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GLBTA sponsors February film festival
St. Cloud’s first Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies (GLBTA)-sponsored Film Festival will take place Feb. 9 at the newly restored Paramount Theater.
According to SCSU film studies professor Ronald E. Gregg, the Film Festival has been in the making for awhile now.
“The (GLBTA) committee members first came to me with the idea in August of last year,” Gregg said. “I’ve done a lot of work in Gay/Lesbian film studies, I’ve done programming for other film festivals, and I’ve got a lot of experiences hunting down distributors.”
After Gregg joined the committee, preparation continued for many months. The committee met with Paramount Theater Executive Director Millard Simpson in September to finalize a location for the festival and submitted a grant application to the Central Minnesota Arts Board (CMAB) Nov. 1 to finance the project.
“The members of the board read the grant applications, and talk about them,” said Charles Gilliam, the executive director of the CMAB. “In groups, members discuss their concerns and share likes and dislikes. People who are present that know about the project may also talk about it to the rest of the board.”
Applications are judged on graphic equity, innovation, creativity, integrity, organizational and artistic diversity and collaborations.
“After discussion, the board members are asked to rank the different projects,” Gilliam said. “I do the calculations. The amount of money each project gets is determined by how they are ranked by the board members.”
The GLBTA received a $1,220 grant from the CMAB for the festival. Some of the money has been spent on the rights to the films the GLBTA plans on showing.
“In most films, either the film maker or producer hold the rights, unless they are picked up by a distributor,” Gregg said. “I had to contact these individuals, and tell them we would like to show the movies for a non-profit event and pay for the rights.”
The hardest part for Gregg may have been selecting the films to show.
“I wanted to pick films that were diverse in content, style and approach,” Gregg said. “‘Stray Dogs’ is a narrative of a woman dealing with her lesbian identity in a small rural community, ‘Scout’s Honor’ is a documentary discussing the rights of gay men and boys to be scoutmasters and boy scouts, and ‘Hedwig’ is a rock musical comedy and melodrama.”
Between films there will be speakers, including David Perry, the Midwest Regional Director of Scouting for All, who will introduce “Scout’s Honor” and Catherine Crouch, who directed the feature film “Stray Dogs.” There will also be a question and answer session following one of the films.
“If there is enough interest, I think the people that planned it would love to do it again next year,” Gregg said. “All we can do is look at the turnout this year and assess whether it is worth the effort next year.”
Tickets are free, but donations are appreciated and will be used to cover the cost of the event. The extra profits will be given to the organization St. Cloud OUT. Tickets are available at the Paramount Theater Box Office and from members of St. Cloud OUT.
The movie schedule is “Scout’s Honor”at 7 p.m., “Stray Dogs” at 9 p.m. and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at 11:30 p.m.
The activity is made possible by a grant from the CMAB through funding provided by the Minnesota State Legislature. Other committed partners and sponsors of this event include: The City of St. Cloud, the Paramount Theater, the St. Cloud State University Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Student Services Center, the St. Cloud State University Department of Theater, Film and Dance, St. Cloud OUT, OutFront Minnesota, and numerous volunteers from the St. Cloud GLBT and Allied Community.
Kristen J. Kubisiak can be reached at: [email protected]
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