LEEDS QUEER FILM FEST PROGRAM

FRIDAY

7pm
Venus Boyz
Dir: Gabrielle Baur
Shot over a period of several years, this intimate documentary looks at masculinity as a performance, subversive technique or existential necessity. Beginning at New York’s Slipper Room in the late 90s, and following a range of drag kings – some more convincing than others - through an exploration of the nature of gender, performance, empowerment and social role-playing.

9pm
Beautiful Boxer
Dir: Ekachai Uekrongtham
A compelling and detailed Thai feature based on a true story, Beautiful Boxer concerns a Muay Thai boxer identifying as a transsexual woman. Discovering an ability for boxing, Nong Toom imagines a way out of the confines of the male sex, planning to use prize monies for a sex change operation. As skill develops, success comes as the ‘transvestite boxer’, so too does the fight against derision and misunderstanding, Yet the ultimate goal driving Nong Toom eventually becomes incompatible with a boxing career and more changes are forced.

SATURDAY

12.30pm
Bending the Equator
Dir: Emily Kingan
Short documentary on Brazilian feminist band Dominatrix and Portland hardcore duo The Haggard on their joint US tour. Great footage from Emily Kingan, guitarist for The Haggard.

1.30pm
Jubilee
Dir: Derek Jarman
Hailed as the first ever punk film, Jubilee captures its anti-establishment and ‘no-future’ attitude most charmingly in Jarman’s classic film.
Queen Elizabeth 1 has been transported to the future by the angel Ariel, to witness the bleakness (and hilarity) of English society now in chaos. Buckingham Palace has become a punk recording studio run by an insane megalomaniac, and a group of punk girls pass the time with acts of violence, sex and murder, to a soundtrack including Adam and the Ants, Siouxsie & the Banshees and Wayne County.

4pm
Pink Panthers: Politically Erect
Dir: various
Highlights from the compilation of shorts on queer rebellion put together by two Canadian queer groups, Les Pantheres Roses and Les Lucioles. Featuring animation, activist footage from Prague, comedy, archive footage, montage and Bonobo monkeys...

5.30
Open Session
Free space for queer filmmakers to show their short films...

7pm
tea time

8.30pm
-John Waters Double Bill-
A Dirty Shame
Sylvia Stickles is a grumpy, repressed, middle-aged mother, working in the family convenience store with her husband and mother-in-law, whilst trying to stamp out her daughter’s exhibitionist tendencies.
But war is brewing between the sex-hating ‘neuters’ and the growing numbers of ‘sex addicts’ living in the neighbourhood. When Sylvia receives a blow to the head, she begins to lose her inhibitions pretty quickly, with the help of sex healer Ray-Ray and his disciples.
Waters’ latest, hailed as a return to form, to compare and contrast with...

10pm
Pink Flamingos
John Waters’ classic ‘exercise in bad taste’. Divine stars as Babs Johnson who, along with the rest of her family of freaks, attain the title of ‘Filthiest People Alive’. The challenge to their supremacy comes from Connie and Raymond Marble, two fame-seeking baby farmers desperate to wrest from them their hard-earned title. The philosophy is adequately summed up by Babs: “Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit! Filth is my politics! Filth is my life!” Hysterical extremism from the master of trash.

12am
Trans porn
or whatever


SUNDAY

1.30pm
Fucking Amal/Show Me Love
Dir: Lukas Moodysson
First shown at the queer event in December 2003 and screened now in its entirety (we hope) this is a funny, heart-warming Swedish feature about two girls finding each other, in what they consider to be the cultural backwater that is their town Amal. Elin is the ‘in’ popular girl, bored and frustrated by everything. Agnes is a serious, quiet loner, harbouring a secret crush on Elin. Excellent dialogue and acting that
perfectly captures teenage angst, cruelty and rebellion.

3.30pm
Ma Vie En Rose
Dir: Alain Berliner
A charming mix of fantasy and realism in this story about 7 year old Ludovic, who holds the unwavering belief that she's been mistakenly been born into boy's body. Parental embarrassment and neighbourly amusement soon turn to hostility and fear, and increasingly serious measures are taken to rectify the situation. Ludo’s loss of innocence and trauma is ultimately given a hopeful slant.

5.30pm
Orlando
Dir: Sally Potter
Adapted from Virginia Woolf’s classic novel, this beautifully shot and elegant film by Sally Potter follows the life of innocent, passionate young aristocrat Orlando. In a journey that covers 400 years of English history, Orlando’s quest for love and fulfilment - first as a man, then as a woman- addresses issues of gender and identity with great wit and style. Featuring a fantastic central performance from Tilda Swinton, and costumes that you can only dream of...

7.30pm
tea time

8.30pm
A:Gender
Joey Hateley
A fantastic, absorbing one-person show by Joey Hateley about female masculinity. Exploring trans and alternative gender identities through a mixture of experimental theatre, movement, photography, video and queer performance, A:Gender is funny, challenging and astute.


@ 34 HANOVER SQUARE, LEEDS, LS3 1AW
Friday-sunday 14-16 October.