Violet Tendencies At The Vancouver Queer Film Festival

"We met at a Glory Hole."

Hearing that 10minutes into a movie and you know it's going to be a good time. From August 12-22 the Vancouver Queer Film Festival is taking place all over the city and I had the honor of being able to attend a screening of Violet Tendencies.

The movie is your traditional romantic comedy from director Casper Andreas with a definite twist. Instead of your standard patronizing,tired, over used character of the misery-loves-company best friend, you get a wonderfully diverse group of gays. Mindy Cohn,better known as Natalie Green from Facts of Life, stars as the lead character Violet, the eternal 40 year old fag hag. Violet's search for her version of Mr. Right is not only funny,touching and poignant- it's real. I found more humor and more things I directly related to than in your big budget Reiner rom-com. And the movie isn't just about Violet. It's about her inner circle of gay friends and the trials in their lives. Written by co-star Jesse Archer, the movie touches on very real problems in all relationships, gay and straight. From the possibility of adopting a child to monogamy and cheating, Archer has managed to finely blend wit and honesty in a sometimes brutal portrayal of dating in the modern world and the ever changing dynamic of partnered life. I especially loved that when he approached the idea of Violet dating an HIV man he did not shy away from teaching us a lesson in it. HIV should be stigma free.

I'm not going to launch into a million details about every scene because I just want you to see it for yourselves. It's a wonderful, funny and enjoyable movie for ALL of us- gay straight and everyone in between. As the director Casper Andreas said at the Q&A after the movie, "This definitely has a slicker look to it than my earlier films." It's true. Having been exposed to a lot of gay films as a youngster through my older brother, I can safely tell you they have come a long way, baby!

Look for this film in a city near you or in a dvd/book shop in your local gay community soon. It's a shame local video stores didn't stock more of these films. The bigger shame is that Vancouver-VANCOUVER!-doesn't have a permanent LGBT Theater? How can that be? I know plenty of people who would support that every weekend. If I owned a theater downtown the first thing I would do is dedicate at last 1 screen every Friday and Sunday night for LGBT films and grow from there.

Are you listening Vancouver?