The damned days aren't long enough to get around to doing even half of what I want/need to do!

*big sigh*

Last Wednesday, the Verzaubert-Festival (Gay/Lesbian Movie Festival) started, and we've been to several films so far, the best of them being (no surprise here) the Alliance-Atlantis ones. You simply have to love that production company!

"Wilby Wonderful", the first movie we watched, already sent us into bouts of bliss by starring not only Paul Gross, but also Callum Keith Rennie, with the latter's character even being sexually interested in another man (sadly not played by Paul Gross, though). The best, however, was still the scene in which CKR's character, 'Duck' MacDonald, local handyman in the nice little town of Wilby, leaned into the car of Wilby's police officer Buddy French, played by PG, asked him how he'd been and simply smiled at him. We all oohed and aahed and had our first due South moment.

"Touch of Pink", another Alliance-Atlantis production, starred Kyle MacLachlan (whom I still find dashingly attractive -- ever since Twin Peaks), a young gay couple with problems due to one's Muslim heritage (and his mother's dearest wish to see him married off to a nice Muslim girl), and, gasp! stagger! Dean McDermott as a droolworthy gay swimmer. God, the hair! The after-sex scene! Ok, Turnbull is gay. I'm finally convinced. Eep.

No Dief and no Gordon Pinsent, though... I kept expecting them to pop up any second in another movie. Well, who knows... I still have "H2O" lying around here, and with at least three dS characters already in it... *g*

The third Canadian production was "Marion Bridge", which, frankly, wasn't lesbian at all, but still very deep and moving -- it was, just as one of the main protagonists said, "a story about four sisters". With one of them being the other's daughter as well since Agnes (played by Molly Parker) had been raped by her father during her childhood. I loved the beach scene at the end, so full of optimism and resolution to overcome the wounds of the past.

The best movie in my opinion however was "Walk on Water" by Eytan Fox who produced "Yossi and Jagger" which was shown during the festival the year before. Having been made for the cinema, "Walk on Water" did not have the handheld camera feel of "Yossi and Jagger" and, while not exactly happily, ended at least without one of the main protagonists dying. Lior Ashkenazi was seriously hot, plus his character's stoic face and laconic comments were a great source of hilarity to the whole theater, and while I found the German 'high society' party scene in the Himmelman's villa more than a bit outdated, the movie was very successful in depicting Israelis, Palestinians, Germans, their ancestors' nazi past and its repercussions on Israeli-German relations today. Very good.