TwoWordHeap

The Fairy Tales International Queer Diversity Film Festival is entering its eleventh year. This is pretty amazing for a festival that began in the most humble of ways. It is still the only gay and lesbian themed festival to happen in Alberta. Recently I talked with the Festival and Programming Director, Matt Salton, over the phone. In our brief conversation, it was obvious how busy the festival has become, with phones constantly ringing in the background and quick questions being asked by the staff. Mr. Salton is passionate about his job so it is easy to realize why the festival is able to thrive. What follows is a transcription of our talk.

Two Word Heap: How did the festival come about?
Matt Salton: The festival was founded eleven years ago by four students, young activists, who all had an interest in film. The first festival began at the Gary Theatre in Inglewood over one weekend. It since has grown to a ten day festival with over 90 films. We’ve still kept with our roots, and Kevin Allen who is one of the co-founders of the festival is still volunteering and helping out when needed. His husband Gordon Sombrowski is the president of our board. So we still have a watchful eye from the co-founders. Last year was our tenth anniversary and the original founders came from across Canada to be here. They were all remarking how that they never thought the festival would get as big as it has, and that they were quite proud of it. All were very professional and went on to great things after starting Fairy Tales. And we’re quite proud of it as well.

TWH:On the website it says this is the only gay and lesbian festival in Alberta. That is somewhat surprising. How does that make you feel? Does that put pressure on you, or take pressure off?
MS: No pressure. We try to cater to everybody. We’re clearly trying to create a positive space to those who fall under that umbrella of queerdom. But like any other festival that Calgary offers, we’re here to entertain, to educate. We show a variety of films. Yeah, it’s sort of our unique pitch that we’re the only gay and lesbian film festival in Calgary, but it is amazing what some of the smaller rural communities have been up to in the past few years; starting their own film clubs, their own films societies, putting on gay plays. Edmonton has a large arts and culture festival called the Exposure Festival which film is a small contingent of that. We also want to help foster those groups so we’re starting a new initiative called Reels on Wheels which will be run annually. We’ll be offering film and video to community serving agencies that are currently working in the school system for educational purposes to promote gender and sexual diversity. We’re going to travel with films to rural centers for those citizens that don’t have the accessibility to queer cinema.

TWH: Calgary, I think, is seen as a somewhat less progressive city. Has there been any sort of pushback from the community or city?
MS: No. This is my third year as Programming Director. I’ve been an occasional visitor of the programmer from the Reel Out Film Festival over the years. I did my research before coming in to see if perhaps there was some adversity, especially coming from Ontario where we’re such a liberal establishment and everyone is quite accepting. In fact I think there was more vocal opposition in Kingston, where I started off than here in Calgary. I haven’t read of anything negative that has gone on in the past.

TWH: What is the lineup of films this year?
MS: We’re focusing on three separate themes. We’re focusing on Women and Film. In particular, we’re using the moniker of the Herlet Film and Video Festival which was Calgary’s longest running Film Festival up until a couple of years ago. There is a lot of interest in the community to get that festival back up and running. Fairy Tales has sort of taken up the gauntlet to keep the name and we’ll continue to keep the name and the spirit alive until they can get their act together and start it up again. We also have the Health and Wellness focus which touches on all elements of living well and keeping well. And our Two-Spirit focus which we’re very proud of. What we’re doing is inviting two-spirit filmmakers from across Canada to convene in Calgary to take part in a panel discussion which will involve talking about the aesthetics of spirit in film and video in Canada and where it’s going and the nature of it. As two-spirited filmmakers, do they subscribe to two-spirited film and increasing the visibility of two-spirited people? Or, is a broader issue, such as Native issues, a priority? That’s being held over three days. We wanted to have a focus on the filmmakers, so we’re showing their films having a panel discussion and having an immersion into it.

TWH: I think that the most obvious example of gay cinema was Brokeback Mountain. Do you think that has opened people up to gay cinema, or was that more of a one-off phenomenon?
MS: Brokeback Mountain is only the most recent example. There have been mainstream films that have been modern successes in Hollywood. I mean I can think back in the seventies when Making Love came out with Harry Hamlin and Kate Jackson that it caused quite a stir and people thought that would open the doors. Really, exposure is the key for people to not be so homophobic. Like Will and Grace. If it’s out there they don’t have to be afraid of it. People are most afraid of what they don’t know. Is Will and Grace an accurate representation of gay life? Maybe. It’s not mine, but it’s still less harmful than gay serial killers or transsexual serial killers, or lecherous perverts who lurk in the shadows. The other thing is that in gay and lesbian film festivals, they aren’t the heterosexual interpretation of homosexual lives. They have queer authorship; they’re a little bit different in that queer audiences “get” them more than a straight audience would.

TWH: What are the dates for the festival and where are the films being shown?
MS: We start on Thursday, May 28th and run for ten days until June 6th. Our opening gala is The Baby Formula. It’s a Canadian feature film discovered by a local producer Shirley Vercruysse when she was in Mannheim, Germany. So thanks to Shirley we secured that film and Shirley will actually be in attendance as will be the filmmaker and writer Alison Reid who is actually a stuntwoman. She’s actually making a film with Kevin Spacey in Toronto. She’s going to fly to Calgary for opening night and then she’s going to fly back on the red eye so she’s back on set Friday morning. Our closing gala is The New Twenty which is about a group of friends both gay and straight and very encompassing of all relationships. So they’re all going to be at the Plaza and then we have few films playing at EMMEDIA.

For more information and a complete program guide, please visit the Fairy Tales website.

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