Film Festival Panel to Embrace Identity

04/17/2018 

The Blackbird Film Festival will focus more than ever on diversity and individuality in 2018. To this end, a panel on identity, particularly gender and sexual identity, will discuss these issues on Sunday morning.

The festival’s film screenings are divided into thirteen blocks, each with a different central theme. Block J of the festival, Identity, will show seven short films, each relating to the topic of sexual and gender identity. The block begins at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 22 in Sperry Center, Room 105.

The Identity panelists will be announced at a later date on the Blackbird website.

“The Identity block offers a peek into the lives of everyday members of the LGBTQ community, which is something we may not all be familiar with,” said Scott Clifford, a student event coordinator at the festival. “But we should celebrate the courage it takes to be authentically oneself.”

Clifford, a senior communication studies major from Harbor Isle, N.Y., is in his second year working with the Blackbird Film Festival, having served as a submission judge last year. He and the other student coordinators are each responsible for the filmmakers from their particular block, a handful of whom will attend the screenings.

The films for the Identity block include:

• “Heaven’s Rage,” based upon the memoir of the same name by Leslie Tate about the struggle for identity in a society unwelcoming to those who do not conform.
• “In the Mirror,” the story of a father attempting to connect with his son after receiving sex reassignment. Manuel Mercier, the filmmaker behind “In the Mirror,” is a French director and 2015 recipient of the Gold Winner International Innovation Award of the UNESCO Chair on Health and Human Rights.
• “Iridescence,” a performance of interpretive dance and visual abstraction that depicts society’s insistence on labeling people according to their sexuality.
• “Spot,” the adventure of some young adults in an urban environment. Jamie DiNicola, the filmmaker behind “Spot,” is a queer transgender activist and law student who uses film and art to tell stories about queer and transgender individuals.
• “Toni the Triangle,” a film that creates an alternate reality and follows a triangle-shaped woman attempting to find her place in a society of rectangular people.
• “TRANSaction: Stepping Out of the Closet,” a documentary following transgender teens as they shop for clothes.
• “XYXY,” the story of a child of two fathers, born with dragonfly wings, deciding whether to hide his secret or reveal himself to the world.

The Blackbird Film Festival runs from Friday, April 20 to Sunday, April 22. Contact Samuel Avery, assistant professor of communication studies and director of the Blackbird Film Festival, for more information.

Prepared by Communications Office writing intern Ben Mayberry