Torino GLBT Film Festival
April 19-25
Turin, Italy, Multisala Cinema Massimo
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The 27th Torino GLBT Film Festival runs this month from April 19-25. The festival started as a small film show in 1986, and is now organized under the auspices of Turin’s National Museum of Cinema. It draws in over 40,000 people every year. Hosts of past festivals have included Gus Van Sant, John Waters, Kenneth Anger, Gregg Araki, Epstein & Friedman, James Ivory, Claudia Cardinale, Eytan Fox, Derek Jarman and Christophe Honoré.

There is an emphasis on youth issues and the problems of bullying this year. April 20, the Day of Silence in the US, is dedicated to the issue of homophobic bullying. The event “Bullyism: Hitting the Target” has been organized in collaboration with EGMA (European Gay and Lesbian Managers Association) and GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network). It will screen both the short film Man in the Mirror, by Joel Schumacher (director of Batman Forever and Falling Down), and Private Romeo (Alan Brown), a feature film about homophobia in a military academy that recounts a love affair between two cadets. The festival’s section “Forever Young” focuses on films about adolescents.

The “Torino Queer Award” for the best film by a young director will be presented for the first time this year. The jury is composed of IED students (European Institute of Design in Turin). The films up for this prize are: Heavy Girls by Axel Ranisch (Germany), Órói (Jitters) by Baldvin Zophonìasson (Iceland), Joe + Belle by Veronica Kedar (Israel), Mosquita y Mari by Aurora Guerrero (USA), Otra pelicula de amor (Another Movie of Love) by Edwin Oyarce (Chile), Speechless by Simon Chung (China/Hong Kong), Sur le départ by Michaël Dacheu (France) and Westerland by Tim Staffel (Germany).

To mark the Olympic year, there will be an event, “The last taboo: our Olympics”, which is about the relationship between sport and homosexuality. It will be hosted by journalist Paolo Colombo at La7 Channel.

One of the festival highlights is The Perfect Family, directed by Anne Renton and starring Kathleen Turner. Polari interviewed Anne Renton, along with the executive producer Connie Cummings, and producers Cora Olson and Jennifer Dubin after the film’s screening at the BFI 26th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. (Click here to read the interview.)

There will also be a screening of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake 3D (Peter Mumford). Bourne’s iconoclastic, romantic version replaces the traditional female corps de ballet with an all male cast. Matthew Bourne will be guest of honour at the Festival.

To read more about the many films and events at the 27th Torino GLBT Film Festival click here to go the website.