The 2013 Out Takes Film Festival runs from May 30th until June 12th at Paramount Cinemas in Wellington. I was privileged to be able to interview the festival director, Simon Fulton about this year’s programme and more…
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K8: How many years has Out Takes been running now? And have you been involved from the start?
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Simon: Out Takes started in 1995 in Wellington. There’s no one from the original team still involved. The first festival I was involved in organising was the 1997 one.
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K8: What makes Out Takes special?
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Simon: Two things stand out for me – it’s still the audience’s only chance to see most of the films we screen – hardly any Out Takes films get a general release. Over the years some of the films we’ve screened have later screened on pay TV like the Rialto Channel for example, and some titles will eventually be stocked by independent DVD hire stores like Aro Video – but it’s a tiny percentage of the titles we’ve screened. The festival remains the only opportunity to see most of the titles.
And Out Takes provides a truly queer space – sitting in an auditorium of fellow queers watching a queer-themed film is a completely different experience from watching a film at home with friends, or seeing a queer-themed film with a straight audience. Out Takes provides that queer environment, and I think audiences find it really satisfying.
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K8: The programme is very strong this year. What are your picks?
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Simon: So many! I’m really looking forward to seeing Naked Opera on the big screen – it’s a gorgeous film – stunning cinematography and a soaring soundtrack of Mozart opera. Joshua Tree 1951 is another beautifully shot film that will be magnificent on the big screen. And some of my particular favourites are among the short films – the short film collections are a real pleasure to program each year, and we have five collections of short films this year. Watch out for Do You Have a Cat? – very funny – and It’s Consuming Me, a 3 minute film that proves you don’t need a feature-length format to display great film-making talent.
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K8: Which films do you think would appeal most to straight audiences?
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Simon: Some of the biographical documentaries will I’m sure appeal to anyone. Love Free or Die, about Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican church, is an inspiring, moving film – and Wish Me Away, about country singer Chely Wright who came out as lesbian in what is still a very conservative world, the Nashville country music scene. Any audience, straight or gay, will find these stories thoroughly engaging and entertaining, I’m sure.
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K8: A queer-themed film just won at Cannes. Do you think this will make queer cinema more mainstream?
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Simon: Slowly, slowly…it’s great to see more and more queer characters and storylines in movies and on TV. The more queer characters and plots they see, the more audiences will view them as perfectly normal, and a reflection of what real life is like. But ‘mainstream’ is probably a way off yet. When the lead hero character in the latest blockbuster Hollywood action film is portrayed as gay – and when actors think nothing of playing the role – then perhaps we can start using words like ‘mainstream’. ‘Til then, it’s great to see queer cinema attracting more diverse audiences, but it’s still a very small number of films overall that fit the bill each year.
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K8: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about Out Takes this year?
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Simon: Just that we think this is our strongest lineup ever, and I encourage everyone to see as many of them as possible!
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I agree with Simon that the programme is exceptionally strong this year. I’ve never wanted to see so many Out Takes films in a single year before! And I doubt I’ll get the chance to see half the films I’d like to see….
Check out the programme and film descriptions at outtakes.org.nz or on the Paramount Cinemas website. Thanks Simon for taking time out during the festival to give Admit One an interview. We hope this year’s fest is a resounding success.
