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    GCAC Presents: Sneak Peek of The Columbus International Film + Video Festival

    What does Brothers Drake Mead, recycling, sex workers and people with disabilities have in common? They are all featured in films at the 62ndt Columbus International Film + Video Festival. Shorts, features, narratives, documentaries and even a poetic tale depicting current events through a merger with reality are featured in the longest running film festival in the US. The Festival, which starts November 13th runs through November 25th.

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    This year the Festival teams up with Stonewall Columbus, VSA Ohio – The State Organization on Arts and Disability, Simply Living, and the Niagara Foundation to bring films not seen anywhere else in Columbus.

    First to Fall, showing during this year's Columbus International Film + Video Festival.
    First to Fall, showing during this year’s Columbus International Film + Video Festival.

    The main Festival starts November 13th with an opening reception at 6:30pm and a film screening at 7:00pm at the Gateway Film Center with a film about sex and disability from Australia. Scarlet Road follows the extraordinary work of Australian sex worker, Rachel Wotton. Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression and the rights of sex workers, she specializes in a long over-looked clientele – people with disability. Director and Star Rachel Wotton will speak about the film and do a q+a immediately after the film via Skype.

    On Saturday, November 15 at 10am, the Festival turns 180 degrees and offers Saturday Morning Cartoons For Kids at the Canzani Center at the Columbus College of Art & Design.

    LGBT Shorts start next on Sunday at Studio 35 Cinema & Drafthouse as part of the LGBTFEST imbedded in the CIF+VF, a festival within the festival.

    Next is Shorts at Brothers Drake Meadery and then back to CCAD for a documentary about a social movement of Sufi inspired Sunni Muslims that began in Turkey in the l960s and now reaches across the globe. Sponsored by the Niagara Foundation, Love Is a Verb is an interesting look at Islam most Americans never see.

    Thursday night is Student Shorts at CCAD at 8pm, curated by Matt and Nicolette Swift. Friday night is another LGBTFEST presentation that includes visiting filmmaker Michael Lucas speaking after his film that focuses on LGBT rights in Russia where oppression is both common and horrifying.

    Saturday, November 22nd is the big Movies+Mead evening that includes the Best Of Festival Winner, First To Fall. First To Fall is an intimate tale of friendship and revolution – a coming of age story that documents the journey of two young friends, Hamid (26) and Tarek (21), who abandon their peaceful lives as students in Canada to join an unconventional war in their homeland of Libya. After the film is a short awards ceremony where filmmakers from around the world receive their Chris Awards and party afterward with the event attendees. First To Fall director Rachel Beth Anderson will introduce her film and will attend the reception afterward where you can talk to her about the film.

    Screenings continue Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and are still in the process of being scheduled. You don’t want to miss this. Check out the Festival website for the latest screenings and details as that more films are being added all the time.

    GCAC Presents is a bi-weekly column brought to you by the Greater Columbus Arts Council – supporting art and advancing culture in Columbus – in partnership with the Columbus Arts Marketing Association, a professional development and networking association of arts marketers. Each column will be written by a different local arts organization to give you an insiders look at the arts in Columbus.

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