Homophobia (2012)
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Just in time for the International Day Against Homophobia on 17 May, Austrian film director Gregor Schmidinger put his short film Homophobia online. With this upload to YouTube and Vimeo the project came full circle, as it was a web-based crowd-funding campaign that enabled the project in the first place.
‘The project grew bigger and greater than I could ever have imagined’, the young director said in front of 600 people at the premiere at Vienna’s Gartenbaukino last Friday. The film, which stars young Austrian actors, strikes a blow against homophobia and at the same time adresses themes such as self-acceptance and moral courage. In the film we follow a young protagonist coming to terms with his feelings in the Austrian army.
Besides the online version, which is available on Vimeo and YouTube with English subtitles, the film makers are aiming to show the piece live and online at a number of festivals. Furthermore, the film is going to be shown in Austrian schools over the next couple of months to help discuss issues like homophobia and self-acceptance in class rooms. Schmidinger points out: ‘It was especially for this reason that a cheesy ending was out of the question for me. The happy endings of feature movies never really happen in real life. Still, I think and hope that the audience will be left with a positive feeling at the end of the film’.
