It feels like only yesterday when I was at the Astor for opening night of Melbourne Queer Film festival, however here I am 11 days later in attendance for Closing night. This years festival had so many highlights, including; opening night, the movies Spinnin’, Spider Lillies, Love my Life, the facebook group “Lisa Daniel’s groupies” (bought about by Lisa’s comment on opening night that she didn’t have enough groupies!).

This years festival also had a large amount of very interesting trans documentaries. Ticket sales for '08 surpassed those of previous years, making MQFF the most successful year ever, and proving that there is more demand for Queer and Arthouse movies and documentaries, and the community is willing to come out and support such high quality events.

Closing night had a more causal vibe to it then opening night; most people gathered downstairs in the bar, before being called into the theatre. The audience was then divided into two cinemas, cinema 2 held the speeches while cinema one had a video link. Closing night speeches were less lengthy then the opening night but Lisa Daniel was as humorous as ever.

XXY is a movie about Alex, a 15 year old hermaphrodite (born with both male and female genitals) who has been living as a girl, with her parents on a remote coast of Uruguay. It is made evident that the family has moved a fair bit to keep Alex’s secret private.

With the onset of puberty her parents have decided its time for Alex to make a decision about what gender she wants to be. Alex’s mum invites her friends; a plastic surgeon, his wife and 16 year old son Alvaro to come and live with them for a while, with the somewhat hidden agenda of discussing Alex as a possible patient. Alex isn’t interested in going under the knife, but also isn’t interested in keeping up with the hormones suppressing her male genes.

Alex and Alvaro become attracted to each other, but how will Alvaro react when he finds out about Alex’s secret? The movie was made very sensitively, and it never shows her parts, mearly the confusion that confronts her situation. It shows the love and acceptance from her family, who have to deal with a situation that they barely understand themselves. This movie is very intense and Ines Efron (Alex) does a wonderful job of pulling off such a bold but sensitive role.

This is one of those movies that make you continue to think about it long after you have left the theatre.

After the movie it was back downstairs to the after party. Everyone got a free drink upon presentation of their ticket. The room was packed but everyone was there to have a good night, and it was a great way to end a brilliant festival.

Tags: MQFF