This one is coming a bit late, but here goes:
August 15
Just one film at the premiere, a sweet love story in 1980’s Saigon
Final choice: Song Lang
August 16
I’ve got either: earnest meditations on gayness and Christianity (Gay Chorus Deep South; The Gospel of Eureka) or… a lot of horror (Queer Fear; Lizzie).
Right now I’m leaning towards the gayness / Christianity ones. I did enjoy The Wise Kids waaaay back in 2011, and The Gospel of Eureka in particular should be a hell of a show. The horror shorts do look good though. So! Since International Village and SFU GoldCorp are only 5 minutes apart, and Eureka starts much later, couldn’t I split my viewing? Yeah, I think I could.
Final choice: Queer Fear & The Gospel of Eureka
August 17
Here I’ve got either women-focused stories (Shift Change; Tell It to the Bees) or youth-focused stories (Coming Into Our Own: Youth Shorts; Night Comes On).
Hmm… it’s Night Comes On that’s speaking to me most, so off we go to SFU GoldCorp again!
Final choice: Coming Into Our Own: Youth Shorts & Night Comes On
August 18
My first break. I’ve got a beach volleyball tourney in the morning and early afternoon, so realistically I wouldn’t have much energy. Add in a pre-indoor-season BBQ where we get to learn who else is on our indoor league teams, and modeling new jerseys? Sorry, no movies for me
August 19
So it’s a choice between queer & trans sci-fi and… nah, you had me at “queer & trans sci-fi”. This being a weeknight I probably won’t stay for the late show. Good thing it’s playing in my ‘hood!
Final choice: Transfinite
August 20
Either several shorts on intersectional queerness (Queer And…; Queer Diaspora) or a film on creativity and blindness followed by shorts on “longing, loneliness and parallel lives” (Vision Portraits; Have We Met Before?)
Huh, this is a hard one. I’m leaning most towards the second one, though
Final choice: Vision Portraits & Have We Met Before?
August 21
This is the Centrepiece Gala! Or, I could watch Song Lang again.
Final choice: José
August 22
It’s either The Coast Is Queer, or a second showing of José. And of course I never miss The Coast Is Queer. What’s the late show? A “slow burning indie drama”-slash-“coming of age”? Sure, I’ll take it. Or maybe I’ll go home early cos it’s way out on Commercial.
Final choice: The Coast Is Queer & Jules of Light and Dark
August 23
Hm. This is a tough one. A lot of dramas with no particular themes that I can see. The indigiqueer showcase is always good education for this settler, and I’m quite drawn to the late show as well.
Final choice: all our relations: explorations of indigiqueer kinship & The T
August 24
Again, more dramas. At first I had my eye on the collection of shorts on queer love lives (The Spark)… and then, a love story rising from the ashes of the Kosovo War (The Marriage)? Maybe…
But the other shows look good too! The story of an undocumented immigrant trans woman (The Garden Left Behind) and a college student’s struggle to reconcile modern life and family traditions (Fish Bones).
Final (ish) choice: The Garden Left Behind & Fish Bones
August 25
It’s the Closing Gala!
Final choice: An Almost Ordinary Summer