Mardi Gras is always a fun and vibrant time of year, celebrating the LGBT+ community and advocating for ongoing equal rights. The Mardi Gras Film Festival in February is a part of the festivities, as well as one of the top film festivals in Australia and one of the most popular LGBTIQ+ events in the country.

The Mardi Gras Film festival will be on the road touring as of this week:

• 11-13 March in the Blue Mountains
• 18-20 March in Canberra

A full program can be found in here: https://tix.queerscreen.org.au/Sessions/#_ga=2.144758516.173176414.1646714430-1768396440.1646714430

We caught up with our Academy of Entrepreneurs Legend, Javiera Paz del Río Benítez, a film graduate from Chile who is working as a Production Assistant in this year’s festival! After completing an internship with the organisation last year, they have now hired her for this project!

What does your role involve?

My day to day involves creating film sessions, receiving films, downloading and testing them, carrying out technical checks, preparing runsheets and organizing volunteers for the festival. It’s a great opportunity to apply everything I’ve learned and studied and put it into practice!

What has been the highlight of working on the film festival so far?

Definitely the people! I’ve met so many amazing people working on this project, the whole community is so social and welcoming – it’s a vibe!

What have you learned?

I’ve become so much more confident and communicative! Also, team working skills and organisation -this experience has really set me up for my new job role that I start in April for the Sydney film festival!

For anyone interested, how do you get involved?

The organisation is mainly made up of volunteers, they have a volunteers page where you can sign up to help at different events throughout the year! Sign up here: https://timecounts.org/queerscreen-vollies

I’d really recommend getting involved, there are so many different opportunities from writers, to helping in cinemas, and watching films