About
Programme Director's Introduction
Yvonne O' Reilly
Gaze has come of age - the festival is 18, emerging from its teenage years with a level of sophistication and confidence that is evident in the range of excellent film on offer this year. As the founder of the festival, I'm proud to see how it's grown over its eighteen years and am delighted to return to programming the festival once more this year.
The festival offers a tantalising choice of features, documentaries and shorts from countries as diverse as Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Switzerland, China, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, UK and USA. It is both gratifying and inspiring to see such quality, diversity and invention in LGBTQ film.
Our opening night offering, I Killed My Mother is a stunning, semi-autobiographical debut film from Canadian writer/director/ producer/performer Xavier Dolan. This movie is a golden combination of critically acclaimed and highly entertaining. It is fitting that in our 18th year our programme visits some seminal moments in gay history. Stonewall Uprising is a moving and definitive portrayal of what was to become a turning point in the history of the gay rights movement.
One of the recurring themes in this year's festival is the fluidity of gender. We are all a composite of what the Native Americans call the TWO SPIRITS of male and female. This is a theme also visited in films like STRELLA, TO DIE LIKE A MAN, PAULISTA, and THE LAST SUMMER OF LA BOYITA and documentaries like ASSUME NOTHING and REGRETTERS.
I am delighted to include so many top-notch films in this year's festival but particular mention must go to the BBC's magnificent costume drama THE SERCET DIARIES OF MISS ANNE LISTER, and Jordan Scott's CRACKS - shot here in Ireland and employing the kind of production values we've come to expect from this noted film-making dynasty.
It's an especially strong year for documentaries - including the Toronto Film Festival award-winning documentary THE TOPP TWINS; UNTOUCHABLE GIRLS. Its themes of life's humour and pathos are shared by REGRETTERS, TWO SPIRITS, and ALL BOYS. PRIMA DONNA: THE STORY OF RUFUS WAINWRIGHT'S DEBUT OPERA is not only a fantastic record of an artistic process it also gives us some touching insights into his gifted family. The documentary includes interviews with his sister Martha, his father Loudon Wainwright III and his mother Kate McGarrigle.
SOUNDLESS WINDCHIME, LEO'S ROOM and I KILLED MY MOTHER are all gorgeous, not-to-be missed debut films while THE MAN WHO LOVED YNGVE, LOOSE CANNONS, and our closing night film ANDER are inspired and heart-warming takes on that old favourite - the coming out story.
We are delighted also to showcase the 2009 shortlist for best international gay short film and, as befits our coming-of-age, we are delighted to present a retrospective of Irish Gay shorts from the eighteen years of the festival in collaboration with Culture Ireland.
I'm proud to say that this film festival has some of the most entertaining, moving, sexy, quirky and outright best films you'll see anywhere this year. I hope gay cinema continues to flourish and I hope you enjoy the profusion of great LGBT films GAZE 2010 offers.
Yvonne O'Reilly
GAZE Programme Director