Like many, Team Iris are working from home at the moment. Although I’m used to it (tuning in to the Iris office from Belfast), it’s new for the rest of the team. Our virtual chats are full of questions and ideas as we try to predict the future (difficult!) and come up with ideas for how to build an amazing Iris (exciting!) from our kitchen tables.
Daisy & Berwyn introduce their interns to one another in a morning meeting
Our work lives and home lives look very different. Berwyn’s stove has been working overtime, Kris’ beard is thriving, and my garden veg has so far survived my constant prodding and poking. We're trying not to think too hard about Brighton Fringe, where we should have been headed this week to share a month of LGBT+ film down by the seaside.
But during all of this, I feel very privileged to get to still work hard on bringing an LGBT+ film festival to life.
The Iris family is made up of many very different people, but there’s one constant. We all love going to the cinema. Enjoying that magical experience of sitting there in dark with hundreds of friends and strangers, and no idea what world we’re about to dive into on the screen. Luckily for me, the last two films I saw were Portrait of a Lady on Fire followed by Parasite, so if those are the last for the foreseeable, at least I made it count. But that world seems very far away right now, and in some ways very unimportant.
Harrison is Team Iris' first lockdown head shaver
Come October, I hope we’ll be in a place to bring some of that magic back. Whether that’s at home, or in the cinema, or something in between. The whole Iris team are working on some amazing ideas and know that this is going to be a fabulous 14th Iris no matter what (virtual hugs all round).
No matter what shape Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival 2020 takes, we can promise there will be incredible LGBT+ film and there will be your Iris Family, as always, and we can’t wait to welcome you home.
PS. Place your bets now as to which of us will shave our heads next.
