2011 #Melbourne #Queer Film Festival #MQFF

Entries close: December 1
Festival screenings March 17-27
www.mqff.com.au

The Melbourne Queer Film Festival invites submissions to its 21st Film Festival in 2011. Each year the Festival screens over 150 features, shorts, documentaries and experimental films from Australia and all around the world over 11 days. The Festival is Australia’s largest, oldest and most successful queer film festival and screens at 3 premier Melbourne venues including the state of the art Australian Centre for the Moving Image to audiences of over 25,000. The MQFF also tours highlights of its program to various parts of Australia.

Titles can be of any length and should be of interest to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered communities.

There is over $10,000 in the cash prize pool including the jury voted City of Melbourne Award for Best Australian Short Film ($2000), and the Audience Awards for Best Feature ($3000) Documentary ($2000) etc.

Men of letters hosted by Women of Letters #fundraiser #Melbourne #geekgirl

And now it’s the men’s turn - Men of letters – October 31 at the Thornbury Theatre (Melbourne)

After a whirlwind road trip incorporating four states, 23 letter-writers, and more hastily scribbled postcards than you could poke a Kilometrico at, Women of Letters is moving to its new permanent home at the Thornbury Theatre with a special one-off testosteroney line-up.

On October 31^st, co-curators Michaela McGuire and Marieke Hardy will host for the very first time their inaugural all-male Men of Letters, featuring a relatively gasp-inducing range of the country’s finest and most dapper talent. They will go where no man has gone before – into the celebration of the lost art of letter writing.

Singer/songwriter PAUL KELLY, sartorially elegant bandleader DAVE GRANEY, writer/performer JOHN SAFRAN, The Chaser’s CHAS LICCIARDELLO, star of stage and screen EDDIE PERFECT, The Gin Club frontman BEN SALTER, Spicks and Specks’ ALAN BROUGH, troubadour TIM ROGERS, political scribe and author BOB ELLIS and last but not least, Australia’s most decadent food critic MATT PRESTON will each be penning and reading a letter to ‘The Woman Who Changed My Life’.

There’ll be a DJ set by the inestimably lovely EMMA PEEL, wine, and copious amounts of letter writing.  Stamps and envelopes will be provided, and in the spirit of participation attendees are encouraged to pen short notes. Men of Letters  kicks off at 3.00 pm – doors open at 2.20 pm – and bookings are essential.

For $20 that’s a fairly formidable afternoon’s entertainment. All funds raised to go Edgar’s Mission.

The Thornbury Theatre is at 859 High Street, Thornbury. Tickets – http://www.thethornburytheatre.com

Making it Handmade: The Documentary #craft #feminism #sex #geekgirl

Think craft is for grannies? Think again.

making it handmade

A seditious and subversive subculture is gaining momentum in Melbourne. But rather than wielding megaphones and placards, they’re cross-stitching slogans on hurricane wire and constructing plush female genitalia from craft supplies.

Following four local women who’ve taken a seemingly staid past-time and injected it with a youthful, modern aesthetic, filmmaker Anna Brownfield shows a side of craft more closely aligned with punk DIY culture than with Martha Stewart and ‘home sweet home’ tapestries.

“I wanted to show that craft was no longer daggy but had moved into a new era and was being reclaimed by women who had been brought up as feminists.” – filmmaker Anna Brownfield

Starring: Pip Lincolne, Gemma Jones, Faythe Levine, Rayna Fahey, Casey Jenkins and the awesome Melbourne craft community

Anna Brownfield is a Melbourne based independent filmmaker who makes films about sex and craft.

For Sydney folk Mu-Meson Archives will screen Making it Handmade, Oct 2nd, 2010.
Mu-Meson Archives at Crn Parramatta Rd & Trafalgar St Annandale (Sydney) at the end of King Furniture building up the steel staircase. Phone 02 9517-2010

Blog Action Day – Oct 15th #water #bloggers #geekgirl

The topic for Blog Action Day 2010: Water.

