Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2014
(Photo Credit: Depositphotos.com Jorgophotograph)
MGLFF 2014 Back En Route To Glory Days
The curtains are set to rise on the 16th incarnation of the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (MGLFF) and once again, an extensive, diverse lineup of films, educational programs and social occasions are on tap for the LGBT community, friends, families – and general film lovers.
What began almost two decades ago on a shoestring budget and tons of good intentions might have gone through numerous changes, challenges financially and internally, and questions about its future. However, once again, the Festival is set to entertain thousands of audience members and event participants as it commemorates its sweet sixteen.
As one of the first, major LGBT film festivals 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 Mark Gilbert, interim executive director and chairman of the board for the MGLFF. This year’s theme – “How Sweet It Is” – is a nostalgic nod to the great Jackie Gleason, who used to broadcast his popular variety show from Miami Beach. MGLFF will run May 2-11 at venues throughout Miami Beach and Miami.
The 16th Annual Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will feature 64 films from 20 different countries, including feature-length movies and short films that chronicle the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Included in the lineup will be four world premieres, one international premiere, two North American premieres, two U.S. premieres, three East Coast premieres and several Southeast premieres.
The Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is presented by HBO, HBO Latin America and Miami-Dade County. For more information visit www.mglff.com.
From The Director's Chair
(Photo provided by Mark Gilbert)
(Film photos provided by Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival)
Mark Gilbert has been actively involved in the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival since its third year and is board chair. However, for this year's MGLFF, Gilbert also assumed the helm as interim festival director. I sat down with the longtime stalwart of the local LGBT community to discuss this year's MGLFF, his experience directing it and the future of the Festival.
Michael W. Sasser: How does this year's MGLFF compare to previous Festivals?
Mark Gilbert: Our goal this year is to bring the MGLFF back to its previous glory years, to make it look like it did in its heyday. We have some great films. We're very fortunate to have secured many of the strongest selections of LGBT films that we have had in a long time. Our events are based on grandeur and on being guest-friendly. Our biggest thing is to make everyone feel welcomed and to feel like this is the community's event, that this is their event.
MWS: What is new for the 2014 MGLFF?
MG: I think the basic concept of how the festival is structured is strong. The issue isn't the lineup; it's in the execution. For example, on opening night, as people are waiting outside the Colony Theatre, there will be wine spritzers and chocolates served. We want people to have a great time, even while waiting outside. Our events are just a little bigger and over-the-top to represent who we are and what we want to accomplish. We want to give people a reason to return year after year – that is our number one goal. We want people to return and to support MGLFF in the future. We feel that if we build on the experience, we can do that.
MWS: Did you find there were any dominant themes in films submitted for consideration or in those films selected for inclusion in the Festival?
MG: I will say we have seen a lot of great documentaries. One of them was The Case Against 8, which is certainly relevant in Florida. But we saw many great documentaries this year.
Such Good People by director Stewart Wade
MWS: What film or films are you particularly proud that MGLFF is able to bring to South Florida this year?
MG: There are many films we are thrilled to have been able to get. The Opening Night Feature (The Way He Looks) is a real coup for us. It's a great film that will appeal to a broad audience of men and women. However, we are thrilled with many of the other films we were able to land as well.
MWS: What is the process by which films are selected for the Festival and what are the most important criteria?
MG: We have a very experienced programmer and, with his committee, he uses some strong methods and strategies. It literally takes months. There are a lot of criteria. Our mission is to educate, so we look for films that say something about who we are as a community. That covers a lot of ground.
MWS: Do you feel that this year's lineup of films has a strong component of material that is timely and reflects contemporary themes and issues?
MG: I would like to say that we do, but I can't give a definitive answer. The goal of every Festival is to do that. I think that in the selection of films, that was a natural consideration.
But, secondly, we want to bring the community together for film. There is something about being in an audience with people that have similar lifestyles and sensibilities. We're about bringing the community together to help people realize we are stronger as a community than as individuals. We're probably the only organization that has a social element of nightly events where people get together and see old friends, make new friends and form new relationships.
MWS: What film or program are you personally most looking forward to, and why?
MG: Opening night. Opening night is always my favorite night of the Festival. I get to see friends I have made over the years and that I might only see at the Festival, plus meet directors. Also, the party on opening night is always great fun.
Boys by director Mischa Kamp
MWS: What are your institutional, artistic and/or community goals for this year's Festival?
MG: Institutionally, our goal is to build a strong infrastructure and strong financial relationships. We really want to make sure to put on a fiscally responsible Festival that builds for the long term and meets community needs. We also want to build a strong membership base and help other community organizations with another outlet for exposure.
MWS: As interim director, what did you learn that you might not have known or recognized as board chair?
MG: It would take me days to answer that question! As board chair, my job is to oversee staff and the organization-running responsibilities. The board doesn't necessarily get involved in minutiae. Since taking over as board chair and interim director last July, I have been learning on the fly. Thankfully, with the guidance and support of the people who have been [on staff] a long time, I was able to pick things up pretty quickly. We all took on different hats to make sure all of the Festival needs were met and goals were accomplished, we paid off our debt and we are putting on a Festival that we can afford.
