These are BRAG’s top 5 picks from the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras 2015 Film Festival.
1.SKIN DEEP
Saturday February 28, 7:30pm
Shot in and around Newtown, Skin Deep is the debut feature from Australian filmmaker Jonnie Leahy. This will be the Australian premiere of the story of troubled university student Caitlin and straight-laced Leah, two strangers lost in their respective brushes with heartbreak and mortality. They’re thrown together by circumstance and occasionally clash but ultimately find a connection, opening up and facing the problems they try so hard to hide.
2.STORIES OF OUR LIVES
Wednesday March 4, 6:30pm
Stories Of Our Lives is a collection of five nuanced vignettes that paint a compelling picture of queer experience in Kenya. While the film has not been screened in Kenya due to the country’s classification laws, it has received worldwide recognition for its confronting and candid insight. Made on a budget of $15,000, the film is as much statement as storytelling, tapping into our universal desire to belong and be free against a backdrop of sadness and struggle.
3.BFFS
Sunday March 1, 7pm and Friday March 27, 7pm
BFFs is a dramedy about two friends who are gifted a weekend away to a couples’ retreat, only they’re neither gay nor a couple. The retreat tests their relationship and has them questioning whether there’s something between them that they’ve been denying for years. Having screened at over 30 film festivals and won Audience Awards at three, BFFs is a warm, smart film that turns the buddy comedy genre on its head.
4.MALA MALA
Monday March 2, 6:30pm
Mala Mala is a colourful and heartfelt documentary that follows nine trans-identifying individuals and their forays into the trans community of Puerto Rico. The film features LGTBQI advocates, business owners, sex workers and a group of drag performers in a story of self-discovery and activism that highlights the binaries between personal acceptance and solidarity. The cinematography elegantly contrasts the often-dark personal experience of the subjects with the beauty of their candy-coloured stage personas, taking you through the emotional paces before the upbeat finale.
5.LYLE
Friday February 20, 9pm
Gaby Hoffmann of Girls and Transparent fame stars in the film billed as a lesbian Rosemary’s Baby. We meet Leah (Hoffmann) and June (Ingrid Jungermann) as they move into their dream home in Brooklyn with their toddler Lyle and another baby on the way. Suspicion and the supernatural combine until something happens to Lyle and Leah starts to unravel. Unsure of who to trust, Leah’s behaviour becomes manic as she struggles to determine what’s real, and her descent builds to the film’s shocking climax.
Catch theMardi Gras Film Festival 2015fromThursday February 19 until Thursday March 5 atEvent Cinemas, George Street, full program online.
