Latest TV Sneak Peeks: Fourth Season of Tales from the Margins
The fourth season of Tales from the Margins, the weekly programme with films about the situation of LGBTIQ people and LGBTIQ rights around the world, has just started. It was opened with a Tales from the Margins Extra previewing the Queer Asia Film Festival which took place in London from 24 to 29 June.
The programme is curated and presented by Rainer Schulze, Emeritus Professor of History and Human Rights.
One focus of the new season will be on films from Asia, where the battle for LGBTIQ rights is ongoing. Same-sex activities are criminalised and stigmatised almost everywhere, forcing many LGBTIQ people to remain in the closet. Vigilante attacks and honour killings against members of the LGBTIQ community are sadly still common. One of the films shown this season, SLAY, is a portrait of the young courageous Filipino LGBTIQ activist Floyd Scott Tiogangco who fights for the freedom of people to be themselves.
Faggotgirl Gets Busy In The Bathroom
Another focus will be on stories of disabled LGBTIQ people. Disabled people are no doubt one of the most underrepresented minorities on screen, and this lack of representation and visibility is even more true for disabled LGBTIQ people. We hardly see them at queer events, and even less on queer screens – except, perhaps, as objects of pity. At a time when the LGBTIQ community, and none more so than the male gay community, fetishises the fit, healthy and young body, functionally diverse LGBTIQ people, and their stories, are invisible. Tales from the Margins will show a number of films which strive to redress the balance and create more visibility for disabled LGBTIQ people.
Another focus will be on stories of disabled LGBTIQ people
But there is still more to discover in this new season of Tales from the Margins, like the “dykeumentaries” by US filmmaker Krissy Mahan about gender identity and accessibility. Krissy often uses Faggotgirl, a butch dyke super-hero action figure of herself, or Fisher Price toys to construct her short films. Or a film about planting pansies against homophobia; six of these pansies were actually planted in Brighton.
Rainer Schulze
All films are accompanied by conversations with the filmmakers, revealing more about why these films were made.
Join Rainer Schulze on Mondays at 9pm for his weekly LGBTIQ film programme (repeated on Fridays at 9pm). And if you have, or know of any films that you would like to be shown on his programme, contact him at rainer@thelatest.co.uk.
