Films
2011 Films
Technicolor Superqueer!
This is my first year as programmer with GAZE, having been handed the technicolourbaton on from a long line of brilliant past programmers, who spent the last nineteen years bringing the best queer cinema from around the world to Ireland. I really feel proud to be invited on board, and so excited about the amazing collection of films we're bringing to you this year.
GAZE has always been a central part of my own film education. Back in the days of my early youth, the time of New Romantics, vhs tapes and rotary dial phones, trying to get to see any kind of LGBT film in Ireland was next to impossible. I remember there was one video shop on Baggot street called Metropolis being the only place you might find anything of queer interest. Some of us might remember the Channel 4 ‘banned' season broadcast with the little triangles in the corner of the screen, Derek Jarman films playing at midnight, and young wide eyed gays hiding behind living room doors across the country with the remote control ready to change the channel immediately should anyone walk in.
Well things have changed - radically. Luckily for Ireland, GAZE came along - bringing the best in international LGBT cinema to Dublin for almost twenty years now. I feel very fortunate to be coming on as programmer at this moment in film history. It's such an incredible time for LGBT cinema it makes my role as official treasure hunter much, much easier. I really think that we're currently living in a new golden age of queer cinema. It really is incredible how many amazing gay films of such high quality are being made at the moment, all over the world. I'm particularly excited to see how many young filmmakers are showing their films at GAZE this year, first and second time feature directors who are making innovative, gripping, groundbreaking work.Romeos, Tomboy, Jitters, The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, Miss Tacuarembó - just a few of the remarkable films from a new generation of international filmmakers. And of course many of our festival favourites are back, directors from Sébastien Lifshitz to Bruce La Bruce, who have been showing their films with us for many years.
Our diversity is what really makes us different. And this diversity of our community is so well expressed in the incredible range of films we'll be watching together at GAZE this year. Many of these multi-award winning films will be having their Irish premiere at GAZE. Many will never be seen in the cinemas here again. They range from hilarious comedies to experimental sex films to powerfully moving documentaries to the best in international drama.
Despite how much things have changed in terms of access to LGBT cinema, where these days we can now watch movies on our phones, there's nothing quite like sitting in a crowded cinema together as the lights go down and the first images flicker across the screen. We'll see you there!
Paul Rowley
Director of Programming