FROM THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR

Happy New Year Inside Out
Friends and Fans!

By Scott Ferguson,
Executive Director

2010 is upon us and things are heating up around the Inside Out office as we head into the critical planning months for the upcoming 20th anniversary Festival.

Our programming department is spending countless hours with remote control in one hand and Visine in the other as we watch the hundreds of submissions that continue to pour into the office. There is an amazing array of work from around the world and this year is looking very strong in terms of quality and diversity of films. We are also sifting through the vaults to select retrospective screenings of features and shorts from the past two decades of Inside Out.

The Sundance Festival launches this week and while we won't be there ourselves, we have a consultant viewing queer films for us. The Festival has a great balance of high-profile work and independent films, including three premieres that I am very excited about. Howl, the first narrative feature from Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein, the award-winning directors of The Celluloid Closet and Paragraph 175, focuses on the early life of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.

The Runaways is a bio-pic on the famed 1970s teenage, all-girl rock band of the same name where Joan Jett honed her rock 'n roll attitude. The film is directed by Hamilton-native and renowned video director Floria Sigismondi.

Lisa Cholodenko, the writer/director of High Art and Laurel Canyon, debuts her latest feature, The Kids Are Alright, starring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as lesbian partners.

Sundance also features some interesting documentaries that are perfect for Inside Out's Icon Documentary Series. The Festival features two documentaries on two very different queer icons - Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child and Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. Can we talk!

Jason and I are off to the Berlin Film Festival in February and we will have a complete report upon our return.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Save the Date

Inside Out will present the 2nd annual Screen-A-Thon fundraiser this April, 17, 2010. The Screen-a-thon is a fun-filled afternoon where attendees are asked to raise pledges from their friends, families and co-workers to sit through six hours of a movie marathon. The 2009 Screen-A-Thon featured the best of the worst movie musicals including Can't Stop the Music, Spice World and Xanadu.

For the 2010 edition, we are asking for your ideas on the theme of the films selected. Take a moment and answer our poll and help plan what will be a fun not-to-be-missed event!

The NFB Mediatheque in collaboration with the
Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival presents:

Hommes À Louer (Men For Sale)

February 4, 7:30 PM - Toronto premiere!

Directed by Rodrigue Jean. 2009, 144 minutes
In French with English subtitles.

Eleven male sex-trade workers are followed over the course of a year, recounting their struggle to survive alcohol and drug-related addictions, abuse and stigmatization—but most of all, their troubled pasts. An unflinching portrait with neither voyeurism nor false sympathy, Men for Sale acknowledges those whom society prefers to ignore.

This film deals with mature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.

$6, $4 for students and seniors
NFB MEDIATHEQUE | 150 John St., Toronto | 416-973-3012

Presented by the NFB Mediatheque, in partnership with Alliance Française, Bureau du Québec à Toronto, Cinéfranco, the Consulate General of France in Toronto and Théâtre Français de Toronto

LATEST NEWS

Advertise with Inside Out
and Be Part of Our 20th Anniversary Celebrations

Inside Out, the presenters of the Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival, are in the planning stages for our 20th Anniversary Festival. Our 20th Festival will feature expanded programming including retrospective screenings of films from the past two decades, a greater number of social events; artist talks featuring international directors and increased marketing and media coverage.

As the third largest film festival in Toronto and the largest LGBT Festival in Canada this would be a great opportunity to show your support of arts/culture and the community. A special edition of our Festival program guide will be produced this year and as a recipient of our newsletter we would like to offer you an early bird rate to advertise with us. The 22,500 copies of the program guide are distributed to strategic locations in Toronto beginning the last week in April and continuing until the end of the Festival four weeks later.

Sign up to advertise before February 12, 2010 and receive a 10% discount on all rates, some opportunities such as screening slides and web-banners are limited so sign up early.

Click here for our 2010 Festival Advertising rate card (PDF). To book space or if you have any questions please contact Brad at brad@insideout.ca.

We look forward to helping you get your company name out to our brand loyal audience of 35,000.

Inside Out 20th Anniversary Feedback

As we plan for the 20th anniversary Festival in May, 2010, we are interested in hearing from you about what Inside Out means to you. We will highlight some of the responses in the upcoming edition of the E-news as well as featuring stories on our website and in our marketing materials.

In the autumn, we asked you When did you first attend Inside Out and what is your earliest memory of the Festival?

Here are a couple of the answers we received from our amazing supporters:

"My first festival was 2 years ago.
I watched "Say Amen!" and came out to my family the next week."

-Suzanne

"My first Insideout was 1999. Today, as well as being a member and screening committee volunteer, I watch around 30 films each year. Insideout is the gay christmas and Pride is like the gay new year. Two really important events in the gay year. Enjoy unwrapping the 20th anniversary."

-Stephen Gillis
Volunteer, member, movie goer

January's Question: As we enter our third decade of existence, there has been much discussion in recent years of whether the LGBT community still needs a film festival dedicated to screening LGBT film and video. What are your thoughts?

Send your responses to feedback@insideout.ca with the subject heading OUR STORIES. Please try to keep your responses to 100 words or less.

Deadline for responses - Monday February 1

AROUND TOWN

Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) Winter 2010 Film and Digital Workshops

We have over 45 workshops this season on Super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and HD filmmaking.Winter 2010 special focus: 8mm and 35mm

Registration starts TUESDAY JANUARY 19th at 10:00 AM
at our new facility located at 1137 Dupont Street
(at Gladstone Avenue), Toronto ON

Space is limited! View the complete workshop schedule online at http://www.lift.on.ca/mt/workshops.html

WINTER WORKSHOPS INCLUDE: Income Tax for Media Artists, Grant Writing for Arts Councils, Documentary Field Production, Black and White Still Photography and Darkroom Processing, Producing Documentary Films, Regular 8mm Film Festival, Camera Theory, The Bolex 16mm Camera, HD Production with the EX1... and many more!

NEW WORKSHOPS INCLUDE: Make Interactive-Generative-Video-Audio-Installation Art, Music Composition with Bob Wiseman, Film and Video Installation Design, Aesthetics of Shooting... and many more!