Blog 09
Blog 09
Day 4: October 10
There were sore heads aplenty as Iris changed location from Cineworld in Cardiff's City Centre to the new and improved Chapter Arts Centre. The Iris Blogger hears that many partied the night away at Pulse and Hells Bent, providing a healthy (if that's the right choice of word) boost to the UK drinks industry in just a few short hours.
The first event of the day was the discussion panel Bruno Bashing, chaired by the journalist and presenter Nicola Haywood Thomas, and featuring Time Out's Paul Burston, The Daily Telegraph's Andrew Pierce, The Guardian's Mark Brown, and former Gay Times editor Joseph Galliano. The discussion revolved around the issue of representation, and whether Sacha Baron Cohen's bad taste epic, Bruno, enforces stereotypes or exposes homophobia. The panel were divided between those who thought it "set the movement back", and those who just found it funny. The Iris Blogger must admit that he spent most of the film wincing and laughing in equal measure.
Peccadillo Pictures then treated the festivalgoers to a slap up brunch to celebrate the launch of their DVD short film collections, Boys On Film 3 and Here Come The Girls. Both include some knockout films, many of which have graced the screens of Iris, and are well worth checking out!
Though it shames him to say so, Iris Blogger then spent much of the afternoon in a festivalled-out and near-catatonic state, but was lucky enough to catch Pascal-Alex Vincent's excellent Give Me Your Hand, a Kane and Abel road movie with achingly beautiful cinematography and heart breaking performances from its twin leads, Alexandre and Victor Carrel.
After a much needed afternoon nap (Iris Blogger isn't as young as he used to be), it was time for the event everyone had been waiting for - the awards show itself. An eager and maybe slightly tipsy audience filled Cineworld's Screen 15, to see Best British Film go to Aleem Khan's excellent Diana. Best Feature was awarded to the beautiful Redwoods. And the Iris Prize for best international short film went to... (Drum roll)... Eldar Rappaport's Steam! Jury chair Joseph Galliano was keen to point out that in a competition with so many excellent films, Steam stood out as a taut and brilliantly effective short from a director who all on the jury were keen to see producing more work. Iris and Cardiff look forward to having Eldar join us, both next year as a judge, and the year after as a film maker.
Then, the flowers and gongs all handed out, it was back to the bar for gallons of wine, decibels of chat, and the kind of Frascati-fuelled shenanigans that the Iris Blogger is just too darned discrete to even hint at. Suffice to say, a good time was had by all, with the party moving on to Pulse. Another year is over, and though exhausted and suffering from a severe case of square eyes, the Iris Blogger can't wait for 2010!
Day 3: October 9
And so, as Day 3 of the Festival began, the big, purple juggernaut of Iris ploughed forcefully into the narrow sidestreet of a Friday morning*. (*Is that really an appropriate metaphor? - Ed.)
Kicking things off at 11am was the Producers Forum. As in previous years, this was hosted by the effervescent Christopher Racster. On his panel were actor/producer Matthew Montgomery, Finance Wales' Linda James, Tartan's Paul Smith, and Peccadillo's Tom Abell. A lot was discussed, including considerations of budget; a contentious issue, with some suggesting that, right now at least, a realistic budget for an independent LGBT film should not exceed US$100,000. Others argued that a larger budget might allow for better production values and a greater chance of distribution. Rapid and recent changes in distribution (DVD, the internet etc) mean that cinema showings may be a good way to get your film column inches (Oo-er - Ed.), but they can also be a drain on funds, when a DVD release might get your film to your intended audience a lot quicker. A point made on previous years, but worth repeating annually, is that producers have to get out there and approach as many people as possible if looking for funds. Many wealthy people have, as Christopher puts it, "F**k You Money*, money which they would happily lose on a film project (though, obviously they'd rather turn a profit!), even in the current climate.
