TORONTO - The InsideOut Film Festival is in full swing in Toronto. Celebrating the best of queer film from Canada and around the world, this year's festival is of particular importance to one OUTSLOPES member.
Cameron Huang, a self-described "ski bum", spends his winters in Whistler, with SkiOUT.
Cameron got himself involved with an exciting and powerful new project after a night out at the theater in 2007.  He'd just experienced Tommy Murphy's play Holding the Man, based on Tim Conigrave's memoir about his 15-year relationship with former schoolmate John Caleo.
First published in 1995, Holding the Man is the passionate, funny and achingly sad story of the 15-year romance between Conigrave and the boy he fell in love with during high school, John Caleo.
Teenagers Timothy and John were both students at Xavier College in Melbourne during the 1970s. Although they inhabited very different circles at school when they met - Tim was an aspiring actor and John was captain of the rugby team - it was love at first sight.
Their relationship blossomed and endured in the face of prejudice and adversity, both at school and at home. The couple faced their biggest challenge when unexpected illness threatened to tear them apart.
The story is a coming-of-age tale, a coming-out story, a high-school romance, a family drama, a grand love affair, a chronicle of 80s gay Sydney and an AIDS tragedy.
"I was very touched by the story," Cameron said. "I knew instantly that the stage play had to be a movie."
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Formerly a real-estate developer, the 43-year-old, who had moved to Sydney with his parents and two younger brothers from Taipei, knew nothing about film. So he quickly learned.
Reaching out to Tommy Murphy, who had written the stage adaptation of the story, then to Goalpost Pictures, Cameron worked hard to help secure the financing required to get the story onto the screen, including sinking a significant investment in himself.
Eight years later, in June of 2015, the film made its world premier at the Sydney Film Festival. Â Since it has gone on to win a number of awards and acclaim around the world. Now, finally, the moving film makes its way to Canada, where it will premier at the Toronto Inside Out Film Festival this weekend, on Saturday June 4th, with a 9:30pm screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOURNEMfHls[/youtube]
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Credit where credit is due:
Cover Photo: Screen Cap from Holding The Man - Goalpost Picutres
Photo: Jessica Hromas / The Sydney Morning Herald
With files from:
insideout Toronto LGBT Film Festival
The Australian
The Sydney Morning Herald