Guests

Émilie Jouvet

Director One Night Stand (Pour une nuit)

Photographer and filmmaker Jouvet studied at the Artschool, and at the French National School of Photography. Paris based Jouvet has made a career of capturing women's intimacy. She says: ‘human bodies are shown everywhere, but they are polished and perfect.’ Rather, she looks for the flaw, the intensity, the release that makes us human. Her pics of andro-girls, hot fems, bad transboys and cute babes question notions of masculinity, femininity, beauty and sexiness. Her photos appear regularly in magazines - La Dixieme Muse, Tetu, Del'air, Enville and Muteen - and have inspired a collection of lesbian short stories, Immersion totale. Her provocative videos have screened at film festivals in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, San Francisco and Mexico, and on television - Arte, Canal + and Pink TV. She co-founded Très Très Méchantes Filles (Very very bad girls), an association to promote artists, and organises parties to develop a queer and feminist artistic space.

Jay Brannan

Actor Holding Trevor

Brannan is a singer/songwriter living in New York City who recently appeared as Ceth in John Cameron Mitchell's latest feature film Shortbus.  As a musician, he performs regularly at a variety of New York City venues, and he has also appeared at premier music venues and film festivals in Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Cannes, Athens, and Tel Aviv.  Brannan writes and performs his own music, including the song "Soda Shop" which is featured in Shortbus and can be found on the film's soundtrack.  More on Brannan as both an actor and a musician can be found on MySpace, YouTube, and jaybrannan.com .

Jesse Archer

Writer / Actor A Four Letter Word 

Archer grew up in the beaver state of Oregon, which inspired him to get around. He has since lived and worked in Los Angeles, Paris, Buenos Aires, Cape Town and New York.

Since graduating from the University of Southern California with a BA in Theatre, Archer traveled the world before landing in New York. He appeared in the Off-Broadway hit Birdy’s Bachelorette Party, on film in Boy Culture, and starred in the gay romantic comedy favorites Slutty Summer and A Four Letter Word (which he co-wrote with director Casper Andreas).

Archer also writes freelance, including a monthly column for Out magazine. His first book, You Can Run, will make you appreciate flush toilets and is based on a two-year adventure spent sparkling through South America, published by Haworth Press in 2007. www.jesseonthebrink.com

Parvez Sharma

Director / Producer A Jihad for Love

Gay and Muslim, Sharma has devoted the past six years, filming in 12 countries and in 9 languages, to make this groundbreaking documentary. " I have worked with a very Muslim camera in my own communities, always knowing that as a defender of the faith, I would need to depict the Islam I knew, which has little to do with the violent discourses that characterize Western media depictions of my faith.”  Born and raised in India, and educated (for his first Masters degree) at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, he has worked as a broadcast and print journalist in South Asia. Parvez believes that “the end of the creative process of a film is just the beginning of a movement, because films such as A Jihad for Love have the potential to change lives and begin long overdue discussions, for years to come.”

Sandi DuBowski

Producer A Jihad for Love

DuBowski, raised in Conservative Judaism, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1992. As a research associate for planned Parenthood, he made videos on the Christian Right and anti-abortion movement, before making Trembling before G-d (festival award winner in Berlin, Chicago, L.A. Outfest and Seattle, among others). He and Steven Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, have traveled to 60 cities and organized over 400 Q&A sessions, dialogues, events and inter-faith discussions. DuBowski was named one of The Forward 50 (an award for Jews who have demonstrated leadership, offered new ideas and represented a distinct Jewish presence in American life), and is a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship.

To commemorate the 5th anniversary of Trembling before G-d There will be a single screening if his short film Trembling on the Road, hosted by Jewish OutLook and followed by a Panel Discussion, on Sunday 4th at 4pm. Made by DuBowski, the film documents how Trembling before G-d profoundly touched and transformed the lives of individuals, their families, communities, rabbis and teachers.