Wicked Queer LGBT Film Festival

Shawn Cotter the new Executive Director of Wicked Queer Boston's LGBT Film Festival talks to Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ about its 35th year bringing the latest in queer cinema from across the globe and runs from March 28th to April 7th. There are over 169 features and shorts participating in this year’s film festival with 7 premieres, 2 world premieres and 5 U.S. premieres. Opening night on Thursday March 28th will feature Ellen Smit's lighthearted Dutch romance “Just Friends” at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts at 7:30P followed by an opening night party at Beat Brew Hall in Harvard Square. With this being the 50th anniversary of Stonewall there will also be a special emphasis on our LGBTQ history addressing those who made it and looking forward to our future with Wicked Queer Throwbacks revisiting some of the classics of queer cinema. There will also be an abundance of lesbian and transgender feature and short films. The closing night film will be “The Heiresses” (Las Herederas) on Saturday April 6th at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA at 7P co-presented by Boston Latino International Film Festival, LatinX Pride and The Theatre Offensive with an after-party at Serafina in Downtown Boston. We talked to Shawn about the importance of the Wicked Queer Film Festival in the current political climate and his spin on our LGBT issues.

When asked how he sees our LGBTQ community moving forward in this Trump administration Cotter stated, “I feel like our history and our identities are being slowly erased and eroded. We fought so long for different rights, marriage equality, LGBT people in the military, trying to get workers rights, all of those kind of things are slowly being eroded by our government. So I feel like what is on us is to take back to the community, the local community and build support and grow and get strong because we have a fight ahead of us. You know nothing is easily won or easily gained. We still have a bit to go…”

Since coming on board to the film festival in 2011 Shawn has had many roles in the operations of Wicked Queer. He started as a location manager and then served as Operations Manager and Director of Programming before taking his most recent position as Executive Director. Cotter is also an experimental handmade filmmaker whose Super 8mm films have shown internationally. Wicked Queer runs from March 28th to April 7th with screenings at the Museum of Fine Arts, The Brattle Theatre and The Paramount Theater at Emerson College.
For Info & Tix: wickedqueer.org

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