Radha has hit a wall. Once a promising “30 Under 30” playwright, she now faces her 40s with nothing but a stalled career, a thankless teaching job, and a crummy Brooklyn apartment to show for it. When opportunity knocks, she opts to…wait for it…pursue rapping instead. Beautifully shot in black and white by the gifted... Continue Reading →
Veteran Israeli filmmaker Eytan Fox's outstanding new feature Sublet, co-written with Itay Segal, opens with the arrival of a jetlagged and disorientated fifty something gay man, Michael (The Inheritance's John Benjamin Hickey) to bustling Tel Aviv. He's a travel writer for The New York Times who has come to uncover the "real" city over a... Continue Reading →
Posy Dixon's debut feature documentary Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story is a delicate, nuanced and life-affirming tribute to the experimental folk-jazz turned synth singer-songwriter. With an interview with the musician, who now goes by Glenn Copeland, at its centre, the film paints an intimate biographical portrait focused on his emotional and creative journey, with... Continue Reading →
Equal is an ambitious, fast-paced, dynamic, creatively told, often gripping and frequently moving four-part docu-series landing on HBO Max this LGBTQ History Month to remind us that queer history in the USA did not begin and end with the Stonewall riots in June 1969. The final episode though, Stonewall: From Rebellion to Liberation, directed by... Continue Reading →
This year's Iris Prize, Cardiff’s LGBT+ international film festival, took place over October 8th to 12th. And while circumstances meant that the festival felt very different to other years, there was still an extremely strong offering of British and international film. Here are a few highlights from the short films, from both the British and... Continue Reading →
This year's London Film Festival has a larger-than-usual array of short films, all free to watch online in the UK until Sunday October 18th via BFI Player. Here are some favourites so far. Dungarees. Courtesy of LFF. Dungarees, written and directed by Abel Rubinstein, is a 5-minute 3-hander (now there's a phrase to conjure with)... Continue Reading →
The experience of watching Jen Rainin and Rivkah Beth Medow's feature documentary Ahead of the Curve, which just played Toronto's Inside Out film festival before heading on to New York's NewFest, is much like spending an hour and half getting lost in the pages of your favourite queer magazine; insightful, stimulating, empowering, with a deep-dive... Continue Reading →
Shirley, directed by Josephine Decker, is a thrilling psychodrama based on a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell; nominated for the Teddy at this year's Berlinale it now arrives in the UK at the BFI LFF. Starring Elisabeth Moss in the title role, who also produced, it's the tale of Shirley Jackson, a renowned horror writer... Continue Reading →
Peter Murimi's I Am Samuel, which has its European premiere at the London Film Festival on October 10th, is an intimate portrait of Samuel, who lives in Nairobi, Kenya, and his partner Alex. Shot in verité style, the documentary opens with footage of the two men visiting a beauty spot, a waterfall in a forest,... Continue Reading →
This year’s Inside Out Toronto LGBTQ+ Film Festival opened with Jump, Darling, the feature debut of writer/director Philip J. Connell. On the surface, the tale of a young gay man escaping the big city to live with his grandmother in the countryside, reeks of every fish-out-of-water story ever conceived. The beauty of this film, however... Continue Reading →
