Get Social - Join us on:
Who we Are
Queer West Film Festival Toronto, is owned and managed, by Gay
West Community Network Inc. A not-for-profit corporation. Governed by Board
of Directors that oversees the Arts Collective. The Collective, is responsible
for performing arts events, educational workshops, interactive public forums,
art shows including the 5th annual Queer West Fest and the 3rd annual Film Festival
in 2010
The annual Film Festival was cofounded by Forest Lightbody and Michel F.
Paré in 2008. Forest was a general volunteer and organized the First Film
Festival on June 18. He was a Member of the Board of Directors, between August
2008 and October 2009 when he left the organization. In June 2009 he successfully
managed and organized the 2009 Queer West Arts Festival.
queering boundaries
Queering Boundaries means going beyond a fixed identity and embracing fluidity.
Though situated in the West of Toronto, we see the literal city borders and
boundaries as contested and in flux.Through the medium of film, the Queer West
Film Festival will push for a more inclusive and complex queer identity; a queer
identity that is necessarily shaped through interactions with place, space and
community. At the same time, the sites, sounds and boundaries of Toronto's "West
End" will be (re)claimed, (re)presented and (re)named as "queer".
Toronto is a city where queers come from different spaces, converging and
diverging to create their own sense of community, and the Queer West Film Festival
emphasizes that sense of connectedness.
Casey Reid
Member of Queer West Board of Directors
Program Director, Queer West Film Festival
Friday April 2, 2010. Gay West Community Network Board
of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Casey Reid of Toronto
as the new Program Director of Queer West Film Festival
Casey holds an Honors Specialization degree in Films Studies from the University
of Western Ontario and will be attending the Cinema Studies Masters Program
at the University of Toronto in September.
During her time at UWO she worked at the Pride Library and was an active member
of the Queer Community. Working closely with Pride Western and Ally Western,
Casey produced multimedia based learning tools promoting an inclusionary campus.
Since moving to Toronto in 2008, Casey has volunteered for many films festivals
including Inside Out and the Toronto International Film Festival. She has also
volunteered for organizations such as Women in Film and Television. She believes
in working with organizations that queer normative production of film and art.
"I am excited to be apart of the Queer West shOUT Young Adult program,
and look forward to putting together an engaging and interesting line up for
the 3rd annual Queer West Film Festival in 2010." Casey said. Email
address: Casey Reid qwfilmfest@gmail.com
Queer West Film Festival - Mission Statement - Our mission
is to provide a voice for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer youth
by presenting films and videos that only represent the diversity of the GLBT
community. By providing innovative, diverse, accessible, quality screen events,
which promote/stimulate, educate, enlighten, support queer cultures and entertain
us all.
1st Queer West Film Festival 2008
Guest Speakers on June 18, 2008
Two
guests speakers were on hand for Q & A following the videos. Kristyn Dunnion a self described saucy tart, Dunnion
is the author of novels Missing Matthew and Mosh Pit. Her short stories
are published in numerous collections. She earned a BA in English and
Theatre at McGill University, and an MA in English at the University of
Guelph. She has written articles and book reviews and has interviewed
other authors for radio and print media. She enjoys facilitating workshops
for emerging writers of all ages, but especially loves meeting with teens
and young adults to talk about reading, writing, and life in general.
BIG BIG SKY a Duuion, demo video for the new speculative
fiction novel by Dunnion. Teenaged assassin warrior women complete intensive
military training as high-grade biodegradable weapons of the future. Big
Big Sky is part anarchist fable, part distopian fiction, and part lesbian
love story. The Video Short as produced by Dunnion and Helen Prancic.
BIG BIG SKY is published by Red Deer Press, 2008.Purchase your copy at
any tonight or t This Ain't The Rosedale Library (Nassau Street, Kensington
Market) and Another Story (315 Roncesvalles). .Visit www.kristyndunnion.com Speaking and Q&A at 10:10 pm
Film-maker Robert Thomson, who works at Woody's talking
about his two films Shot during the brutal snowstorms of January and February
2008,"Waiting" is Robert Thomson's first attempt
at filmmaking. Originally intended to be a black comedy with an all drag
cast, the weather prevented "Waiting" from evolving as conceived
and, in the end, the weather itself ended up being a character in the
film, providing an ideal background for the character's seated frustration
and inertia.Mark Rosenbauer's music adds the perfect texture to this moody
piece.
