When Larry Kramer first staged his furious play, The Normal Heart, in 1985 at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York, it was an uncompromising demand for action. It is now revered as a seminal piece of activist theater. As queer communities in many parts of the world face a rollback of rights... Continue Reading →
What seems like a safe choice—a classic play on the National Theatre’s biggest stage, the Olivier—quickly proves to be far more radical. From early on, it’s clear that Indhu Rubasingham’s first commission as Artistic Director isn’t just a play, it’s a mission statement for the National Theatre’s next era. Clare Perkins and company in National... Continue Reading →
Sydney's Queer Screen Film Festival returns for its 12th annual edition to inject some colour and heat into the wintry southern hemisphere nights. From August 27th to 31st, the festival will present a curated selection of new queer cinema from around the world, including 14 Australian premieres. “It is an exciting new chapter for Queer... Continue Reading →
The discussion around sex on screen and the role of intimacy coordinators is the central topic of Kate Blackmore’s smart and enlightening debut documentary Make It Look Real. The film demystifies the process by following intimacy coordinator Claire Warden—whose credits include TV shows such as Gossip Girl and Billions, and films like Steven Spielberg’s West... Continue Reading →
Early noughties indie rock pic, We Forgot To Break Up, tells the story of the band The New Normals as they rise from high school friends to rock stardom before the emotions that fuel their music start to rip them apart. Adapted from Kayt Burgess’ novel, Heidegger Stairwell, there are some familiar beats here, from... Continue Reading →
Star high school football player Dakota Riley (Jake Holley) is feeling the pressure. His girlfriend Skylar (Riley Quinn Scott) wants to have sex, but he’s resisting. His best friend Jaeden (Colin McCalla), who is temporarily living with him, seems to be sending out flirty vibes. While his former star-athlete dad Carson (Rib Hillis), who is... Continue Reading →
Danish drama In Ashes (Se Gennem Aske), which world premieres at Queer Screen's Mardi Gras Film Festival, follows a gay young man struggling to come to terms with his first heartbreak. Writer-director Ludvig C. Poulsen leaves the audience grasping for details as they are gradually revealed, forming an incomplete but fraught picture of modern love.... Continue Reading →
Things are ominous in Manfred Oldenburg’s documentary The Last Taboo (Das letzte Tabu), which explores the lives of gay football (soccer) players. Assembling most of the currently publicly-identifying gay players, along with sports commentators, psychologists, and campaigners, Oldenburg takes us through the tragic history of out players and the current state of the game. Despite... Continue Reading →
Two former lovers reconnect in New York City after decades apart in director Romas Zabarauskas' fourth feature The Writer (Kirjanik). Lithuanian author Kostas (Bruce Ross) has written a novel that fictionalizes elements of his life and that of his old flame, Russian-born Lithuanian Dima (Jamie Day). Between the two men there lingers a melancholy and... Continue Reading →
Oscar Wilde once called homosexuality “the love that dare not speak its name” (technically, he was quoting his lover Bosie), and that’s the energy that infuses Duino, the debut feature from actor-turned-filmmaker Juan Pablo Di Pace (The Mattachine Family) and editor-director Andrés Pepe Estrada (Argentina, 1985). It’s a contemplative tale of lost gay love that... Continue Reading →