The Blog Action Day 2010 site has been unveiled, and it’s aim is to make this year’s event the largest single day of action on the web in 2010. Click here to check out the new site and register for Blog Action Day 2010, held on October 15th.

You don’t need to be a water expert to participate — you just have to be interested in joining thousands of other bloggers from more than 100 countries in collectively raising awareness of one of the most important issues facing our world.

After all, clean water is essential for our survival, but dangerously scarce. Nearly one billion people in the world today don’t have access to clean water and 42,000 people die each week from water-borne diseases. And the issue doesn’t stop there — water availability impacts a wide variety of issues from the environment to women’s rights and from technology to fashion. If you’re unsure what to write about on October 15th, check out our list of water post suggestions to get started.

Last year, Blog Action Day included influential voices ranging from the White House to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. This year, we’re looking forward to an even larger group of influential voices, from celebrities to politicians, to help widen the scope of conversation.

Bloodbath Roller Derby – still time to win tix #bumpp #geekgirl

BLOODBATH double pass giveaway.
Want to win a double pass to the BLOODBATH Oct 9th at the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney? Post your best photo of A PRIOR ROLLER DERBY EVENT, be it as an audience member, in costume, or team-mate or war wound focused; we want to see you at your Roller Derby best!

Join the facebook group, post your pic to the photo album, and tag your name to enter the contest! Winners will be revealed on Friday 8 October 2010. C’mon! Do it!

BLOODBATH is a collaborative distributed artwork by Bump Projects in association with the Sydney Roller Derby League. BLOODBATH features artists Linda Dement, Kate Richards, Sarah Waterson, Francesca da Rimini, and Nancy Mauro-Flude, each with recognised track records in new media, data visualisation, mediated performance and/or work with embodiment or violence. At an all girl flat track roller derby game, Sydney, 9 October 2010, sensors on the helmets of players feed data to their five artworks, generating digital elaborations of the moves and collisions on track.

International Women’s Day: Celebrating 100 Years – filmmakers need participants #unifem #geekgirl

A short film about the dramatic history of International Women’s Day and the feminist movement in Australia and in our region.

SYNOPSIS
The feminist movement has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past century. From the dramatic actions of the Suffragettes to current petitioning against human rights abuses of women, the movement has been peppered with moments of courage, bravery, persistence as well as frequent disappointment.

2011 marks 100 years of International Women’s Day, when the world stops to celebrate, commemorate and ruminate on the status of women internationally.

International Women’s Day: Celebrating 100 Years (Working Title) will chart the history of the feminist movement and International Women’s Day in Australia and regionally through archival footage interwoven with the stories of ordinary women who have been involved in some extraordinary events in the name of progressing women’s rights.

International Women’s Day: Celebrating 100 Years will both speak to those generations born after the rise of second wave feminism- a compelling reminder to these generations of the male-dominant landscape of the past and the hurdles that have been overcome- as well as celebrate the achievements of those strong and persistent women who have been involved in the feminist movement over the last century.

The award-winning all female team of International Women’s Day: Celebrating 100 Years will bring life to the story of International Women’s Day, and the film will provide hope and inspiration in looking towards addressing the challenges that women still face nationally and internationally.

UNIFEM AUSTRALIA
This project has been commissioned by UNIFEM Australia, part of UN Women, an NGO under the umbrella of the United Nations that works towards gender equality internationally.

The film is being produced to coincide with the 2011 centenary of International Women’s Day and amongst other audiences it will be distributed to all Australian secondary schools and screened at International Women’s Day events nationally as
well as be posted on the UNIFEM Australia website.

HOW CAN U  HELP
The filmmakers are looking for a handful of women to interview on film for this project who have been personally involved with key events in the feminist movement in Australia and regionally over the last century, including currently. They would like stories that emphasise the courage and optimism of women who have battled for gender equality, often through unique and non-conformist actions.

CONTACT
e. IWDfilm@gmail.com
p. (Kylie Plunkett) 0424656283
a. 915/37 Swanston St
The Nicholas Building
Melbourne 3000