About
Chairperson's Welcome
Brian Finnegan
This year the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, or GAZE as it's come to be known far and wide, comes full circle. Yvonne O'Reilly, who co-programmed with Kevin Sexton the very first Festival in 1992, returns to the programmer's seat to deliver what I believe is a fantastic line-up of films that tick almost every box on the queer film lover's diverse list.
Although GAZE has evolved greatly over the past 18 years, one thing that has remained the same is the level of commitment brought to it by volunteers, whether they be on the many incarnations of the Board of Management, or giving of their time, to make the festival be the very best it can be, year in, year out.
I have been involved with the festival in various different voluntary ways since 1999 and what keeps me passionate about GAZE is not only my love of cinema and understanding of the deep need to see ourselves and our lives reflected through film, but the level of community spirit that surrounds the festival. Over the years, in the IFI and now The Light House, the weekend of the festival itself has become a very special social space where we get to share time with each other in a rare and important way. Watching movies together side by side, discussing them in between screenings, catching up with each other or meeting new people: the GAZE experience is a wonderfully connected one.
We are a diverse community made up of people on all ends of the spectrum of being and experience. Spread out across the country, sometimes living in isolated places, we hold on to the idea and sense of community because it keeps us tied to a world of unquestioning acceptance of our sexuality and gender.
GAZE is an event and a celebration that brings our community together. That it does so and has continued to do so for 18 years is testament to the people behind the scenes, making the complicated and hard of mounting a festival seem easy. I would like to take this space to thank all of those people - the Board of GAZE 2010 who have been working for the past year to bring us towards today, and all of the Board members who have gone before us, keeping this show on the road. Thank you to the programmers, from Yvonne and Kevin all those years ago to today, and to the hundreds of volunteers who have generously given of their time and energy since 1992.
I would also like to give a special mention to our Festival Manager, Emily Scanlan, and her sterling intern assistants, Gillian Middleton and Cormac O'Dwyer, who have been a pleasure to work with and a powerhouse of activity, gluing all the pieces of GAZE together so you can sit in The Light House this August, enjoying one of our best programmes yet. And I hope you do enjoy every minute of it.
Brian Finnegan
Chair of GAZE