GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival has begun for 2024, and over the next few days, it will deliver the usual mix of the essential and emotional, the taboo and transgressive in queer cinema. Taboo is a spicy but vital ingredient in any cinematic stew, a window into the parts of us that are certainly there but that we might not like to see. A selection of shorts at GAZE 2024 will show those sides from uncomfortable but essential angles, including films by Ireland’s own Oonagh Kearney, and newcomer Ian Fallon.
From maligned pleasure seekers to disruptive activists, this programme dives deep into an array of subjects that remain risqué within the queer community today. GAZE assistant programmer James Hudson has assembled seven short films to lay bare our blind spots, reminding us of who is left out when we only stay in the realms of polite conversation. One of many thoughtfully considered selections of shorts at GAZE, Taboo takes place on Sunday 4th August, presented by the Gay Health Network.
“Since starting with GAZE I’ve always tried to push for films that are kind of underrepresented in queer film festivals, particularly thrillers, horrors, sci-fi, fantasy, and generally films that are more intense or bizarre. Real Gregg Araki, John Waters shit. Because alongside programmes on queer and trans joy, there is also a need for programmes that focus on queer and trans pain, anger, fear and catharsis. These are real things we go through, and the vast majority of people who come to these fringe films come out of them feeling excited and invigorated by a kind of queer art they didn’t know was being made today.”
James Hudson, Assistant Programmer GAZE
Ian Fallon’s AMOEBA is one such invigorating offering. An IADT-alum, Fallon’s short documentary Poulaphouca premiered at the 67th Cork International Film Festival and won the Best Irish Documentary at the 2023 Story International Student Documentary Festival. Also in 2023, Ian won the Youth Music Video Competition for his music video for Nightmares by Paddy Hanna.
This year the writer and director continues to impress, as he’s been named as one of the recipients of the GAZE professional development scheme starGAZE. Fallon will be receiving festival access and professional mentoring, alongside fellow starGAZE cohorts Philip Emo, Alba Fernandez, Ian Fallon, Hiram Harrington, Pradeep Mahadeshwar and Liadán Roche, all while his grad short AMOEBA hits the festival circuit.
Hudson describes Fallon’s film as an “evil inversion of the gay coming of age story”, a film for young queers who are repressed, frustrated and terminally horny. In the film, brain-eating parasites, homoerotic violence and GAA lads come to a head after a young queer man becomes convinced his unrequited crush kissed him while drunk.
Ahead of the festival, we spoke with Fallon to talk about the progression and transgression in his short AMOEBA.
So how did the premise and the production of AMOEBA come together?
I wrote this over three years. I had started off writing it for someone else to direct, and then after a year I was two or so drafts in I asked him, would he mind if I had this for myself. It was originally a completely different story. It was much more about friendship, it was between 2 girls, the vibe was very different. When I decided that I was going to be the director, that was when it became what it is, this queer story about unrequited love and all the frustrations and pains that go with that.
What made the shape of the story change after you decided to direct?
It definitely became more personal after I decided that I was going to direct. I was trying to write draft three along the same lines about friendship. But I considered the idea of switching it from two girls and about friendship to two boys and a queer, not masochistic relationship, but this tug of war. There was an unrequited infatuation between them, and that was just so much more electric to me, I could feel in my body that this is what I wanted to do. I had so much more history to pull from and personal experiences to pull from, to inspire things… In my normal life, I’m not an angry, outspoken, loud individual. I’m quite the opposite, so it was very liberating to revel in the anger that these situations can cause.
It can be humiliating and embarrassing to be honest and raw, to tell someone you really like them. You’re so annoyed if they don’t like you back. I’ve never attacked someone with a hurl or had them attacked me, but I’ve definitely felt like doing it!
Is there a lot of freedom in being able to explore those taboo emotions and reactions?
Definitely, but at the same time, it’s a very different experience watching a film like this in an audience. When I watch AMOEBA by myself, I recognize all its flaws and everything, but I still feel I can revel in that anger. Watching with an audience it can be more embarrassing, just because it’s so honest and it’s so angry and it’s…not baring my soul, but in a way it kind of is.
Elements of that can maybe be seen in the characters, they’re channeling embarrassment and shame, into anger and aggression.
Internalised homophobia is very much a theme in the film, which is probably something every single gay on the planet deals with. The film really explodes out of internalized homophobia, the whole idea of the brain eating amoeba was about that self-hatred, Levi is chasing something that obviously isn’t good for him. He knows this guy is wrong for him, but he can’t help but chase him, that’s a very relatable feeling I think.
One thing that’s striking about the film is the ways that contrasting feelings are shown, there are fights that look erotic, there are intimate moments that look violent. How do you create those contrasts visually?
In a way that’s the language that’s been established for a lot of darker queer stories, that when it comes to sex and fighting, there’s a very blurry line. It’s almost a joke at this point that for men to start kissing in films, they have to tussle and wrestle, then there’s that pause and they’ll go into it. I was pulling from all those references, films like Xavier Dolan’s Tom at the Farm, where there’s that sexual tension and the violence is so homoerotic, I’m really glad that came through.
Having started this project focused on writing, how much do you feel you’ve developed on the other side of it as a director?
It’s tough to say because it was so intertwined with college, but it was leaps and bounds. It was definitely a long shoot, I live nearby where we filmed and I was rocking up on set around like 7:00 AM and then leaving at 9 or 10pm – which was not the crew hours! They were coming later and leaving earlier than I was. Working with the crew, Thomas Purdy our producer, they were all fantastic.
You’re learning every day, I hadn’t directed nudity before. I hadn’t directed intimate scenes, or scenes as crowded say as the spin the bottle scene here. That had a lot of moving parts going on, and you’re the one working with the extras and everything, because on a student film there’s no such thing as a third AD.
Has it been challenging to share this story with audiences? Having shown it a few times and now taking it to GAZE and other festivals, has it been possible to build a sense of trust with audiences?
It’s even worse every time! No, with GAZE especially I have more of a trust. There have been times that I’ve watched it with the audience and felt, that it isn’t the right film for them. It’s sometimes hard to tell. whether it’s connecting, whereas as soon as I walked into the programme launch for GAZE and I met James Hudson the shorts programmer, I could tell he got it, it connected straight away. Sometimes you don’t feel that as much at a different festival that’s maybe less catered towards the content.
How excited are you for GAZE, to be showing the film and attending the festival in general?
I’m so excited. It’s a festival. I’ve been aware of for a few years, but I feel like I’ve never had the right film to submit until now, so with AMOEBA, screening in a programme like Taboo, it’s so much fun.
I was very lucky to be selected for starGAZE, that’s opened up all the doors of the festival. I’ll be there every day, seeing as much as I can with that opportunity and going to like the Cafe Au GAZE, hopefully meeting as many people as I can and seeing if they’ll watch my film too! It’s the most excited for a festival yet.
Unsanitised and uncompromising, AMOEBA is an intriguingly uncomfortable short, in fine company in the GAZE TABOO strand. It and six other shorts screen from 2.30pm on Sunday 4th August at the IFI and tickets are available HERE.
If TABOO is up your alley, James Hudson also recommends the RESISTANCE shorts:
It’s very much a sister block in terms of confronting the gritty, unsung parts of the queer community. TABOO is about the people we’re being told to leave behind, and RESISTANCE is about fighting back against that fascist message.