Exclusive Interview: Niegel Smith & Faye Driscoll on directing the world premiere of Taylor Mac’s queer epic Bark of Millions at Sydney Opera House

Legendary performer Taylor Mac and musical director Matt Ray’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music broke ground with its monumental scope and vision, earned the duo a slew of awards (including a Pulitzer Prize nomination) and became the subject of a fascinating HBO documentary made by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman which premiered at Tribeca... Continue Reading →

September 29, 2023 0

Exclusive Interview: playwright Tommy Murphy on the legacy of queer Australian classic Holding The Man

Tim Conigrave’s 1995 memoir, Holding The Man, inhabits a special place in the gay Australian psyche. Telling the story of his 15 year relationship with his partner John Caleo, from their meeting in high school to Caleo’s untimely death during the height of the AIDS crisis, the book - published posthumously - has become a... Continue Reading →

September 4, 2023 0

Book Review: Why Mariah Carey Matters by Andrew Chan ★★★★

I’ve spent the last few days in a Mariah Carey shaped hole, chronologically working my way through her discography on Apple Music (other music services are available), while reading Andrew Chan’s adoring and insightful book, Why Mariah Carey Matters. Chan has convinced me that we have never really given the elusive chanteuse her due as... Continue Reading →

September 3, 2023 0

Queer Screen Film Festival 2023 Review: Drifter ★★★1/2

Eat. Sleep. Rave. Repeat. That’s a reductive way of looking at the plot of Drifter, Hannes Hirsch’s look at young queer life Berlin. Moritz (Lorenz Hochhuth) has moved to Berlin to be with his boyfriend Jonas (Gustav Schmidt), but it’s quickly clear that Jonas isn’t happy with this scenario. When Jonas tells Moritz he wants... Continue Reading →

August 26, 2023 0

Theatre Review: Miss Saigon (Sydney Opera House) ★★★★★

Seann Miley Moore is THE definitive The Engineer of Miss Saigon. It’s the kind of reinvention of a core role you rarely see in musical theatre, turning the Saigon pimp into a rampaging queer showman that anchors a flawless cast in this new Sydney production. By the time you reach the show stopping number “The... Continue Reading →

August 25, 2023 0

Queer Screen Film Festival 2023 Review: Marinette ★★★

It’s serendipitous timing that Queer Screen is bringing French women’s soccer film Marinette to Australia on the back of the record-breaking semi-final run of local team The Matildas. At one point, a journalist asks “Do you think women’s soccer can attract crowds like the men's?”, based on this year’s Women’s World Cup, the answer is... Continue Reading →

August 23, 2023 0

Queer Screen Film Festival 2023 Review: Lie With Me (Arrête avec tes mensonges) ★★★★★

Director and co-screenwriter Olivier Peyon exquisitely captures both the heady ups and downs of young gay romance and the melancholy of memory in Lie With Me (Arrête avec tes mensonges), an adaptation of Phillipe Besson’s acclaimed novel. Excellently shot and filled with pitch perfect-performances, this is a real treat. Novelist Stéphane Belcourt (Guillaume de Tonquédec)... Continue Reading →

August 23, 2023 0

Queer Screen Film Festival 2023 Review: Equal The Contest ★★★★

Sport has always been a battlefield, especially in recent years when it comes to gender and sexuality. Nonbinary filmmaker Mitch Nivalis gives us a clear step by step examination of the structural issues involved in opening sports up to women and gender-diverse people in their new documentary, Equal The Contest, which sees a group of... Continue Reading →

August 23, 2023 1

Queer Screen Film Festival 2023 Review: Commitment To Life ★★★1/2

Prolific documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz’s (Vito, I Am Divine) latest feature, Commitment to Life, valuably adds more threads to the tapestry of our understanding of the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States by focusing on Los Angeles and the entertainment industry, in particular the work of the AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA).... Continue Reading →

August 23, 2023 0

Queer Screen Film Festival 2023 Review: Medusa Deluxe ★★★1/2

Writer-director Tom Hardiman’s arthouse-camp-murder-mystery Medusa Deluxe is serving mood along with insults like “you Pantene Pro-V c*nt”. It’s a stunning technical achievement mixed with a seductive ambience that soars when it works. Backstage ahead of a regional hair show, a stylist Mosca (John Roberts), has been murdered and savagely scalped. Locked down waiting for the... Continue Reading →

August 16, 2023 0