Oy! It’s OIA time again

The Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (OIA) is, this year, in fact two festivals, or is happening in two halves. This is partly a result of the shift from Ster-Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau to Nu Metro, and to do with conflicts of time with other festivals. The first part took place earlier this year, and the second is to start on November 1. From next year, the festival will all happen around November or so.

Three films for the festival are before the Film and Publications Board (FPB). The Argentinian Glue and the French Water Lilies are being looked at because they are about adolescent sex (boys and girls, respectively). A film dealing with paedophilia was blocked earlier this year from showing at the Durban International Film Festival, but Glue and Water Lilies are not about paedophilia; the sex is between adolescents rather than between adults and children.

The other film under examination is the French lesbian sex movie, One Night Stand. Director Émile Jouvet is a guest of the fest, so pray her film’s not restricted; that would be a bit of an embarrassment. At any rate, it’s highbrow pornography — that is, a meditation on pornography, asking what porn might be like if made by radical lesbians, and then providing some answers. Or perhaps that means it’s not pornography per se; my view is that pornography is a set of conventions for depicting real sex, and if those conventions are overturned (as in Shortbus) it’s no longer pornography.

But we can argue about that another time. Even if it is pornography, it sounds like interesting pornography. A male viewer who wishes to see it will have to get a female friend to come with him, however: FPB permitting, there are to be four screenings, three of which will be restricted to women (or is that “womyn”?) only. The fourth will be open to men if chaperoned by women. Guys, try not to say “What the hell are they doing?” too loudly to your companion.

Judge Kate O’Regan speaks at the OIA’s opening night in Johannesburg in November 1, and former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge at the Cape Town equivalent on November 8. Go to www.oia.co.za for a full run-down of what’s showing and when.