’10 Years in Full Colour’ is the second film in an ongoing documentary series tracing the lives and loves of 10 LGBTQA+ individuals. With a new film planned for release every 10 years, this is an Australian first. Never before has a series followed and documented queer lives in this way – and at such a momentous time in the historic fight for LGBTIQA+ equality.
The first film, ‘Love in Full Colour’, commenced shooting in 2012. Director Suzi Taylor followed the lives of 12 high school students who all attended the Queer Formal in Melbourne. It was an event for the kids who did not feel safe – or in some cases, had been forbidden – from attending their own high school formals and debutante balls. Over several years, they shared their experiences of being bullied, rejected by family, falling in love and coming out. Their disarming honesty, warmth, wit and insightfulness moved audiences around the country – to laughter and to tears.
This was a generation of queer youth who came of age during the long and intense marriage equality campaign. For many, the resulting activism became a source of community, a sense of belonging, and personal growth. But the campaign also exposed all of them to a damaging onslaught of homophobia and transphobia from all corners of the community.
A decade on, ’10 Years in Full Colour’ revisits our participants, now in their 20s, and we find out what’s changed in their lives, and discover where they’re at now. Some of them have transitioned. Others have become powerful activists. One or two became quite famous. A few have found the love of their lives.
The backdrop of their personal transformations is a huge decade of social change – from the national plebiscite, to radical LGBTIQA+ law reforms and a global pandemic, amongst many other landmark events.
