From documentaries to short films to full-length feature movies, the cinema operates as an influential and important medium for many artists aspiring to make their voices and ideas heard. Films dealing with the queer community have been some of the most eye-opening and thought-provoking in the industry. With the help of the UO Cultural Forum, some of these films can be seen on campus this weekend in the annual Queer Film Festival. The festival has served as a campus outlet for controversial and inspiring films supporting the gay and lesbian community for 13 years, making it the longest-running gay and lesbian film festival in the Northwest.
“(It was started) because people needed an outlet for queer film that’s not being seen in the mainstream theaters or even the Bijou,” festival coordinator Tara Allred said. “There are all of these great features out there that are showing a whole other side of people’s lives that usually aren’t seen.”
Although this film festival has been around for a good number of years, there’s still an abundant lack of queer films coming to the area, and the minds behind the Queer Film Festival have been striving for change.
“Our goal is to bring traditional and really innovative films to the area where very few of these kinds of films are being shown,” Cultural Forum adviser Darrel Kau said.
“We’ve been trying to expand it in the past couple of years, not only extending in terms of how many films we bring and what kind of programming we have, but we’ve been trying to expand the audience and make sure it continues to appeal to as broad of an audience as possible,” said Doug Hopper, last year’s film festival coordinator. “(We want to appeal) not just to people that are queer-identified, but people from all over the Eugene community and the campus community as well.”
Another goal the Cultural Forum has set for the Queer Film Festival is to provide a place where everyone can feel comfortable, regardless of what their lifestyle choices may be.
“I think for a lot of people it’s just a great place to come and see some diverse films and connect with
people that you see around campus but you don’t get the chance to
interact with,” Allred said. “I’ve talked to a lot of students who are from small towns and they absolutely could not go out because there would be violence (against them). And they come here and they watch the films and just feel a sense of belonging. It gives people a place to come where they will be accepted no matter who they are or what they believe in.”
A wide variety of films will be seen in this year’s film festival, which begins tonight at 8 p.m. with a showing of Andy Warhol’s “Lonesome Cowboys.” The festival continues into Friday, with a showing of “Tarnation,” one of the most talked about gay films of the year, at 7 p.m. The Short Film Competition winners will be announced at 9 p.m., and a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” musical sing-a-long will be shown at 11 p.m.
“This year’s festival is going to be a lot more fun. We’re going to show things that might be tough to see and make you think, but we’re also having a lot of fun, so people can sit back and laugh,” Allred said.
On Saturday, the festival starts up at 1 p.m. with a documentary entitled “Freedom to Marry,” which discusses the varying perspectives on the San Francisco same-sex weddings of February 2004. The festival continues with shorts and more documentaries, and at 6 p.m. the Audience Choice Awards will be distributed. Films for mature audiences only will be showcased at 9 p.m., including “Raspberry Reich”, which Hopper described as “really edgy, provocative, Marxist-inspired, radical, hard-core pornography.” After that at
11 p.m., a documentary on the “Amazing World of Orgasms” will
be shown.
Sunday, the festivities continue beginning at noon, and at 2 p.m., the Queer Film Festival comes to a close with “Goldfish Memory,” a light-hearted look at the dangers and delights of dating in contemporary Dublin.
“Topics range through a variety of themes representing different diverse cultural, social and historical contexts,” Kau said. “The themes are mixed and have different contexts, so it reaches different types of interests and different people’s experiences and provides a whole other context of gay and lesbian issues.”
Students can purchase an all-festival pass for just $6. Tickets are $8 for the general public and are on sale now at the UO ticket office and at all festival events, which will be held in PLC 180.

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