2Bmag online

The Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (MGLFF) commemorates its quince this year by celebrating fifteen years of fierce and fabulous queer cinema. As the first, major LGBT film festival of the calendar year, MGLFF sets the tone for the entire LGBT film festival circuit and this year will prove to be no exception, said Franc Castro, executive director of the MGLFF.

Festival International du Film sur l’Art (FIFA) launched its 31st season on Thursday, March 14th, 2013 with its Opening Night celebrations at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Joy! Portrait of a Nun is a loving docu-meditation by Montréal-based director Joe Balass. The film, which screens for one week at Excentris Dec 14-22, focuses on Sister Mish, one of the original founding members of the San Francisco-based order of contemporary queer nuns called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

In the furious build-up to the festival’s opening night, we took a moment to hint at three note-worthy English language films from California, Finland, and Montréal that show the diversity of this year’s Image + Nation programme. Check out the official opening party Thursday Nov 22 at 9pm (The Scene) to chat with festival-goers and get tips on what’s not 2B missed!

At 25, Image + Nation has kept its finger on the rushing pulse of local and world queer cinema. Politics, history, camp, addiction, love, and this year, a refreshing focus on cinematic craft come to Cinéma du Parc for ten furious days, Nov 22 – December 2. 2B spoke with Ira Sachs, the brave director of their opening night film, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON about self-knowledge and self-love.

Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall’s Call Me Kuchu was shown at this year’s Berlinale film festival to much acclaim. The US/Uganda coproduction will be screened at this year’s Image + Nation Festival on Nov 28. The screening is particularly timely given the recent threat of Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill being reintroduced in parliament later this year. Journalist and photographer Shane Thomas MacMillan reviewed the heartfelt documentary, special to 2Bmag.

Gays have been waiting with bated breath for The Paperboy to come to theatres, and now you can win a pair of tickets to its Montréal première! After the success of Precious, out gay director Lee Daniels’s gritty new feature was already on the gaydar when the promise of sex scenes between a ripped Zac Efron and sultry Nicole Kidman putting the film’s buzz into overdrive.

If you missed Fantasia, or if your taste for underground film is still not sated, Mascara & Popcorn’s programme of ballsy burlesque, homegrown horror, and indie cinema will restore your faith in the arthouse community, Aug 16-19. Don’t miss the special screening of Eisha Marjara’s “House for Sale” starring Atif Siddiqi on opening night!

The first month of Image + Nation’s Thursday night screenings in the Parc de l’Espoir culminates in the 2008 Midsummer Night’s Dream remake Were the World Mine, about a high school student who casts spells to make his straight classmates gay (tonight). Although they might not change anyone’s orientation, your date might be get a kick out of seeing these fabulous queer films on something other than the computer overheating on your lap.

For its 13th edition, the Festival international Montréal en arts (FIMA) has stepped up its programming to include three evenings of screenings in the Parc de l’Espoir. Each night will feature short films grouped around a theme or medium, with Friday night’s “Dansons” programme dedicated to films about dance, including Strands, a short film by Paul Neudorf which has been screened in Brooklyn, Mexico and across the US.