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Just as Dublin’s homos are recovering from our festive season - Dublin Pride and aLAF 2008 - Gaze returns to lift our spirits. The annual film orgy formerly known as the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (or the oh-so snappy, DLGFF), Gaze this year is packed with an array of films from around the world. What is more, the festival is held - for the first time - beyond the confines of the Irish Film Institute (the venue formerly known as the Irish Film Centre. Seriously lads, identiy crises much?!): screenings will also take place in the Project Arts Theatre, and in the Winding Stair - that fixture of Dublin which was nearly recently lost, and which is a mere skip across the capital’s iconic Ha’penny Bridge.

This year’s films include a variety of lesbian themes and, strangely, a disproportionate number of horror films. Hallowe’en is coming early..

Among the lesbian-themed films are: Steam; Immaculate Conceptions: Inside a lesbian baby boom; The World Unseen; Butch/femme double bill: The Aggressives and FtF: Female to Femme; Finn’s Girl; Experimental Visions: Girls who experiment, featuring a number of experimental short films; Insatiable (World Premiere!); Dolls (Pusinsky); Butch Jamie; Girls’ Shorts; Drifting Flowers; Dead Gay Men and Living Lesbians; She’s a Boy I Knew.

I have in mind a handful of films that really caught my eye. These include The Other Side, which we are told treats the story of the return of a drag queen to his rural home town, following a tragedy, and which is set among the landscapes of Portugal; issues of same-sex marriage are dealt with with the double-bill of Suddenly, Last Winter and Freeheld - the former follows the lives of Gustav and Luca after the proposal of same-sex partnership laws in Italy, while the latter tells the story of Det. Lt. Laurel Hester in her struggles against cancer and for equality for her and her partner; another politically-minded feature documents vicious intolerance in new Europe, as ordinary gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people endure The Marching Season in Riga, Latvia; and finally, Tru Loved is the entertaining story of Tru who is transposed from the liberal world of her home and lesbian mommies to an altogether more conservative suburbia.

(Horror-able mention goes to: Otto; or, Up With Dead People; The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror.)

There really are a myriad of choices in this year’s festival, and the difficult part will be choosing which ones to see and which ones I must jettison - presumably due to lack of funds and/or the problems of bi-location.

I think it is important to note the significance of, for the first time in its history, Dublin’s lesbian and gay film festival taking place in additional venues beyond the Irish Film Institute: mainstream events, such as the Jameson Film Festival, Fringe Festival and Theatre Festival all take place in venues across the capital city. It is timely for this cultural festival to expand to levels comparable to film festivals internationally.

Moreover, one of the venues, The Winding Stair, is located on Dublin’s northside. Who knows - perhaps the future direction (boom-boom!) of the Gaze film festival will eventually incorporate the Lighthouse Cinema, which I believe would be perfectly fittng - and beyond!

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Gaze, Dublin’s International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, runs from 31st July 2008 to 4th August 2008: www.gaze.ie