Now in its 11th year, the Fairytales Film Festival, with its focus on queer cinema, has grown into a Calgary institution

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Last year, when the Calgary Fairytales Film Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary, festival director Matt Salton complained of certain businesses not allowing them to put up posters, claiming they “didn’t support that kind of thing.” To Salton, it was proof that, for whatever social progress we might have made, the “conservative heartland of Canada” was still living up to its reputation. Still, if he was discouraged, it didn’t show. Going into its 11th year, Fairytales is now the second largest film festival in Calgary, screening 90 films over its week-long run.

“The first festival [in 1998] was at the old Garry Theatre in Inglewood, and it was started by a small group of individuals, including Kevin Alan, whose husband is the festival board president, and has been for quite a few years,” says Salton. “So Kevin still looks over the festival as a guardian angel, if you will. And yeah, it’s grown from a weekend at the Garry to a full week of gay delights.”

Despite the homophobia that’s plagued the festival in the past, Salton says the concerns of queer filmmakers have gradually turned away from issues of civil rights and sexual identity, and toward more universal themes of life, family and identity more generally. Part of this, he thinks, is because the younger generation of filmmakers hasn’t had to fight for civil rights in the same way that previous generations have, so their identification with the old sexual archetypes of the larger gay community (GLBTQ) has diminished considerably. But this, he says, is progress.

“I think it’s great — I’m personally sick of seeing the same stories told time and time again,” says Salton. “I think we’ve gotten past those stories. While the coming-out story is always important to the community — especially to the youth, because they like to see how you come out to family and friends — the more sophisticated audience is over that hump and is ready to move on. They don’t want something about sexuality, they want something about the human condition.”

Keeping with its general expansion in content, this year’s festival will emphasize the promotion of Two-Spirit films and filmmakers. For the uninitiated, the phrase “Two-Spirited” refers to a specific sort of sexual identity prevalent in aboriginal cultures where both a male and female spirit are said to inhabit the same body. In tribal cultures, the Two-Spirit people were revered, but through the influence of European colonialism, they’ve had to struggle with much of the same homophobic societal baggage as other North Americans.

Many Two-Spirit films will be screened throughout the festival, though Salton has also organized

an event called “The Secret Weapons Manifesto Panel Discussion,” on June 2. There, festival organizers

will sit down with visiting Two-

Spirit filmmakers and draft a document to be signed by a variety of production and distribution companies, saying they’ll do what they can to increase the visibility of Two-Spirit filmmakers.

It’s a noble goal, if a bit vague. Still, if the festival’s incredible growth of the past 11 years is any indication, visibility and community support can be the foundations of success.