24/10/2014 - Queer Film and Arts Festival grows in its fourth year

The Fringe! Queer Film and Arts Festival (3-9 November) returns to London for its fourth edition and will open with Ethan Reid’s Peter De Rome: Grandfather of Gay Porn (UK), a documentary where the pioneering erotic filmmaker recounts his life story. The festival will close with Simo Halinen’s Open Up to Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Finland/Sweden), a transgender woman's journey to find her identity in modern day Finland. This year, thanks to the support of Arts Council England and Film Hub London the festival will extend from a long weekend to a weeklong festival.

Other highlights of the film programme include Nicolás Videla and Camila José Donoso’s Naomi Campbel (Chile), that follows a trans woman who turns to reality TV for surgery; Blair Dorosh-Walther’s Out in the Night (US), a documentary following a group of friends whose New York night out ends with them being branded a gang of killer lesbians; and Stefan Haupt’s The Circle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Haupt
film profile] (Switzerland), a docudrama about a couple who meet at gay organisation The Circle in mid-1950s Switzerland. 

The festival’s visual arts strand will showcase Jeffrey Hinton’s new project Willy Nilly, as well as a retrospective of the work of Stuart Sandford. There’s a Dyke In The Pit will pay tribute to the queercore and Riot Grrrl movements through a day of film, conversation and live music, culminating in a screening of Jill Reiter’s cult film In Search of Margo-go (US). 

Emma Feasey, Festival Producer, said, “We have put together a vibrant and daring programme of feature films, shorts programmes, exhibitions, events, parties and workshops for our audiences to enjoy across a whole week.”