The Out On Screen Queer Film & Video Festival was programmed collectively by members
of many Vancouver communities. This is a unique strength we share with few festivals
in North America, and the range and diversity of this year’s programming is the result.
This year’s festival includes many firsts....Out On Screen’s first local showcase
illustrates the range and excellence of Queer film and video being made right here
in Vancouver. Regional Canadian work finally gets its due with programs from the Atlantic
coast and La Belle Province in More Fish in The Sea and Francoqueer, while Animated
Queers shows the growing number of queers working with animation.
Out On Screen is proud to welcome visiting artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan,
who will be on hand to present the first retrospective of their ground-breaking film
and video work Lady Golfers, Butchers & Talking Vulvas. Shari Frilot will present
her video Black Nations/Queer Nations? and participate in a panel discussion around
cultural production by Queers of Colour. Marusya Borciurkiw’s performance/screening
As Seen On TV:Big Dykes on the Small Screen contextualizes recent consumption of queerness
by the mass media. And finally, for the first time in its nine year history, Out On
Screen is able to recognize excellence in film and video in the form of a juried award.
Two Gerry Brunet Memorial Awards will be presented to recognize work produced in British
Columbia and Canada.
Increasingly, queer work about the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and
transgendered people and how we see and experience the world has left many essentialist
approaches to identity behind. This year’s films and videos often look at gender and
identity as multiple, shifting and contextual. There is less an effort to create stories
about how a fixed identity affects how “we” live and to show it positively, than there
is a fascination with examining how the complexities of how( the influences of pop
culture/media, community) and where(community, location) we live affects who we are.
It has been argued queer culture is showing its maturation when it begins to critique
itself in so many complex ways - this is the stuff of the 1997 programming. Some work
comes easily, with laughs, lotsa sex, romance, happy endings. Much, however, is also
densely layered with re-positioned fragments of our pop culture that question its
role in framing our exclusion, how we look and how we experience desire. Queer film
and video is building in sheer number, audiences and momentum like never before. Out
On Screen is striving to keep up with such exponential growth. We invite you to witness
it along with us. Get your ticket and find your seat...
Jennifer Fisher
Programming & Technical Coordinator
“Vancouver’s 9th Annual Queer Film & Video Festival.” Out On Screen & Video In Studios,
1997.
