This year marks the 11th instalment of the Reelout Queer Film and Video Festival—and they’re celebrating with a capital “R”.
“We’ve gone from a lower case ‘R’ to an upper case ‘R’,” Matt Salton, Reelout festival and programming director, said of Reelout’s old lower case spelling quirk. “It’s time that we stand up and be proud of who we are. We’re not being cocky or anything. This ‘R’ is in honour of all the hard work this festival has done.”
From humble and unlikely beginnings in Kingston, Reelout has grown to become one of the largest queer film festivals in the country. Salton is no stranger to the festival.
“I started with Reelout in 2001,” Salton said. “Marney McDiarmid [original founder of the festival] put a call out to anyone who wanted to be involved. I ended up being involved with the festival for six or seven years and then from there I went out to Calgary and did the Fairy Tales [a GLBTQ Film festival] for three years.”
After being away for three years, Salton said he has noticed some changes with the festival.
“It’s gotten much bigger. It’s become, dare I say, a little more professional,” Salton said. “But it’s still run by consensus, it’s still community oriented and run a charity and a not-for-profit.”
Reelout receives funding from all three levels of government and has grown to receive ample support from businesses in downtown Kingston. Although this year’s website, festival guide and advertising campaign are the mark of a festival that’s truly reached professional status, Reelout is reaching even further.
“This year launches our “Out in Schools” program,” Salton said. “It’s an educational program that brings film and media based around gender diversity and sexuality diversity into secondary schools. We’re also expanding the program into the workplace and rural communities.”
“We’re also planning on opening a lending library, open to the public, which would charge $10 for a library card and where films and books will be available for loan.”
The future looks quite bright for the tiny festival that could, Salton said.
“I see having more consistent visibility in the community in the future,” he said. “A lot more films will also concern gender diversity rather than sexual diversity. That’s what seems to be the new fight, trans rights—especially right now in North America.” Although Salton remains very positive about the festival and the support it gets within the Kingston community, some aspects cause problems for the organization of a festival like Reelout.
“There still isn’t a main communication hub for arts organization in Kingston,” he said. “A lot of people are throwing events on the same night as other arts events.”
Jan. 29 is Reelout’s opening night gala, which is also the opening night for Art-ignite and two other arts-based fundraisers for Haiti happening at The Grad Club and Chalmer’s United Church as well as the Focus Film Festival screening and gala.
In a city the size of Kingston, this kind of event-splitting could cause multiple arts organizations to lose valued audience attendance.
Despite this minor set-back, Reelout organizers are still positive and excited for the 10-day festival to commence.
This year’s festival includes many screenings of award-winning feature-length films and shorts, including a string of international films to be screened mid-week. The international films were programmed by Joe Bateman.
“Some of them, I wouldn’t have personally picked,” Salton warned.
Some of the pieces chosen by Bateman are sure to spark debate and some controversy as some of the subject material is unsettling.
“International films are not as interested in the commercial aspect of their films at all. They’re not willing to compromise for commercialism.” With 11 years of quality festival programming and an outreach program into the greater Kingston community—it doesn’t seem like Reelout is compromising either.
Reelout starts this Friday night with a screening of Ferron: Girl On A Road.
Musician Ferron and the film’s director will be in attendance. For a full schedule of events and ticket information go to reelout.com
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