GLYNI – Gay and Lesbian Youth Northern Ireland

Less spending on oil, gas and plumbing repairs…more on queer artsy goodness, woo hoo! Here’s some great LGBT cinema and theatre coming your way in the next month…

Check out CROOKED, a new lesbian-themed play by Queen’s University Drama students
Brian Friel Theatre (QFT Building)
23rd-25th March 7.30pm £6/£4

“CROOKED takes an intimate look at sexual identity and acceptance, in a bittersweet comedy that highlights how vulnerable we are at the hands of others.
Laney Waters has just moved to Mississippi with her mother, Elise. The fourteen-year-old suffers from dystonia, a condition which causes the muscles in her back to seize up. At a crucial point of adolescence, Laney’s condition isolates her from those at her new school and she seeks refuge in the sanctuary of the short stories she writes.
Enter the impressionable, overweight sixteen-year-old Maribel Purdy, the daughter of a Holiness Church Preacher. She is also cut off from her peers due to her weight and her extreme and alienating openness about her religious beliefs. The girls quickly strike up a strong friendship and teach each other new lessons in life, redemption and love…”

Group bookings of 10 or more people will be offered the concessions price of £4 when they book by calling the booking line on 02890 971382 and quoting “CROOKED SPECIAL GROUP OFFER”.
Further details and booking at www.brianfrieltheatre.co.uk

The 10th Belfast Film Festival kicks off in April (15th-30th) with some highly anticipated films in the Same Sex Cinema strand…

We’ll finally get to see the very brilliant I Killed My Mother (J’ai Tue Ma Mere), a film that was originally scheduled for OUTBURST ’09 but unfortunately had to be replaced at the last minute. Alternating between hilarity and horror, it’s tale of a young gay man coming of age while struggling with his tortured relationship with his mother.

Also highly recommended is City of Borders, a powerful documentary that follows the daily lives of five Israeli and Palestinian LGBT people as they navigate the minefield of politics, religion and discrimination to live and love openly. It’s very moving and the parallels to Belfast are uncanny at times.

You’d be mad (mad!) to miss the wonderful Topp Twins – Untouchable Girls, a film about New Zealand’s national-treasure-lesbian-comedic-singing-duo. Every country should have one.

For full details and bookings, see the Same Sex Cinema strand at www.belfastfilmfestival.org

Don’t go changin’….
love from
OUTBURST  x