Documentaries of particular interest to the LGBT community, touching on topics from drag to living with HIV, will screen at this year's New Zealand Documentary Film Festival, which opened in Auckland last night. “There are a number of films that will appeal to the LGBT and HIV-positive communities,” says Jonathan Smith, Director of the DOCNZ Film Awards. Among these is ‘The Blood of Yingzhou District', a Chinese film to be screened for the first time in Australasia and a finalist for the DOCNZ Film Awards, to be held in Auckland on 14 September. The film charts the journey of an abandoned Chinese toddler who is taken in and cared for by a family of AIDS sufferers. “This groundbreaking documentary which discloses the AIDS epidemic in a country not commonly associated with this disease, at the same time exposes the tragedy of the impoverished Chinese as they donate blood in order to eke a living of the unsafe medical practices.” “Rumour has it that [this film] might also be a finalist in the International Film category at this year's Oscar's,” says Smith. Also on offer is ‘Paperdolls', another DOCNZ finalist. Set in Israel, the film follows four Filipinos, who, by day care for elderly Orthodox Jewish men, and by night perform as drag artists. “The resulting film is a sensitive, complex portrait of men who are perpetual outsiders, at home and abroad,” says Smith. A number of films explore life with HIV/AIDS – Australian film ‘Make it Real to Me' looks at life through the eyes of a 17-year-old AIDS orphan in Kenya, and asks if world leaders really understand what it's like to live in a country so ravaged by the virus. The US-South Africa co-production ‘A Tale of Two Teens' follows an American teenager on his journey to the epicentre of the HIV pandemic where he meets an orphaned South African teenager. ‘James Dean – Little Prince, Little Bastard' (Germany) includes footage from James Dean's three films, behind-the-scenes footage and original photographs mixed with newly shot material – as the filmmakers trace the phenomenon that is James Dean. Another Israeli documentary, ‘Garden' investigates male prostitution and drug-use on the streets of Tel Aviv, with characters that span the Arab-Israeli divide. The Festival, which opened in Auckland last night, will move to Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Full details on the Festival and the Awards, plus screening times and locations, can be accessed at Festival's website using the link below. Ref: GayNZ.com (d)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 8th September 2006 - 12:00pm