As the Inside Out festival marks its 25th anniversary, the city – and the world – is considerably different from what it was in 1990. Not only are there plenty of film festivals out there that include movies by or about LGBTQ people, but the steady mainstreaming of queer culture means that a festival celebrating out-and-proud filmmaking doesn’t necessarily feel as radical as it used to.
These days, queer content is everywhere: in theatres, on DVD and Blu-ray, streaming on Netflix, on network TV. Jared Leto can win an Oscar for playing a trans character in Dallas Buyers Club Laverne Cox is an inspiration to many.
So what’s the point of a queer film festival?
Well, Inside Out is worthwhile because it collects all those things in one place, and celebrates the crap out of them. It’s for the audience that isn’t satisfied with a gay cellmate or a queer implication in mainstream entertainment.
This fest puts its LGBTQ perspective front and centre. Subtext is for other festivals this one comes at you head on.
Here are 25 reasons we still need Inside Out:
1) Visibility matters
Sure, other fests throw in LGBTQ content, but there’s nothing like the a big honkin’ cultural event that puts the word “queer” out there, all over the place.
My Own Private Idaho
2) Bone up on Gay Film 101 for a song
To celebrate its quarter-century, Inside Out looks back at five key queer features. Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (May 23), Alain Berliner’s Ma Vie En Rose (May 24), Christophe Honoré’s Love Songs (May 25), Patricia Rozema’s When Night Is Falling (May 29) and Dee Rees’s Pariah (May 30) all screen with a special ticket price of $5.50 – the cost at the very first edition of Inside Out.
3) & 4) It celebrates the new kids on the block
Inside Out is a great launching pad for emerging queer talent, like Pat Mills, who’s won awards for his short films and got major buzz at last year’s TIFF for his debut feature, the twisted comedy Guidance (May 27).
… but doesn’t ignore the veterans
The fest isn’t just about discovering new talent – it’s also about checking in with established filmmakers. Gus Van Sant, Xavier Dolan, Anne Wheeler, John Greyson, Patricia Rozema, Alain Berliner and Ira Sachs have all brought work to the festival in the past. This year, Jamie Babbit and actor Natasha Lyonne – who satirized conversion camps in 1999’s But I’m A Cheerleader – return with Fresno (May 23), while avant-garde legend Peter Greenaway arrives with the Canadian premiere of his fantastical Sergei Eisenstein drama Eisenstein In Guanajuato (May 23).
5) It is a more meaningful and manageable alternative to Pride
Pride Week can often feel overwhelming and corporatized. Inside Out, by comparison, is a queer event primarily attended for its art and ideas rather than the parties that accompany it. Audiences can celebrate queer movements’ past victories and contemplate current struggles without having to encounter sweaty, drunk people.
6) Embrace your inner anal-retentive
What other film festival has “Sex/Porn/Fetishes” and “Comedy/Camp” as fussy genre subjects in the program index?
Lily Tomlin in Grandma
7) Lily Tomlin finally plays a dyke
Yeah, yeah, any great actor can play anything and so what, but the Oscar-nominated Tomlin, now out, is superb in Grandma (May 21), keeping it real in the story of an aging poet who’s a bit of an asshole – in a good way. See review.
8) See something you missed at that other festival
Fest organizers may pride themselves on screening premieres, but we love the chance to see a film we missed at other festivals. Case in point: two excellent entries that got big buzz at Hot Docs. Parvez Sharma’s A Sinner In Mecca (May 30) follows the filmmaker as he makes a risky pilgrimage, and Sophie Deraspe’s The Amina Profile (May 27), winner of the special jury prize for Canadian feature documentary, offers a fascinating example of how a viral sensation can be dangerous to the health of a resistance movement.
Transfixed
9) Get deeper into queer issues that matter
From AIDS to human rights violations to the same-sex marriage debate, Inside Out films have always been at the forefront of topics facing queers. The issue making the most noise in 2015 is trans experience. While other festivals might feature one or two films on the subject, Inside Out is screening seven, including French auteur François Ozon’s comedy drama The New Girlfriend (May 27), Maureen Bradley’s romantic comedy Two 4 One (May 30), featuring local lights Gavin Crawford and Naomi Snieckus, and, on a far more serious note, the documentary Transfixed (May 24), featuring trans activist Martine Stonehouse.
Tab Hunter
10) Check your ageism at the door
While most mainstream fare is aimed at the tween set, Inside Out caters to queers of all ages. The special presentation of Tab Hunter Confidential (May 22), about the presumed straight boy-next-door star of the 1950s, should draw the Old Hollywood fans, especially since Hunter, looking great at 83, will be in attendance.
Bruce LaBruce
11) Queers know how to get their party on
There are half a dozen see-and-be-seen bashes throughout the festival, from the opening gala (May 21) featuring DJ sets by MEN/Le Tigre’s JD Samson and perennial bad boy Bruce LaBruce, to a special Women’s Gala Reception after the Fresno screening (May 23), with tunes by Vag Halen’s Vee Stun. Plus there’s the always popular Local Heroes Party (May 28) hosted by the B-Girlz. In most cases a ticket to a particular screening gets you in free, or you can buy in advance.
