NewEnglandFilm.com

So, you think you’re busy?

Festival organizers, May Haduong and James Nadeau, have each been working feverishly to coordinate all the details of the 17th annual Boston Gay and Lesbian Film/Video Festival held for the 10th year at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. How are their efforts any different than those of the festival coordinator in years past? Well, following the departure of full-time festival director Kathleen Mullen — who left to pursue opportunities with the Toronto Film Festival — last year’s interns May and James assumed the role of this year’s festival organizers. This is no easy task considering the fact that May has a full time job and James is completing his undergraduate thesis (which is due in May). And, of course, both May and James want the festival to be every bit as thematically coherent and invigorating as it was under the stewardship of Kathleen Mullen. Needless to say, teamwork has been an essential part of planning this year’s festival.

"It really has been a collaborative effort," says May, "from the screening committee, to the numerous people and institutions which are involved in planning the festival." The result, according to James, is a slightly smaller festival than previous years, but also one that "makes a more conscious effort at portraying a diversity of gay and lesbian experiences, and that includes more experimental works that often are not included in festival showings."

As the festival programmers, both James and May expressed a desire to give exposure to films that may never be shown anywhere else except at the Boston Gay and Lesbian Film/Video Festival, and to screen films which would serve as a platform for conversation once the film was over. Moving beyond the somewhat typical "queer white experience," the organizers hope to represent the experiences of gays and lesbians of color, as well as the experiences of transsexual and intersex men and women. A quick look at the festival schedule seems to indicate that they have succeeded.

"Southern Comfort" by Kate Davis (2000, 90 min.), the Sundance Film Festival award winner for Best Documentary Film, captures a most non-traditional love story — that of a 52-year old female-to-male transsexual who, dying of cervical and ovarian cancer, falls in love with a male-to-female transsexual. "Men Men Women Women" by Liu Bingjian (1999, 92 min.) explores homosexuality through the encounters of a shy young Chinese man newly arrived in Beijing, a repressed wife, a pirate radio station talk show host, and an unconventional editor. In "Desi’s Looking for a New Girl" by Mary Guzman (2000, 78 min.), the filmmaker takes a fresh look at lesbianism. Enriched by a Latina perspective and Latino culture, the film explores a heroine who, having been dumped by her girlfriend, searches for a new girl while her family, friends, and her subconscious all react in different ways to the experience.

Other festival highlights include the "Women’s Opening Night Screening" of "Julie Johnson" starring Courtney Love and Lilli Taylor on May 2nd; the world premiere of "All Over the Guy" at the "Men’s Opening Night Screening" on May 3rd; the adapted stage hit "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," winner of the Sundance Film Festival Audience and Director awards; and "Nico and Dani," winner of the Youth Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

As these selections show, this festival is international in scope, with films and filmmakers coming from all over the world. Yet even in a festival that inherently acknowledges and explores diversity, the co-organizers believe there is still room to push the boundaries further and to encourage greater diversity of subject and themes. Despite competition from the New England Underground Film Festival and other area festivals, both May and James believe that they have an exceptional festival line-up this year, and that they have reached their goal of organizing a diverse, high quality event.

The complete festival program includes features, short programs, dramas, comedies, and documentaries. Running from May 2 through the 20th at the Museum of Fine Arts, the event is Boson’s only festival exclusively dedicated to queer film, and it needs the assistance of the community to be a success.

"The only way queer films are viable is if people come — people need to go to the festival to support these works and I encourage them to do so," says May. Indeed, says James, "This is an opportunity that people should not miss."