Seeking Local Programmes For Gay TV Festival

October 24 2002

Triangle Television seeks local programmes for Gay Television Festival

Triangle Television has already received 25 entries for its 2003 Gay Television Festival. With the addition of many locally-made entries still to arrive, the festival is set to be a record breaker.

Thirty eight programmes took part in last year's Triangle Television Gay Television Festival which was hailed as a great success.

The closing date for entries in this 4th annual festival, being held in February next year, is November 1 and Triangle anticipates that many of the last-minute programmes will be locally-produced.

Triangle Television's Programme Director Hans Versluys says the fantastic international response to the festival is testimony to its increasing popularity with audiences and those in the industry.

"But we'd really like to get more local entries. We've got programmes lined up from South America, Switzerland, the USA, Australia and Italy, but more New Zealand made entries would really help give the festival a special local flavour."

Entrants in this year's festival include several short films, including a Miami Lesbian and Gay Film Festival award winner that examines the issues of HIV, love, sorrow and humanity. There's Issues 101, a 90-minute movie that tells the tale of three students in California, plus a gay soap opera, a documentary on the history of gay pride parades, some comedies, experimental films and many more.

Triangle established the gay and lesbian television festival to give a wide, free-to-air audience the opportunity to view gay and lesbian productions which are usually only screened at specialist, audience-paying film festivals and to encourage the development of local programming from local film makers.

The festival gives a local and international gay and lesbian perspective to the broader New Zealand viewing audience, plus it gives local video and film makers a chance to have their productions screened to a wider-than-normal audience.

For a full programme schedule, visit Triangle Television's website at:

http://www.tritv.co.nz

Triangle Television is Auckland's only regional, non-commercial television station and has operated as a public broadcaster to Greater Auckland since August 1 1998. The channel screens a mix of regional-access television with international news and information programmes. It is non-profit making and operates with no funding from NZ On Air. Triangle broadcasts 24 hours daily from UHF channel 41.

ENDS

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