2008 Woodie Awards
Q-Fest brings love to Humboldt State
David Garrison
Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: Campus
- Page 1 of 1
Assassins, tattoo artists and homeless teenagers headlined Q-Fest this year.
All three were main characters in films at the Qross Qultural Film Festival. This year, Q-Fest featured nine movies and keynote speaker Amber Sharp. Sharp is a writer and director with a project underway for a TV series called, "Don't Go." It focuses on the dynamics of tenants in a four-plex apartment in Los Angeles. The pilot show includes a transgender woman and a mix of gay people. The show helps shed gay stereotypes and shines a light on people who are rarely represented in the media.
Marylyn Paik-Nicely, director of the MultiCultural Center at Humboldt State University, said that the movies featured at Q-Fest this year aimed to do the same. To do that, the organizers of Q-Fest grounded the films with a theme that most people can relate to - love.
"The struggles that people have with love [are] universal," Paik-Nicely said.
Room 118 in Founders Hall at Humboldt State looked like the inside of a movie theatre last Saturday. Organizers set up a concession stand with candy, snacks, hot chocolate and tea just inside the door. Organizers set everything at a cost of 75 cents. Some people bought snacks, but Paik-Nicely had her own idea.
As the festival wound down, she started to hand stuff out for free. First she gave away free tea. At the end of "Spider Lilly's," a film about a lesbian couple in China who expressed their love through a blog, Paik-Nicely handed out truffles for free. Free chocolate and an environment that welcomes everyone is a tradition at Q-Fest.
The movie festival begins each year with the chocolate reception. As one of the founders of Q-Fest, Paris Adkins helped organize the first chocolate reception. Organizers held it before they showed the first film, "Chocolate Babies," a film about African-American gay activists in New York.
Adkins graduated from Humboldt State in 2005. She drove all the way from Oakland to attend this year's Q-Fest. "It's my baby," she said.
The first Q-Fest she helped organize in 2003 had to compete with the Iraq War protest. Adkins said that not many people attended the film festival that year. The only people there to watch the films were the people who helped put it together. In the end, she decided it didn't matter.
"We're here for love and support of each other," she said, "if that happens with two people, that's fine."
When Adkins co-founded Q-Fest, she considered herself straight. That year, not many people showed up. Adkins sees the large turnout for the event this year as positive for the queer community and herself. The count of people in attendance ranged from a low 20 to a high of 65. That kind of support is a good thing for Adkins, who came out two years ago.
"Now that I am out," she said, "it's beautiful that people are here for me."
Movies are a venue that allow audiences to see the completeness in all people, said Porscha Cobbs, a major in sociology with a minor in ethnic studies and multicultural queer studies. She is one of the organizers for the event this year. When it comes to issues of sexuality and race she said, it is important that people have an open venue to discuss difficult themes.
"People can have different opinions about the films," she said, "and that's okay."
Cobbs chose the films for this year's Q-Fest not because they are gay films, but because they showcase people who are in love. These people are gay, she said, but that doesn't define them. The goal of the movies is to humanize gay people, to help break down the stereotypes that society has assigned to them and reveal the people who exist beneath the labels.
To associate the word queer with Q-Fest may seem negative, but Paik-Nicely sees it as a good thing. Gay, lesbian, transgender and bi-sexual people don't use the word to define who they are. This generation has reclaimed the word, she said. They have united under the word "queer."
Like the founders from the MultiCultural Center at Humboldt State, who started Q-Fest as an event that includes everyone, the open use of the word queer is a way to break down stereotypes and unite people.
Q-Fest will continue to do that through movies about love, compassion and the universal struggle for what it means to be human. Paik-Nicely already has a few movies lined up for next year.
"I hope people will see them," she said.
David Garrison can be reached at dlg32@humboldt.edu
All three were main characters in films at the Qross Qultural Film Festival. This year, Q-Fest featured nine movies and keynote speaker Amber Sharp. Sharp is a writer and director with a project underway for a TV series called, "Don't Go." It focuses on the dynamics of tenants in a four-plex apartment in Los Angeles. The pilot show includes a transgender woman and a mix of gay people. The show helps shed gay stereotypes and shines a light on people who are rarely represented in the media.
Marylyn Paik-Nicely, director of the MultiCultural Center at Humboldt State University, said that the movies featured at Q-Fest this year aimed to do the same. To do that, the organizers of Q-Fest grounded the films with a theme that most people can relate to - love.
"The struggles that people have with love [are] universal," Paik-Nicely said.
Room 118 in Founders Hall at Humboldt State looked like the inside of a movie theatre last Saturday. Organizers set up a concession stand with candy, snacks, hot chocolate and tea just inside the door. Organizers set everything at a cost of 75 cents. Some people bought snacks, but Paik-Nicely had her own idea.
As the festival wound down, she started to hand stuff out for free. First she gave away free tea. At the end of "Spider Lilly's," a film about a lesbian couple in China who expressed their love through a blog, Paik-Nicely handed out truffles for free. Free chocolate and an environment that welcomes everyone is a tradition at Q-Fest.
The movie festival begins each year with the chocolate reception. As one of the founders of Q-Fest, Paris Adkins helped organize the first chocolate reception. Organizers held it before they showed the first film, "Chocolate Babies," a film about African-American gay activists in New York.
Adkins graduated from Humboldt State in 2005. She drove all the way from Oakland to attend this year's Q-Fest. "It's my baby," she said.
The first Q-Fest she helped organize in 2003 had to compete with the Iraq War protest. Adkins said that not many people attended the film festival that year. The only people there to watch the films were the people who helped put it together. In the end, she decided it didn't matter.
"We're here for love and support of each other," she said, "if that happens with two people, that's fine."
When Adkins co-founded Q-Fest, she considered herself straight. That year, not many people showed up. Adkins sees the large turnout for the event this year as positive for the queer community and herself. The count of people in attendance ranged from a low 20 to a high of 65. That kind of support is a good thing for Adkins, who came out two years ago.
"Now that I am out," she said, "it's beautiful that people are here for me."
Movies are a venue that allow audiences to see the completeness in all people, said Porscha Cobbs, a major in sociology with a minor in ethnic studies and multicultural queer studies. She is one of the organizers for the event this year. When it comes to issues of sexuality and race she said, it is important that people have an open venue to discuss difficult themes.
"People can have different opinions about the films," she said, "and that's okay."
Cobbs chose the films for this year's Q-Fest not because they are gay films, but because they showcase people who are in love. These people are gay, she said, but that doesn't define them. The goal of the movies is to humanize gay people, to help break down the stereotypes that society has assigned to them and reveal the people who exist beneath the labels.
To associate the word queer with Q-Fest may seem negative, but Paik-Nicely sees it as a good thing. Gay, lesbian, transgender and bi-sexual people don't use the word to define who they are. This generation has reclaimed the word, she said. They have united under the word "queer."
Like the founders from the MultiCultural Center at Humboldt State, who started Q-Fest as an event that includes everyone, the open use of the word queer is a way to break down stereotypes and unite people.
Q-Fest will continue to do that through movies about love, compassion and the universal struggle for what it means to be human. Paik-Nicely already has a few movies lined up for next year.
"I hope people will see them," she said.
David Garrison can be reached at dlg32@humboldt.edu
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