Sponsored by: WMNS 422 Class & UAC

[press release]

Eau QUEER:  Students Organize Inaugural LGBTQA Film Festival

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire will host a new queer film festival this fall from Oct. 7-10. The festival is scheduled to lead up to National Coming Out Day on Monday, October 11. The screenings will be held in the Davies Theatre on the UWEC campus and will be free and open to the public. The festival is the culmination of a pilot travel seminar coordinated through the Women’s Studies program focusing on LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and ally) cultures and experiences.

This summer 11 students led by Ellen Mahaffy, Assistant Professor of Communication and Journalism and Pam Forman, Associate Professor of Sociology traveled to San Francisco during Frameline34, the world’s most established LGBT film festival.  The students spent a week viewing films from all over the world, participating in discussions with audiences, filmmakers, actors and Frameline staff. After returning to Wisconsin, a committee of students worked with distributors, filmmakers and local partners to organize the event, featuring films screened at the Frameline film festival.

Beyond the intercultural immersion, students and faculty engaged in hands-on filmmaking during the 40th anniversary San Francisco Pride celebration and produced four separate documentaries scheduled to premiere at the Eau QUEER Film Festival.  The travel seminar is made possible with the support of a Domestic Intercultural Immersion grant, a Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates grant through the UWEC Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, the UWEC Foundation and private donors.  The film festival is supported by a differential tuition grant and the instructors’ documentary project is funded by a University Research and Creative Activity grant through the UWEC Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

The Eau Queer headline film “Children of God” (USA, 2010) has played internationally at film festivals, capturing the Audience award for Best Film at the 2010 Torino Film Festival and Best Narrative at NewFest, New York’s LGBT film festival.  Set in 2004, it examines homophobia in Caribbean societies in this story of dissonance between Fundamentalist Christian communities and gay individuals trying to live their lives under the real threat of violence.  Other films will explore how gender and sexuality are negotiated between friends, family, and lovers as established traditions intersect with personal experience.  The films span the globe (Italy, Korea, Peru, the Bahamas, Canada, Great Britain, Argentina and the United States) and include small budget independent shorts to breathtaking feature length productions. 

“Children of God”, co-sponsored by the University Activities Commission, will screen each night at 8:30pm.  Other films included in the festival are “FIT” (USA, 2010), “The Sea Purple” (USA, 2010), “Undertow” (USA, 2010), and “The Summer of La Boyita” (USA, 2010).  A series of shorts will also be shown including “Gayby” (USA, 2010), “Chained!” (USA, 2010), “Small-Time Revolutionary” (USA 2010), “The Armoire” (USA, 2010) and “Just Friends?” (USA, 2010).  Post-screening discussions will be held.  For the latest information check out http://webprojects.uwec.edu/wmns422, the Facebook page under Eau Queer Film Festival, or the Twitter page EauQueer.