BUBBLES AWEIGH

PLEASE NOTE NEW TIME: MONDAY 27 OCTOBER AT 11:10PM UGC SHAFTESBURY AVE SCREEN 2

Bubbles Aweigh charts the compelling, comic stories of a swim team preparing for the 5th Gay Games in Amsterdam. The focus of the film is one of the most competitive events of the Games: the Pink Flamingo Relay, a fiercely contested and hysterical drag relay swimming race. Along with the build-up to this, shown in coverage of the meetings and rehearsals leading up to the event, are personal interviews with individual swimmers. The film fondly tracks the West Hollywood Aquatics as they develop their unique idea: an interpretive dance version of the birth of Amsterdam, complete with dancing tulips and their secret weapon - a six foot Queen Beatrix. Bubbles Aweigh combines a serious documentary style with warm humour to approach a subject that is more than just a wacky event and a portrayal of individual competitors.

Together with fascinating interviews and footage of dramatic races, there is some beautiful 35mm underwater footage, as well as music written by Faith No More keyboardist and Imperial Teen member Roddy Bottum. Through its documentation of the kaleidoscopic experience of a quarter of a million gay people coming together in Amsterdam, the film sheds light on the triumphs and complexities of gay life at the turn of the millennium. OH

Ed Buhr is a freelance writer, a DJ and a lifelong swimmer. Bubbles Aweigh is his first feature film and first documentary. He is currently producing Homeboy, a documentary about gay Latino gang members in Los Angeles, with director Dino Dinco.