GRATITUDE REPORT 2013 – 2014 You! with Gratitude
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ThankGRATITUDE REPORT 2013 – 2014 You! With Gratitude Inside Out For almost a quarter century Inside Out has brought our communities volunteers are the Life wouldn’t be together to celebrate our accomplishments, raise awareness of human best! Dedicated, the same without rights struggles for LGBT people around the world, and lose ourselves eager to help filmmakers. in entertaining tales of love, drama and imagination—all using the and awesome! Our history lost, transformative power of cinema, projected through a distinctly queer lens. our community weakened. Today, Inside Out presents the largest LGBT film festival in Canada and one of the top five in the world, theToronto LGBT Film Festival, as well as producing our sister festival in the Capital Region, the Ottawa LGBT Without Inside Out Film Festival. In addition, the organization is committed to the promotion of LGBT film year round members and donors, with our Four-Play Screening Series as well as providing financial support and educational opportunities to both emerging and established queer filmmakers. The screens would be documentaries blank and seats empty. We decided to name this booklet our Gratitude Report for two simple reasons: were outstanding Community and We would be nothing without you and we want to say THANK YOU! this year in Their commitment to corporate sponsors Toronto! LGBT arts and culture understand the value of In these pages we tried to capture some of the best memories of this past year to highlight our commitment to the LGBT community—moments filled with joyful laughter, solemn over the last 24 years is supporting LGBT film, arts and culture. Their tears and deep inspiration. Thank you for your support to Inside Out and for making these unrivaled in Canada. commitment to diversity magical moments happen for our community. helps strengthen I have been fortunate to lead Inside Out for more than half its lifetime. Over those dozen our social fabric. plus years, hundreds of artists, individuals, organizations and companies have contributed greatly to our success here at home and to our growing reputation as a cultural leader in the exhibition and promotion of LGBT film on the international stage. We are incredibly grateful to the hundreds of volunteers who commit their time and the donors, members, sponsors, Thank you for showing advertisers and funders who support Inside Out financially. the best of LGBT film As we head into our 25th Anniversary Year in 2015 with our brand new Strategic Plan in Ottawa. Inside Out Filmmakers document in hand, Inside Out is committed to enhancing our position as a vital and beloved cultural is a critical part of our LGBT history, connect institution for the LGBT community. The 25th Anniversary Toronto LGBT Film Festival will take the Capital Region’s the dots within our place from May 21 to 31, 2015 and will celebrate a quarter century of challenging attitudes and LGBT scene. community and challenge changing lives while looking forward to a future of continued growth and success. us to explore what it means to live and love with On behalf of everyone at Inside Out, I’d like to again offer our sincere thanks to everyone courage and dignity. who has helped us achieve this milestone anniversary. We wouldn’t be where we are today without all of you. Scott Ferguson Executive Director 2014 GRATITUDE REPORT 1 Our Commitment to Community Inside Out is important to me because it is one of the few artistic cultural spaces Inside Out’s mandate is to challenge attitudes and change lives through the exhibition, promotion and production of LGBT film. Our commitment to that mandate is evident in our outreach to, in Toronto where I can celebrate all of me. engagement with, and support of thousands in our communities, includes: I’m involved as an Inside Out Member Supporting Emerging and Established Filmmakers: Inside Out’s support of LGBT filmmakers for many reasons. The social aspects goes beyond presenting the work of more than 200 artists annually. We offer more than $26,000 in cash awards and grants to Canadian and international artists through Festival prizes such as keep me connected to the community. the $2,500 RBC Emerging Canadian Artist Award, the $2,000 EP Canada/CFC Award for I also like the political aspect of supporting Best Canadian Film and the Bill Sherwood Award for Best First Feature, valued at $1,750. The Inside Out OUTtv Post-Production Fund offers more than $7,000 in annual grants for creative voices that are often marginalized. artists to complete their films. In 2014, we are pleased to announce a new partnership with the Bell Media Harold Greenberg Fund to award a single $10,000 cash prize for the Inside Out Harold I feel that I am making a difference. Greenberg Short to Feature Award. LGBT film is important as it continues to Engaging the Diversity of our Communities: We are committed to engaging both the LGBT Alison Duke. and