Armed with a new camera and a lifetime of cinematic longing, Thomson followed
up "Waiting" with "Waking Up," which he considers his next
logical step in the process of spiritual awakening. Shot in May and early June
of 2008, this short film is a collage of moods and images,and reflects a more
hands-off approach to life and filmmaking. "Waking Up" is about
awareness and stillness. Visit Robert Thomson's web site: roberthomson.com
Speaking and Q&A at 11:15 pm
Event Details: Wednesday June 18, 2008 we held the 1st annual Queer West
Film & Video Fest @ Good Catch General Store 1556 Queen St. W. Parkdale
Doors opened at 8 pm the show rna from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM An outdoor private
theatre www.goodcatch.ca
and on Saturday Evening August 23rd saw incredible two hours of some
of the best queer youth film making today. A premier event, with many submitted
videos, never previously shown publicly in Toronto by underground queer filmmakers.
Both evenings were in the back parking lot of Good Catch General Store. Owner
Jola Slovobak, donated 60 comfortable chairs. The movie screen was a white bed-sheet
hung on one of the walls of the adjacent building. Every 20 minutes Slovobak
would come out of her store and raffle off crafts, to help us raise funds, since
we couldn't charge a fixed admission. The event was PWYC. Everyone raved about
Jola's chocolate covered popcorn. all 60 chairs were filled and 25 people stood
a back or sat on the ground. Our first Film festival raise $200, after we paid
the driver from delivery of the chairs.
2nd annual Queer West Film Festival 2009
Films shorts screened at the festival
1. Brown Like Me (27 min), short documentary of the journeys of queer
South Asian youth. from Rahim Thawer and Ms Mohini Datta-Ray from ASAAP Alliance
for South Asian AIDS Prevention.
2. If Tomorrow Comes (7 min) , a tongue-in-cheek chick-flick of a love
story about two boys breaking up and getting back together, Danielle Steele
style. From From irondvds.com
3. Pedro Levantate ( 14 min) - Director Jose Sunsin brings us into the
lives of a Spanish Father and his son, only this time the Father is matchmaker,
setting up his son with the local mechanic -- that way his boy can get a date
and a job! But there is trouble in auto paradise with Loan Sharks threatening
the lovebirds in this action- comedy. From irondvds.com
4. Don't Show This Film! (16 min) Two gay characters from an erotic
book are stuck in a box at the border --what's a couple of guys to do? Enjoy
this hilarious, informative take on the history of Canadian censorship, by award
winning writer Rosemary Doyle. Actors Ami Heller, Trevor Covelli, Joanna Swan
and Mark Purvis ensure you'll never cross the boarder the same way. From irondvds.com
5. Katrina del Mar's - A Beautiful Death (6 min) Lesbian
vampires play rock ‘n’ roll and board games before devouring their latest virginal
victim; a rockstar. By New York Director: Katrina del Mar. www.myspace.com/katrinadelmar
| www.katrinadelmar.com
6. Katrina del Mar's - Gang Girls 2000 ( 27 min.) The celebrated
photographer of New York’s underground freaks and rockers brings her aggressively
sexual images to life on screen, presenting a lesbian rumble in the tradition
of Hollywood’s best b-movie bad girls. In Glorious GlitterVision! In Luxurious
Leatherama! What these girls do, you will Not Believe! Bike riding ChicKettes!
Truck driving Sluts! ! Yes, ladies and gentlemen this is IT! The Cinematic Triumph
of Katrina del Mar's unfettered imagination! Shot in glorious super 8mm on the
rough streets of New York City! A cast of 30 beautiful women driving fast cars,
wearing tight pants, eating candy, fighting, kissing and riding horses! The
girl gang movie that started it all! Four foxy girl gangs tear it up on the
streets of the Lower East Side, and rumble on the beach at Coney Island."
By legendary New York City lesbian filmmaker, Katrina del Mar.. www.myspace.com/katrinadelmar
| www.katrinadelmar.com
We would like to thank ASAAP
(Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention) for loaning us their DVD Projector.
We really appreciate their kind offer.
The Details: Saturday June 20, 2009 at Fixt Point Theatre, 1550 Queen
St W. beside Mitzi's Sister and Good Catch General Store. (Parkdale) PWYC
Doors: 8 pm to 10:30 pm. Queer West Village, Toronto Ontario
3rd annual Queer West Film Festival 2010
Film
Festival 2010
Our Brand Values
- Fun
- Diversity
- Integrity
- Quality
Artistic and Corporate Objectives
- To continue to improve the quality of films shown at the Festival.
- To provide a unique and innovative environment for screen culture.
- To increase the diversity of film content.
- To include foreign language films.
- To continue to increase audience size to the full capacity of our venues.
- To increase the diversity and age range of our audience.
- To make the Festival more accessible.
- To create a Festival that is exciting, intellectual and populist.
