The Out in Africa South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (OIA) is going through some changes. Not surprising, given that it is 13 years old — and hopefully a lucky 13. Its survival, and even flourishing, for so long is in itself a massive achievement, and the changes afoot will presumably give it yet more life.
First, the venue for the festival in Johannesburg changes to Nu Metro Hyde Park, and the Cape Town leg moves away from Cinema Nouveau to the Nu Metro cinemas at V&A Waterfront. Second, the dates are changing: this year, the festival will take place in two parts, with 24 movies in March and another 10 or so in November. Then, from 2008, the festival’s dates shift permanently to November.
Got all that? Right. Let’s move on. Several of the movies on display deal with love in conflict zones — in particular, the excellent Bosnian film Go West, in which a young Muslim man has to pretend to be a woman to survive the carnage. The film attracted controversy in Bosnia, but also got a long, standing ovation at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
In Unveiled, things work the other way around: a lesbian has to flee Iran, where the death penalty is the consequence of homosexual activities. Trying for asylum in Germany, she steals the identity of a dead man.
South Africa would have been a good ”conflict zone” to cover, given the debates around same-sex marriage and the Jacob Zuma blaps, but there’s only one local feature on the fest: Fanney Tsimong’s 48-minute Black Beulahs, which follows two out, proud and black characters in the run-up to Pride 2006. There are, though, two shorts, Father and My Boet, both by Robert Hamblin.
American indie gay movies are represented by Boy Culture, the story of a hunky high-class hooker juggling his romantic affairs; it’s a gripping and sometimes funny drama. You want funny, you got Eating Out II: Sloppy Seconds, in which a gay man pretends to be straight to get his hands on the new nude model in town. (Writer-director Q Allan Brocka, who made Boy Culture and the first Eating Out, is a guest of the festival.)
The selection from elsewhere in the world includes Thailand’s Beautiful Boxer, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros from the Philippines, and the short Matchmaker from Indonesia. Just a Little Comfort is a French love story.
And that’s just a handful of the wealth of movies on show this year, as usual covering a great range of styles and genres. Get the festival booklet from the cinema or branches of Exclusive Books (those that still have a gay/lesbian shelf), or go to www.oia.co.za for a full line-up.
Among this year’s guests is Jennie Livingston, director of the seminal drag documentary Paris Is Burning. The movie, now pretty much regarded as a gay film classic, will be shown once in Johannesburg (March 10) and Cape Town (March 17), and will be followed by a panel discussion titled ”What’s Love Got to Do with It?” It will deal with transgender issues and feature Livingstone, founder and CEO of counselling service Gender DynamiX Liesel Theron, transgender photographer and filmmaker Robert Hamblin, transwomen Vania Rozarios (in Jo’burg only), and Sharntel Ontong (in Cape Town).
Note, too, the fundraising campaign that appeals to those who want to keep the OIA festival alive. To raise the R3-million needed, 8 333 people need to contribute R10 per month or R120 per year — hence the 8 333 Club for contributors who will receive delightful benefits.
The festival is on at Nu Metro Hyde Park from March 1 to 18, then at the V&A Waterfront from March 15 to April 1