The National Gallery of Canada hosted the Ottawa LGBT Film Festival, organized and run by Inside Out, from Nov. 11-13.
As a registered charitable organization, Inside Out promotes and supports films made for, by, and about members of the LGBT community with film festivals organized in Toronto and Ottawa, according to their website. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Ottawa-based festival.
“Ten years ago Inside Out noticed a fantastic opportunity to bring the best in LGBTQ cinema to our nation’s capital,” Andrew Murphy, the director of programming for the Ottawa festival, said. “Inside Out aims to help improve access to queer film in Ottawa, as well as offer safe spaces to facilitate discussions around [the films] with our audience and community. Ottawa greeted us with open arms and we haven’t looked back.”
Films presented this year ranged from Kiki, a documentary about the queer youth dance scene in New York, to narrative stories such as the explicit lesbian love story, Below Her Mouth. The festival also presented a variety of short films including The Friend from Tel Aviv, which deals with life after transitioning, and Breaking Fast, a film about a Muslim gay man who unexpectedly has a long night out with a handsome man. The films are distinct, but all tie into the festival’s theme.
Melissa Coghlan and Stephanie Fabrizi, the producer and writer of Below Her Mouth respectively, described how they wanted to influence the film industry though having an all-female film crew.
“There were things we wanted to address when making this movie. One was an under-representation of queer characters . . . and the other was an under-representation of women in film,” Coghlan said.
Fabrizi added that while one goal was a production achievement, the other served as inspiration.
“[What made me want to write the film] was probably the lack of representation within the world of film of lesbian stories, queer stories . . . stories with the voices we don’t really hear from. I wanted to see a story, my love story . . . up on the screen,” she said.
Coghlan said the festival is helpful for getting such a story to that level.
“[The festival] raises awareness for the film and it’s a celebration I think more than anything, that allows us to share this movie,” she said.
While viewer response to individual films seemed to be varied, the general reception of the festival was positive. Megan Macpherson, a visitor to the festival, said she especially liked the environment the festival created.
“[It] is so amazing because you [can be] in a place surrounded by queer women, watching a movie made by and starring queer women,” Macpherson said.
Kris Da Silva, another attendee, said the festival was great and could benefit from more advertising in the future.
“I didn’t know about this [festival] until this year. I wish they would advertise it more city-wide, because I only knew about it by chance through social media,” Da Silva said.
Now that the festival has ended, the Inside Out team is already looking ahead.
“We hope to continue to build on the amazing audience we have here in Ottawa [in the future],” Murphy said. “We have also begun collaborating and developing Inside Out in schools where, for the past two years, we’ve been able to visit and show films.”
As for the films at the festival, Inside Out has collected the votes for the films shown, and is currently taking submissions for their festivals next year.
