Podcast Talk: Dan Pal on the ‘Queer Bits Film Festival’ in Chicago on June 17, 2017

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CHICAGO – June is Pride Month, a celebration of LGBTQ liberation, and all other forms of orientation and gender liberation. What began as a gay and trans rights flashpoint on a June night in 1969, during the push back riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, has become a month-long commemoration of the evolution in identity rights and freedoms. An event in Chicago associated with Pride Month is the annual “Queer Bits Film Festival” – a short film program at the Pride Arts Center on North Broadway on June 17th, 2017 at 7:30pm – that showcases the best of Queer cinema from around the world. The festival producers are Shaun Baer and Dan Pal.

The Queer Bits Film Festival
Photo credit: PrideFilmsAndPlays.com

The program line-up, which includes comedy, drama, documentary and student short films, is as follows…

5A-5B, directed by Michael Cicetti
Coming Full Circle, directed by Kim Yaged
Dawn, directed by Jake Graf
Dressed, directed by Sydney O’Haire
Dusk, directed by Jake Graf
From Head to Toes, directed by Omery Chrystophe
Honor Council, directed by Scott Simonsen
A Parable of Waiting, directed by Angie Panganiban
Sisak, directed by Faraz Arif Ansari
Tailor, directed by Suma Filmes
Taste of Love, directed by Paul Scheufler

HollywoodChicago.com talked to Festival Programming Producer Dan Pal, a Chicago film professor and filmmaker, and a Company Member of Pride Films & Plays, the facilitating organization for the Queer Bits Film Festival. In the following podcast interview, Pal talks about the line-up for the festival, the Queer cinema in general and the program’s celebration of Pride Month.

By PATRICK McDONALD Writer, Editorial Coordinator HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com