Number of shows I saw: 13 (10 feature-length movies, 3 short film collections). Huh. I thought I was scaling back, but I’ve ended up seeing more movies than last year. How’d that happen?
Number of non-English-language films I saw: 5 feature films counting Sand Dollars and What We Have though those were really bi/tri-lingual; plus 3 short films (in Spanish and French). Not a bad mix!
Favourite blogging addiction: mine. I honestly wasn’t planning to write a bunch of full reviews, but during the opening gala, the spirit moved me. Oh, Queer Film Fest, I wish I could quit you. Nah, that’s a lie, I totally don’t.
Favourite feature film: A Girl At My Door / Dohee-Ya
Favourite short films: Kiss & Tell (featured in The Coast is Queer ); The Future Perfect (featured in The Coast is Queer and Queer Best Of), Cornet at Night (featured in Still Not Over It).
Movies I would have liked to see but didn’t:
- In The Turn because it sounds sweet and inspirational;
- Cuatro Lunas sounds like a lovely gay tapestry;
- Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party because who doesn’t like another meditation on gayness and faith by the guy who brought us The Wise Kids?
- Oh, and those two horror flicks, especially The Blue Hour
Favourite outgoing executive director: The one, the only, the magnificent Drew Dennis. You know, I think Drew’s presided over my whole VQFF-going life… or at least most of it. I do remember getting the 1997 (I think) festival poster, but I’m pretty sure I was just dabbling at that point. I didn’t become a semi-regular festival goer until around the mid-00’s.
Favourite eldritch abomination: this year’s festival logo. Oh come on, I can’t be the only one thinking it. Seriously, that logo looks very cool, but I did a slightly creeped-out double-take the first time I saw it. With the four-faced head and disembodied limb things floating around it, I have to wonder: is this what Lady Gaga will look like when the stars are right and she ascends into her true form, ready to devour us all in order of fabulousness? And is it a coincidence that last Thursday was HP Lovecraft’s 125th birthday?