Screening this weekend, Flickerfest's Rainbow Shorts program gives a fascinating insight into the global LGBTQI+ experience.
Highlights include:
Black Lips, directed by Adrian Chiarella - a story about a Chinese black market abalone trader who has an encounter with a young poacher. He draws heavily on traditions of Asian cinema but recontextualises it in a modern Australian world. The result is a soulful short that is powerful in its subtlety.
Girl Talk is by Brooklyn based director Erica Rose. She’s a really interesting filmmaker who challenges heteronormative representations of women on screen through flawed and complex characters. Her play with conventional narrative structure invites you into a world that explores relationships, sex and identity in a fresh and intimate style.
Prisoner of Society directed by Rati Tsiteladze explores the life of a trans woman and her relationship with her family and community. The film has a very unique style and really packs a punch. It is also the first LGBT documentary from the region, nominated for the European Film Academy award.
The Other Side is a short Mexican drama from director Rodrigo Álvarez Flores. It’s a timely and moving short about two young Mexican lads in love who decide to try for a better life together by risking a border crossing into the United States. It’s exquisitely shot and director Florez has a real flair for playing with your expectations.
Nose Bleed comes from the United Kingdom and is director Luna Carmoon’s debut short. Based on the director’s own teenage experience of being in an intense toxic friendship, this short is frothy and frantic and the performances from the young cast are electric.
A still from short film 'Black Lips'. Source: Supplied
'Girl Talk' will be screening as part of the 'Rainbow Shorts' program. Source: Supplied
'Prisoner of Society'. Source: Supplied
'The Other Side' Source: Supplied
'Nose Bleed'. Source: Supplied
About Rainbow Shorts at Flickerfest
This January, Flickerfest International Short Film Festival is hitting Bondi Beach again and for the second year will feature a session of the best LGBTQI+ short films from around the world in the Rainbow Shorts program.
The Rainbow Shorts program has been curated by Sydney based film director, Craig Boreham, who sees this year’s line-up as a real window into the global LGBTQI+ world right now.
“There’s been a powerful shift in the ideas that filmmakers want to talk about,” Boreham tells SBS Sexuality. “There are less traditional coming-out stories and a lot more powerful stories that explore how our identities shape our place in the world. Although it's been more than a year since marriage equality was realised in Australia, it's important to be able to connect to our international community through film and be reminded that that even though we have had some progress there is still a long way to go for many of us.”
Featured in the program is the beautiful short The Other Side, a love story from Mexico about two young men who plan to escape their families to attempt a dangerous border crossing into the US. Girl Talk is a frank exploration of women and sex and intimacy that comes from Brooklyn while Prisoner of Society is a truly exceptional documentary about a transgender woman and her very traditional family. It is the first LGBT documentary from Georgia and the first Georgian documentary nominated for the European Film Academy. From closer to home, Australian shorts Black Lips written and directed by Adrian Chiarella and Stille Nacht, directed by Matthew R. Young and written by 2018 Heath Ledger Scholarship recipient Charmaine Bingwa, join the other award-winning shorts from the UK, Germany and the USA.
“We’re very excited to be bringing this collection to Flickerfest,” says Boreham.
“Flickerfest is a significant highlight on the festival circuit and is an Oscar and BAFTA qualifying festival so the caliber of entries is always top notch. This year there were over 2700 shorts submitted and we know people are going to love this program. It’s sexy, moving and thought provoking but above all it’s an amazing selection of highly entertaining films.”
Rainbow Shorts screens on Saturday 19 Jan, 6:30PM as part of the screening from 11 - 20 Jan at Bondi pavilion.
