Proud in the middleground: how the creative industries allow the Melbourne queer film festival to bring queer content to audiences

ABSTRACT

The Melbourne Queer Film Festival's (MQFF) growth makes it a key example of an arts organisation embracing the creative industry. MQFF pursues corporate sponsorship to achieve economic sustainability and, in doing so, functions as an interesting case study for the conceptual shift from a traditional cultural policy framework – emphasising access, equity and grassroots representation – to a creative industries logic. The creative industries support a cultural policy that acknowledges the economic benefits of public participation. This development has seen a commodification of queer culture in order to add value to Melbourne's cultural identity. Queer film festivals are one of the main avenues for the distribution of queer cinema. This article will argue that the success of the festival is an outcome of its evolution and that it now occupies the middleground between community and neoliberal corporate interests. For such an organisation to be successful, financial and social values must be treated with equal importance. The queer film festival is an important and financially viable alternative to mainstream distribution of queer films. Film festivals that cater for a minority community represent a primary means of exhibition for many films that would otherwise struggle for distribution. This is evident in MQFF's support of three recent Australian queer feature films: 52 Tuesdays, Submerge and Monster Pies. MQFF is a socially legitimate avenue for distributing films that would not otherwise reach such a wide audience. MQFF moves underground queer content into a formal, commercial realm.

KEYWORDS:

• Queer film festivals
• distribution
• creative industries

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr Thomas Apperley, Dr Rimi Khan and Dr Amanda Malel Trevisanut for reading various versions of this article. Thanks also to Associate Prof. Audrey Yue and Associate Prof. Fran Martin for their supervision while I conducted research during my Ph.D. I am thankful for Stephanie Ayres assistance with copyediting. Comments by editors and anonymous reviewers greatly helped to improve an earlier version of this manuscript. Thanks to Cr Rohan Leppert and Lisa Daniel, whose participation greatly enriched this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Stuart Richards completed his doctoral thesis in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. He currently teaches in the fields of Media, Screen and Cultural Studies at The University of Melbourne and RMIT. His book The Queer Film Festival: Popcorn & Politics is forthcoming from Palgrave Macmillan. His research interests focus on queer media, film festivals, the creative industries and Indiewood cinema.

Notes

1. The City of Melbourne is the local government for the central business district of Melbourne.

2. In the interview, Leppert cited Midsumma, an annual arts and cultural festival, as the other premier queer event in Victoria.

3. The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is located at Federation Square in Melbourne purpose built for the promotion and exhibition of Melbourne, Australian and International film.

4. The Astor Theatre is located on Chapel Street in St Kilda, which is near Prahran, a suburb popular with the gay male community.

5. As a proportion of local population size, Queer Screen ranks third in the world, only slightly behind MQFF (Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2010).

6. The Crystal Bear is awarded to the best film about young people.

7. Monster Pies screened at Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney; Brisbane Queer Film Festival; and the shOUT! Gay, Lesbian & Trans Festival in Canberra, Western Sydney, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast. It also won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at MQFF 2012.

8. . Submerge was the closing night film of MQFF 2012, and screened at Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney in 2014 after its international film festival run.

9. Other recent queer-themed films to receive a limited theatrical release were I Love You Phillip Morris (Requa and Ficarra 2010), Weekend (Haigh 2011), Stranger by the Lake (Guiraudie 2013), The Kids are Alright (Cholodenko 2010), Dallas Buyers Club (Vallée 2013) and Blue is the Warmest Colour (Kechicke 2013).

10. Associated with the Cardiff's International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the Iris prize is perhaps the most prominent award for queer short film makers. The prize allows the winner to fund and produce their next short film. Scicluna's film The Wilding (2012) and Marshall's Gorilla (2012) both won the prize.

11. It should be noted, however, that Scicluna has since had his debut feature film Downriver programmed in both the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.