OUnorthLa Film Festival is held in beautiful Shreveport, Louisiana, a perfect location for a film festival! Recently, Shreveport began to be referred to as “Hollywood South” thanks to a boom in the local film industry, including the opening of Millennium Studios this year. In the last five years, Shreveport has been the film location for several major films including Mr. Brooks, Premonition, The Guardian, Mad Money, Drive Angry, Season of the Witch, and most recently, Battle: Los Angeles. In addition, several TV series have been filmed in Shreveport including True Blood, The Gates and Thief. However, Shreveport also has a history of being a conservative stronghold in the deep south. For years the LGBTQ+ community has worked to bring change to that issue through efforts supported by individuals and organizations like PACE, People Acting for Change and Equality. After its third annual Pride dinner with about 100 attendees annually, it was decided PACE needed more exposure if it was going to reach the community with our message. It was then decided a film festival would be a strong signal to those struggling with their sexual identity and to let them know they are not alone, as well as sending a message to opponents of the gay community that we would not remain silent. OUTnorthLa, formerly North Louisiana Gay & Le***an Film Festival, has enjoyed success due in part to the cooperation of a couple very famous celebrities. Our first guest speaker was Leslie Jordan, a star on the groundbreaking TV show Will & Grace, who hosted a festival pre-party and introduced the film Sordid Lives. For our second year, filmmaker and actor John Waters hosted the party and introduced Polyester. The festival also received national mentions by The New York Times and The Huffington Post as a result of some of Waters’ remarks regarding gay marriage: “I think we should just try to make heterosexual divorce illegal.”
After our second year, the film festival witnessed a major accomplishment when the Mayor and City Council added sexual orientation and gender identity to the public employment nondiscrimination (ENDA) policies for the City of Shreveport. Since 2007, PACE had been meeting with Mayor Cedric Glover regarding an ENDA for the City. In a Shreveport City Council budget meeting held at the end of 2009, a City Councilman stated his opposition to increased funding for the Robinson Film Center, a local non-profit independent film center, because of its support for gay and le***an rights by City Council, reprimanding the City Councilman for his inflammatory and discriminatory remarks. Shortly thereafter, the Mayor issued an executive order adding sexual orientation and gender identity to its nondiscrimination policies, and the City Council passed a matching resolution unanimously.
