Lethbridge’s gay and lesbian community comes out this week, with the tenth annual Pretty, Witty and Gay festival with a lot of art, drama and music.

  The  festival, which University of Lethbridge drama prof and prominent local actor Jay Whitehead began 10 years ago as a student as a cabaret, has expanded to more than a week of events taking place  at the Bordello and Potemkin galleries (Third and second floors of 411 3 Ave South) and culminating with a cabaret at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre, April 6.

“ I started it as a student way back in 2003, then I went away for a while and other people carried on the tradition,” Whitehead said. He has since started Lethbridge alternative theatre company Theatre Outré.
“It’s been 10 years so we really wanted to come out of the closet, so to speak,” he laughed.

Pretty, Witty and Gay began March 29 with a dance. A new GLBT themed art exhibit opens up in the Potemkin Gallery after the premiere of Whitehead’s new play “Unsex’d” on April 2.

 Whitehead is pleased Pretty, Witty and Gay has been going strong for 10 years.

“ I think we underestimated the number of people in the GLBT community here,” Whitehead said.
“It’s an opportunity where this town can be showcased,” added co-organizer Richie Wilcox.

While there are several events happening throughout the week, the centrepiece of the festival is a new, award winning play “Unsex'd,” written by Daniel Judes and Whitehead which he will be taking to the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival in May. It will run at Bordello, April 2-5 at 8 p.m. each night.

“ The play is about two Shakespearean actors who played women, which was the tradition at the time. So there's a little bit of (film maker) John Waters, a modern day  drag queen with Shakespeare,” Whitehead summarized.
 UnSex’d runs throughout the week in the Bordello ( third floor of 411 3 Ave South).

A simple film trailer could lead to big things for local film makers Gianna Isabella, Daniela Howard and Scott Sikma.

 They entered the trailer into CineCoup’s competition, vying for a $1 million first prize to help them make their movie.

“It’s a full length feature film about a female detective who investigate a crime scene after she’s promoted only to find her lover has been murdered,” director/ writer Gianna Isabella summarized. It is an interesting twist on the traditional police thriller as the serial killer is targeting women in a gay support group.

“At the time I was in New York, I was surprised that homophobia was so rampant. So I thought it would be a real twist on the detective story,” she said of her inspiration for the new movie. The idea started to develop around 2008, but she didn’t begin the actual writing process until 2011.

 The film takes place in the fictional city of Carnage, so they will be shooting it around Southern Alberta around Lethbridge and likely using Calgary as the skyline.

According to the Cinecoup.com website, The CineCoup Film Accelerator is a disruptive model for indie filmmakers to develop, market and finance their feature films. Filmmaking teams apply to CineCoup with a two-minute trailer then advance through a selection funnel that’s designed to package their projects and build fan support on the CineCoup social web platform.

All filmmakers who participate stand to gain valuable audience feedback, social media savvy and a professional online pitch package bolstered by fan support. The top 10 projects will be optioned for development. A jury of industry professionals and a CineCoup Superfan will select one project for up to $1 million (CDN) in production financing and guaranteed release in Cineplex theatres in January 2014.

The film makers submit their films and fans vote on their favourites through the Cinecoup site, which features trailers and “missions”  from all of the film makers competing. Voters must sign up through Facebook or e-mail.

 The 90 entrants will be  whittled down to 60 during the second round of voting March 21-24, then down to 40, then 20 then the Top 10.

Performing runs in the family for comedian Doug Mutai, who performs at Scores with Mike “Pickle Dambra,” March 28.

“ Holidays are interesting in my family. Everybody is just being a clown,  making  jokes or doing impressions of  some person,” said the Kenyan born, Calgary based comedian, who spent  his first years in Canada in Lethbridge taking business administration at Lethbridge College.

I  moved to Lethbridge because I had family there. I went to the college and joined the track team,” Mutai said.

  Most of his family are involved in  the performing arts in some way. He is the oldest child in the family, while his  younger siblings are playwrights and performers.

 So comedy came naturally.

“ I just started performing at open mics and never looked back. I saw comedians like  Derek Edwards and  the MacDonalds, Norm and Mike on television and thought it looked like fun,” Mutai said.