Kick back and relax with some popcorn and a movie this semester at the Queer Student Center (QSC)!
The QSC has already begun hosting Movie “Nights” where they will feature lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and queer friendly films. The film series is scheduled to show films every other Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
The series kicked off with a comedy film titled Camp on Wednesday October 7 where “the turnout was great,” according to QSC coordinator Brandon Gorham.
The next film in the series is a drama produced by HBO titled Angels in America, which stars the dynamic cast of Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Jeffery Wright, and Marie-Louise Parker. The film is based on a play written by Tony Kushner, set in the 1980’s about the outbreak of AIDS in New York. The film is approximately 7 hours, so the first half of it will show Wednesday, October 20 and the second half will show Thursday, October 28. A comedy that deals with coming out of the closet, But I’m a Cheerleader will air on Wednesday November 3.
There are no film titles chosen after Cheerleader. However, this is where Gorham anticipates participation by the greater UMass community by providing their input. “Students can and should make requests of the films they want to see,” he stated. In fact, the students’ participation will “override my movie list,” Gorham said humorously.
Other film titles Gorham hopes to show are: Celluloid Closet, a film that documents gay Hollywood, Paris is Burning, a documentary about New York’s poor gay sex workers of color and Long Time Companion.
Film topics range from the humorous to the dark in nature so that the QSC holds true to its mission statement in “addressing a multitude of issues” by which to “educate the UMB campus community with relevance to issues of gender and sexuality as they pertain to LGBTQQ culture as a means of fostering understanding.” “We hope to show what it’s really like to be a LGBTQQ person,” added Gorham.
When asked about the humorous films, Gorham replied, “This is what people experience and laughter is how they get through it.”
Gorham expects that the film series will continue as “budgeting will allow it,” and is optimistic that it will make it through into the spring semester.
The Queer Student Center is located on the third floor of the Campus Center in the Student Life area. The phone number is 617-287-7983. The webgroup can be found on the internet at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/qsu_umb.