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Diversity and Imagination used in Image-Nation Festival 2021

Now going on to #34 of its years as a festival, Image-Nation is Canada’s very first LGBT2SQ+ film festival that brings some of the greatest works of that particular community into Montreal, and all across the country. For this year, it certainly has as I got the great opportunity to watch some screeners online. As far as films this year, the opening film Wildhood, was great, but I’m pretty sure a lot already know that through Darren and his glorious coverage. Now it’s my turn to talk about some films that premiered at this festival. So I will. I’ll talk about 5. Five Films!

Parle-Moi – French for Talk To Me, Parle-Moi is a short Queerment Quebec Film (yes, that’s what short films were categorized as) about a woman named Emma. She carefully gets out of bed in her cluttered home in a building and moves around a little. Meanwhile, a man walks on stilts and prepares for his morning as well in his rich person home. Emma wheels herself to work on a skateboard in a yoga pose and the man takes up his job dusting chandeliers at a hotel restaurant and another as a crossing guard. Emma has two jobs herself both as a cashier at an antiques store and working as a car mechanic. They both come across struggles together in their day-to-day life and feel a need not to be judged for who they are. Through random moments in their life, the two each find someone who develops an interest in them and appreciates them for their unique abilities and cure them of the issues that have plagued them for what seems like a life. As someone who has met many interesting people over the years, this is a film that resonated with me and I found it enjoyable. Despite the title, nobody says a single line of dialogue except for maybe some cheering and giggling, but it’s mostly facial expressions. A beautiful film with spectacular stonework.

The Man with the Answers – Two men. One journey of purpose between them. Our first protagonist is former Greek Diver Viktoras who currently builds furniture and taking care of his grandmother. The other is a German student named Mathias. Viktoras gets his grandmother’s old car and repairs it the best he can so that he can head on home to Bavaria where his mother lives. The two of them end up taking the same ferry and that’s where they meet, in an unorthodox way of course. Mathias steals a sandwich for Viktoras but he refuses. After they get off the boat, Viktoras takes a trip along the streets with Mathias who shows hime some interesting sights he can see all around the area. Mathias shows him a beautiful lake at a rest stop, they get pulled over by the police for speeding, and attend a wedding, among a couple other interesting adventures. As they go together, Mathias plays 20 questions with Viktoras much to his annoyance. The two come across personal problems, difficulties, and a close bonding like neither of them have experienced before. It’s interesting. I don’t come across a lot of road trip films, but this one certainly stands out more unique than other films I have seen, especially focusing on the connection made when two opposites attract. Cool shots of Greece and Germany, characters with simple yet unique personalities, and a trip that seems to take these two on more rediscovery than they ever expected. 

PS Burn this Letter Please – But of course I had to watch a documentary or two as well, so what is the meaning behind this title? It’a about exploring the past and what it was like. The sad thing about history is how women, black people, and homosexuals weren’t as appreciated, accepted, or visible as they are today. It all started in 2014, when a storage locker was discovered to be full of letters from the 1950s owned by a man named Reno Martin. So many people talked about Reno and how they could trust him with personal stories. It just so happens Reno was friends with drag queens who wrote him their own letters. These drag queens and female impersonators talk about their experiences of being in drag, what it was like to know Reno, and the gay scene back then. We also get treated to what some of these letters said, and meet people in lots of places, like Kentucky and New York. This one really educated me and told me some interesting stories about drag from years ago. I was impressed with how it looked and what it explained.

Yes I am – The Ric Weiland Story – Name says it all, it’s about Ric Weiland who was one of the first guys to work at Microsoft. Despite his quick simple success, Ric wasn’t happy with his riches and turned to philanthropy. It all started when Bill Gates and his friends Ric and Paul met in high school and come up with ideas for the future. Even though Ric helped out starting things, he was more into art than he was computers and had a complex mindset. Ric went on to perform in drag to explore his personality a little more. But he came across hardships in his life like gay friends of his all dying of AIDS, not feeling happy about programming, and taking on big problems like making suitable donations to end the AIDS crisis and support homosexuals. Many friends of Ric share from their perspectives of knowing him, whether he was working at Microsoft or attending gay bars. Everything else about Ric’s life is narrated by Zachary Quinto. This showed how brave a man in computers could get when he shares personal stories and works hard to get stuff done. 

Mascarpone – Antonio, a young fellow is enjoying his life being married to another man. Antonio loves to cook and prepare for his husband Lorenzo, but Lorenzo thinks he’s always taking his baking too far. Eventually, it’s revealed Lorenzo loves another man named Enrico, has for over a year. That means its time for Antonio to pack up his things and find a new place. He talks to his friend Cristina about the issue and hunts for both a home AND a job since Antonio is unemployed. Antonio moves into a one-room apartment owned by a free-spirited and reckless homosexual named Denis but struggles to adjust to it. Denis is nice enough to help out and find Antonio a job working at a bakery with a nice man named Luca. Remarkably, it works out for him very well. Soon he even adjusts and gets comfortable living with Denis, and gets a promotion after showing just how skilled he is at the bakery. Because of that Luca is getting more into Antonio and not just because of his baking, but something else while at work. However, Antonio attempts to look for someone else a little more suitable for him and tries out different men on a dating app. A good amount of the movie has some bonding and a mixture of montages as well. It’s very well compiled though and while it seems like not much story, it actually gets complex sometimes.

I’ve never attended this festival before, and I’m glad to finally got to, even if it was online. I have to say, it was very artistic. A fair amount of diversity with films from around the globe, a wide array of people being represented, a chance to see it both online AND in person, and so many great stories being told.

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