Programmes 4 and 5 of the shortlisted films introduced a heady cocktail of sci-fi, documentary, and drag queens into the proceedings. In The Closet saw adult-movie-star-turned-screen-thespian Brent Corrigan (last seen exposing Cardiff's poor choice of underwear at Pulse) in league with an evil alien. The IB was particularly fond of Im Somer Sitzen die Alten, a subtle and beautifully underplayed drama about memory, family, and grief, and Greg, a mini documentary about the eccentric Greg Sells, possibly America's number one fan of women's rock and country music, and the community which embraces him. Salamander was a sweet coming of age story told against the backdrop of the Challenger shuttle disaster, with a winning star turn from young actress Mae Roney, while Overnight Book was witty, intelligent and poignant.
Sadly none of the film-makers from programme 5 were able to attend, but IB should give special mentions to Undressing Vanessa, a moving and colourful documentary about Australian drag queen and activist Vanessa Wagner, and To Comfort You; essentially a single scene dialogue between mother and daughter which still managed to provoke one audience member, sitting next to the IB, to tears.
Between the programmes, brunch was served in Cineworld's BAFTA Cymru bar, and sponsored by our friends at TLA. Fed and watered, the Iris horde then enjoyed a brief moment of much needed calm before the evening's features began.
The first of these was Redwoods, a beautifully shot melodrama with stand-out performances from leads Matthew Montgomery and Brendan Bradley. Without naming any names, the person sat next to the IB cried like a baby, well after the end credits had finished rolling. In stark contrast was the latest from Iris '08 judge Casper Andreas, The Big Gay Musical. This will, without a doubt, win the Iris award for Most Self-Explanatory Title (Feature Length), but in addition to being big, gay, and very musical, it was also a sweet story of backstage dramas, with a winning turn from its ridiculously handsome star, Daniel Robinson.
Leaving Cineworld a little after midnight, the festivalgoers marched east, to Pulse, where the wine flowed as freely as the conversation. Sadly, if anything scandalous happened, IB wasn't around to witness it, calling it quits after just two glasses of their finest Cabernet Grigio.
And so, with the sun shining out of a clear blue sky (clear evidence that God, as stated in The Big Gay Musical loves gays), we enter the fourth, and final day of Iris. This afternoon the jury will meet at their top secret location under an extinct volcano in the Brecon Beacons (You're making this up, surely? - Ed.) and decide who will win the £25,000 prize. IB can say with all honesty that this year the competition is quite open. IB could happily name perhaps ten films worthy of the prize, the overall standard being that high.
For now, though, he must bid thee adieu. His cocktail frock is still in mothballs and the sequins won't sew themselves back on, you know.
Day 2: October 8
Kicking off his mules and placing his tiara on the bedside table, the Iris Blogger got home from Day 2 of Iris with the damn-near-impossible mission of cramming the events of the last fifteen hours into a single blog.
After several very strong coffees, proceedings began with a sneak preview of the UK Film Council's Pink Portraits project - portraits by the photographer Donald MacLellan of Britains gay and lesbian movers and shakers within the TV and film industry. The stunning images included a wistful Stephen Fry, League Of Gentleman star and Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss, and the actors Sir Ian McKellan and Sir Anthony Sher, as well as many who work behind the cameras.
There was just about enough time for another hot caffeine injection before IB and a sizeable audience (considering it was 12:30 on a Thursday afternoon) launched themselves into Iris proper with the first programme of short films.
It's becoming a bit of a cliche, and IB is aware that he says it every year, but the quality was outstanding. After just six films, the jury's task became an instantly unenviable one. Stand-outs for this writer included Jacqui Shulz's The Uncertainty Principle, a touching, bittersweet drama about the friendship between an ageing physicist and grandmother diagnosed with cancer and a transgender beautician, and Michelle Polino's Looking For..., an often hilarious look at the world of dating agencies, featuring a whole cavalcade of eccentric and outrageous characters.
Brunch was had at Mill Lane's Ask, and after stuffing their faces with pizza (and maybe just a little bit of salad), it was back to Cineworld for Programme 2. Once again, the programme delivered hit after hit, so much so that the omission of any film feels like a minor crime. David Fardmar's My Name Is Love packed an intense, emotional punch. Aleem Khan's Diana featured a stunning star turn in the title role of a transsexual coping with life, against the backdrop of the death of the Princess Of Wales. Non Love Song was a touching hymn to the platonic love between a gay teenager and his straight best friend. Eldar Rapaport's Steam left the audience in a mild state of shock, delivering not one but two major twists in its 16 minute running time. Just about all IB can say without spoiling it is that it's about two guys who meet and make out in a steam room. What happens next, you'll just have to check out for yourself.
