In Celebration of the 2014 TLV Pride
By Anne Gonzaga Pabion and Boyet Dalisay
Shalom Yair, it’s an honor and pleasure to meet you. This year is the 9th anniversary of the TLVFest, congratulations! What’s the secret to this remarkable success?
I think we are trying to bring the best LGBTQ films for the festival from all over the world and we’re doing the best we can. I also think that people are looking after this kind of movie because you rarely find it in the mainstream cinemas, almost none at all. For example this year we have 250 features in the cinema and only 6 films dealt with LGBTQ topic and it’s not enough given the demand and the need for this kind of movie to showcase to the public. Festivals like the TLVFest is the best venue where you can find quality films related to LGBTQ.
I heard that you’re bringing a movie from the Philippines for this year’s festival, can you tell us more about it?
Yes, I’m bringing a film called ‘Quick Change.’ It’s directed by Eduardo Roy Jr. It’s a very strong movie about illegal practice of botox injection. As you know it’s very popular in the slams of Manila especially amongst the transgender community. The story is about a woman who’s performing the botox injection illegally and how she gets in trouble later on. This sounds really weird and unfamiliar for Israeli audience but I personally found this movie as one of the strongest entries we have this year so far.
Is this the first time you brought movies from the Philippines?
Last year we brought a movie from the Philippines called ‘Mondo Manila’; it’s very underground, edgy, kick-in-the-balls kind of movie. It’s about a group of young people, straight and gays, who are dealing with sexual assault, drugs and other crimes. This is to show what’s the reality in the slams in Manila. Also, last time we brought the very famous movie called ‘The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros’. I consider this movie one of the most beautiful movies from the Philippines.
Are there any cast members of the ‘Quick Change’ coming for the TLVFest?
Yes, the director Eduardo Roy Jr. is coming and two of the producers as well.
It seems that movies from the Philippines are really close to your heart?
Yes, especially if they are really good movies and yeah, I appreciate the movies coming from the Philippines.
Do the casts and crews usually come also during the festival?
Not all of them but yes some of the casts and the directors/producers come to attend the festival. This year we have 20 guests from abroad. Most of them just come here to participate at the event and of course we welcome them and sometimes help them find places to stay during the pride week.
What other activities do you have aside from film showing?
We also organize panel discussions among festival directors that are arriving from all over the world. We have panelists from Portugal, Austria, UK, also from Sundance and more. We also organize master classes with well-known International LGBTQ directors as lecturers. One of them is Jamie Babbit, a very famous American director. She directed episodes for Looking, Gossip Girls, Gilmore Girls and more. Another master class is coming from Zazie de Paris; she is a very famous actress and singer from Germany. She is a transgender woman and of course we have a party every night during the weeklong celebration of the TLVFest at Q Hotel.
Why LGBT films?
First of all we don’t have LGBT filmfest in Tel Aviv. This is very common in the western world even in Russia, they have LGBT films so why not in Tel Aviv? Secondly, last year we tried to do a straight sexual film screening for straight people but no one came so we decided not to do it anymore. I think the big festivals should deal only with straight people(grin).
What’s the message that the TLVFest wants to share to the world?
Just come over and watch the movies we prepared. Enjoy the week pride with us. This is the expression of your own freedom. I think the TLVfest has different movies with different subjects from romantic comedy to drama that everyone can relate to in the festival.
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity and for giving an insight about this festival/event.