Our visiting filmmaker for this year’s Eau Queer Film Festival is Anna Margarita Albelo, a Cuban-American film director, writer and actress with an eye for writing comedy. She is described by many as the “Globe-trotter” filmmaker and with good reason. After graduating from Florida State University, Anna traveled all over the world, attending film school in London as a Bernard Sliger Presidential Scholarship winner and working in Paris, France for twenty years. 

 

Albelo’s work is quite diverse, ranging from narrative to documentary and experimental fiction to comedy. Most recently, her unapologetically hilarious film, “Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?,” debuted at San Francisco’s 37th Frameline International LGBT Film Festival. Some of Albelo’s other major works include Queer Realities and Cultural Amnesia (2005), A Lez in Wonderland (2006), Hooters (2010), Honey Bunny (2004) and New York Is Where My Hat Is (2003). 

 

Her award winning work has screened in many of the world’s most widely recognized gay and lesbian film festivals: Paris GLFF, Madrid Reina Sofia Museum, Turin GLFF, Amsterdam GLFF, and LADYFEST, Berlin. Her feature documentary, Queer Realities and Cultural Amnesia, which was co-directed with famed performance artist Penny Arcade and Steve Zehentner, won the prestigious Audience Award for Best (Original) Soundtrack at OUTFEST, Los Angeles. 

 

Albelo’s contributions to the filmmaking community go way beyond her own independent work. In 2006, Albelo was on the Documentary Jury at the Turin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. She was also a semi-finalist for the 2006 AFI’s Women’s Directing Workshop as well as a Spring 2005 Narrative Honoree at the IFP New York’s Project Involve. Albelo has participated in over 25 international film festivals and has attended the Cannes, France film festival for the past ten years. 

 

Much to the excitement of the Eau Queer staff Albelo will be here to screen and discuss her film, Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?, as the opening film for the 2013 festival, which Albelo herself calls the film “a semi-autobiographical examination of one woman’s midlife crisis.”  

 

After seeing the film, you might want to peek inside the multi-talented Anna Margarita Albelo’s closet. There you would find a handmade vagina costume—decked out with pockets “for a vagina on the go”—and a cat vest that could render any feline enthusiast seethingly jealous.  

 

One thing you certainly won’t find in her closet, though, is her lesbian identity. As with all her films, Albelo is explicit in showcasing lesbian relationships, and Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?, her most recent film, is no exception.