By Debbie Silva
Inside Out, the world’s third-largest queer film festival is growing.
For the past 18 years, Inside Out, a not-for-profit registered charity which features films by and about lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people, was held in Toronto. Recently, the festival expanded to include a trial festival in Ottawa-Gatineau on Oct. 25 to Oct. 28 .
Jason St-Laurent, director of programming for Inside Out, said that he made it one of his missions to expand because, he says, Ottawa needed this.
“There weren’t a lot of cultural options for the gay community in Ottawa. It’s great that the queer theatre troupe is starting up again and Pride is hitting its stride again,” says St-Laurent. “Now, I think the queer film festival helps to complete that picture.”
This festival was Ottawa’s first queer film festival since Making Scenes, created in the spring of 1992, disbanded in 2002.
Geoff Kealey, a volunteer at both Inside Out and Making Scenes, was excited about the prospect of a film festival re-establishing itself in Ottawa.
Kealey describes the programming to be an all-inclusive theme, “In broad terms, I guess it’s about accepting who you are and finding others who accept you.”
The theme of acceptance and diversity were apparent, as was the struggle for funding.
Inside Out received no public funding for Ottawa’s expansion. However, St-Laurent says the screenings were well attended. “We now know that we are not going to lose money on this initiative. To us that makes it a major success.”
St-Laurent organized the festival from Toronto. In July, Inside Out held an open forum in Ottawa to gage the interest level and collect opinions for Ottawa’s festival. Members from Ottawa’s arts community created an advisory board in order to help guide the film festival.
Inside Out, which held screenings at the Library and Archives Canada, allowed audiences to view films that wouldn’t otherwise be available to Canadian audiences.
One such film was Malcolm Ingram’s Small Town Gay Bar. The documentary, set in rural Mississippi, deals with some residents’ search to find an inclusive community within the confines of two gay bars, called Rumours and Different Seasons. Produced by Kevin Smith, the documentary won several awards and was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Ingram was invited to show his film at the trial festival in Ottawa on Oct. 27.
“I love Canada, it is so much a part of me, but my movie was financed by Americans and we don’t have a Canadian distributor,” says Ingram. “It’s such a weird thing because I’m going out and trying to tell stories that are important to all of us.”
When fans ask where they can buy a copy of his film, Ingram expresses frustration with the lack of funding he received in order to help distribute his film in Canada.
Dan Lyon, Telefilm’s feature film executive for Ontario, explains that films go through a creative and business filter in order to establish funding. According to Lyon, Ingram asked Telefilm to help fund a distribution plan in 2006.
However, Lyon said after consultations which determined that Small Town Gay Bar would not succeed within the guidelines, Ingram never formally completed the filing process.
“He would need a marketing plan to show the commercial potential of the film beyond just film festivals.” Lyon added, “The onus is really on him to fit within the guidelines.”
With or without Canadian distribution, Ingram says it is his duty as a filmmaker to get his message across. “A gay film festival is so important. It’s really great to see these movies in a very social kind of way and to experience it together.”