OutCentral Cultural Center and The Nashville Film Festival collaborate to present
Queer Colored Glasses: The Queer Experience Through Cinema
Queer Colored Glasses: The Queer Experience Through Cinema
WHO: OutCentral Cultural Center in collaboration with Nashville Film Festival (NaFF)
WHAT: Queer Colored Glasses: The Queer Experience Through Cinema
WHEN: 4th Saturday of every month at 7:00 PM
WHERE: OutCentral Cultural Center 1709 Church Street (between Revive Café and Vibe. On the same block as OutLoud! and Blue Genes) Nashville, TN 37209
COST: $5 for members $8 for non-members. No one turned away for lack of funds.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For Queer-Colored Glasses: The Queer Experience through Cinema:
FanboyQ@gmail.com
For OutCentral:
info@outcentral.org
OutCentral Cultural Center is proud to be partnering with The Nashville Film Festival for a twelve month, twelve film series entitled Queer-Colored Glasses: The Queer Experience through Cinema that will focus on filmmakers, actors, writers, stories and plots of particular interest to the “queer” spectator.
From the first flickering images that ever lit up a screen, cinema has been a place where queer voices have called out and demanded to be heard with varying degrees of success. From films made by LGBT filmmakers and performers to the particular phenomenon that gay people often “see” a film differently than their straight counterparts.
“Images of GLBTQ people on the big screen--both positive and negative--have had such a tremendous influence on our lives,” said Jim Hawk, Executive Director of OutCentral Cultural Center.
“Most of us can remember the first time we saw "one of us" on the screen. This series takes an important look at those images and how they effected our lives--and the lives of generations of GLBTQ people.”
Historically, most LGBT filmmakers were forced to work in relative secrecy about who they were, being mostly relegated to avant-garde and independent film circles. Thus, cinema is also the forum for the queer voice of the “other” – stories and characters that – while not necessarily gay – represent the outsider whose story queer audiences identify with.
"I am extremely excited about the partnership between the Nashville Film Festival and OutCentral,” said QCG Artistic Director Joshua Thomas.
“I believe one of the most important tools we in the gay community have for examining our past is in film theory. Gay audiences have historically experienced films differently than the rest of society. In examining the past through this collection of films, we'll have the unique opportunity to watch society's views on homosexuality change throughout the years."
With the enormous cultural and historic differences between films made in the 1930’s and those made in modern times the characteristics that gay culture use to signify homosexuality have also changed dramatically over the years. While present-day films are allowed to be relatively forthright about sexuality in their presentations older films were often forced to only hint at it in varied ways. Thus, many classic Hollywood performances, directors, actors and – in some cases – entire genres must be closely examined in order to hear the queer voice within them.
“NaFF is thrilled to partner with OutCentral to present a unique collection of voices from film history,” said NaFF Artistic Director Brian Owens.
"We believe that film represents a great opportunity for those unheard or seldom heard to present their stories in ways that create dialogue, understanding, and bind us all together as a greater community. We hope people will come and enjoy and talk about these films and what they mean to the GLBT community and community at large.”
