In the 1970s, while the rest of the world was struggling to show LGBTQ+ characters as anything other than jokes or morality tales, one country led the way with fully-fledged gay characters front and centre. Australia’s Number 96 was a sexy soap opera about the lives of people sharing an apartment building, putting sympathetic gay... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: The Venus Effect (Venuseffekten) ★★★1/2
Danish lesbian romantic drama, The Venus Effect (Venuseffekten), closes out Queer Screen's 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival with subtle charm. This gentle story is a sexy and sweet treat to round off an excellent 2023 festival. Liv is a young woman on the cusp of change. Living in rural Denmark, she is surrounded by orchards... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: Golden Delicious ★★★
Basketball, teen angst, social media, and family drama combine in Golden Delicious, a tale of an Asian-Canadian high schooler dealing with the claustrophobic impact of everyone else's expectations. Jake (Cardi Wong) is a good kid with a sweet girlfriend in Vancouver whose parents run a local Chinese restaurant. But the pressure is mounting. Nearing graduation,... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: #LookAtMe ★★★★★
Banned in its native Singapore, Ken Kwek’s second feature #LookAtMe takes the city-state’s repressive laws to their disturbing end point to deliver an emotionally charged, Orwellian nightmare of a story about siblings fighting for freedom when society is pressuring them to submit. Identical twin brothers Sean and Ricky Marzuki (both seamlessly played by yao) are... Continue Reading →
Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Festival marks 30th anniversary during World Pride – full lineup announced
The lineup for the 30th anniversary of Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival—running February 15th until March 2nd, 2023—has just been announced including several world and Australian premieres. A total of 166 films will screen over 16 days in cinemas, outdoors, and on demand at home alongside a program of panel discussions, workshops, industry networking... Continue Reading →
