone and unnoticed. Fadia’s documentaries and films have screened on SBS and ABC, among her TV gigs she has directed episodes of Here Come the Habibs! and Australian Gangster, and she will direct episodes of the upcoming ABC series Les Norton starring David Wenham and Rebel Wilson. Fadia is also co-director of the Arab Film Festival.
More information: Tickets
Sat 23 Feb 1:00 PM
Tomgirl by Vonne Patiag (B Communications in Media Arts Production, 2009)
Vonne Patiag is a multi-talented filmmaker proudly based in Western Sydney with a passion for stories about the intersection of ethnicity, queerness and prejudice, and one of the 2018 Australia Directors' Guild’s ‘Ones to Watch’. In his film Tomgirl Vonne explores queerness and Filipino Bakla culture through the eyes of a little Australian-Filipino boy named Justin who wants to be a girl because ‘little girls don’t get hit’ by school bullies, and finds a kindred spirit in his fabulous cross-dressing uncle.
More information: Tickets | Trailer
Sun 24 Feb 3:30 PM
Becoming Colleen by Ian W Thomson (Master of Media Arts Production, 2016)
An enduring force in the international creative world, Ian Thomson has a background in advertising, broadcasting, design and digital media, as well as filmmaking. His award-winning film Out in the Line Up about homosexuality in the surfing world screened at the Mardi Gras Film Festival in 2014. Ian is back in 2019 to present Becoming Colleen, in collaboration with fellow UTS media grads Holly Woollard and Stephanie Stretton. Ian introduces us to Colin, a father, husband and policeman from Coffs Harbour, pursuing her dream to transition into Colleen, at the tender age of 85, with the support of her beautiful wife Heather. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion ‘Diversity in Aged Care’ with advocate Sandra Pankhurst and panellists from ACON and NurseWatch.
More information: Tickets | Opening sequence
Mon Feb 25 7:00 PM
Dykes, Camera, Action! Film screening and panel discussion hosted by UTS Associate Dean Deb Verhoeven.
In Dykes, Camera, Action! director Caroline Berler takes us on a journey of queer women’s films and the ways that female directors have expressed lesbian identity on screen. “From arthouse to mainstream, from its inception through to the experimental cinema of the 1970s, from the ongoing battle against the male gaze to the parables of vampirism and so much more. This film explores the power queer cinema has and its ability to give voice to a once-invisible population and, ultimately shape social understanding of lesbian identity.”
Following the film, Deb Verhoeven will host a spirited panel discussion about the lesbian films that have left their mark on our lives.
More information: Tickets and trailer
Tues 26 Feb 7:00 PM
Silvana - UTS and Moonlight Feminists are proud to present Silvana
“Silvana charts the meteoric rise of Swedish rapper Silvana Imam… as her single hits number one and she’s thrust into the queer celebrity spotlight, a responsibility she’s not quite prepared for. The film also focuses on the unfurling love affair between Silvana and pop sensation Beatrice Eli as they become Sweden’s queer power couple… Self-described as ‘Sweden’s super dyke’, Silvana raps about fighting back against fascists, opening borders and being queer… A fierce feminist force, her vulnerability, openness, and connection to community make this documentary both enthralling and important…”
More information: Tickets and trailer
Queer Screen Board Director Vicki Harding talks about why Silvana is one of her top picks.
Moonlight Feminists (opens external site) is a safe and supportive online community of feminist creatives and contributors.
UTS alumni filmmakers have had their works selected for the Mardi Gras Film Festival since its earliest incarnation, and in 2019, UTS is proud to partner with Queer Screen.
Queer Screen commences 13 February 2019.