This project is organised to coincide with LGBT History Month and is financially supported by Film Hub NWC, a member of the BFI Film Audience Network. We are grateful for the support of Queer Contact and Macdonald Hotels and Resorts.

Screenings:

Vito (Jeffrey Schwarz, US, 2012):

Wednesday 11th February 2015, MMU New Business School, Manchester Lecture Theatre 5 – 6.30pm. Free but please reserve a place at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vito-screening-tickets-14726101165

A documentary about the man who brought us all out of the ‘Celluloid Closet’. Director Jeffrey Schwarz looks back at Russo’s life as a film fan, a film critic and latterly as an AIDS activist. In the aftermath of Stonewall (1969), Russo found his voice as an angry critic of LGBT representation in the media. Always defiant and eloquent, this moving and inspiring film tells the story of one of our movement’s most important figures. The screening will be introduced by Dr Andrew Moor of Manchester Metropolitan University, and there will be a post-screening discussion.

‘An emotionally powerful documentary portrait’, Hollywood Reporter

Taxi Zum Klo (Frank Ripploh, 1980, W Germany, 90 minutes, 18 cert).

Thursday 12th February, MMU New Business School, Manchester Lecture Theatre 5 – 6.30pm. Free but please reserve a place at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/taxi-zum-klo-screening-tickets-14725585623

Written and directed by Ripploh, who also stars in the film, this very personal – and graphic - sex comedy follows the constantly cruising lifestyle of Frank, a gay schoolteacher, and charts his relationship with sweet-natured, domesticated Berndt. The screening will be introduced by Dr Andrew Moor of Manchester Metropolitan University, and there will be a post-screening discussion.

This event is in partnership with LGBT History Month: http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/

Read a review of the film here: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/apr/21/taxi-zum-klo-review

Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell, 2006, US, 18 cert) plus Q&A with the legendary queer cabaret icon (and star of the film) Justin V. Bond.

Tickets available at: http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/29299-qc2015-seeing-queerly-shortbus/

A humane, sexy and uplifting queer comedy for the 21st Century set in and around the Shortbus sex club (‘for the challenged and the gifted’) in New York City. A celebration of love, sex and community, and as innocent as a film with this much sex in it can possibly be.

MMU is delighted to bring this event to Manchester in partnership with Queer Contact: http://contactmcr.com/projects/festivals/queer-contact/

Supported by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts: www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk

Special Charity Screening of Will You Dance With Me? (Derek Jarman, 1984, UK, 78 mins, uncertified): 

Friday 20th February, 2015, 8:00pm, Sackville Lounge, Sackville Street, Manchester. Tickets: FREE from http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/will-you-dance-with-me-charity-screening-free-but-donation-to-charity-encouraged-at-the-event-tickets-14726887517

In 1984, the British film director Derek Jarman (Sebastiane, Last of England, Edward II) spent an evening in Benjy’s - a gay nightclub in London - capturing intimate footage of a night out in the mid-eighties. Derek's roaming camera dances with the music, cruises the building, flirts, and catches handsome faces in the crowd. It is a rhapsodic snapshot of the gay scene in 1984 - a trip down memory lane for some, a fascinating time capsule for all. This experimental vérité-style film was screened for the first time in 2014 and it now gets its regional premiere in the UK.

• Music afterwards from DJ Greg Thorpe.
• All profits from tonight’s event will be donated to George House Trust and Albert Kennedy Trust. Donation buckets will be circulating at the venue.

Supporting Talks:

We are scheduling public lectures / illustrated talks to support the film screenings:

• Being a Gay Film Critic in the 1970s (Andrew Moor, MMU): 16th February, 6:00pm. LT4, MMU (Geoffrey Manton Bldg): Free but please reserve a place at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/public-lecture-being-a-gay-film-critic-in-the-1970s-andrew-moor-mmu-tickets-14758076805

• Queer Film Festivals and Cultural Activism (Jon Binnie & Christian Klesse, MMU): 23rd February, 6:00pm, LT4, MMU, (Geoffrey Manton Bldg): Free but please reserve a place at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/public-lecture-queer-film-festivals-and-cultural-activism-jon-binnie-christian-klesse-mmu-tickets-15031975042