Programme 3 began with a film by Iris alumni Trevor Anderon. Trevor came to Cardiff last year with not one but two films shortlisted, and this year he's back with The Island, a dazzling animated extravaganza which looks at the possibilities of all us gays being sent away to live on an island. David Bonneville's Heiko could very well win this year's Cowboy award for "Most Twisted Ending". Fans of Sir Derek Jacobi were in for a treat with Sidney Turtlebaum, the story of an elderly gay confidence trickster who steals from the grieving at funerals, while IB's award for Best Cinematography (so far) goes to The Shoes Of Artisteu. The latter was shot in stunning monochrome, the kind of film where you could happily hang any freeze frame on your wall.
With barely a ten minute window to dive outside Cineworld for a hastily smoked cigarette, IB rushed back into Screen 15 for the first feature length film this year, Jason Bushman's Hollywood je t'aime, a film that somehow managed to remind this blogger of Tales Of The City, Gavin Lambert's The Slide Area, The Wizard Of Oz, and the best of Woody Allen. It's a great film; touching, funny, and intelligent, a complete triumph.
Having only slept about 4 hours the previous night, IB was all intent on hitting the old dusty trail after a glass of wine or three in Cineworld's bar, but was somehow cajoled (maybe it was hypnosis) into leading the masses, Moses-like, across the parted Red Sea of Cardiff's decidedly quiet Thursday night streets. Wow Bar was effectively commandeered by the Iris gang, but one stiff (Oo-er - Ed.) G&T was enough for IB. After all, this blog doesn't write itself, you know, and there is still all the fun and frolics of Day 3 to look forward to...
Day 1: October 7
No, Cristiano. I can't leave my family and friends and join you in Madrid to become a wag. This is all happening too fast. I...
Oh! Good morning. And thank God for laptops, the invention of which means the Iris Blogger can write this sitting up in bed, with only one eye open and crazy hair.
Yes, such is the Iris Blogger's dedication that Day 1 of Iris ended... well... let's just say it ended on Day 2. About four and a half hours ago.
Anyway. More importantly, we've had Day 1 of Iris! And what a day it was. Previous years have seen proceedings kick off on Thursday, for an action packed three dayer. This year Iris started gently with Ivor Novello Day, a series of events at the University Of Glamorgan's Atrium building. First up was a screening of The Handsomest Man In Britain, a documentary narrated with typical velvet plumminess by Stephen Fry. Highlights for this blogger included the line "playing second banana to Ruth Chatterton" (it made sense in context), the revelation that Novello wrote the screenplay for Tarzan The Ape Man starring Johnny Weissmuller (did you know that? I didn't!), and the description of Margaret Rutherford's arrival at one of Novello's parties, and her exclamation of, "Oh, Ivor! This is fairyland!"
Following the documentary a panel of four actors (Gareth Milton, Matthew Montgomery, Daniel Robinson, and Arwel Gruffydd) discussed the complexities and complications of being gay playing straight, straight playing gay, and indeed gay playing gay.
Ivor Novello day was rounded off with a keynote speech on Novello's career in cinema by Michael Williams, author of the BFI's Ivor Novello: Screen Idol. This provided us with a fresh spin on Novello's short but eclectic film career, and certainly blew away any preconceptions a modern audience might have that Cardiff's matinee idol turned king of musicals exists only in a cosy little chocolate box version of the early 20th Century.
From the Atrium, the Iris Blogger journeyed back to his stomping ground of Canton, for the much-awaited world premiere of Colonial Gods, the first film to be produced using the Iris Prize itself! The film is a handsome production featuring some stand out performances from its two main leads, and we were treated to a Q&A with Cardiff-based star Said Mohamed and TV and Radio's Nicola Haywood Thomas after the film. Colonial Gods will, as Said reminded us, be shown on BBC2 Wales on October 14th, with the "making of" documentary, An American Eye On Bute Town, screening the night before. (See the BBC website for details!)
