When the 11th annual Fairytales Film Festival hits Calgary next week, the selection of queer film will as usual cover a broad base, from romantic comedies and amusing shorts to international dramas and shows that are a little "out there." The advantage of a film festival like Fairytales is that it truly does offer something for everyone. While you can check out the newest gay romantic comedy, you should also make a point of experiencing events like the panel discussion and some of the more obscure films. You will leave, not only entertained, but likely with a lot to think about.
A unique and thought-provoking theme this year is a focus on Two-Spirited filmmakers. Aboriginal and Two-Spirited filmmakers from across the country will be on hand on June 2nd for a panel discussion.
The concept originated from Alberta-born Two-Spirited filmmaker Adam Garnet Jones' latest video installation piece
Secret Weapons. We caught up with Jones in Toronto. He is ecstatic, he says, to see Fairytales focusing on Aboriginal works.
"I am really excited that (festival director) Matt Salton took the initiative to bring everyone together. This is exactly what I hoped would happen when I made
Secret Weapons, I wanted to have the opportunity to have a forum like this take place. There is an actively working community of two-spirit artists out there and it is really interesting to throw the focus on it. People in the queer community aren't used to thinking about two-spirited people as artists. They are the voice of the community and the issues that come up."
The panel includes Jones, Saskatchewan’s Gail Maurice & Thirza Cuthand, Manitboa’s Kevin Lee Burton & Marjorie Beaucage, Kent Monkman, beric Manywounds, and Lorne Olson.
"This is going to be a really exciting event for me. I have no idea what is going to happen. I don't think all of us have been together in a room to talk about what two-spirit filmmaking is, where we want the community to go, what we think of each others work, all of those different things that could come out. I have no idea what we are going to talk about so far and what is going to come out of it but I am really excited because there is a lot of possibility there."
The LGBT and Aboriginal communities have a common thread in that they have both faced challenges as a community. Being part of both communities hasn't been a hindrance, Jones said.
"I have been really lucky and supported really well. I think that identifying as queer and an aboriginal person in both communities can be difficult. The Aboriginal community isn't always welcoming to queers and the queer community can be racist. As far as my creative practice goes it has only been a benefit to me to be involved in both communities."
As part of the festival, Jones has two short films. The first, entitled
Can You Love Me runs on May 30th as part of the "deep, dark and delicious shorts." The film is about Jones’ friend Megan. She put up posters around Toronto with her face and the words "Can You Love Me?" and a phone number. The documentary features her telling a story of one of her experiences.
"There were thousands of phone calls from people around the city that responded in different ways. The story that evolved is with her creating a bond and weirdly manipulative friendship with one guy who calls the posters again and again. She eventually reaches out and makes contact with him and it is all a little bit crazy. The content isn't queer at all but she is this larger than life drag-queeny woman which I think is why it has been embraced by queer festivals."
Megan herself isn't a sympathetic character. In watching the film, I found I strongly disliked her as she told her story. It's a reaction that has been told to Jones many times, one that surprised him at first.
"I don't know her anymore as a result of the film actually we are no longer friends. She is a person that really demands an audience and is interested in having an audience for her life and her stories. She herself talks about being interested in being famous. It ended up being one of the hardest things for me. I am a pretty decent guy and have never had anyone react so negatively to something I have done before. It was really challenging for me as a filmmaker and for my co-director as well," he recalled. "I don't know if she is crazy. We were really close at the time that we made the film. I was a little bit messed up at the time. People say when you make a piece of artwork you are making something about yourself. The reason why the story resonated so much for me is because so much of what she was talking about, this incredible vulnerability and need that she has in the film were things I was feeling really intensely at the time. I was really shocked when people thought she was a bitch and crazy when the film first screened. I genuinely thought everyone feels this way, she's my friend and I love her. Not everybody had that response. As filmmakers we tried to be as balanced as possible. We looked at it to see if we were being fair or manipulating things."
Secret Weapons, as part of the screening of Two-Spirited works on June 2nd sees Jones step in front of the camera as well as behind it.
"The film was originally commissioned by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre to celebrate their 40th anniversary. They asked a number of working filmmakers to make films inspired by work in their collection. They paired me with Mike Hoolboom, a Canadian filmmaker who made a lot of films about HIV and AIDS in the 80's and 90's and is still a working filmmaker today. His films inspired me a lot in my late teens. There are a couple of things about his work that really inspired me. One is the four-channel approach that I decided I wanted to use. The other was talking about HIV and AIDS. This was somebody who was talking about it but not HIV positive. So much time has passed between when he made those films and me making mine now, and it has had a huge impact on my life. All of those things mixed around in my brain and I started thinking about what felt real and important about my experience with HIV and AIDS was the cycles of fear and grief that I see in myself, my friends and the queer community. Those similar cycles exist in the Aboriginal community for different reasons. I started thinking about ways of drawing parallels together and really got lost in those ideas. I wanted the film to reflect that confusion and to find some clarity out of that fear and confusion and ideas."
Being such a personal experience, Jones appeared in one of the screens and voices the film.
"It is such a personal film. I thought about casting an actor. I didn't know anyone and it feels so much like my voice that I just did it. I wanted to be on screen working through those ideas. The tattoo you see on screen is me getting a tattoo. It is the sadness, fear and anger that I have. It was really important for me to put those marks on my body, for it to be coming from my mouth and be as much from my perspective as possible. It was what I felt needed to happen."
The film takes a four-channel approach. The screen is divided up into four windows. In one, Adam himself is speaking. The rest are filled with images.
"I wanted to use the four channels as a medicine wheel. That tattoo I am getting in the upper left is a medicine wheel tattoo, which is a symbol that is used by Aboriginal people all over North America, the different nations use different variations of the medicine wheel. The idea is it is a template for life. There are so many things in our life that can be divided into these four directions, elements, a symbol that encompasses a lot of different aspects of who people are. I think what the film is looking for is a way of becoming whole. It represents a way to live a whole life, be a stronger more whole person. Dividing the video into four channels represents all those different aspects of being into a different quadrant."
FairyTales Film Festival
May 28 – June 6, 2009
www.fairytalesfilmfest.com