arts communities to deliver relevant and accessible programming. Our Toronto and Ottawa address the stigma and discrimination Festivals involve more than sixty organizations as co-presenters, curators, and partners on screenings and events. Throughout the year, Inside Out partners with approximately two-dozen that still exists towards the community. film festivals, arts events and community programs to co-present screenings and film-based LGBT films inspire me because the work events. is so great. We really have come a long Encouraging Youth Participation: Inside Out is committed to reaching out to the next generation of queer film lovers and providing them with access to films that resonate with their way. There are many LGBT filmmakers lives and experiences. Every year, we provide over 2,000 free tickets for youth and students to school boards, local Gay-Straight Alliances and youth organizations in southern Ontario and around the world who have become the Ottawa-Gatineau region. In addition, our Queer Video Mentorship Project and Youth vanguards of the medium, and it is Reporters program offers educational workshops and practical experience in video production and journalism. exciting we have a space where we can Promoting Volunteerism: Since its inception, Inside Out has been a volunteer-driven see the work together and celebrate organization that relies on the skills, commitment and passion of more than 210 volunteers annually. Beyond the 2,000+ volunteer hours committed during the Toronto and Ottawa the filmmakers as a community. Festivals, volunteers work tirelessly throughout the year, sitting on our Board of Directors, participating on committees and lending day-to-day support to our year-round operations. Alison Duke Inside Out Member, volunteer and filmmaker 2 2014 GRATITUDE REPORT 2014 GRATITUDE REPORT 3 I am involved as a volunteer to support As a filmmaker and as a lesbian, screening community organizations, to meet Tru Love at Toronto’s Women’s Gala and people and to be part of the community Ottawa’s Opening Night was profound. in doing so. Supporting Inside Out is To be recognized and honoured by Inside important to our community because it Out, by my own community and peers brings us together through our shared was life changing for me. It was a first experience and allows us to learn feature for both Shauna and I and the Gala about the experiences, challenges and brought our film into the public spotlight as victories of other members of the LGBTQ well as for us both as filmmakers. It also community around the world—bringing made me think my next film is possible! Andy Wang, right, with fellow LGBTQ films from around the world Shauna MacDonald, left, volunteer Mickey Cirak. and Kate Johnston. and Canada that I would otherwise Kate Johnston Co-director, Tru Love never have the opportunity to see. For the past 12 years, working with my I think it is very important to have a distinct fellow volunteers has been one of the forum for LGBT films. As progressive highlights of the Festival! Volunteers are an as we might think society has become, only a very small number of LGBT integral part of running the Festival and it Tru Love won the films get into mainstream festivals. would be impossible to do without them! Audience Award for LGBT festivals are essential to show Best Feature at the Andy Wang the variety and abundance of LGBT 2014 Toronto Festival Inside Out volunteer, emerging artist and high school teacher films, which can really be a “needle in with Kate and Shauna a haystack” at other festivals. Plus, it’s sharing the Emerging a wonderful way to build community. Canadian Artist Award sponsored by Shauna MacDonald RBC Royal Bank. Co-director and actor, Tru Love 4 2014 GRATITUDE REPORT 2014 GRATITUDE REPORT 5 2014 Toronto LGBT Film Festival “What a perfect way to start the Festival!” was heard repeatedly as the crowd left the Opening Gala screening of The Way He Looks, the feel good, award-winning Brazilian coming-of- age story about two high school boys who become friends and fall in love against all odds. It certainly didn’t hurt that the star of The Way He Looks, Fabio Audi, attended the Festival through Inside Out’s Artist Bursary Fund, and provided a charming Q&A discussion after the film, adding a fourth dimension to the film—as well as a few hundred new admirers. The Toronto Festival attracted our largest audiences to date and we are extremely proud of the calibre of our programming and the enhancements offered to create truly unique film-going experiences. With over 35,000 people attending the 2014 Toronto LGBT Film Festival, the 24th edition of Canada’s preeminent LGBT film festival was filled with 11 days of swooning, suspense, laughing, learning and tears, with such memorable Canadian and International Premieres such as Land of Storms, Love is Strange, Tru Love, The Foxy Merkins, No Easy Walk to Freedom, Kate Bornstein is a Queer & Pleasant Danger, Drunktown’s Finest, 52 Tuesdays, Yves Saint Laurent and so many more.