Back in the 80s and 90s there was a subset of gentile queerness that could best be summed up with three words, “Merchant Ivory gays,” after the lavish cinematic costume dramas released by independent film company Merchant Ivory Productions. Now producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, composer Richard Robbins and their... Continue Reading →
Writer-director Gabriel Carrubba's atmospheric and touching queer coming-of-age debut feature Sunflower has been lighting up the Australian festival circuit, including screenings at Sydney Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, and Cinefest Oz. This month it plays Queer Screen's 31st Mardi Gras Film Festival, which runs in cinemas in Sydney February 15th – 29th, with... Continue Reading →
The career of Noël Coward, the poster boy for aristocratic, quick-witted, camp British queerness, is explored in filmmaker Barnaby Thompson’s brief, but charming and amusing overview of a truly brilliant life, Mad About The Boy: The Noël Coward Story, playing Queer Screen's 31st Mardi Gras Film Festival. Mad About the Boy: The Noel Coward Story... Continue Reading →
Daishi Matsunaga's fourth dramatic feature, Egoist—which world premiered at the Toyko International Film Festival and makes its Australian debut at Queer Screen's 31st Mardi Gras Film Festival—takes a successful gay man in his 30s and leads him to unexpected places as he looks for, pays for, and eventually discovers the love he needs. Saitô Kôsuke... Continue Reading →
Executive produced by Dev Patel, Raghuvir Joshi’s Sahela (Companion) moves its “coming out” narrative away from Sydney’s beaches and the queer life of Oxford Street, to the city’s geographical centre, Parramatta, and its Indian-Australian community. Vir Oza (Antonio Aakeel) and Nitya Behl (Anula Navlekar) are a young married couple still in their “honeymoon phase”. Living... Continue Reading →
It is the potent combination of small, real moments that build to make A Portrait of Love a slow-burning heartbreaker. Along the way, we are immersed in the life, love, and creative process of Australian artist Craig Ruddy, through the lens of his partner of twenty years, Roberto Meza Mont. Best known for winning Australia’s... Continue Reading →
Combining traditional 2D animation with rotoscoped footage ala Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, Carl Joseph E. Papa's The Missing (Iti mapukpukaw) looks beautiful, while beneath its colourful surface, a much darker story packs a powerful punch. Eric (Carlo Aquino) is a young computer animator, working long hours with Carlos (Gio Gahol). Eric is mute—he literally does... Continue Reading →
Late at night, an East London drag queen, Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), is waiting to buy cigarettes when he receives the unwanted attention of a gang of aggressive young men. When he recognizes one of them, Preston (George MacKay), from the club where he performs, Jules throws a sassy one-liner at him. But rather than deflect... Continue Reading →
Director Zacharias Mavroeidis' Queer Lion-nominated The Summer with Carmen (To kalokairi tis Karmen) is a gay film within a film, about pitching a gay film to a producer who wants a “fun, sexy, Greek and low-budget” script, and it succeeds on all fronts. Laced with a meta-commentary on queer filmmaking, incorporating several life-affirming themes, and... Continue Reading →
The bottom line is, yes, Overflow is as good as everyone says it is, go see it! The return season of Overflow, a wickedly funny and fiery.one-person play that beautifully illustrates the life of a young trans woman, lives up to all of the acclaim it has received since its Australian debut in 2022. Cornered... Continue Reading →
