Promo for Queer Film Festival

 

Queer Israel Film Festival 

Controversial Living, Controversial Loving 

Delphie Levy Jones

Rationale:

 

 With heated political climates raising cultural temperatures and tensions, its increasingly crucial to highlight the pride within prejudice, and the devotion within divisions persisting in unexpected places. With a vibrant and liberated LGBTQ+ community thriving amidst a treacherously homophobic Middle East, the Queer Israel Film Festival explores the diversity and adversity within discriminated peoples through cinema. The six films on show for the festival represent the variety of queer Israeli cinema on offer, ranging from powerful documentaries to teenage love stories.

The festival commences with Out in the Dark (2013), thrusting viewers into the complex conflict ever present between Jews and Arabs, offering an all-too-real perspective on forbidden love. Despite its distressing themes, the romantic drama is a tale of hope, depicting a complicated but committed queer passion, persevering in a discriminatory environment. This clash of cultures is represented again in the festival’s second screening, Paper Dolls (2006). From fiction to facts, the documentary introduces an unforeseen but prospering community of transgender care-worker/drag queens from the Philippines. The film introduces the interesting dynamic of migrants seeking refuge in Israel and elderly Orthodox Jews with prophetically prejudiced attitudes, a fresh and stimulating anecdote to indulge the festival’s audience. Continuing with another documentary from award-winning Tomer Heymann, the third screening jumps a decade, acquainting viewers with Who’s Gonna Love me Now (2016). A relatable story for a queer audience, the film deals with themes of acceptance, finding family and a home away from home whilst reflecting how a fulfilling and loved life can be lead with HIV. Midway through the festival, City of Borders (2009) explores the queer nightlife in one of the oldest, and holiest cities in the world, Jerusalem. Connecting an ancient and biblical setting with LGBTQ+ clubgoers creates all-encompassing irony for viewers, intrigued by the capitals’ ability to be both hostile and inclusive. Diverging from a tripartite of documentaries, Blush (2015) becomes the penultimate screening, familiarising viewers with the sapphic campy love story the festival has been waiting for. Romantic and comedic, the film’s overall light-hearted tone is interweaved with some empathetic themes prevalent in the chaos of high school and queer adolescence. The festival’s final film is Sublet (2020), a touching drama appealing to an audience of every age, reflecting the raw, feel-good moments of being human. With an abundant filmography dedicated to Jewish cinema, award-winning filmmaker Eytan Fox’s Sublet closes the festival with innovation, colour and charm. 

 

 

 

 

 

Filmography

Blush (2015) Directed by Michal Vinik. [Film]. Israel: Lama Films.

City of Borders (2009) Directed by Yun Suh. [Film]. US, Israel: Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

Out in the Dark (2013) Directed by Michael Mayer. [Film]. Israel: M7200 Productions.

Paper Dolls (2006) Directed by Tomer Heymann. [Film]. Switzerland, US, Israel: Claudius Films.

Sublet (2020) Directed by Eytan Fox. [Film]. US, Israel: United King Films.

Who’s Gonna Love Me Now (2016) Directed by Tomer Heymann. [Film]. UK, Israel: Heymann Brothers.