More than half of these characters (64.7%) were gay male characters, while 23.5% were lesbian characters, 17.7% were bisexual and 11.8% were transgender. According to GLAAD’s 2014 Studio Responsibility Index, only 16.7% of major US studio release contained characters identified as either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in the United States has pointed out that there is still a considerable distance to be traversed in terms of LGBTIQ inclusion in mainstream cinema. There has certainly been some movement towards LGBTIQ inclusion and representation on the part of mainstream cinema since the 1990s with films such as Milk (2008) and The Kids are All Right (2010) receiving commercial success and critical acclaim.
As recently as 2013, Tropfest, the world’s biggest short film competition, chose Bamboozled, which exploited transgender themes, as the winner of its competition. The ongoing need for LGBTIQ film festivals is also underscored by failures on the part of mainstream cinematic festivals and a lack of LGBTIQ representation in mainstream cinema. They provide an opportunity for socialising in an LGBTIQ safe space away from gay pubs and nightclubs, spaces which may not appeal to everyone. There is also an important communal aspect to these festivals. It is difficult to convey the exhilaration that can be received from recognising elements of your own intimate life magnified on a cinema screen. Members of a marginalised community find a certain liberation in viewing cinematic representations that speak to their own lives. The thrill of first love, the loss of a partner and the challenges posed by ageing are human experiences but are largely canvassed from a heterosexual viewpoint. There have been queer film festivals in one form or another in Sydney since the 1978 Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the MQFF, which makes it Australia’s longest continually running event of this kind. The 2015 Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF), which runs until March 30, provides an ideal opportunity to reflect on what might have changed since the 1990s with regard to lesbian representation in cinema and to consider more broadly the role played by queer film festivals.Īustralia has been well served by these events. Where were the more realistic representations, including the happy lesbians? It strikes me today as very unfortunate that one of the only non-heterosexual female characters in a major film during my high school years was one portrayed as an ice-pick wielding murderer. I must confess that this course of action was not prompted by the acting skills of Michael Douglas but was rather due to the well-publicised lesbian scenes that were dotted throughout the film. Back in 1992, when I was still attending high school, I convinced a friend to sneak in with me to the R-rated film Basic Instinct.