Kena spoke with Lisa Rose, Festival Director of the Mardi Gras Film Festival to chat about the upcoming festival and what youth films you should not miss.
This is the 26th Mardi Gras Film Festival! How many MGFFs have you directed?
This is my second as Festival Director – I was previously on the Board as President and Vice President for the four years before that.
Queer Screen also does the Queer Screen Film Fest later in the year – do you direct this too? What do you do between QSFF and MGFF?
I do. I’ve done two of those as well!
Between the festivals it’s all programming – it’s a massive beast. We start programming for the September Queer Screen Festival in April/May, which is smaller and has about 15 sessions. At the same time I’m also looking to the larger MGFF. As soon as QSFF is over, around October-November, that’s when the real serious watching of films happens to get ready for the next MGFF, which has 60 sessions.
What’s your favourite part of the process as Director – seeing the films come in, picking the ones to screen, launch or Closing Night?
I really enjoy discovering a little gem of a film that I think the audience is going to love, something that’s not obvious but that I can get behind and be really passionate about. Programming the festival is like a giant jigsaw puzzle – you have to cater to a wide range in the [LGBTQI] community, but you also have to look at it through a commercial lens. Just because I see a film or really want a film to be seen doesn’t mean the filmmakers or distributor is going to allow me to screen it. There’s a lot of chasing and negotiation that goes into it that I don’t think many people are aware of, and that’s always a challenge. But I really enjoy programming.
How do you pick the best of the litter to screen each year?
It’s a bit of an art. You obviously have to watch a lot of films to see what’s out there. You can only programme what you’ve seen, and what you’ve got permission to screen. In one year you might have a lot of films that talk about something in particular and a lack of films that have something else… so it’s about getting that balance right and finding as many films as you can that you think will do well. But you also have to find ones that you think people are going to connect with from different parts of the community.
I noticed when browsing that there’s a new shorts programme called Feminist Shorts and Queer Scream! Can you tell us a bit about this?
Yes! I personally don’t like scary films – I don’t understand how people enjoy going to the movies and getting scared… But a lot of people surrounding me at Queer Screen really like them. I had a few people who helped in watching films for me, and they noticed that there were a few horror or thriller shorts that could really work in a package. We found about 100 minutes of top-notch queer horror films, and we thought ‘Let’s give it a go!’.
The Feminist Shorts came about because I wanted to do two shorts packages that focused on women. Of course we have the regular lesbian shorts package and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the second package. There were two films in particular – one of them is a Swedish film called Juck and I just wanted to play it so badly! But I didn’t think it would work in a lesbian shorts package, and it was perfect for something that focused on feminism. That one and another called A Great Ride are just two excellent feminist films. A lot of our community are feminist and would engage with them. Another one called Suitable is again a great feminist film that I didn’t think would fit into the lesbian package. I’m super excited and I really hope people will come to see it! There’s only three documentaries and four narratives, so it’s pretty cool.
Just seeing the trailer I’m excited for all of the films, but do you have a favourite?
That’s the one question Programmers don’t like to be asked… I have a few that are very good, and clearly ones that people will engage with on a large scale. A French film called Boys (15+) is a really interesting coming-of-age film that has a mystery-thriller aspect to it, which is a bit unusual. I really enjoyed that film.
There’s a film called Night Comes On, from America, which I’m really surprised hasn’t played at mainstream festivals in Australia. It’s just a top TOP quality film that won at Sundance. It’s very thought-provoking, very moving and quite tense. There’s a documentary called Silvana – probably one of my favourite docos I’ve seen this year, it’s also Swedish! It’s about a Swedish rapper called Silvana. She’s very popular with young queer people in Sweden, she’s very anti-fascist and all of her lyrics are a rally cry to youth. During the doco she randomly meets another singer at a concert, and you see through the process of them making the documentary the two fall in love. She’s just super cool, and I think once people come and see it they will instantly start listening to her music.
What’s a film that made an impact on your youth?
Ooh… I have to cast my mind back… The first film I remember watching that I couldn’t stop thinking about was Thelma and Louise. I was about 14 or 15 years old and I just could not stop thinking about it! This is back in the day when we had to rent movies on VHS, and I always hated having to take it back the next day, I just wanted to watch it over and over again. I was so impacted. It was probably the first film I’d seen that had a feminist slant to it, with these two women choosing to unburden themselves of their lives. I love it.
What are some youth focused films in the line up that you could tell us a little bit about for our youth readers?
Our Opening Night film is very youth-focused, it’s called Giant Little Ones. (15 +) It’s from Canada, and it’s about a young guy who celebrates his 17th birthday. On the night of his party there’s an incident with his best friend that makes him question his sexuality afterwards. There are some other queer characters in it, too, that have a different gender expression or sexuality. It looks at the fact that society wants us to label ourselves, and he doesn’t know what label to give himself. It’s very ‘of-the-now’ and I think it would resonate with a lot of young people and they would see themselves in it.
There’s also an Argentinian film called My Best Friend (15+) – a beautiful family drama about a young guy (about 15) and another young guy (about 16-17) who comes to live with them. They both come from very different worlds and it’s not your typical coming-of-age film; it’s not a romance. It’s more just about two young men who bring each other out of their shells.
Another one is a Spanish film called Carmen + Lola (18+) which played at Cannes and is about two young girls from the Romini community. One is a closeted lesbian and the other is engaged, and they fall in love. The question is are they going to risk everything to be together?
The final one would be a fantastic documentary called Believer (15+) which is about Dan Reynolds, the lead singer of Imagine Dragons, and Tyler Glenn from Neon Trees (who’s an openly gay Mormon). They decide to take on the Mormon Church because Utah’s the capital of youth suicide in America. There are a lot of LGBTQI youth who are ostracized from the church, so they put on a concert together called ‘Love Loud’ in the middle of Salt Lake City. It’s about Dan’s realisation that he needs to do more to help youth, and the process of getting that event together. It’s a powerful documentary about an ally and queer youth.
What do you want to see more of in the future of Mardi Gras FF films?
I would love to see more young people coming to the festivals! We love young people coming to see the films. I’d also like to see more diversity, particularly in having more diverse faces on screen. In the short films we tend to see more diversity of faces on screen than in features, purely because a lot of the time it’s emerging filmmakers who go for the shorts. I’m hopeful that with all those emerging filmmakers eventually making their way through the features that we’re going to continue to see more and more films in diverse faces.
Thank you so much for your precious time during such a busy window! I am really looking forward to the festival and I’m going to jump online to register as a Volunteer.
Mardi Gras Film Festival
13 Feb 13 – 28 Feb 2019