Joel Creasey and Em Rusciano join Faustina Agolley and Patrick Abboud to host the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras on SBS.13 February 2017
News Release
The glittering explosion that is the 2017 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade will sparkle and shimmer its way onto SBS on Sunday March 5 at 8.30pm. Hosting SBS's special event broadcast will be returning hosts The Feed's Patrick Abboud and TV personality, Faustina Agolley, with comedian Joel Creasey and breakfast radio host Em Rusciano also joining this year's panel.
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is one of the world's largest, most high profile and much loved LGBTQI celebrations, providing an opportunity to commemorate a universal message of diversity, equal rights, pride and inclusion. Born from a single night of political protest in 1978, the street parade is the spectacular sequinned centrepiece that brings a three-week long calendar of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festivities and events to a close.
SBS Director of Television and Online Content, Marshall Heald said: The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is a very important celebration and social event on the LGBTQI calendar. It is also a significant event for Australia - as the parade celebrates and promotes social cohesion within Australia - and hundreds and thousands of spectators line the streets of Sydney in support of equality, pride and self-expression.
SBS is incredibly proud to be broadcasting the parade yet again - as it provides a front row seat to the whole of Australia, offering them the opportunity to join into and be a part of this inclusive and spectacular celebration.
The TV broadcast will include the best of the 2017 floats and costumes in the parade with commentary from Joel Creasey, Em Rusciano, Patrick Abboud and Faustina Agolley. The 90 minute broadcast will feature interviews with celebrity guests plus stories from some of the parade participants - exploring the messages behind the floats, covering issues of sexuality, equality and discrimination that affect the LGBTQI community.
SBS will also get in on the festivities with its very own float and SBS Radio 3 will join forces with Australias only gay & lesbian radio station, JOY 94.9 for a Mardi Gras weekend simulcast on digital radio and digital television around Australia - including a live broadcast of the parade, which is also available worldwide at sbs.com.au/mardigras.
Viewer tweets will be displayed on screen throughout the television broadcasts, using the official event hashtag #sydneymardigras.
To celebrate the 2017 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, SBS will also present a vibrant line-up of fresh and iconic LGBTQI content. SBS, SBS VICELAND, NITV, subscription channel World Movies, SBS Radio, SBS Online and SBS VR have come together to join the fabulous and festive party.
In the lead up and after the parade, SBS will air multi-award winning film Brokeback Mountain (Friday 3 March at 8.30pm), which stars the late and great Australian actor Heath Ledger. On Sunday 5 March at 10pm, SBS will bring audiences the much-loved Australian classic, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, which also features a stellar line up of Australian actors, including Guy Pearce and the late Bill Hunter.
SBS VICELAND will play host to a Monday night movies season in February. The Feed's Patrick Abboud will present a series of home-grown and international queer screen highlights along with interviews with creators and actors from these movies. Films included in the season are: 52 Tuesdays (Monday, 13 February at 9.30pm), The Chambermaid Lynn (Monday, 13 February at 11pm), Head On (Monday, 20 February at 9.30pm), 54: The Directors Cut (Monday, 20 February at 11pm), Teenage Kicks (Monday 27 February at 9.30pm) and Gerontophilia (Monday, 27 February at 11.30pm).
NITV celebrates Mardi Gras with a host of programming that recognises the LGBTQI community. Starting on Wednesday, February 22 at 9.30pm, is the Australian premiere of MAJOR! This documentary explores the life and campaigns of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a formerly incarcerated Black transgender elder and activist who has been fighting for the rights of transgender women of colour for over 40 years. Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word (Wednesday, 1 March at 8.00pm) which follows the lives of seven transgender youths hailing from New York, New Orleans and Baltimore and ranging in age, but they share common obstacles and joys. Kumu Hina follows Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word at 11pm and is a about a transgender Native Hawaiian teacher who inspires a young girl to fulfil her destiny of leading the schools male hula troupe even as she struggles to find love and a committed relationship of her own. Then wrapping up NITV's programming is Fire Song (Thursday 2 March at 9.30pm) a thoughtful and moving debut feature by Adam Garnet Jones that focuses on a young Anishinaabe man at a crossroads.
From 15 February, SBS On Demand's exclusive collection The Queer Binge will showcase some of the best LGBTQI themed programs from around the world, available to all Australians to watch anytime, anywhere and for free. The collection includes hit UK drama Hit & Miss starring Chlo Sevigny, Swedish crime thriller Eyewitness, and SBS VICELAND's Gaycation with Ellen Page. Award-winning global films will also be featured, including Carmin Tropical (2014), That's Not Us (2015), Four Moons (2014), Daddy (2015), Beginners (2011), and Head On (1998), while Irish film Viva (2015) will be available from 17 February, Lovesong (2016) from 21 February and Teenage Kicks (2016) from 23 February.
Starting on March 1, SBS On Demand will bring audiences the highly anticipated U.S. drama, When We Rise. Written and created by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk), When We Rise chronicles the real-life personal and politica
