Our series of brief interviews continues with feature and short filmmakers from the upcoming NewFest 2007: The 19th NY LGBT Film Festival - May 31-June 10. Visit newfest.org for more information, including full program, schedule, and ticketing details.

FILM TITLE: The Birthday

DIRECTOR: Negin Kianfar & Daisy Mohr

SCREENING: Friday, June 8

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker and where you are based.
Negin Kianfar, female, born at 1969, and based in Tehran, I made presented and produced several radio and TV programs for state television in Iran and also made research and produced programs for Dutch television. I'm also dubbing actress for films and tv series as freelance for 18 years. I do painting and participated in several art exhibitions.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
I am a dreamer and storyteller. I love cinema and grown up with it's magic and found it the best way to express myself.

I made many short films in school, My first film was DARK DEEP BLUE(16mm) and THE BIRTHDAY was the first long documentary.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
Even in a tough male dominant society like Iran a free man decides to be a woman.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
Tarzan

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
NEWFEST 2007.I've never participated in any gay lesbian film festival since it doesn't exist in my country and to be a gay or lesbian is a crime.The Birthday is my first experience related to this matter.

FILM TITLE: Tan Lines

DIRECTOR: Ed Aldridge

SCREENING: Friday, June 8 & Sunday, June 10

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
Name: Ed Aldridge...Location: London...Profession: Broke filmmaker

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
I've been making weird little videos since the age of 10. I've made lots of shorts, some TV and produced some porn (when I was completely broke)...Tan Lines is my first feature

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
Tan Lines tells the story of Midget Hollows, a teenaged surfer, and his coming-of-age in an off-beat coastal town.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
I wanted to explore a young person’s coming-to-terms with his own, individual sexuality. I had no intention of presenting a global view of the gay experience or of the ‘gay surfer’. This is one character’s, one person’s own unique perversity...

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
Peter Pan

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
A Beautiful Thing

FILM TITLE: Shahram and Abbas

DIRECTOR: Remy van Heugten

SCREENING: Friday, June 8 (preceding The Birthday)

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
My name is Remy van Heugten, I’m 31 years old, Director, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
First wanting to become a journalist, I discovered filmmaking quite late. From documentary cameraman I moved on to directing fiction. This because, I love telling the stories myself, socially engaged, entertaining with a comical note.
I’ve made the Student Academy Award nominated (honorary foreign film) short “About Roses” (Over Rozen) and several series for television.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
Shahram & Abbas is a tragicomedy about two Iranian men who decide to pretend being a gay couple. This in order to get political asylum in Holland. Still, for lonely adventurer Shahram and serious journalist Abbas it will be a great struggle to keep their cover-up to the end.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
Having made several portraits for TV about refugees in Holland, Luuk van Bemmelen, the scriptwriter told me he discovered several stories about this extreme disguise in the newspaper.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
ET, I was scared as hell for this little creature. Staring at night to the opening of my bedroomdoor, frightened he would enter.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
Pasolini’s Salo.

FILM TITLE: Heart

DIRECTOR: David Quantic

SCREENING: Friday, June 8 (preceding Laughing Matters… The Men)

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
David Quantic. I'm a full time freelance filmmaker in Los Angeles.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
I took my first film class at Film/Video Arts in downtown Manhattan in 1998 while living there and working as a freelance photographer. I've written and directed 9 short films including 3 I made in film school.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
HEART is a karaoke fantasia. A bad karaoke singer imagines himself inside a cheesy karaoke video for a song by the rock band Heart.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
I sometimes do karaoke and I think it is funny when guys sing songs originally written for women.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
Disney's FANTASIA.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
Merchant Ivory's MAURICE.

FILM TITLE: Family Reunion

DIRECTOR: Isold Uggadottir

SCREENING: Friday, June 8 & Saturday, June 9 (in shorts program Close Encounters)

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
My name is Isold Uggadottir and I’m an Icelandic filmmaker based in New York City. I came to the US in 2001 to attend graduate school at NYU and from there became an assistant editor at Partisan Pictures, a documentary production company in NYC. I was eventually promoted to editor and currently work as a freelancer.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
Family Reunion is the first film I’ve directed. I nevertheless have been running around with a video camera since I can remember. My little sister has been a popular documentary subject and as we speak I am editing a short piece on her, to screen at her graduation party. I have always been obsessed with telling people’s stories.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
Family Reunion is a whimsical tale of an Icelandic woman struggling to come out to her relatives in Iceland. She, herself, is in for a surprise.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
A few years ago I was at an uncle’s 70th birthday party in the Icelandic country-side. Everyone was singing and dancing to old Icelandic tunes. It dawned on me that this would be the perfect setting for a film. (I had been wanting to make a real one forever) Everyone also kept asking me whether or not I was going to have children and a family. In short: I was inspired.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
The Icelandic “Jón Oddur and Jón Bjarni” was in my 6-year old mind, an amazing film. It also took place in my grandmother’s neighborhood so my brother and I were determined to go meet the lead characters after the film was over, considering that they lived on grandma’s block.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
It must have been Boys Don’t Cry. Mind you, I lived on an island in the north Atlantic so I had some catching up to do once I moved to NYC.

