Still from promo for NATO

This is one from the archives. A 35 second promo for the Northern Arts Tactical Offensive, to be used at screenings and events (obviously, or quacking for details may be somewhat less effective). NATO was a collective in Manchester who did various subversive and situationist-influenced performances and other artworks, including the March for Capitalism and a spoof tourist guide to Manchester for the Commonwealth Games (2002), directing tourists to the alternative Blitz Festival of international grassroots underground culture, in the form exhibitions, street theatre, outdoor music, film nights and presentations. (more…)

The session Kelli Jean and I have been curating for the Bangalore Queer Film Festival 2010 is finally finished! The festival in on this weekend, wish I could be there in India to see it… maybe next year! Here is a blurb and list of the great films which made it into the program. Hopefully we’ll be able to announce screenings for Melbourne and Sydney soon.

This program is a survey of recent radical gender/queer and trans video from Australia, curated by Anna Helme and Kelli Jean Drinkwater. “Galactic Sex Wars” rockets us into a futuristic sci-fi world where homos and heteros face off across time and space. “Jorey Corson”, “Ultimate! Dance! Video!” and “Drag Acts” address the performativity of gender, featuring queer and transgender bodies in motion, in masks and moustaches, camping it up in the streets of Berlin, tumbling across an empty sports field at night, inhabiting both the intimate and theatrical. “M.C. G.F.C.” addresses the global fashion crisis, evoking Ru Paul’s “we’re born naked, and the rest is drag”. “With Him of All People” takes a relationship drama into parallel universes of alternate gender. “Procession” is a slice of reality, albeit from a bent perspective, from the Camp Betty weekend of radical sex and politics in 2007, featuring a performative “protest”, aiming to dislocate commonplace demonstration cliches, and generally disrupt the suburbs of Melbourne.

• Galactic Sex Wars (13:54) – Robbie McEwan
• Jorey Corson (4:10) – Corey coda & Jackson monsternighttimepower
• M.C. G.F.C. (4:21) – Anna Helme
• Procession (6:51)- Anna Helme
• Ultimate! Dance! Video! (3:31)- Sarakaka and Holly Fluxx
• With Him of All People (6:24)- Kt spit and Cyd Nova
• Flipbook (0:10)- Robbie McEwan & Anna Helme
• Drag Acts (13:32)- Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore & Anastasia Zaravinos

"Galactic Sex Wars" - Robbie McEwan

"Jorey Corson" - Corey & Jackson

"Procession" - Anna Helme

"With Him of All People" - Kt Spit & Cyd Nova

"Ultimate! Dance! Video!" - Sara Kaka Harro & Holly Fluxx

"Drag Acts" - Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore & Anastasia Zaravinos

"M.C. G.F.C." - Anna Helme

"Flipbook" - Robbie McEwan & Anna Helme

Rabid Tripped-Out Psychedelic Lesbian Koalas

I’m currently putting together a package of queer films from Australia for the Bangalore Queer Film Festival in February 2010. My friend Namita (who I met through the Transmission Asia-Pacific network of online video activists) is involved, so it’s bound to be intelligent, provocative and fun fun fun (read some of her thoughts on Queering Bollywood here or perspectives on porn from the global south here). You can find last year’s program here along with more info on the organisers. It’s a D.I.Y. event, so there isn’t much in the way of screening fees, just the joy of reaching queer Indian audiences with your work!

In terms of the kind of films the festival is looking for – the crazier / more flipped out the better. Suits me! Camp, rude, trashy, experimental.. anything goes, and any kinda queer you like. So with this in mind, the working title for this program will be “Rabid Tripped Out Psychedelic Lesbian Koalas” First prize goes to somebody who actually makes and submits that as a B-movie! Shorts in particular, but features considered also. Any digital format should be fine. (more…)