Festival Guide - Courtesy of Queer West
Arts Collective: Overview
| Festival News
Queer West Arts Festival: About
Us | Official
Events | Spoken
Word
Queer West Film Festival: About
Us |
Film Festival Schedule
History Archive: History
Gay Festivals Toronto | History
of Queer West | History
of Gay Toronto
Other Festivals: International
Queer Arts Festivals | International
Queer Film Festivals | Pride Festivals Canada & USA
Around Queer West Village: Accommodations
| Businesses
| The
Board | Contact
Us |
Films, Festivals and Art Events | Theatre
Events | Weekly
& Monthly Events | What's
on Today? |
Nightlife | Queer
West Village Travellers Guide | Village Street Map
Copyright 2010 Gay West Community Network Inc.
Get Social - Join us on:
Who we Are
Queer West Film Festival Toronto, is owned and managed, by Gay West Community Network Inc. A not-for-profit corporation. Governed by Board of Directors that oversees the Arts Collective. The Collective, is responsible for performing arts events, educational workshops, interactive public forums, art shows including the 5th annual Queer West Fest and the 3rd annual Film Festival in 2010
The annual Film Festival was cofounded by Forest Lightbody and Michel F. Paré in 2008. Forest was a general volunteer and organized the First Film Festival on June 18. He was a Member of the Board of Directors, between August 2008 and October 2009 when he left the organization. In June 2009 he successfully managed and organized the 2009 Queer West Arts Festival.
queering boundaries
Queering Boundaries means going beyond a fixed identity and embracing fluidity. Though situated in the West of Toronto, we see the literal city borders and boundaries as contested and in flux.Through the medium of film, the Queer West Film Festival will push for a more inclusive and complex queer identity; a queer identity that is necessarily shaped through interactions with place, space and community. At the same time, the sites, sounds and boundaries of Toronto's "West End" will be (re)claimed, (re)presented and (re)named as "queer".
Toronto is a city where queers come from different spaces, converging and diverging to create their own sense of community, and the Queer West Film Festival emphasizes that sense of connectedness.
Casey Reid
Member of Queer West Board of Directors
Program Director, Queer West Film Festival
Friday April 2, 2010. Gay West Community Network Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Casey Reid of Toronto as the new Program Director of Queer West Film Festival
Casey holds an Honors Specialization degree in Films Studies from the University of Western Ontario and will be attending the Cinema Studies Masters Program at the University of Toronto in September.
During her time at UWO she worked at the Pride Library and was an active member of the Queer Community. Working closely with Pride Western and Ally Western, Casey produced multimedia based learning tools promoting an inclusionary campus.
Since moving to Toronto in 2008, Casey has volunteered for many films festivals including Inside Out and the Toronto International Film Festival. She has also volunteered for organizations such as Women in Film and Television. She believes in working with organizations that queer normative production of film and art. "I am excited to be apart of the Queer West shOUT Young Adult program, and look forward to putting together an engaging and interesting line up for the 3rd annual Queer West Film Festival in 2010." Casey said. Email address: Casey Reid qwfilmfest@gmail.com
Queer West Film Festival - Mission Statement - Our mission is to provide a voice for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer youth by presenting films and videos that only represent the diversity of the GLBT community. By providing innovative, diverse, accessible, quality screen events, which promote/stimulate, educate, enlighten, support queer cultures and entertain us all.
1st Queer West Film Festival 2008
Guest Speakers on June 18, 2008
Two guests speakers were on hand for Q & A following the videos. Kristyn Dunnion a self described saucy tart, Dunnion is the author of novels Missing Matthew and Mosh Pit. Her short stories are published in numerous collections. She earned a BA in English and Theatre at McGill University, and an MA in English at the University of Guelph. She has written articles and book reviews and has interviewed other authors for radio and print media. She enjoys facilitating workshops for emerging writers of all ages, but especially loves meeting with teens and young adults to talk about reading, writing, and life in general.
BIG BIG SKY a Duuion, demo video for the new speculative fiction novel by Dunnion. Teenaged assassin warrior women complete intensive military training as high-grade biodegradable weapons of the future. Big Big Sky is part anarchist fable, part distopian fiction, and part lesbian love story. The Video Short as produced by Dunnion and Helen Prancic. BIG BIG SKY is published by Red Deer Press, 2008.Purchase your copy at any tonight or t This Ain't The Rosedale Library (Nassau Street, Kensington Market) and Another Story (315 Roncesvalles). .Visit www.kristyndunnion.com Speaking and Q&A at 10:10 pm
Film-maker Robert Thomson, who works at Woody's talking about his two films Shot during the brutal snowstorms of January and February 2008,"Waiting" is Robert Thomson's first attempt at filmmaking. Originally intended to be a black comedy with an all drag cast, the weather prevented "Waiting" from evolving as conceived and, in the end, the weather itself ended up being a character in the film, providing an ideal background for the character's seated frustration and inertia.Mark Rosenbauer's music adds the perfect texture to this moody piece.