FILM TITLE: Hollow Bones

DIRECTOR: Nicholas Verso

SCREENING: Friday, June 8 & Saturday, June 9 (in shorts program Close Encounters)

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
Nicholas Verso. Pretty much filmmaking full time now (finally!) but also DJ.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
I've always loved films and been pretty obsessive about them since I was a kid so I guess it was inevitable. My first film was a short version of Lord of the Flies I made in year 10 with a lot of fake blood and a real pigs head. Tasty. Since then I've made about 5 shorts, 10 music videos and a very low budget feature film.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
Sick girl meets scary girl. They bond over death.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
The film was written by Rachel Bowen. She had this image of a teenage girl with an eye patch who believed she could talk to birds. It all fell into place from there.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
E.T. I still cry whenever I watch it.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
Hmm.. Well the first time I saw 2 guys kiss on screen was during In Bed With Madonna. Just call me a walking cliché.

FILM TITLE: Long Ago

DIRECTOR: Christy Wegener

SCREENING: Friday, June 8 & Saturday, June 9 (in shorts program Close Encounters)

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
Christy Wegener. Filmmaker/writer living in Los Angeles.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
I grew up in Kansas, a fairly uniform, what you see is what you get atmosphere. I became bored with that environment fairly quickly. Films provided insight into seemingly more interesting places and experiences. Now, I realize that Kansas is a unique little culture in itself, with an infinite number of stories to draw from.

I segued into filmmaking from writing, a form that I love, but one that can occasionally feel like a blue print for a project that begs for a larger scale and forum.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
A hairstyle that won't go away mirrors the difficulty of moving on after a romance has ended.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
As a kid with curly hair, I was slightly envious of the flexibility endowed to the straight-haired kids.
That changed upon a series of rattail/mullet sightings. I realized that my curly hair would likely never suffer such unfortunate mishaps. Rattails, although not exactly extinct, appear less frequently these days. I spotted one on Sunset Boulevard -- a parking lot attendant. I was fascinated and inspired. So, I decided that it would be fun to use a re-occurring fashion faux pas as a symbolic device in order to comment on the difficulty that arises when trying to move past a failed relationship.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
Tootsie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and the Sound of Music with Julie Andrews.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
The Legend of Billie Jean.

FILM TITLE: Private Life

DIRECTOR: Abbe Robinson

SCREENING: Friday, June 8 & Saturday, June 9 (in shorts program Close Encounters)

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
I’m Abbe Robinson from Bradford, United Kingdom. I’m a Writer/Director, and I also work as a 1st Assistant Director. I work mostly in the North of England and like many aspiring filmmakers I sometimes have an office job to pay the bills!! I’m also just about to start lecturing in Film production at a local college.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
I’ve always been interested in the arts and was initially going to study theatre directing at university but when I was 15 I made a short film about bullying with a group of other young people and that really gave me the bug for film making. I’ve gone on to make about 10 short films, the last two were commissioned by the UK Film Council and Screen Yorkshire.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
Private Life is drama about the lives of gay people in the North of England in the 1950’s, centering on the story of Ruth, a young woman who works in her Father’s textile mill, who finds a surprising way to lead a double life…

Where did the idea for your film come from?
I read a book on the history of Gay and Lesbian life in Britain and in particular was interested in a section about mill workers who traveled to another city to be anonymous and to get involved in the underground gay scene. The story then evolved from that idea but is purely fictional. I'm also very interested in historical dramas and love the idea of recreating a past era on film.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
ET in a smoky cinema with my grandmother. I was about 4 years old and clutching an ET
soft toy which she had made for me.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
Oranges are not the Only Fruit (TV Drama)

FILM TITLE: Sugar in the Blood

DIRECTOR: Peter Saller

SCREENING: Friday, June 8 & Saturday, June 9 (in shorts program Close Encounters)

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
Peter Saller, full-time film editor, based in Berlin/Germany.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
Being able to tell a good, worthwhile, compelling story is really what fascinates me. To bring the audience all kinds of emotions, thoughts and memories is what always attracted me to making films. Before Sugar I made 2 short films (that I am no longer showing :) - you could say that Sugar in the Blood is my (lesbian) short film debut.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
Sugar in the Blood is a tragic comedy about a girl who thinks that having an affair and getting caught in-the-act will stop her girlfriend from cheating on her. Difficult sentence-structure, I know, but you wanted it short. She eventually finds out that cheating is not for everyone...

Where did the idea for your film come from?
Guess...! :) No, it's not something I have gone through personally. I had this image in my head of a woman who is trying to pick up a girl in a park just like a guy would do it. I thought that the idea had comic value and built the story around it. Later when the film was finished and I watched it with a free head, of course I found elements in it that could have come from straight out of my life... Strange thing, films.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
Some black and white vampire movie that traumatized me forever. My dad wanted to make me resistant against horror films.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
I think Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I was maybe 20 and I didn't know what a drag queen was... I loved it.