Thursday, May 17, 2012

2012 Inside Out LGBT Film Festival, May 17-27


Inside Out's 22nd annual Toronto LGBT Film Festival kicks off tonight with a screening of Sally El Hosaini’s award-winning film My Brother The Devil. The Sundance and Berlinale hit is the coming-of-age story of two Arab brothers in the London streets.

The closing night film will be Bye Bye Blondie by Virginie Despentes (Baise-Moi) and stars France's Emmanuelle Béart and Béatrice Dalle.

Other films playing during the festival include Beloved, starring Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni; Berlin Film Festival award-winner Call Me Kuchu; Thom Fitzgerald's Cloudburst, starring Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker; and 2012 Academy Award nominee Bullhead.

Special guests attending the festival include Academy Award-winner Olympia Dukakis and director Thom Fitzgerald (Cloudburst), award-winning director Ira Sachs (Keep The Lights On), Stephen Elliot (Cherry), and Jeffrey Schwarz (Vito).

The Inside Out Festival continues to May 27 and will screen 45 feature films and 75 short films from around the world.

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TENDER LOVE STORIES, GRITTY FAMILY DRAMAS AND MEMORABLE COMING OF AGE TALES LIGHT UP THE SCREENS FROM MAY 17 TO 27 AT THE 2012 INSIDE OUT TORONTO LGBT FILM FESTIVAL

22nd annual event kicks off with Sally El Hosaini’s award-winning My Brother The Devil

Thom Fitzgerald’s Cloudburst and Alexandra Therese Keining’s Kiss Me to screen in inaugural Women’s Spotlight initiative on Friday, May 25

Out in the City pre-Festival screening series returns to Toronto venues in the Beaches, Roncesvalles and Little Italy

Public tickets on sale at www.insideout.ca

(April 18, 2012 – Toronto, Canada) Inside Out Executive Director Scott Ferguson and newly appointed Director of Programming, Andrew Murphy, today announced that Sally El Hosaini’s award-winning film My Brother The Devil will open the 22nd annual LGBT Film Festival on May 17, 2012. Winner of the Cinematography Award at Sundance 2012 and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, the film kicks off 11 days of some of the best contemporary film from around the world.

New this year, the festival introduces The Women’s Spotlight, celebrating lesbian-themed films. Supported by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture’s Celebrate Ontario program, the inaugural screening will feature Thom Fitzgerald’s Cloudburst and Alexandra Therese Keining’s Kiss Me. In addition, the festival brings back its International Focus programme, this year with films from Scandinavia; the successful Out in the City screening series with the addition of a free post-festival outdoor screening; the Icon Documentary Series; and the Youth programme. Additional films, including works screening in the Icon Documentary series and the Youth programmes, will be announced shortly.

Inside Out is pleased to welcome RBC as the festival’s returning Presenting Sponsor. Primary screenings for the 2012Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival will take place at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Tickets will be available on May 1st to members, May 3rd to public – visit www.insideout.ca for more information.

“For over 20 years, the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival has invited audiences to celebrate and support the diversity of our community,” said Scott Ferguson, Executive Director, Inside Out. “We are committed to the continued growth and evolution of this event and are thrilled to introduce new initiatives to this year’s Festival that will provide increased and enhanced opportunities to engage with filmmakers and talent.”

“In my first year with the Inside Out LGBT film festival, I wanted to ensure that the festival’s audiences were treated to some of the freshest voices and perspectives in cinema while remaining true to the heart of the event,” said Andrew Murphy, Director of Programming, Inside Out. “We are so proud to bring Torontonians films like My Brother The Devil, which promise to thrill and move people the way only a great film can.”

Opening Night Gala Presentation

My Brother the Devil Sally El Hosaini, UK
Canadian Premiere
Visually rich with edge-of-your-seat plot lines, My Brother the Devil is a slick, propulsive drama set amongst gang life on the streets of East London. The film is assured, authentic, and fast-paced - a coming-of age story about two brothers who must find themselves and their own way in life. Winner of the World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic, 2012 Sundance Film Festival and Europa Cinemas Label, 2012 Berlin International Film Festival.

