As we spent the past few weeks wading deep into the wonderful world of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, we also took a look at the way that queer cinema informs and shapes health practices and behavior in the LGBTIQ+ communities.

We know that cinema has the power to influence the ways that we think about and view the world, and our experiences of it, but does what we see on the big screen shape our health practices? And if so, is queer cinema complicit in perpetuating unhealthy behaviors in the LGBTIQ+ communities?

These are just some of the questions that SMOKESCREEN, a panel initiative hosted by the Melbourne Queer Film Festival in conjunction with Quit Victoria, seeked to address. SMOKE SCREEN was held on 20th March 2019 and explored the links between queer art, film and culture, and our health and human rights. So to coincide with SMOKESCREEN and to help us interrogate health messaging in Queer Cinema, the Out Takes team were joined by SMOKESCREEN moderator Benjamin Law, who has built a reputation for himself as one of Australia’s foremost authors and social commentators alongside Quit Victoria Director Dr Sarah White.