RCA Kelowna Out & Proud Film Festival 2021 September 20, 21 and 22, 2021
In 2021, Rotary Centre for the Arts will host and produce the third annual Kelowna Out & Proud Film Festival featuring stories by and about the LGBT2Q+ community. This year's festival will run September 20, 21 & 22 at the Mary Irwin Theatre and online.
The Kelowna Out & Proud Film Festival is an affiliate event of Kelowna Pride 2021, the largest Pride Festival in the BC Interior. Kelowna Pride's first festival began over 25 years ago. Since then, the festival has grown immensely, attracting over 12,000 people to be proud and celebrate love, diversity, and inclusivity. Normally held in June, the 2021 festival has been moved to October due to COVID.
Please note that the Festival Pass does not include admission to online screenings.
Purchase a pass for the 2021 Kelowna Out and Proud Film Festival!
Sponsored by:
2021 Films
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Two Soft Things, Two Hard Things
September 20, 2021 | 7:00 PM-9:00 PM
Mary Irwin Theatre | Documentary
77 minutes
Dir. Mark Kenneth Woods & Michael Yerxa
As a small group in Nunavut, Canada prepare for a seminal LGBTQ Pride celebration in the Arctic, the film explores how colonization and religion have shamed and erased traditional Inuit beliefs about sexuality and family structure and how, 60 years later, a new generation of Inuit are actively ‘unshaming’ their past. Rated PG.
This screening will be followed by a talk back with special guests. Discussion will focus on Indigenous knowledge of gender identity and expression, and the continuing shift toward decolonizing the gender binary. Details of this talk back event TBA.
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Standing on the Line
September 21, 2021 | 7:00 PM-8:30 PM
Mary Irwin Theatre | Documentary
80 Minutes
Dir. Paul Émile d’Entremont
In both amateur and professional sports, being gay remains taboo. Few dare to come out of the closet for fear of being stigmatized, and for many, the pressure to perform is compounded by a further strain: whether or not to affirm their sexual orientation. Breaking the code of silence that prevails on the field, on the ice and in the locker room, this film takes a fresh and often moving look at some of our gay and lesbian athletes, who share their experiences with the camera. They’ve set out to overcome prejudice in the hopes of changing things for the athletes of tomorrow. Rated PG.
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The Hookup & Handmade Mountain (Double Bill)
September 21, 2021 | 9:00 PM-10:00 PM
Mary Irwin Theatre | Documentary Shorts
6 Minutes (The Hookup), 6 Minutes (Handmade Mountain)
Dir. Michael V. Smith (The Hookup), Dir. Michèle Pearson Clarke (Handmade Mountain)
The Hookup: The Hook Up is an experimental doc featuring four gay men from two different generations: two nearing age 70 and two 20-somethings. Striking close-up visuals create a powerful sense of intimacy and connection as the men discuss how hooking up has (and has not) evolved for gay men. This film deals with mature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised. Rated PG.
Handmade Mountain: In Handmade Mountain, Michèle Pearson Clarke explores the emotional fallout of being both early to gay marriage and early to gay divorce. Fifteen years after same-sex marriage became legal, she and friends reflect on its personal and political meaning in this experimental film. Rated G.
The Hookup and Handmade Mountain are presented together, followed by a talk back with special guests, including The Hookup director Michael V Smith. Discussion will focus on how being LGBT2Q+ affects sex, love, and relationships, and how that has changed over time.
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The Tailor & My Prairie Home (Double Bill)
September 22, 2021 | 7:00 PM-9:00 PM
Mary Irwin Theatre | Short, Documentary, and Talk Back Event
15 Minutes (The Tailor), 77 Minutes (My Prairie Home)
Dir. Nathalie Therriault (The Tailor), Dir. Chelsea McMullan (My Prairie Home)
The Tailor: A gender non-conforming person struggling to assert their identity unexpectedly finds courage in an aging master tailor. Rated G
My Prairie Home: In this feature documentary-musical by Chelsea McMullan, indie singer Rae Spoon takes us on a playful, meditative and at times melancholic journey. Set against majestic images of the infinite expanses of the Canadian Prairies, the film features Spoon crooning about their queer and musical coming of age. Interviews, performances and music sequences reveal Spoon’s inspiring process of building a life of their own, as a trans person and as a musician. Official selection at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Rated G.
The Tailor and My Prairie Home are presented together, followed by a talk back with special guests, including non-binary, trans artist Shimshon Obadia. Discussion will focus on trans and non-binary identity, what it means, what the journey toward self acceptance can look like for some people, and how trans and non-binary identity can contribute to the creative process and voice.
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Online Screening
Fanny: The Right to Rock
September 17-26, 2021 | Online Screening
Feature Documentary
96 Minutes
Dir. Bobbi Jo Krals
This film tells the remarkable story of Fanny, the first all-women band to release an LP with a major record label (Warner/Reprise, 1970). Despite releasing 5 critically-acclaimed albums over 5 years, touring with famed bands from SLADE to CHICAGO and amassing a dedicated fan base of music legends including David Bowie, Fanny's groundbreaking impact in music was written out of history... until bandmates reunite 50 years later with a new rock record deal. With incredible archival footage of the band's rocking past intercut with its next chapter releasing a new LP today, the film includes interviews with a large cadre of music icons, including Def Leppard's Joe Elliott, Bonnie Raitt, The Go-Go's Kathy Valentine, Todd Rundgren, The Runaways' Cherie Currie, Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian, The B52's Kate Pierson, Charles Neville and David Bowie guitarist and bassist Earl Slick and Gail Ann Dorsey. Fighting early barriers of race, gender and sexuality in the music industry, and now ageism, the incredible women of Fanny are ready to claim their hallowed place in the halls of rock 'n' roll fame.
This is an exclusively online screening. The film may be viewed from September 17-26.