Pink Screens festival: 15 years of offbeat cinema

Fifteen years ago, 10 film-loving pals, girls and boys, decided to found a monthly film club, with a view to raising the profile of queer cinema: in other words, films in which not all characters correspond to heterosexual norms and that, consequently, raise questions about those social norms and their excluding nature.

The film club soon launched a mini-festival lasting three days, and later six, before developing into a major 10-day event whose programme this year includes no fewer than 80 films and shorts, as well as an exhibition, discussions (including those they call "Gueulantes"), and parties (such as the famous Pink Night) that promise to keep you awake long into the night.

That makes 15 years now that the organisers of Pink Screens – we met up with two of them – have been offering the best of Belgian and international queer cinema, with a mix of cutting-edge films and others of interest to a broader public. Their approach to selection has been bold and open to the world, constantly seeking to expand the range of possibilities.

You have been involved in the programming for Pink Screens for a number of years now. What criteria are your choices based on?

Jacques Paulus: When Nicolas hates a film, that means I'm going to love it! [Laughs]

Nicolas Gilson: We try to achieve a balance in the programming between the themes dealt with and the geographical origin of the films, while also trying to promote Belgian cinema. That's not so easy, as there aren't many Belgian feature films dealing with queer themes. This year, we have the documentary Guru, which looks at what is known in India as the "third sex". Sometimes we program films that are not necessarily considered queer by the director. For example, the two directors of the Czech film Já, Olga Hepnarová told me that it was only afterwards that they became aware of the political significance of their film and of the queer issues raised by the protagonist.

So what is a queer film for you?

Gilson: Well, we don't actually agree on that point. [Laughs] The definition is deliberately vague. It's something that raises genuine questions about the place of the individual in relation to society. How individuals position themselves in relation to the definition of gender and the definition of sexuality. For me, it's a very broad definition that means that I'm going to support films that are definitely borderline when it comes to our programming. The fact that opinions differ within the team enriches the programming.

Paulus: Distributors, on the other hand, have somewhat preconceived ideas about the festival. For them, it's still a gay and lesbian festival. Sometimes, we have to fight a bit to get certain films. For example, I asked a distributor for the short Quelques secondes, which looks at five women in a refuge for victims of violence in France. The answer was, "But why on earth do you want a film like that for your festival?" To which I replied, "Because it's about the position of women, feminism, rebellion, and so on." For us, feminism is queer. In the end, they were delighted that we were programming their film

You have been following the development of the place occupied by queer themes in the cinema for at least 15 years. Is the balance sheet positive?

Paulus: These days, in every series, there is always a gay or a lesbian hanging around. [Laughs] I think that's good, because it's an opening-up and it's rarely caricatural. There is also a mainstream cinema that deals with questions of gender. Twenty years ago, for example, films about trans people were rare. Today, all gender issues come up.

Gilson: Once again: it's getting better and better in our Western countries. If you look at the issues in queer films from eastern Europe, you realise the difference. They are still dealing with serious issues about coming out, acceptance, and society's attitude. In the West, other subjects are being dealt with – so the dynamic is very different from one country to another.

Pink Screens, until 19 November, various venues

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