NOW in its 7th year, this annual cinematic celebration of independent queer cinema, the Durban Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (DGLFF) has added more screening venuess that will include Durban’s Outer West LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & intersex) communities. From both a practical and demand-driven perspective, #DGLFF2017 has recognised that for many, the journey to “town” is both expensive and often far.
The Festival runs from 25 August to 3 September 2017 and includes the aha Waterfront Hotel & Spa in Point, Alliance Francaise and the Durban Lesbian & Gay Centre in Morningside, the KZNSA Gallery in Glenwood and Tina’s Hotel in Kloof, as screening venues over its 10 day run. Securing ‘Inxeba‘ as the opening night film for Friday 25 August at The Waterfront Hotel & Spa in Point, for the city’s LGBTIQ community audience, festival director Fiddler couldn’t be prouder or happier.
“I’ve known about ‘The Wound’ (Inxeba) as a project since the 2014 Durban FilmMart, when producer Elias Ribeiro was pitching it as a project for financing. I told him there and then I wanted it for DGLFF one day. Our audiences deserved to see a great locally made film that spoke to their own experiences, that shared their own stories. Elias’ earlier gay short films had been included in our previous festivals, so I knew that he would be keen to maintain that relationship. I just never anticipated what an insanely huge deal this would be,” said festival director Jason Fiddler.
The DGLFF line up this year also includes as Closing Night Film young filmmaker Thishiwe Ziqubu’s ‘Sina Nomakotshana‘ (Dance with the Maiden), a 24-minute short film about a girl falling in love with her contemporary dance partner and coming out of the closet during her traditional Zulu initiation. Other South African content includes Allan McDonald’s moving documentary ‘LOCKED IN’ about transgender people within the Xhosa and Muslim communities, including their very real struggles for acceptance. DGLFF will also host the world premiere of Durban filmmaker Dayakar Padayachee’s 40 minute gay short ‘SHADOW‘, a psychological horror following a gay Indian teen’s decent into darkness during his parent’s growingly ugly divorce, as a malevolent force takes hold.
With 7 feature films, 11 documentaries and almost 30 short films from 14 countries globally, including South Africa, the DGLFF expects to speak to the interests of many different audiences. Fiddler encourages mainstream audiences who love good cinema to participate.
“Ours is an inclusive Festival. You don’t have to be gay, or lesbian, or otherwise to appreciate these well made films. You just need to be open minded, and make the effort to discover new stories,” he said.
Check out the Festival Website: www.dglff.org.za