The Women’s Spotlight

Cloudburst Thom Fitzgerald, Canada
Acclaimed actresses Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker star in Thom Fitzgerald’s film adaption of his stage play of the same name. Dotty and Stella have lived together for the last 31 years on the coastline of Maine. But when Dotty takes a fall, her granddaughter Molly arranges for her to live in a nursing home. Unwilling to live without one another, Stella and Dotty hit the road to Nova Scotia to get legally married. But the road is long and rough, and Stella begins to wonder if she really can take care of Dotty in their old age. After 31 years, can they keep their family together?

Kiss MeAlexandra-Therese Keining, Sweden
Canadian Premiere
Director Alexandra-Therese Keining has crafted a sophisticated, gently funny romance about stumbling into love at the most inopportune time. Mia and Frida meet at a party to celebrate the engagement of their parents. Perplexed by her fascination with the openly lesbian Frida, Mia is initially jealous and resentful but during a trip to a remote island cottage her attitude abruptly changes. As the complications mount, the pair must decide whether they are prepared to deal with the massive upheaval that their relationship would create in the lives of those around them.

International Focus: Scandinavia

Feature films
The Crown JewelsElla Lemhagen, Sweden
North American Premiere
When beautiful Fragancia is brought in for questioning over Richard Persson’s shooting, all evidence points to her but things are not as they seem as the young vixen proceeds to clear her name. Thrown into the mix is Fragancia’s true infatuation - Pettersson-Jonsson, a blond nymphlike figure skater to whom she teaches hockey. The three young beauties’ lives soon intertwine, reaching epic proportions. Ella Lemhagen offers a fantastical fable couched in a murder-mystery that will leave even the seasoned moviegoer astounded.

Kiss Me – Alexandra-Therese Keining, Sweden
(Also screening in The Women’s Spotlight)

The Mountain – Ole Giæver, Norway
Canadian Premiere
This riveting meditation on love, loss and the redemptive follows Solveig and Nora as they journey to the mountain spot where their young son died. While Nora doesn’t see the point of their excursion, Solveig is determined that the couple must face the past to ensure their future. Solveig and Nora push each other’s buttons in their quest to communicate grief, love and desire.

She Monkeys – Lisa Aschan, Sweden
Canadian Premiere
In her debut feature film, Swedish director Lisa Aschan deftly dramatizes how competition and desire, and love and power, can be so painfully intermixed. A driven and serious young girl, Emma is determined to win a place on an equestrian acrobatic team and quickly forms an intense relationship with teammate Cassandra. The girls circle around each other tentatively, constantly testing each other. Friends, rivals, lovers, or enemies - they can’t seem to decide which they want to be. At the same time, Emma’s younger sister is testing some boundaries of her own.

You Are Not Alone – Lasse Neilsen and Ernst Johansen, Denmark
Early queer cinema typically evokes impossible love and painful endings. Yet smack-dab in the middle of this period is a sweet and unapologetic Danish film, You Are Not Alone. Replete with charm, hopefulness and shirtless young guys, it serves as a forerunner to the coming out sub-genre of queer films. Bo and Kim are fellow students at an all-male boarding school. Amid the isolated Danish countryside, their unlikely friendship soon blossoms into much more than that of study partners but Kim’s strict father throws a wrench into their adolescent fun.

Happy, Happy – Anne Sewitsky, Norway
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Happy, Happy is a tangy comedy about adults behaving badly, and is equal parts sweet and tart. Housewife Kaja remains unfailingly upbeat despite domestic boredom. Neighbours Elisabeth and Sigve are sophisticated, beautiful and extremely talented singers—in short, everything Kaja would like to be. Dinner party conversations soon reveal the cracks in the couples’ façades and, before you know it, the neighbours are borrowing more than just a cup of sugar from each other.

