Katharine Setzer: Queer Cinema

Charlie Boudreau Dept: Our festival being 25 years old makes it part of the larger genre of queer cinema, said programming director Katharine Setzer, sitting in the backyard of festival director Charlie Boudreau s Plateau home last week. It s also the 20th anniversary of the coining of the term new queer cinema by Ruby Rich, according to Montreal Gazette. As gay stories infiltrate pop culture, some continue to fall for Hollywood tropes. But while Setzer and Boudreau noticed some filmmakers catering to convention as they filtered through the annual batch of gay films from around the globe, they also found an increasing number expanding the parameters of what queer cinema can be and as Montreal s Image + Nation prepares to celebrate its 25th edition, presenting more than 60 features from Thursday through Dec. 2, organizers of the longest-running Canadian festival dedicated to LGBT-themed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender films can allow themselves a moment of pride at the marking of a milestone. We have really seen the development of a sophistication in terms of queer storytelling and the kinds of films being made. People are moving away from the typical coming-out story although that s still very important and toward stories talking about different ways of being and different facets of the gay experience. A kind of queer sensibility has developed, a queer eye. I m very pleased that we are part of that. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.