Bob Christie- Beyond Gay: The politics of Pride and The Boyz Talk About Sex

The QueerCentric

Bob Christie is a Vancouver filmmaker, activist, and scholar exploring the intersections of documentary cinema, entertainment and social justice. His 2009 feature Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride won several festival awards and was broadcast on cable television throughout North America, in Europe and South America. With fifteen years experience in the film and television industry, Bob has also directed and produced a feature documentary about his family that received funding from the National Film Board of Canada, as well as short films, music videos, television commercials and Internet content. In 2014 he completed an MA in Comparative Media Arts at Simon Fraser University with research that focuses on queer documentary cinema and social justice activism.

Abstract of MA Research

While touring to film festivals with my documentary Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride, I noticed a new attitude in queer cinema. Instead of exploring isolation, difference and separation from mainstream culture, queer cinema of the new millennium places LGBT* people within larger society, often as a vital and valuable part of the broader social fabric.

There is also a confidence, optimism, and often an outright joyfulness in recent queer cinema. My research investigates the development of these two trends – the homosocial and joy – in conjunction with theories of affect, queer documentaries, and social justice activism. It follows contemporary scholars, including Nick Davis and Laura Marks, who have expanded on Deleuzian image theories. I argue that LGBT* documentaries of the new millennium expresses reterritorialized queerness that is affecting people individually and collectively, forming social memories and new understandings of gender and sexuality. As well, these processes are accelerating and expanding faster than ever before, due to the affordability of production and distribution made possible by new media technology. Two other central films of the study are United in Anger: A History of Act Up and the hilarious New Zealand favorite Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls.

Pride organizer examines the role and relevance of Gay Pride events around the world – from the extremes of protest to the heights of celebration.

Winner – Best Film – Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival: Indianapolis IN, USA

Winner – Best Documentary (Jury Prize): Image + Nation, Montreal QC, Canada

Winner – Best Documentary: Q Cinema Fort Worth TX, USA

Winner – Best Documentary: Fairy Tales, Calgary AB, Canada

Winner – Best Documentary (Jury & Audience Awards) Three Dollar Bill: Seattle WA, USA

Winner – Best Documentary, Out on Film: Atlanta GA, USA

Winner – Best Documentary, Reel Pride, Winnipeg MB, Canada

Winner – Best Documentary, Inside Out Ottawa Gatineau, Ottawa ON

Winner – Best Documentary, Miami LGBT Film Festival, Miami FL, USA

Canadian Gala – Victoria Film Festival: Victoria BC, Canada

Opening Gala – Boston LGBT Film Festival: Boston MA, USA

Official Selection – Cleveland International Film Festival: Cleveland OH, USA

Official Selection – Frameline 34: San Francisco CA, USA

Official Selection – This Human World: Vienna Austria

*Screened at over sixty film festivals and Pride events around the world.*

*Showtime USA* *Super Channel Canada*

“A riveting and enlightening documentary on the politics and relevance of the global gay pride movement.” –Michael D. Reid, Times Colonist

From the elegant symbolism of the empty flatbed concluding Sao Paulo’s mammoth pride parade, to Moscow Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev’s Byzantine ingenuity and dogged determination, Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride is a moving portrait of international LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transsexual) struggles for human rights.

Vancouver Pride Parade President, Ken Coolen explains the vast differences between marches and parades, and the importance of confronting the “authorities in your own communities,” as he visits countries where attempting to stage pride festivities invites extreme reactions.

Director Bob Christie teams up with Aerlyn Weissman (Forbidden Love) in this panoramic meditation on the relationship between Gay Pride and mainstream society. A refreshing and clearly Western perspective on LGBT rights at home and abroad, it features generous footage of local Pride events, and tense yet poignant interviews around the world with an international roster of LGBT human rights heroes.

Beyond Gay reflects an emerging trend in which those listless and stagnant Pride celebrations return to their fiercely flamboyant roots – by expressing an international solidarity with oppressed LGBT people everywhere. As Tomasz Baczkowski, President of Warsaw Equality Parade eloquently states, “if it’s a movement, a pride movement… then we should move something.”

“An amazing film that needs to be seen by anyone in any community who wants to be moved and have their world view expanded. This is a terrific gift to our collective human rights history.”

– Stuart Milk, activist and nephew of the late Harvey Milk.

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