Roisín Geraghty, film programmer for the Gaze LGBT Film Festival, is musing on the event’s long and largely happy history.
“We’ve been going since 1992,” she says. “At that time it was a very radical event: hosting a gay film festival when homosexuality was still illegal. There are a lot of people who are still attending [from that time] and it means so much to them. It is still the only dedicated LGBT festival in Ireland. I think it’s incredibly special.”
Formerly the Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, Gaze has indeed become very much a part of the cultural calendar. Attending the gala screening of God's Own Country last year, I was aware of how many people had peen pencilling off the August bank holiday for decades. It was like cinema Christmas.
This is hugely sensitive material. McAdams and Weisz come together within a community that outsiders see, rightly or wrongly, as socially conservative
This year, we find an impressive selection of mainstream features, shoestring documentaries, radical shorts and oddities that admit no easy categorisation.
Sebastián Lelio's Disobedience stars Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams in an already critically acclaimed tale of romance between two women in London's Orthodox Jewish community. Winner of the top prize at Sundance, Desiree Akhavan's The Miseducation of Cameron Post features Chloë Grace Moretz as a young woman forced to undergo "gay conversion" therapy.
Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman's Tranny Fag profiles the Brazilian transgender musician Linn da Quebrada.
The Yestergaze programme in the festival features free verse, slam poetry and personal reflection, marking the 25th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality and 100 years since women got the vote in Ireland.
The event has long been this busy. But some things have changed.
Mainstream
“Gaze is all about celebrating LGBT stories,” Geraghty says. “Our main remit for our festival is inclusivity and diversity. But I keep stressing this. These are stories that reflect LGBT life. But they are also universal stories. Anybody can relate to them. Everybody attends Gaze. We want to bring LGBT stories to the mainstream.”
There’s no question that such stories are now more visible than they once were. But the “mainstream” is a tricky thing. There was much controversy surrounded the commercialisation of this year’s Pride parade. All that banking merchandise, all the rainbow wigs in Tesco. The word “dequeering” was in the air.
“Obviously, it’s an amazing thing when gay stories become popular in the mainstream,” Geraghty says. “But it does put LGBT stories in an interesting position. Yes, we want to celebrate radical queer stories. But we want mainstream stories as well. Programming is interesting because you are trying to satisfy that balance.”
At any rate, this year’s event – centred on the Light House Cinema in Dublin – is in no danger of sinking into any such vulgar morass. It remains an event curated by enthusiasts for enthusiasts.
The screening of Disobedience is a coup for this year's Gaze. A hit at Toronto and the Galway Film Fleadh, the picture sees Lelio, the Chilean director of this year's Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman, moving into the English language with marked success. Based on a novel by Naomi Alderman, the film has Dublin's Element Pictures as one of its producers. Ed Guiney, Oscar-nominated for Room, was comfortable with staging the Dublin premiere at Gaze.
“It’s a film about a love affair between two women,” he says. “In America it has really thrived with this audience. It felt self-evident that Gaze was a good place to screen it for Irish audiences.”
This is hugely sensitive material. McAdams and Weisz come together within a community that outsiders see, rightly or wrongly, as socially conservative. I am interested if Guiney and his team encountered any negative feedback from Jewish groups.
“We worked very closely with advisors,” Guiney says. “It is set in an orthodox Jewish community in London. A lot of them don’t go to the cinema. So they are unlikely to see the film. Outside of that, we worked with people who know that world well. Sebastian isn’t Jewish. Rachel is and is from down the road from where it is set. Naomi Alderman wrote the book and it is partly inspired by her background. That translates very firmly into the film. It is truthful to all that.”
For all the big-name flash of films such as Disobedience and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Geraghty retains particular affection for the independent short films that the event will again be championing. She also acknowledges the festival's importance as a social hub. Cameron Post will be screened simultaneously at Pálás in Galway. Golly, there's a lot going on.
“You are finding a diverse balance between gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender stories,” she says. “Getting the balance right is hard. It’s such a spectrum. We strive for as many stories as possible.”
Five highlights of Gaze 2018
Disobedience
Sebastián Lelio, director of A Fantastic Woman and Gloria, breaks new ground with his study of a lesbian relationship among London's Orthodox Jewish community. Friday, August 3rd, 8.30pm
The Killing of Sister George
It's always a treat to wallow in Robert Aldrich's gloomy 1969 tale of soap opera actress facing the axe. The immortal Beryl Reid has never been better. Friday, August 3rd, 10.30pm
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
If you saw and loved Desiree Akhavan's Appropriate Behaviour you'll want to catch her much-admired adaptation of Emily M Danforth's novel on the gay conversion hoax. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Irish shorts
If you're anywhere in the area on Sunday make sure to support work by developing Irish film-makers such as Eleanor Rogers, Kate Dolan and Paul Rowley. The next wave is here. Sunday, August 2nd, 6pm
Love, Scott
Scott Jones, a young gay musician who was paralysed following an attack, will be in attendance for a closing screening of this documentary telling his story. Monday, August 6th, 8pm
