Queer Voices of the North Film Festival Releases Schedule

For Immediate Release: March 15, 2010

SAULT STE. MARIE - Queer Voices of the North Film Festival has released its 2010 line-up of films. Screenings will begin Wednesday, March 24th and run through to Monday, March 29th, at both Galaxy Cinemas and The Grand Theatre (641 Queen St. East). This year’s features include The Baby Formula, Laugh in the Dark, and Girl Inside. The festival will feature videos produced as part of its digital storytelling workshop for LGBT2SQ youth taking place Monday, March 22nd to Wednesday, March 24th at Algoma University. Queer Voices has also sponsored the film A Single Man presented by Shadows of the Mind Film Festival and will showcase a series of shorts, including The Weave and Little House on the Spanish.

The full schedule follows, including film synopses:

The Baby Formula (Wednesday, March 24th, 7 p.m., Galaxy Cinemas)

In the beginning, sperm came from men...

Two adventurous women in love use an experimental stem cell process to conceive their own biological child. Pregnant with humour and unexpected twists, their journey tailspins out of control when their families discover there is no father.

Directed by Alison Reid

A Single Man (Friday, March 26th, 9:30 p.m., Galaxy Cinemas)

Set in Los Angeles in 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, A Single Man is the story of George Falconer, a 52 year old British college professor who is struggling to find meaning to his life after the death of his long-time partner, Jim. George dwells on the past and cannot see his future as we follow him through a single day, where a series of events and encounters ultimately leades him to decide if there is a meaning to life after Jim. George is consoled by his closest friend Charley, a 48 year old beauty who is wrestling with her own questions about the future. A young student of George's, Kenny, who is coming to terms with his true nature, stalks George as he feels in him a kindred spirit.

Adapted, directed and produced by: Tom Ford

Based on the 1964 A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood.

Queer Voices of the North: Digital Stories (Saturday, March 27th, 11:30 a.m., Galaxy Cinemas)

Queer Voices of the North Film Festival presents the works created through the Centre for Digital Storytelling's three-day intensive workshop that brought a diverse group of local queer youth through the process of creating their own digital stories. Digital stories are two-to-five minute videos created by an individual sharing their own stories or personal narratives through voice, images, music, and other found objects in their lives. Challenging, diverse, and dynamic, these shorts present the changing face of Northern Ontario and queer culture.

The Weave (Monday, March 29th, 6:30 p.m., The Grand Theatre)

A woman of mixed descent stands between both the English and Siksiká cultures searching for a resolution to bring these two groups together. She is their future generation, dealing with the residue of colonialism.

by: Cherie Valentina Stocken

Little House on the Spanish (Monday, March 29th, 6:45 p.m., The Grand Theatre)

This all-women parody set on the Spanish River, west of Sudbury follows Laura Engels run-ins with nasty Nellie, and her romance with Almanzo. Its sheer dyke drama all the way: gratuitous crying, continuous screaming, anachronistic snowmobile, beers at the church social and can you say cat fight? This one has everything: sexual tension, female rage, psychotic pioneers, and skidoo dykes in drag. Destined to be a classic of the genre.... Exactly what genre we’re not sure.

Written and Directed By: Beth Mairs

Produced by: BAM North Productions, 2009.

Laugh in the Dark (Monday, March 29th, 7 p.m., The Grand Theatre)

In this one hour documentary "six fags, two dykes and an old lady" take us into the heart of Queer Family Values. In the early 1980s, this odd little wagon train pulled into the town of Crystal Beach, with the dream of returning the defunct resort town to its former glory, perhaps, even, into a Provincetown of the north. Opening a bed and breakfast and a restaurant and, to raise money for AIDS, putting on lavish cabaret's in which the neighbours even participate - against this backdrop, we witness why these seven people from a kind of family and the group's impact on the unsuspecting locals.

Written, directed, and produced by: Justine Pimlott

Girl Inside (Monday, March 29th, 9 p.m., The Grand Theatre)

Madison, 26, is still in the process of discovering her female self. As a child, she knew she was different but couldn't find the words to describe how she felt. Now Madison is able to say that 'he' was really a 'she.'  This feature-length documentary follows Madison over three years as she transitions to become the woman she feels she was always meant to be. Her unlikely companion on this journey is her 80-year-old grandmother, Vivien, who not only supports Madison, but takes it upon herself to teach her about femininity. A lyrical and poignant exploration of one person's journey to discover the true 'girl inside.'

Written and Directed by : Maya Gallus

Producers: Justine Pimlott & Maya Gallus

Queer Voices of the North is Northern Ontario’s only film festival focussing on the topics, themes, and narratives relevant or related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, genderqueer, ogokweniniwok, ogokwewok, transsexual, and other two-spirit or queer people. Queer Voices seeks to provoke important discussions on queer topics, to increase LGBT2SQ visibility in the North, and to celebrate Northern Ontario’s queer history.

For more information contact:

Sean Meades
Co-Director
Queer Voices of the North Film Festival
705-971-6709
sbmeades@yahoo.it
www.queervoices.ca