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Out Takes 2009: A Reel Queer Film Festival

Out Takes 2009 has started in Auckland and will run there till 1 June. It starts in Wellywood—at my favorite movie place, the Paramount—28 May, and ends 7 June.

I'm looking forward to writer/director Shamim Sarif's The World Unseen (2007) and I Can't Think Straight (2008), both based on her own novels. How amazing that we can see them both in the same week. And how does any filmmaker manage two features in a year or so?

Shamim Sarif explains how she did it in a Women & Hollywood interview with Melissa Silverstein. And it probably helps that she and Hanan Kattan own their own multi-media entertainment company Enlightenment Productions, based in London and Los Angeles, a kind of autonomy that I hope hope hope will become more common.

Here's the I Can't Think Straight trailer:


Auckland Tuesday 26 May, 8.35pm. Wellington Tuesday 2 June 8.35pm.

And here's a "Making of" about The World Unseen.





The Armstrong and Arthur Charitable Trust For Lesbians will host a gala event in association with a screening of The World Unseen, at the Paramount, Sunday 31 May. Bar opens 7.30, screening starts 8.30. I think it's wonderful that the trust's making this celebration possible, along with quietly supporting a whole lot of other good things (including a project of mine, in the past).

The World Unseen will screen in Auckland, Sunday 24 May 8.30pm.

For more details about other great films written and directed by women, check out the Out Takes site. Or take a look at Out Takes on Facebook.

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