Kristen Kaylor

Keenon Walker [Left] and Patrik-Ian Polk [Right] during a Q&A at the LGBTQ+ Film Festival.

Hattiesburg residents recently got the chance to speak to USM alum and award-winning director, Patrik-Ian Polk at a local LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
The Spectrum Center hosted its special LGBTQ+ Film Festival recently in honor of the center’s ten-year anniversary. Local citizens were welcomed into The Fat Cat in downtown Hattiesburg to watch two featured films, “Old Lesbians” and “Blackbird”. Attendees were invited to watch each film, and then come together afterwards to have a discussion about how the content made them feel. Some scenes made the audience laugh, some made them cry, but ultimately brought about a sense of togetherness and connectivity. The Fat Cat staff also offered specially-made drinks based on each of the films for attendees to sip on throughout the event. Keenon Walker, the event coordinator, expresses his feelings about the films as a creative writer.
“These are pieces of media that I feel like will help someone down the road,” said Walker. “It helps us move forward, and we need more of this.”
One of the films featured during the festival was “Blackbird”, which follows a young high school boy who struggles with his sexuality while living in a conservative Christian town in Mississippi. Patrik-Ian Polk, the director of the movie, filmed the story in Hattiesburg and has since gone on to direct multiple award-winning creations, notably his first release “Punks” and “Noah’s Arc”, a queer drama TV series that follows the lives of four gay African- American men in Los Angeles. Polk was also present at the festival over the weekend to speak with attendees, discussing his experience with filmmaking and as a member of the queer community.
“This is why LGBTQ+ art is so important. It is what has helped over the decades to move the needle of culture,” said Polk. “It is representative of how the arts move culture.”
The other film presented at the festival was a documentary titled “Old Lesbians”. It was directed by Meghan McDonough and follows the story of Arden Eversmyer, the founder of the project, and her experiences with interviewing other lesbians to preserve their lives through time. The documentary emphasizes the importance of preserving the history of older queer women, to be able to write their own Herstory, and to keep their stories alive for years to come. The OLOHP website states that their goal is to ensure that these individual’s stories are not forgotten, to show other queer women that they are never alone.
Katya Maslakowski, a professor at the university, attended the film festival and shared her thoughts about the film.
“Having the film festival here… reflected my own pride and experience of being able to be around other queer people and hear their stories,” said Maslakowski. “It’s so much less isolating.”
For anyone interested in attending future events from The Spectrum Center can visit their website to check their calendar for future events. For those interested in learning more about the Old Lesbians Oral Herstory Project, visit the website.