Media Release
Reel Queer, the organisers of Out Takes 2006: A Reel Queer Film Festival, is delighted to unveil a knockout programme for 2006 – a showcase of the best recent queer cinema from local and international shores.

Post-World Cinema Showcase blues needn't get you down: as the year's forthcoming Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals steadily approach (which Lumière will be covering emphatically in depth again), several speciality festivals provide ample relief in the interim. The socially responsible Human Rights Film Festival hits Christchurch on May 17th after finishing up in Auckland (where it's currently in release). Also next week, the Lufthansa Anpfiff Football Film Festival, in association with the Goethe-Institut, preaches the beautiful game to Wellingtonians at the Paramount from May 18th, just in time for Germany 2006. (My aversion to sport actually ends with football; amongst obvious affair such as The Cup and Bend it Like Beckham, the George Best homage Football as Never Before sounds particularly inspiring in wake of the drunken master's death. Notable absentee from the festival's roster: The Game of Their Lives, Daniel Gordon's pre-A State of Mind infiltration into North Korea that resulted in a plucky underdog documentary about the 1966 World Cup team – quarterfinalists and giant killers of Italy, no less). The following week sees the beginning of OutTakes' annual fare, before it's markers and dog-eared programmes at standby for another winter splurge. The TNZIFF06 programme launches officially in June, but can already be previewed in a gradually filtered state online at nzff.telecom.co.nz.