Pride festival kicks off with launch party

The PRIDE Film Festival, Bloomington’s premier Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer film festival, began its 2010 run yesterday with a meet-and-greet party at Farm.

The launch party kicked off the four-day festival that will show over 20 independent LGBTQ films, as well as a host of other events. Maarten Bout, marketing director for the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, said the festival will draw around 2000 people hoping to see the films.

“The highlights of the festival are always the screenings,” he said. “It is a wonderfully curated group of films. It has been carefully selected by our steering committee.”

Bout said the festival will host three local performances by the Gender Studs, the Quarryland Men’s Chorus and Bleeding Heartland Rollergirls. Also scheduled are panel

discussions about screenings of various films, as well as a party at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Saturday night.

Desi del Valle, whose short film “Back to Life” was selected for the festival, said this screening was her first trip to the PRIDE Festival. Her film about the consequences of a hookup between a grieving lesbian and her married, heterosexual best friend has already been screened in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, among others, and has an upcoming date in London.

“I made a rule with this film that I would only travel to places I’ve never been,” she said. “So I’m very excited to be in a new place.”


Besides hosting an opportunity to see a wide selection of independent films, the PRIDE festival also draws people together from across the country. Melanie Voland, a resident of Brown County attending her sixth festival, celebrated this year by bringing Erica Kielty, a resident of Rockford, Ill., whose visit marks her first festival experience. Both women said they were excited for the short films.


“I’m just looking forward to three nights of fabulous film and a good party on Saturday and lots of people coming in from around the area to celebrate pride in Bloomington,” Voland said.


Bout said the festival provides an opportunity to flourish, both economically (due to the large amount of money spent in local businesses) and culturally.


“The festival really is a celebration of LGBTQ lives in the community,” he said. “What I think is so great about Bloomington is that this festival not only draws people that identify themselves as LGBTQ but also draws a lot of allies and a lot of people that have nothing to do with any sexuality other than their own. It’s really a community get-together. Everybody in the community participates, and it really shows what a great, inclusive community
Bloomington  is.”