Image + Nation Film Festival Cranks the Latin Heat
The Way He Looks
The 27th annual image+nation film festival is upon us! Starting Thursday, November 20 and running until Sunday, November 30, Montreal’s lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) film festival will showcase over 40 films, as well as shorts.
Though it started out as a very small, volunteer-run festival, image+nation has become a huge part of film and LGBT culture, especially here in Montreal. The festival is firmly committed to local Quebecois and Canadian filmmakers and this year; image+nation has a record number of Canadian films being presented. This is not to say that the film festival only showcases Canadian LGBT life, though. On the contrary, this year’s festival theme is Latin-focused and will be showcasing many films shedding light on LGBT life from countries such as Brazil, Cuba, Argentina and Mexico. It is safe to say that this is one boundary-crossing film festival.
Katharine Setzer, image+nation’s production director, moved to Montreal from Vancouver to pursue graduate studies at Concordia and has been here ever since. Her first exposure to image+nation was when she had her own film in it. She has now held her position as production director for 15 years. Setzer finds Montreal to be an integral part of the festival. Though there are, of course, other LGBT film festivals in other cities, Setzer feels like every festival has “Characters specific to their city. Montreal has the bilingual thing. I don’t think the same kind of films would be made in any other city. Montreal is unique.” Some of the films that she suggests at this year’s festival are Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behaviour, Erica Tremblay’s In The Turn (which is about roller derby!), Matt Livadry’s Queens and Cowboys: A Straight Year on the Gay Rodeo, and Nancy Kates’ Regarding Susan Sontag, as well as many of the shorts.
Whether you identify as LGBT or not, this year’s image+nation film festival is sure to be a lively and enlightening experience, especially if you appreciate quality film-making.
For more information (and tickets!), visit image+nation’s website.
