Reactions to TVNZ's queer TV symposium held on Monday have been varied, with community groups praising the initiative and some industry figures left a little ruffled. Producer Julia Durkin said it was a good start and showed that “QN's monopoly was over”, but she was disappointed that discussion seemed to be focussed mainly on the future of that programme and not on the broader topic of queer TV across all genres, and acknowledgement of the work of other queer TV producers. “We need to have better story telling,” she says. “Too often QN's main competition is simply sleep, not just because of the timeslot.” Gayline's Neville Creighton says, from their perspective, the talk of being able to tap into other genres for funding of queer TV programmes was very encouraging. He feels Queer Nation is doing a “pretty good job” with its magazine-show format, but it would be great to add to it with dramas, documentaries, comedies and other one-offs. “It was good that TVNZ came to the queer community to listen,” he says. “I was disappointed with some of the personal attacks on QN and QN people, though."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 14th November 2003 - 12:00pm