Shorts Programme: Boy Scandinavia
Baldguy– Maria Bock, Norway
Follow a young man’s quest for love and acceptance in this lively musical film about being yourself and loving whomever you want.

A Day in the Country – PellaKågerman and Hugo Lilja, Sweden
A three-way encounter could lead to a new opportunity - or a dead end.

Pura Vida – Anders Hazelius, Sweden
Two middle-aged men from different social environments meet and a tragic love story begins.

Tord and Tord – Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Sweden
In this animated fable, Tord accidentally enters the apartment next to his own where a man, also named Tord, has just moved in. Tord and Tord start hanging out together and soon a special bond develops between the pair.

XY Anatomy of a Boy – Mette Carla Albrechtsen,Denmark
A fascinating and intimate study of six homosexual boys who talk freely with one another in the very place where uncertainties and embarrassment of youth emerge - the locker-room.

Shorts Programme: Lady Scandinavia
Chloe Likes Olivia – Mette Kjærgaard, Denmark
After a night out, Olivia brings home Chloe. Chloe is in love with Olivia, but Olivia is in a relationship with Andrea, who is waiting at home. A love triangle unfolds, forcing Olivia to make a choice.

The Day Cools – Malin Cramer, Sweden
As the guests arrive at a summer evening wedding, the chef notices a woman standing alone. A connection is made and throughout the evening, a bond forms between them.

Short of Breath – Aasne Vaa Greibrokk, Norway
A meeting between two people, each lost in her own way. Jenny, 17, has been raised by her grandmother in a small village on the northern outskirts of Norway. Mia, 40, a German choreographer, has come in search of inspiration for her new piece.

The Time In Between – Henrik Martin K. Dahlsbakken, Norway
Inspired by the secret relationship between the famous Norwegian poet, Gunvor Hofmo, and a talented young Jew, Ruth Maier, The Time In Between tells the story of a forbidden relationship between two girls who are inevitably torn apart.

Free Family Screening
Immediate Boarding - Ella Lemhagen, Sweden
A smash hit in Sweden and festivals around the world, Immediate Boarding follows eleven years-old Martin and Julia on their way to spend the holidays with their respective parents. While sitting in the departure lounge at the airport, they realize they look exactly alike and decide to swap clothes - and parents - for the summer.

Out in the City

Jitters (Órói) - Baldvin Zophoniasson, Iceland
An unexpected first kiss causes Gabriel to feel the electrifying ‘jitters’ of love and lust with the free-spirited Marcus - a perfect way to end a summer studying abroad. Realizing he is gay, Gabriel returns home and is immediately scrutinized by his family and friends, who notice he’s different.

Happy, Happy – Anne Sewitsky, Norway
(Also screening in the International Focus programme)

Gun Hill Road – Rashaad Ernesto Green, USA
After three years in prison, Enrique returns home to the Bronx to find the world that he knew greatly changed. His wife, Angela, struggles to hide an emotional affair, and his teenage son, Michael, explores a sexual transformation well beyond Enrique’s understanding. Still under the watchful eye of his parole officer, Enrique must become the father he needs to be or, once again, risk losing his family and freedom.

About Inside Out
Inside Out presents the annual Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival, with financial support from Presenting Sponsor, RBC. It is the largest event of its kind in Canada and entertains cinema buffs of all stripes, showcasing the best and most diverse films by, for and of interest to LGBT communities. For 11 days, the Festival draws crowds of more than 32,500 to screenings, artist talks, panel discussions, installations and parties that showcase more than 175 films and videos from Canada and around the world. In addition, Inside Out is committed to challenging attitudes and changing lives year-round through the exhibition, production and promotion of LGBT film with initiatives including annual festivals in Toronto and Ottawa, educational programs including the Queer Video Mentorship Project and the Mark S. Bonham Scholarship, and fall/winter screening series.

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