IRIS PRIZE
With the annual LGBT+ film festival returning this month, Fedor Tot looks at what’s on show amongst the Iris Prize shorts.
Last month, our coverage of Iris looked ahead to some of the overall highlights of the festival, in particular the features. And though the quality of those features may be second to none – with works like Sauvage, M/M and the searingly affecting 1985, which honestly broke this writer upon viewing – it is the shorts upon which the festival has made its name.
This may seem counter-intuitive: features are where the money, the awards and the attention are, but it shouldn’t go amiss that the winner of the first Iris Prize in 2007, Dee Rees, scored an Oscar nomination this year for her film Mudbound. Her prize then, for the short film Pariah, funded her next short, Colonial Gods. Small steps lead into giant leaps.
This year’s programme of shorts at Iris is as exciting and varied as ever. What an individual short might lack in scope compared to a feature, the programme as a whole makes up for in its breadth of experiences and perspectives. This, in fact, is the deep, underlying thread behind much of the argument about diversity you’ll hear about so often these days – it is simply more interesting to hear from a number of different people from different places and different backgrounds.
One major change in the Iris programme this year is that all the shorts are grouped under various themes, where previous years grouped a number of varying shorts all together. So, for instance, if you have a particular interest in LBGT+ history, then Looking Back (Thurs 11 Oct) and the British selection of Queer Then (Fri 12) is for you. If you’re interested in stories about protagonists discovering their identities, seek out Finding Pride (Thurs 11), and one particular film in that selection, Mrs. McCutcheon (Dir: John Sheedy, Australia). Its titular character is a trans girl trying to make new friends in a new school. She immediately becomes close to an Aboriginal kid, Trevor, whilst facing harassment from the school bullies as well as pressure from the school principal to dress as a boy.
In just 15 minutes, the film manages to critique both the racism and transphobia prevalent in Western society whilst offering a vital, positive message that it wears lightly. The films of Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki come to mind in the film’s sense of deadpan humour and raised eyebrows towards authority figures. It’s touching, funny and with a winning charm – keep an eye out for it.
Elsewhere, there are more ethereal programmes. Intimacy (Thurs 11 Oct) looks into cinematic explorations of the very physicality of LBGT+ relationships. The subject of human skin on the silver screen goes right back to the start of cinema, with infinite variations. Here, we’ve got Pre-Drink (Marc-Antoine Lemire, Canada), about two lifelong friends, one of whom is in transition, who decide to, well, get intimate. Right on the other end of the spectrum is Our Skin (João Queiroga, Portugal/USA), based on a phone conversation between a former Marine and a transgender woman. The former is easygoing but also surprisingly sensual; the latter is intense, dark, unafraid to take the audience to some dark places.
That sense of variety, even within ostensibly similar themes runs through a number of the shorts programmes. One of the best is It’s A New Day (Fri 12 Oct), celebrating new beginnings and the experiences that come with them. Here, we have realist documentaries in Rick (JP Horstmann, Germany) and animation in Bacchus (the wonderfully-named Rikke Alma Krogshave Planeta, Denmark). Rick is a portrait of a deaf gay porn actor, which expertly cross-cuts between the more drab day-to-day aspects of Rick’s life and the way he transforms in front of a studio camera into an “idealised body” of fantasy. Bacchus also touches on fantasy, the fantasy of sudden and complete same-sex physical pleasure and liberation – it may be only five minutes long, but it is a hell of an acid trip.
It’s A New Day also explores topics that are evidently deeply personal to the filmmakers and their subjects, such as Zero One (Nick Neon, USA) and The Things You Think I’m Thinking (Sherren Lee, Canada). Both approach LGBT+ stories from added intersections; the former through the prism of race in the USA (in this case, Korean-Americans) and the latter through disability, through an incredible performance by Prince Amponsah, an actor and burn survivor who is trying to find a source of intimacy, despite the trauma and demons welling up inside him since the accident that disfigured him. Both are well-worked dramas about interpersonal relationships, about how even through the worst pain that human beings experience, we can still manage to find a way through the darkness. They’re not easy watches, but they both end on hopeful notes.
Sometimes, it has to be said, “deeply personal” also includes The Shit! An Opera (Kevin Rios, USA), which features a talking animated shit called Gary. It’s not exactly highbrow humour, but it is very funny.
All in all, this is set to be another fantastic year for Iris. The UK’s leading LBGT+ film festival has shown itself, time and time again, to be at the forefront of the kind of stories the bright filmmakers of the world are capable of telling, of the vitality and energy that still remains in this artform. Without audience support, these voices won’t get heard – so it’s up to you to find out what you’re interested in. As the festival tagline says, “what will you see?”
Iris Prize, Cineworld Cardiff and various venues, Tue 9-Sun 14 Oct. Tickets: £125 (full festival pass)/£30 (one day pass)/£8-£7 (individual screenings). Info: www.irisprize.org
