(Waterloo, Canada) - The Rainbow Reels Film Festival starts this Friday with an unusual movie about a pill that can turn gay people straight. The film, Hard Pill, examines what it means to be gay in a predominantly straight society - a theme that runs through the weekend-long queer film festival.
"The idea is to raise awareness and tolerance around queer issues in this area," said Martin Krall of the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group, which organized the seventh annual festival.
"In smaller communities like ours, there are not as many queer events that reach out to the community."
Six films will be screened during the three-day festival, culminating with a speech and discussion period about the history of queer cinema.
The second film on Friday night, Summer Storm, explores the powerful and often conflicting emotions of adolescent boys and girls at summer camp.
The final film to be screened Sunday afternoon will be Transparent, about female-to-male transsexuals who have given birth and raised children.
All screenings will be held in room 1015 of the University of Waterloo's Centre for Environment and Information Technology.
Admission is free but donations will be accepted to fund next year's festival.
A full schedule of screenings is available at www.rainbowreels.org [4]
