liz-crowley
Council Member Elizabeth Crowley.
By Orla O’Sullivan
letters@irishecho.com
After opening the CRAIC LGBT Film Festival in the Irish Consulate last Friday, Consul General Barbara Jones returned to the mike to emphasize that the gathering should not be construed as support for next month’s historic referendum in Ireland to legalize same-sex marriage.
“Anna, Fiona and I, and the rest of the consulate staff would have to go to Ulan Bator [Mongolia] and eat salt if this was in any way understood as an endorsement by the consulate of the referendum,” Jones said. “Please understand that this is a cultural gathering.”
Jones’s footnote followed remarks by Noel Sutton, director of the annual lesbian, bi-sexual, gay and transgender (LGBT) film festival in Ireland, GAZE and by New York City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley.
Sutton urged the 60 or so attendees at the reception and screening to, “send a strong signal… by asking the people you know to come out and vote yes” in the referendum.
On May 22, “Ireland will be the first country in the world to hold a referendum on marriage equality,” he added.
Crowley alluded to the longstanding conflict over whether to allow marchers in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade walk under LGBT banners. “I can’t wait to see what next year’s St. Patrick’s Day will look like, I hope it’s more inclusive,” said the Queens councilwoman.
She added that she’s one of very few women on the New York City Council and, as one of 15 children, “I learned how to fight for what I believe in.” Jimmy Van Bremen the openly gay Majority Leader of the New York City Council was expected to attend the event, now in its fifth year.
However, Terence Mulligan, founder of The Craic Festival, told the Echo that Van Bremen had a scheduling conflict.
The LGBT films are now one of three components of The Craic Festival, comprised of the main festival of feature films and live music every March, the LGBT festival in April and a shorts’ festival, called the Wee Craic, in September. As yet, the LGBT films are not shown in a movie theatre but Mulligan said he hopes next year to have them included in the Tribeca Film Festival.
This year, five films—all by student film makers—were sent over by Dublin’s GAZE Film Festival organizers to be shown in the Consulate.
GAZE comprises dozens of films and attracts almost 9,000 people every August, its director, Sutton, said. “The festival was founded in 1993, the same year homosexuality was decriminalized in Ireland,” he added.
Leanne Byrne from Dublin, who directed one of this year’s Craic LGBT films, traveled to New York with her girlfriend, Níle Byrne from Lurgan, Co. Armagh for the occasion. Byrne’s film, “Me First” was a work of fiction created by a crew that worked for food: her granny’s Irish stew.
Not that Byrne’s “nana,” who raised her, took well to her coming out. “You’re not a f****** lesbian!” she responded, adding, in reference to a gay couple next door, “Is it running in the water?!” But, Byrne said, “She came around in a couple of weeks.”
The Craic LGBT film documentaries included “Becoming Kinky.” It showcases a young man from a small town in the Midlands who describes his path from Birr, Co. Offaly, (population: 6,000) to becoming a drag queen called Kinky. All the while he is speaking to the camera he is putting on his make-up.
“She does things I would never do and she says things I would never say. Kinky gets away with murder.” And then Kinky steps into the spotlight and up on stage.
