Iris Prize 2019
As the Iris Prize dawns once again on Cardiff, the biggest film festival in Wales brings another high-flying selection of some of the best LGBT+ filmmaking talent the world over. Fedor Tot looks ahead to this year’s programme.
As usual, this year’s Iris Prize selection is truly international and eclectic, with 36 short films in the main competition – hailing from Bosnia to Brazil, China to Canada – alongside 15 British shorts in the Best Of British category, covering LGBT+ life in the UK, and 14 features, many of which are gearing up for international distribution.
Beyond that, there is a spread of talks and industry events aimed at getting those looking to get involved in filmmaking a close-up vision of what it involves. This year, that includes talks about the value and strategies involved behind getting your film into film festivals (often the first step to getting a wider network of contacts); discussions on documentaries based around LGBT+ stories; and a panel on that key ingredient of almost any good film, acting. In this case, a look at the experiences of LGBT+ actors and how their careers differ from straight, cisgender actors.
The industry aspect of Iris has always been key to its success. Wales has gradually built itself into something of a filming hub, with many bigger productions using the variety of landscapes in a relatively small country for location shooting. By bringing all this talent to Wales, Iris flies the flag for Welsh filmmaking in general, bringing the Welsh industry in contact with the wider filmmaking world.
But of course, if you’re an audience member, you’re interested in whether the films are any good or not. Iris’ selection policy is to build relationships with similar festivals across the world – which will all nominate one or two shorts they believe to be the best from a given country that year. About 20 international shorts are chosen this way each year, with another 15 coming from Iris’ own selection team, slogging through submissions from the world over.
Programmed thematically, this year’s Iris Prize includes sections the sweetness and magic of first love (Crush, Wed 9 Oct, 10am), the psychedelic possibilities of the nighttime (Because the Night, Wed 9 Oct, 12pm), and a look at LGBT+ life in America today (This Is America, Fri 11 Oct, 10am). In amongst these selections, you’ll find one of the sweetest prom dates this side of a Wes Anderson film (The One You Never Forget), Cronenbergian body horror (Estigma), and an dissection of the complexity of sexual identity when compounded with national identity (Outdooring).
Of the shorts that this writer has been privy to thus far, some of the most impressive are included in the Modern Love batch (Fri 11 Oct, 12pm), which looks at how technology and the changing pace of modernity affects romantic relationships. The astounding Carlito Leaves Forever (dir: Quentin Lazzarotto), only eight minutes long, tells of an indigenous native somewhere deep in the Amazon, and his journey away from his homestead to his love. It’s an exceedingly simple story, but effectively told in a short space of time: you wonder if it has a documentary background to it, so stripped-back is the storytelling.
As phones have become an inseparable part of our lives, filmmakers have often struggled to depict how our relationships have changed as a result, particularly with the ubiquity of messaging services. The standard format that most filmmakers seem have decided on is to have text messages pop up on screen. It’s never been the most convincing format, and its one that ruok (dir: Jay Russell) seems to have settled on. Nevertheless, this humorous romantic drama does provide a good laugh, poking fun at the way our interconnectedness has a habit of dragging us apart at times, indulging some of our less savoury aspects.
Brazil has long produced some of the world’s most vital and exuberant LGBT+ films (a feature from 2017, Body Electric has stuck in my mind ever since). The election of fascist President Jair Bolsonaro has already done irreparable damage to the fabric of the country, from the destruction of the Amazon to the increased use of state violence. He has already censored LGBT+ filmmaking in Brazil, via tactics such as cuts to the federal film budget deliberately structured to defund LGBT+ and independent filmmaking.
The long gestation period of many films means we’re unlikely to see an immediate impact on these shores, but you do wonder how many more Brazilian gems like Renovation (dir: Fabio Leal) will appear. Evidently a personal film for director-writer-lead actor Leal, it tells the story of a shy gay man who is at odds with his hairy and pudgy body, flitting between being happy in the skin he’s in and desperately unhappy at its unruliness. It’s touching and empathetic and sweet and all sorts of nice adjectives, but it also feels true and personal in a way that’s hard to admit to underneath an audience’s glare.
Another strong standout is Terminally In Love (dir: Justin Black, Emily Jenkins), which on the simplest level tells the story of a woman in the midst of a breakup with the love of her life. But it thunders deep into her psyche, producing a work that’s more akin to a short-film version of David Lynch’s Inland Empire and a more thematically coherent mother!. Jumping from euphoria to grief to sheer depression, few films run the gamut of emotion in a way that’s this stylistically varied and exuberant. If it’s any hint as to what’s hidden in other corners of the Iris Prize programme, we’re in for a treat this year.
Iris Prize, Cineworld and various other Cardiff venues, Tue 8-Sun 13 Oct. Tickets: £85 weekend passes; £25 day passes; £5-£7 individual screenings. Info: www.irisprize.org
The Audience Award
The decision is in your hands, again! This year Buzz will be continuing our collaboration with the Iris Prize by presenting the people’s favourite film with the Audience Award. We’ll be in the thick of it, distributing voting leaflets to audience members and asking them to vote for their favourite of the films they’ve just watched. Like last year, the Best Of British Shorts category has been split into three themed screenings, with six films in the first category, five in the second and four in the third, so we’ll be doing some mathematical wizardry to make sure all the voting is fair and square.
You can attend any of the screenings, or all three if you’d like. The first, True To Life, are documentaries about LGBT+ activism against oppressive authorities; the second, We Are Family, is a collection of unique films about LGBT+ people and their families. Finally, Getting To Know You will explore the light and dark sides of modern dating as an LGBT+ person.
With all the votes collected, the winner will be announced on the final day of the festival, Sun 13 Oct. What’s more, if you fill your details in on the voting slip – which will be shared only with our Buzz representatives present at the festival – you will be entered into a competition with a prize yet to be confirmed. However, we are very democratic at Buzz, so voting isn’t mandatory and those who don’t wish to take part in the competition can simply fill in their slip without inputting any details. We hope we’ll see you there!
Best British Shorts 1: True To Life, Thurs 10 Oct, 7pm
Best British Shorts 2: We Are Family, Fri 11 Oct, 3pm
Best British Shorts 3: Getting To Know You, Fri 11 Oct, 7pm