Bob is Beyond Gay at Philadelphia Q Fest
Holy screening madness Batman! The BGM team had to divide and conquer for the last series of screenings. Ken hit Hamburg Germany for a screening that launched their Pride festival on July 9th, Morris took off to Budapest Hungary for their screening on the 10th and Bobby Love hit the North American East Coast queer film fest mecca: Philly Q Fest. What’s next? Well, we are all on our way to rendez-vous in Warsaw Poland to screen the film at the Euro Film Festival at EuroPride. (July 14th) We are very excited to share the film with many of our Eastern European friends who took part in the filming at the 2008 Equality Parade. This was definitely one of the most rewarding marches we participated in, and for them to be hosting EuroPride this year is an incredible achievement. Many people in Warsaw do not understand the importance of Pride and there have been a few scary facebook groups – with literally thousands of members – that oppose the parade, and we are sure to see many nationalist protesters along the road. In ’08 there were about 2500 military police to protect us – I hope they brought in a few extras this year as it is certain there will be a lot more mis-informed individuals out trying to spoil the fun.
What we don’t know yet is whether the Canadian embassy is going to step up to the plate and fly a Rainbow flag on parade day. So far they have denied our request. This even after mailing them the hundreds of signatures we collected at screenings in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Victoria. We’ve since enlisted the help of federal MPs Hedy Fry, Libby Davies and Bill Siksay to help us out with this task, but we’ve still had no further word from ambassador Costello. If you’ve seen the film you know what a disappointment it will be if he doesn’t rethink his decision. If you have a moment to bang off your own thoughts on this – we’d sure like your support. Ambassador Daniel Costello: wsaw@international.gc.ca
That’s it from this airport lounge, we’ll update you further from EuroPride! Wish us luck.