MWS: What do you feel the future looks like for the MGLFF?
MG: I'm more excited about the future of the MGLFF than ever before. We're in position to put on a great Festival. We have grown the board from three to 15 members. We have an amazing staff and our next goal is to find the next leader to take over my position and lead the Festival. I think we're in an institutional and financial position to do that. It isn't easy to put on an annual event that sustains itself year-round but makes all of its money over a few days. We have to have our doors open year-round – people have to work year-round to make the Festival happen. This is an expensive event to put on and it takes many hands working all year to produce it. That makes it very difficult operationally and financially, but I am optimistic.
MWS: Is there anything else you would like to share with Wire Magazine readers?
MG: The Festival has been at the center of my gay life. It helped me feel more confident in who I am as a gay man and who we are as a gay community. I want the Festival preserved so that other people in the future will have a place to go to help them through what I went through, to help them understand themselves and the community and to find a home in it.
Spotlight MGLFF Film: The Circle
Doc/Drama Hybrid Reflects Modern Issues
The war in defense of Western Civilization is over.
All that remains is for all free people to enjoy the fruits of liberation won in a blood-soaked war. Only it isn't the 21st century U.S. in the wake of successful liberation campaign in Iraq and at least a standoff in Afghanistan. It is post-war Europe, still reeling from the fall of Nazism and not yet under the specter of a threatening Soviet Union
Still, freedom hasn't come to all people.
It is the world of 1956 Zurich that director Stefan Haupt whisks us away to in The Circle, an amalgamation of documentary interview footage and feature film. Zurich is portrayed as a modern, liberated city, complete with lively cabarets with American music and drag performers. Zurich's laws also do not prohibit adult homosexuality and at the time, a tight-knit gay community thrives as a subculture.
The Circle works on two levels. On one hand, it is a sweet romance between bashful teacher Ernst Ostertag and the cabaret artist Robi Rapp. Their love develops against the backdrop of the heyday and decline of the first European-wide gay liberation movement. It's sincere and tender, as are numerous scenes of gay men and women being able to express themselves openly after years of oppression and anti-gay laws. However, it does not shy away from the fear, self-loathing and shame many feel even in a relatively liberated time and place.
"The Circle" is a reference both to the organized gay underground in Europe, with which Ernst and Robi are involved, and also to an underground magazine of the same name – a male erotica publication, utterly tame and even artful compared to similar contemporary publications – with thousands of subscribers in Europe and hundreds overseas. Despite the technical legality of homosexuality, the creators of The Circle, the magazine, work in relative secrecy, and there are still risks. We experience, for example, the danger of just transporting editions of the magazine across the Swiss border into Germany, where homosexuality remained punishable. We also witness the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which society marginalizes homosexuals: authorities degrade and discriminate, families go on for years without acknowledging gay members and their partners, and there is a sense of looming darkness creeping around the border of even the lightest, dare I say "gayest" times for our circle of characters. That sense of impending danger is juxtaposed with scenes of Ernst and Robi, two very different men from two very different backgrounds, falling deeper in love and trying to find their place in society.
Then the inevitable darkness manifests. A "rent boy" is found murdered, casting suspicion on the entire gay underground. All of a sudden, a world invisible to many in Europe comes to the attention of news, gossip and the authorities. With The Circle, the magazine, being a lynchpin of gay Europe, authorities lean hard on its publishers and inner team of supporters. After years of thriving beneath the surface of society, gay men and women suddenly have an unpleasant spotlight cast on them.
Thus begins the seemingly inevitable decline of The Circle, the magazine, and the denouement of The Circle, the film. Under the bright light of scrutiny and because of long-simmering prejudice among government officials, harassment ensues. At a seminal moment, one man stands up to the authorities, pointing out that homosexuality isn't illegal in Switzerland. The official response: no, but gays can be registered.
As any student of history can attest, registering minorities is routinely a step toward oppression, the hard-won advances of LGBT post-war Europe begin to fade, and gays are eventually driven underground for years to come.
The Circle brilliantly recounts this period of European history in a fast-paced and engaging narrative with the unobtrusive contemporary interviews helping to construct an ultimately uplifting story of pioneering activists long forgotten by many. Performances are sincere, production values are high and director Haupt maintains tension from beginning to end.
Perhaps most significantly, The Circle reflects many of the struggles for recognition and equality underway in the United States today. It poignantly illustrates the delicate balance it takes for a subculture to exist while still being disenfranchised. Finally, The Circle is a movie of courage and of people with integrity who refuse to be treated otherwise.
Whether for entertainment or for enlightenment, The Circle is well worth seeing as an intriguing doc/drama hybrid about a place and time in history not entirely dissimilar to our own.
The Circle
Saturday, May 3
5 p.m. – Miami Beach Cinematheque
Director: Stefan Haupt | Runtime: 102 minutes
Switzerland 2014
Swiss and German with English Subtitles
Southeast Premiere
Community Partner: A
This year's MGLFF features a lineup of shorts, features and documentaries for men, women, singles, couples and families – an impressive range of films appealing to the Festival's broadest potential audience in years. For more information go online to Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival's website.
This article was originally published in Wire Magazine, Issue 16, 2014