Armed with a new camera and a lifetime of cinematic longing, Thomson followed up "Waiting" with "Waking Up," which he considers his next logical step in the process of spiritual awakening. Shot in May and early June of 2008, this short film is a collage of moods and images,and reflects a more hands-off approach to life and filmmaking. "Waking Up" is about awareness and stillness. Visit Robert Thomson's web site: roberthomson.com Speaking and Q&A at 11:15 pm
Event Details: Wednesday June 18, 2008 we held the 1st annual Queer West Film & Video Fest @ Good Catch General Store 1556 Queen St. W. Parkdale Doors opened at 8 pm the show rna from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM An outdoor private theatre www.goodcatch.ca and on Saturday Evening August 23rd saw incredible two hours of some of the best queer youth film making today. A premier event, with many submitted videos, never previously shown publicly in Toronto by underground queer filmmakers. Both evenings were in the back parking lot of Good Catch General Store. Owner Jola Slovobak, donated 60 comfortable chairs. The movie screen was a white bed-sheet hung on one of the walls of the adjacent building. Every 20 minutes Slovobak would come out of her store and raffle off crafts, to help us raise funds, since we couldn't charge a fixed admission. The event was PWYC. Everyone raved about Jola's chocolate covered popcorn. all 60 chairs were filled and 25 people stood a back or sat on the ground. Our first Film festival raise $200, after we paid the driver from delivery of the chairs.
2nd annual Queer West Film Festival 2009
Films shorts screened at the festival
1. Brown Like Me (27 min), short documentary of the journeys of queer South Asian youth. from Rahim Thawer and Ms Mohini Datta-Ray from ASAAP Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention.
2. If Tomorrow Comes (7 min) , a tongue-in-cheek chick-flick of a love story about two boys breaking up and getting back together, Danielle Steele style. From From irondvds.com
3. Pedro Levantate ( 14 min) - Director Jose Sunsin brings us into the lives of a Spanish Father and his son, only this time the Father is matchmaker, setting up his son with the local mechanic -- that way his boy can get a date and a job! But there is trouble in auto paradise with Loan Sharks threatening the lovebirds in this action- comedy. From irondvds.com
4. Don't Show This Film! (16 min) Two gay characters from an erotic book are stuck in a box at the border --what's a couple of guys to do? Enjoy this hilarious, informative take on the history of Canadian censorship, by award winning writer Rosemary Doyle. Actors Ami Heller, Trevor Covelli, Joanna Swan and Mark Purvis ensure you'll never cross the boarder the same way. From irondvds.com
5. Katrina del Mar's - A Beautiful Death (6 min) Lesbian vampires play rock ‘n’ roll and board games before devouring their latest virginal victim; a rockstar. By New York Director: Katrina del Mar. www.myspace.com/katrinadelmar | www.katrinadelmar.com
6. Katrina del Mar's - Gang Girls 2000 ( 27 min.) The celebrated photographer of New York’s underground freaks and rockers brings her aggressively sexual images to life on screen, presenting a lesbian rumble in the tradition of Hollywood’s best b-movie bad girls. In Glorious GlitterVision! In Luxurious Leatherama! What these girls do, you will Not Believe! Bike riding ChicKettes! Truck driving Sluts! ! Yes, ladies and gentlemen this is IT! The Cinematic Triumph of Katrina del Mar's unfettered imagination! Shot in glorious super 8mm on the rough streets of New York City! A cast of 30 beautiful women driving fast cars, wearing tight pants, eating candy, fighting, kissing and riding horses! The girl gang movie that started it all! Four foxy girl gangs tear it up on the streets of the Lower East Side, and rumble on the beach at Coney Island." By legendary New York City lesbian filmmaker, Katrina del Mar.. www.myspace.com/katrinadelmar | www.katrinadelmar.com
We would like to thank ASAAP (Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention) for loaning us their DVD Projector. We really appreciate their kind offer.
The Details: Saturday June 20, 2009 at Fixt Point Theatre, 1550 Queen St W. beside Mitzi's Sister and Good Catch General Store. (Parkdale) PWYC Doors: 8 pm to 10:30 pm. Queer West Village, Toronto Ontario
3rd annual Queer West Film Festival 2010
Film Festival 2010
Our Brand Values
Artistic and Corporate Objectives
Festival Guide - Courtesy of Queer West
Arts Collective: Overview | Festival News
Queer West Arts Festival: About Us | Official Events | Spoken Word
Queer West Film Festival: About Us | Film Festival Schedule
History Archive: History Gay Festivals Toronto | History of Queer West | History of Gay Toronto
Other Festivals: International Queer Arts Festivals | International Queer Film Festivals | Pride Festivals Canada & USA
Around Queer West Village: Accommodations | Businesses | The Board | Contact Us | Films, Festivals and Art Events | Theatre Events | Weekly & Monthly Events | What's on Today? | Nightlife | Queer West Village Travellers Guide | Village Street Map
Copyright 2010 Gay West Community Network Inc.