12) The locker room’s thrown wide open
To Russia With Love (May 31) reveals how queer athletes coped with risk at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Russia, as seen through the eyes of the flamboyant American skater Johnny Weir. And Game Face (May 23) looks at gay basketball player Terrence Clemens and transgender MMA pro fighter Fallon Fox.
54
13) Who else would screen the director’s cut of 54?
The Razzie-nominated 1998 bomb about New York City’s legendary Studio 54 was supposed to be something else before getting slashed and reshot by then-Disney-owned Miramax. The director’s cut premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and Inside Out now brings it to Toronto for the first time (May 31), with director Mark Christopher attending. Get out your bell-bottoms, folks.
14) Binge-watching is big
We do it with TV box sets. So why not park yourself at the Lightbox for 11 days and do it with queer films? It’s a helluva lot more social.
Queen Latifah in Bessie
15) Sneak previews
Last year’s sneak peek at HBO’s The Normal Heart was the fest’s hottest ticket. This year HBO is screening Bessie (May 29), a biopic about legendary blues singer Bessie Smith, a few days before it screens here. But the buzz is still high, especially with rumoured dyke Queen Latifah playing rumoured dyke Smith.
Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story
16) It takes porn seriously
Docs about gay porn stars have become a festival mainstay and likely won’t show up soon on Netflix. This year’s entry is Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story (May 28), about the eponymous founder of Falcon Studios, who had controversial opinions about condom use, gave some of his industry cash to worthy orgs like Amnesty International and Sierra Club and helped define the North American gay male image in the 80s. Expect lots of “Whatever happened to…?” talking heads.
Weekend
17) You never know what you’re gonna see
Occasionally, a film that debuts at Inside Out blows up big time. Andrew Haigh’s Weekend, a 2011 gala, has become a modern film classic. Last year’s centrepiece gala, Love Is Strange, with John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a married couple forced to live separately, became huge. This year’s Grandma could do the same.
18) Awesome pickup options
Who needs Grindr or a trip to Home Depot when there are hot queers in line right next to you? Chances are if you’re both at Barbara Hammer’s documentary about poet Elizabeth Bishop, Welcome To This House (May 30) or Drag Becomes Him (May 27) or that sexy-looking film about a mixed-race lesbian couple in South Africa, While You Weren’t Looking (May 24), you’ve got a lot to talk about afterwards.
Black Boxes
19) Size doesn’t matter
The shorts programs are among the best-attended, and this year’s 11 compilations are grouped according to cool themes like Black Boxes (May 29), about the black queer experience, She Loves Me (May 23), about lesbian love stories, and Secrets And Guys (May 25), about clandestine romance.
Jill Hennessy
20) Celeb appearances
Everyone from Tilda Swinton and Billy Zane to Sarah Polley and Michael Stipe has dropped by Inside Out parties. And at the after-party for her 2000 gala film, Chutney Popcorn, Jill Hennessy jumped behind the bar and bartended for most of the night.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
21) You will laugh (or cry)
Previous fests have included hilarious events like a singalong screening of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. And lots of tears have been shed, as when, for instance, parents Dennis and Judy Shepard attended a screening of Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine (2014), and when, in 2003’s edition, an older male audience member movingly attested to how repressive and anti-gay the Mormon faith was after a screening of the film Latter Days.
Diane Flacks in Portrait Of A Serial Monogamist
22) Your community flashes before you
In Portrait Of A Serial Monogamist (May 31), an unabashed celebration of Toronto queerdom, Diane Flacks, a serial breakup artist, cycles through T.O.’s familiar streets, goes to art openings – one at the Gladstone has so many well-known LGBTQ artists it could pass as a CityNews spot – and blabs with characters played by the likes of Gavin Crawford, Sabrina Jalees, Kirsten Johnson and dozens more. You have to see this in a big dark room with community. See review.
Natasha Lyonne and Judy Greer in Fresno
23) It’s a Judy Greer fest
Greer, everyone’s favourite supporting actor (13 Going On 30, The Descendants), appears in two films this year, Grandma, where she plays the girlfriend Lily Tomlin dumps, and Fresno (May 23), where she finally plays the lead as a sex addict (!).
24) There’s more than just movies
Sure, you can hole up at the Lightbox and gorge on queer film, but there are also events in spaces throughout the city, including the Gladstone Hotel Doors Open (May 23 to 24), a curated video program at Buddies in Bad Times (May 24), an exhibit by Beth Stuart and Hazel Meyer at Open Studio (May 22 to June 20) and a sound and video performance called Adolescent Sex at Videofag (May 22).
Stories Of Our Lives
25) You get to see how your LGBTQ peers around the world are faring
The fest brings documentaries and dramatic features to the attention of a larger audience than they might have pulled in a one-night repertory engagement. This year, that slate includes Jim Chuchu’s Stories Of Our Lives (May 23), which dramatizes the true stories of LGBT Kenyans Thomas G. Miller’s Limited Partnership (May 26), about Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan, who were among a handful of couples legally married in Colorado in 1975, only to face an aggressive, emotional push-back from a frenzied nation Jay Dockendorf’s Naz & Maalik (May 27), about two gay Muslims in Brooklyn whose inability to come clean about their sexuality leads them into serious trouble – not with their families, but with Homeland Security – and Noam Gonick’s To Russia With Love (May 31), in which figure skater Johnny Weir he leads a team of openly gay athletes to Sochi in 2014.
