Keeping cinema queer
Lex Linney, the trained actor, director, composer and pianist, has another accolade tucked up his floral sleeve as Sophie Hoeller discovers
Linney muses upon his shlef life
As the festival director of Queer Screen, a non-profit organisation that aims to promote queer cinema culture, Lex Linney and his fellow staff enrich our city with an incredibly diverse selection of queer cinema through events such as the annual Mardi Gras Film Festival. According to Linney the diverse content of the films Queer Screen receives results in a healthy challenge when it comes to the selection process. "Sometimes I'll work to impose a direction on it, and other times it's really quite clear what kind of films we are seeing come through the door. We are beholden to whatever the filmmakers are making which means it's tricky being in the position of curating other people's work," he says. "You can't necessarily plan ahead as to what the work will be or what the outcome will be."
Queer Screen hosts events such as The Mardi Gras Film Festival, the largest queer film festival in Australia and one of the top five in the world, My Queer Career, a short film competition that leads to a national tour and DVD release, and QueerDOC, an international documentary film festival. Linney considers My Queer Career as one of Queer Screen's major priorities. "It has to be number one because it's about creating, nurturing and supporting local talent," he says.
While gay representation in cinema culture has increased marginally with films such as Brokeback Mountain and Transamerica, and TV shows such as The L Word and Queer as Folk, these productions are mostly producer and studio driven and as Linney points out, "not necessarily coming from the voice of queer artists." According to Linney the last Australian film produced that was specifically gay-themed was Anna Kokinos' Head On, released in 1998.
Despite Hollywood movies drifting in from time to time, Linney says: "There's something about independent queer cinema that is a little more genuine or authentic in its representation of queer experience. That's one part of our job, keeping cinema queer in this country, to whatever degree we can."
The other objective Linney and Queer Screen share is to support local, queer, filmmakers. "It is so hard to get films made in Australia, there's so little money for it. When there are any filmmakers out there who are developing a queer voice then we do our best to support them."
To find out more about Queer Screen, their events and queer cinema in general, log on to www.queerscreen.com.au