Book Launch: The Queer Film Festival

Come celebrate the launch of Stuart Richards' first book The Queer Film Festival: Popcorn and Politics This book will be launched by former Melbourne Queer Film Festival director and now fabulous JOY FM host, Lisa Daniel. The Research Unit in Public Cultures will be co-hosting the event. www.arts.unimelb.edu.au/rupc With over 220 events worldwide and some of the bigger budgets exceeding $1 million, the queer film festival has grown to become a staple event in all cosmopolitan cities’ arts calendars. While activism was instrumental in establishing these festivals, the pink dollar has been a deciding factor in its financial sustainability. Pretty gay boys with chiselled abs are a staple feature, rather than underground experimental faire. Community arts events, such as these, are now a creative industry. While clearly having a social purpose, they must also concern themselves with the bottom line. For all the contradictory elements of its organisational growth, this conflict makes the queer film festival an integral site for analysis. This book takes a multidisciplinary approach in examining the queer film festival as a representative snapshot of the current state of queer cinema and community based film festivals. The book looks at queer film festivals in San Francisco, Hong Kong and Melbourne to argue for the importance of these institutions remaining as community events. http://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9781137590343 #queerpopcorn About the author: Stuart Richards has been a programmer for the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and on the committee for online film journal Senses of Cinema. He is a research associate with the Research Unit in Public Cultures. He received his doctoral degree in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches at both The University of Melbourne and RMIT University. His primary research interests are queer cinema, film festivals, the creative industries, and Australian cinema Please register through Eventbrite for catering purposes. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-the-queer-film-festival-tickets-34739218939