Canada.com/CityGuides/Montreal – John Griffin, The Gazette
“Has it really been a year since we last spoke about the festival?”
Image et Nation festival director Charlie Boudreau is on the phone, sharing a 21st-century moment about the warp-drive passage of time.
Yes, it’s been a year, more or less, and the 19th edition of Boudreau’s resilient celebration of same-sex film culture begins tonight and continues until Nov. 26 in three downtown locations, including a new home at the Imperial Cinema.
“We are very happy to be in the Imperial, which is really the most perfect venue in the city,” Boudreau affirms. “And we’re really happy to be there with the line-up we have this year. We had to wait until the last minute to lock up a few films we wanted, but it was worth it.”
There are spotlights all over the place this year, she continues. “We’ve got a Hispanic theme. Both our opening and closing films – Reinas (Queens) and 20 Centimetros (20 Centimetres) are from Spain, and we look at the new wave of Mexican cinema. They’re all very strong.”