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Welcome to ‘Homoworld’ - short film wins award at film festival

Monday 18 May 2009

Homoworld Poster

What if the world was gay and heterosexuals were an abused minority? This is the premise of Homoworld, a short film co-produced by a University of East London (UEL) Psychologist that has won the award for best lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender film at the London Independent Film Festival.

Homoworld is a 17-minute film about a straight couple and a day in their life in an inverted world where gay people are the majority. It was co-produced by Neil Rees, Clinical Director of the Clinical Psychology Programme and Catherine Butler, a former trainee clinical psychologist and tutor with the UEL team, who is now working for the NHS.

The film is being used to raise awareness of the experiences of people in the lesbian, gay and bisexual minority and has been developed to highlight the levels of discrimination that people experience by not being part of the majority.

Neil has already received positive feedback on the film, including across a number of sectors such as higher education, local authorities and professional training courses.

The film was shot at UEL’s Docklands campus and at the Centre for Podiatry in the School of Health and Bioscience in Stratford. Based on an original idea by Catherine Butler, the duo commissioned Film Maker Max Barber to write the script and direct it.

Executive Producer Neil Rees said: “I’m really pleased with the success of the film and we’ve been inundated with requests from people wanting a copy. I thought it would make a great visual story and that’s definitely been the case.

“The film is based on a simple idea of an inverted world that highlights what the reality is like for a minority of people. The themes are universal across the board about any minority experience and not seeing yourself represented. It shows what it’s like to experience fear and direct discrimination as well as more implicit and subtle exclusions from the majority experience. For example, what it’s like to be afraid of holding your partner’s hand in case of judgement and self censoring to avoid confrontation. These are important issues that are expressed in the film.”

Earlier this year, the film was also presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference where it was also well received. Its success now means that it is being put forward for other film festivals including the Edinburgh film festival and the World Wide Human Rights film festival.

The London Independent Film Festival ran from 17th - 27th April 2009 and showed over 100 diverse films to over 1800 film enthusiasts.

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Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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