Gaze (film festival)

Gaze (GAZE) International LGBT Film Festival
Location Dublin, Ireland
Founded 1992
Website http://www.gaze.ie/

Gaze International LGBT Film Festival (typeset as GAZE and formerly known as the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival[1]) is an annual film festival which takes place in Dublin, Ireland each Bank Holiday weekend in late July and early August. Since 1992, it has become Ireland's largest LGBT film event, and the country's biggest LGBT gathering outside of Dublin Pride.[2]

People attend from across the world, with a footfall of at least 9,000 expected over the 2015 festival weekend.

Premise

Gaze's organisers seek out educational and entertaining LGBT cinema[3] which members of the Dublin gay community may not have had the opportunity to view anywhere else.[3] However, the programme also includes films by gay artists which don't contain any gay themes, and films which have inspired or are inspired by gay artists.[4]

History

The festival began life as the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1992, founded by Yvonne O'Reilly and Kevin Sexton, and was held in the Irish Film Centre.[4][5]

Over 3,500 people attended in 2006, the last year before the rebranding as Gaze.[1]

The Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival was renamed Gaze in 2007.[4] Over 4,000 people attended the 2007 festival, the fifteenth edition.[1][6][7] The festival also obtained a new director—Michele Devlin, the programmer of the Belfast Film Festival—in 2007.[1] An updated version of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, with the story set in New York in the 1980s, was one of the festival's highlights.[7]

The 2008 event, the sixteenth edition, lasted from 31 July until 4 August and included screenings at Dublin's Project Arts Centre and the Winding Stair, alongside its usual venue the Irish Film Institute.[6]

Gaze 2009, the seventeenth festival,[2][4][8] took place over five days at the Light House Cinema in Smithfield from 30 July – 3 August.[2] Grey Gardens, which stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange and depicts relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, received its European premiere when it opened the festival on 30 July.[2][4][8][9][10] Over sixty-seven films, including premieres, documentaries and shorts featured at the 2009 event.[2][8]

Gaze's 23rd programme of features is scheduled to be announced on July 25, 2015,[11] with screenings taking place from July 30 to August 3[11] at the Light House Cinema in Dublin's Smithfield.[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Gazing rights". The Irish Times. 27 July 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "GAZE festival line-up is announced". RTÉ. 25 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  3. 1 2 http://totallydublin.ie/film/film-features/hold-gaze-interview-noel-sutton/
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Do look now". The Irish Times. 24 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009. A LOT HAS changed in the 17 years since the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival first sashayed into the Irish Film Centre. For a start, the festival, renamed Gaze three years ago, no longer has to worry about its core audience being carted off by Garda Plod. "When the festival was set up, homosexuality was still illegal,” says Jennifer Jennings, the event's manager. "It may have been in the Irish Film Centre and it may have got great audiences, but to be homosexual was still a criminal act. Things have changed." [...] "Our remit is quite clear,” Jennings says. "We seek out cinema that has lesbian and gay content – films that people from that community may not get to see on the big screen elsewhere. But, like a lot of gay festivals, Gaze has expanded to include work by gay artists that may not have a gay theme. We even go one stage further and seek to include films that have inspired gay artists. So, for example, Patricia Rozema will be introducing the original version of Grey Gardens .”
  5. ↑ "Do look now". The Irish Times. 24 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009. A LOT HAS changed in the 17 years since the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival first sashayed into the Irish Film Centre. For a start, the festival, renamed Gaze three years ago, no longer has to worry about its core audience being carted off by Garda plod. "When the festival was set up, homosexuality was still illegal,” says Jennifer Jennings, the event's manager. "It may have been in the Irish Film Centre and it may have got great audiences, but to be homosexual was still a criminal act. Things have changed." [...] "Our remit is quite clear,” Jennings says. "We seek out cinema that has lesbian and gay content – films that people from that community may not get to see on the big screen elsewhere. But, like a lot of gay festivals, Gaze has expanded to include work by gay artists that may not have a gay theme. We even go one stage further and seek to include films that have inspired gay artists. So, for example, Patricia Rozema will be introducing the original version of Grey Gardens .”
  6. 1 2 "Love and other emotions". The Irish Times. 25 July 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  7. 1 2 "New Wilde film to premiere at festival". The Irish Times. 29 July 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  8. 1 2 3 "Barrymore's Grey Gardens at Gaze". Press Association. 26 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  9. ↑ "Drew Barrymore's new film to premiere at Dublin festival". Irish Independent. 27 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  10. ↑ "Barrymore flick to premiere at Dublin festival". Irish Examiner. 28 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
  11. 1 2 http://www.gaze.ie/festival-2015
  12. ↑ http://www.lighthousecinema.ie/article.php?sec=about&_aid=1267

External links

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