After the Q&A it was upstairs in Chapter Arts for a sneak preview of the recently renovated section of the building. Fortunately we didn't have to don hard hats. Unfortunately the post-show drinks did at one point resemble nothing so much as a Pinot Grigio fuelled game of sardines. Still... That's what will happen when your film festival goes and becomes all popular and successful, team Iris! Next year, think about booking something bigger. Like the Millennium Stadium.
With the Q&A and drinks reception over, that could very well have been the point to call it a night, but no! The Iris Blogger heard whispers on the grapevine that adult movie star Brent Corrigan, who appears in both In The Closet and feature length The Big Gay Musical (both showing at Iris) would make an appearance at Cardiff's Pulse nightclub. Never one to go to bed at a sensible hour with a mug of Horlicks (like he should), he then joined film maker Aleem Khan (Diana) and actor Neeraj Singh for a vague and blurry few hours of vodka drinks, cheesy music and drunken Welsh people taking their clothes off on stage. As he staggered out into the early hours of the morning, the Iris Blogger reminded himself of Gene Kelly's motto in Singin' In The Rain:
"Dignity. Always dignity."
And so... turning off the laptop and tossing aside his duvet with hilarious abandon, he prepares himself for Day 2!
August 2009
Can it be? Is it really almost a year since I signed off at the end of the last Iris Prize Festival, all filmed-out and in desperate need of a new liver?
Well... The short answer to that question is yes, yes it is. And what a year it's been. Your humble and shamelessly self-promoting narrator has been as busy as ever, working on a Doctor Who novel, The Taking Of Chelsea 426, available in all good bookshops from September 3rd, and contributing a short story (along with writers James Moran, Andrew Cartmel, Sarah Pinborough, and Joseph Lidster) to the Torchwood book Consequences, which is released in October. (That's enough self-promotion now, Dave - Ed.)
If it's been a busy year for yours truly, it's been an even busier year for Iris. Bags packed and her purse bulging with foreign currency, she has once again travelled the world; from Hamburg to Hong Kong, and from Toronto to Tel Aviv.
As well as staying in touch with her partner festivals, the Iris team themselves have taken to the skies in search of cinematic bounty, taking in the delights of the Sundance Film Festival and Philadelphia's Q-Fest. I was lucky enough to join them in the snow-capped mountains of Utah for Sundance, and was well and truly invigorated by the pure mountain air, not to mention the abundance of vodka cocktails provided in Main Street's 'Queer Lounge'. While team Iris worked their little socks off, taking in as many films as they could, the author of this blog's (Pictured left with Berwyn Rowlands and Lewis Tice and below with a Sundance banner!) main contribution to queer cinema was pointing at Mysterious Skin star Brady Corbett and saying, "Ooh... there's Brady Corbett. He's lovely."
As if preparations for this year's prize and festival wasn't enough, in March of this year, 2007 winner Dee Rees (Pariah) came to Cardiff and filmed the Iris-funded short Colonial Gods, which will have its premiere during this year's festival. Iris has had her first baby!
So... What can we expect of Iris in 2009? Well... Though at the time of writing neither the shortlist of films in competition, nor the names of jury members have been formally announced, I can promise you both are outstanding. Again there will be a programme of feature length films which 
Friends Of Iris (that not-so-secret society which keeps the wheels of Iris so well-oiled) can vote on. There will be discussions, panels, and of course parties. Can't forget the parties. And if you're very lucky, you might just get to enjoy the double act that is Gurney & Llewellyn's Queer Eye/Straight Eye!
As in previous years, I'll be your bloging guide to all things Iris for the duration of the festival, filling you in (oo-er) on all the highlights and gossip, mindless of the time of day or my personal levels of inebriation. See you all there!
David Llewellyn is a freelance writer living and working in Cardiff and will be bloging his way through the festival for a 3rd year!