SOMETIMES, but not all the time, we start out with exactly the right question . . .
"My name is James Demers, and I’m the executive director of the Fairy Tales Presentation Society. [This year’s] ‘most unexpected’ film, because we had a really interesting groundswell of support, is . . . a roller derby documentary called In The Turn. Roller derby documentaries have been shown at other festivals, but this one actually centres on an 11 year-old Canadian trans girl and her mother. This young girl, Crystal, came out as transgendered in a small, rural town in Ontario, and they were having a really hard time finding any support, especially community and familial support. So after Crystal was turned down for an athletic team, the roller derby community (which had a queer team in that town) basically adopted them.
"Crystal joined the junior roller derby league, and the league itself is actually incredibly inclusive of LGBT individuals, and fairly fierce about it! So they became the support system for this single-parent family."
James notes that, as the star is still only 13 and a little shy, the meet and greet after the film will be across the street at The Naked Leaf, a local tea shop which should be less intimidating for Crystal. The Calgary roller-derby community is sponsoring the screening and will be doing on-site tricks at the Plaza Theatre, the main venue for Fairy Tales’ films this year, from May 20th to 28th.
"The story of Crystal and her mom have sort of percolated through the roller-derby community, so they’ve got this kind of ‘internal celebrity’, where people are coming out of the woodwork to support them. [Calgary’s derby community] is taking her to the zoo while they’re here! . . . The response to the film is excellent, but the response that has been continuing to roll out for the two of them has been really quite touching."
"We’re [also] playing The Birdcage, the Robin Williams 35mm ’90s version. We do a retro queer film every year, [and] it will be on original film. The Plaza is one of the few theatres that can still play film, so we try to take advantage of that.
"We’re ending [the festival, on the 28th] with an outdoor shorts package. It will be shown at the Oak Tree Tavern because they own the parking lot beside the bar. We’re bringing a giant Winnebago in, with a screen on one side, and then the after-party is in the cocktail bar right beside.
"The last feature film of the festival is called Before the Last Curtain Falls. It’s also a documentary, that chronicles the aging demographic of drag queens and trans-identified performers in Berlin who are starting to leave show business in their 70s and 80s, and go into retirement, and they recall their lives as entertainers in both World War I and II. Basically, they were entertaining long before gay rights was a political issue, so it’s about the history of elders in the community who have seen and done it all, and where they’re ending up."
The films Fairy Tales features are mostly new productions from around the world, but another special screening will be in partnership with the Calgary Men’s Chorus, joining in on a Grease sing-along, complete with the on-screen bouncing ball.
In their focus on community-building, Fairy Tales is also creating "Queer Adults Read Things They wrote in the Closet", which has had a very successful response to its original straight version around Canada and the U.S.
"The premise is, you have to have written it under the age of 18, it has to be five minutes or less, and you have to be willing to say it in front of an audience. So we’re looking for love letters, diary entries, emails: anything you wrote as a kid that has a relevance to your identity, or coming out, or levels of self-realization. It can be funny, it can be sad, it can be embarrassing, but it’s about being able to look back on our thoughts as kids in the community. And laugh at it a little bit."
If this makes your juices go faster and your heart beat excitedly (or empathetically) contact James directly at exec@fairytalesfilmfest.com to register and learn details.
And, if you’re waiting somewhat impatiently for info about MOVIES, not nostalgia, not docs, not kink or roller skaters (there’s a lot going on here!), James notes, casually, that they have scored the North American premiere of Holding the Man, which is, quite simply, a gay male romance from Australia.
"It’s beautiful, and really, really well done. . . The film is NOT focussed on someone coming out: it’s focussed on the long-term relationship of the two male lead characters. . . It starts in the mid-’80s, and goes right up to the present day, so you see them going through a variety of life trials which is, frankly, very different for gay male cinema."
GC asks Mr. Demers: And how, exactly does Calgary, Alberta – Canada’s gay film festival –manage to get a North American premiere of a beautifully produced Australian feature film?
"Luck, nepotism, and persistence!" James exclaims with much laughter. It’s played England, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and, of course, Australia. So, inevitably_, it’s entry portal to North America is Calgary!
Perhaps, like the Fairy Tales Film Festival itself, which is 18 this year, Calgary may be ‘coming of age’.
