At the end of the rainbow

What is pride?\n"To me, gay pride is just to go and have a good time with people who are accepting of me and I am accepting of them," said James Cummings, GLBT student support services office assistant. \nTo some people, it is a sense of togetherness. \nThis weekend the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave., will offer the opportunity for such camaraderie with the PRIDE Film Festival, a series of 31 films that will run in several areas around Bloomington. \n"We've been to several GLBT film festivals, and there's so much more of a sense of community," said Drea Weber, star and producer of the featured film "The Gymnast." \nFor Bloomington, a relatively small city nestled in a largely conservative state, to have such a large event celebrating the GLBT community may seem surprising.\nHowever, there is a reason, said theater director Danielle McClelland: Bloomington has a reputation as being progressive and encouraging artistic expression.\n"That's one of the reasons that the festival has taken off so readily," McClelland said. "It's a conservative region, but that gives (GLBT events) a special importance because they give people who don't experience a larger queer community every day a chance to experience it for at least a weekend, and to meet each other."\nSome people outside of the GLBT community can be unfamiliar with the use of the word "queer" to describe an event or a lifestyle.\n"One of the things we talk about a lot in the steering committee is the concept of queer, which is a term that some people feel comfortable with," McClelland said. "It is about messing with gender roles and what sex is all about."\nBut not everyone is at ease with the phrase.\nSophomore Drew Rhoda said that the description of Saturday night's dance party at the theater as a "queer space" made him uncomfortable. He said he had never seen a film with a GLBT emphasis, and he wasn't really interested in going to the festival.\n"I would have to say in the back of my mind that I would be a little reserved about what I may see, but I've never seen (a GLBT film), so I don't know," he said. \nFreshman Cassey Crowell said she wasn't interested in attending the festival, although several of her gay friends had talked about it. She said the word "queer," used in the manner of the Buskirk-Chumley news release, did not make her feel uncomfortable.\n"A lot of my friends are gay, so it really doesn't (matter)," she said. \nNolin Chatterjee, a sophomore, said he wasn't disconcerted by the word "queer."\n"It's a little different to me, but I'm not homophobic," he said. "They're just people. I think any open, sane person would agree."\nMcClelland said she was unaware of the implications of the phrase "queer space." \n"The most important aspect is it's a space where you can express desire without discrimination," she said. "... The main mission is to celebrate queer culture. It is a space to say straight out: This is what this is going to be."\nThe festival will show 31 films, with GLBT issues making up much of the subject matter. \nBoth the general film industry and the GLBT community have the same goals artistically, but the filmmaking industry aims to make money in the end, Weber said.\nShe said besides "Brokeback Mountain", GLBT films are not generally known for making money. And the industry has a tendency of marginalizing GLBT films because they don't think they will be profitable, she said.\nShe said most GLBT filmmakers are struggling with competing desires: to tell a story and to make money.\n"Big stars can help, but that's catering to a Hollywood notion that's anathema to a lot of filmmakers," she said. \nMcClelland said a major difference in the style of GLBT films from the general film industry is the aggressiveness of the director toward the issues in the films.\n"I think GLBT filmmakers are more aggressive than the average filmmaker because those are the issues in the filmmaker's mind-set," she said. \nShe said the issues tackled in this year's films included gay marriage and the intersection of queer oppression and drug use.\n"Concepts of where queer oppression and drug use interact with any situation where an individual is constantly facing cultural oppression, where their freedom, culture and lifestyle is being discriminated against -- there is a higher instance of drug use," she said.\nMcClelland said she thought it was important to emphasize that the film festival was open and accessible to all people, not only people who consider themselves part of the GLBT population.\n"It's an important opportunity for the GLBT community, because there's often a large division between GLBT students and the community based on age," she said. \nCummings said he thought the festival was a good way to bring the community together. Any person thinking about attending should go, as long as they are comfortable with the subject matter, he said.\n"If they feel comfortable with the culture, then they should go and have a good time -- if they feel that they would be able to handle it," he said. \nThe events begin today with two films being shown at the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union and will continue until Saturday night, culminating with the dance party at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.\nFor more information, visit www.buskirkchumley.org or check out the PRIDE Festival guide in today's Weekend magazine.