We've reached the 25th anniversary, and our silver wedding anniversary was celebrated with considerable pomp. What are we talking about? Not a same-sex wedding anniversary (if only!) in our city, but the 25th Turin LGBT Film Festival.
But what good thing happened in this edition? Should we go in alphabetical order? By importance? Or randomly?
Okay, so let's say: films galore from every corner of both hemispheres; an audience unlike any we've seen in a long time; compelling films of every length and genre; a selection of the best productions of the last 25 years, films that have become part of the history and souls of spectators at this LGBT-themed festival, which, step by step, has earned its rightful place among its counterparts around the world.
And what else? Retrospectives: the (almost) complete works of director Patricia Rozema, author of lesbian cult films such as I heard the sirens singing And When Night Is Falling, Canadian, former assistant to Cronenberg (but with a cinematic sensibility and eye totally different from those of his compatriot); the one on Maria Beatty and the one on Holly Woodlawn (Warholian icon).
New sections (Tracks) and many previews (including the world premiere of the TV miniseries Mary Lou by Israeli Eytan Fox, an author who is now a regular at the festival).
Guests and prestigious juries: in addition to Rozema and Fox themselves, also the writers Ivan Cotroneo (Kryptonite in the bag) and Peter Cameron (One day this pain will be useful to you); director James Ivory (Maurice And Room with a view), the first to receive the Dorian Gray Award, a new idea this year from the organizers of From Sodom to Hollywood who have decided to reward, from now on, the personalities who have distinguished themselves most in advancing, promoting (and fighting for) LGBT issues; Claudia Cardinale who brought with her a breath of "cinema of the past" (she can boast of having worked with directors of the caliber of Visconti, Fellini, Leone, Herzog) and who with age (she celebrated her birthday on the same day as the inauguration of the Festival) has lost some of her hieratic nature but has certainly become more expressive.
But the two most compelling (and helpful to the "cause") cinematic overviews were the two focuses on the relationship between homosexuality and religions (all religions, in fact, and, in terms of tolerance, it seems, not one is spared) and the one on homophobia with the (perfect) subtitle "hate eats the soul." But it can be said that these two themes have transcended the confines of these overviews and peacefully invaded many films at the Festival. Let us remember: Children of God And Prayers for Bobby, a film, this last one, that all parents (both those who have accepted the "diversity" of their children and those who still have a long way to go) should see, with a scary Sigourney Weaver who this time has to deal with the"Alien (of religious homophobia) that nests within her.
But there are perhaps three titles that should be reflected upon: three bizarre works, pastiche of the most disparate cinematographic genres that slavishly follow (in a good sense) one by one all the classical topoi of the genres they are inspired by, three films, coincidentally all American: Bitch Slap, A Far Cry From Home And Zombies of Mass Destruction. The first is a fun mix of action and thriller that smells of Quentin Tarantino and Russ Meyer from a mile away; the second (directed by and starring Alan Rowe Kelly) is a short that feels like a gay version of Don't open that door or The hills have eyes; the last one is instead a sort of reinterpretation of Night of the Living Dead, in which the titular zombies have the terrible idea of emerging from the grave on the very day a boy is due to come out to his mother. These three works, which hark back to the classics but only long enough to undermine their basic tenets, thus become metaphors and allegories of bigoted worlds and realities (too close to our own for us not to be concerned) driven by a homophobia that is anything but latent, but rather mad and delusional.
Giorgio Ghibaudo
