Friday, February 18th 2022 sees the start of a landmark retrospective, Pioneers of Queer Cinema, with free in-person screenings across 12 nights in Los Angeles, presented by The UCLA Film & Television Archive, IndieCollect, and Outfest. This diverse survey spans seven decades and comprises 33 works including documentaries, narrative, and experimental features and shorts, drawing... Continue Reading →
Sundance 2022 Film Review: My Old School ★★★★
UPDATE: Magnolia Pictures will release MY OLD SCHOOL in theaters on Friday, July 22nd in New York (Film Forum) and July 29th in Los Angeles (Laemmle Monica Film Center), plus other select theaters. Filmmaker Jono McLeod returns to his old school, Bearsden Academy in an upmarket Glasgow suburb, with his intriguing feature documentary My Old... Continue Reading →
Sundance 2022 Film Review: Sirens ★★★★
UPDATE: Screens at the 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Sunday, July 17th at 7pm at Harmony Gold. Rita Baghdadi's feature documentary Sirens, which world premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, is a nuanced, intimate, and upbeat portrait of Lebanon's only all-female thrash metal band, Slave to Sirens. Although it opens... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: filmmaker Vivian Kleiman on her queer comics documentary No Straight Lines “Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For changed my life”
Vivian Kleiman, who we spoke with last year about her Peabody Award-winning filmmaking partnership with the late Marlon Riggs, saw her latest film as director and producer, No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics, receive its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival 2021. The beautifully crafted documentary feature chronicles the history of queer... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Cured ★★★★
Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer's riveting feature documentary Cured, which opens the fall season of PBS' Independent Lens on Monday October 11th, examines the fascinating chapter in queer history that saw gay liberation activists successfully overturn the US psychiatric profession's classification of homosexuality as a mental illness. Using archive photographs and video footage, recently discovered... Continue Reading →
Outfest LA 2021 Film Review: Rebel Dykes ★★★★★
Harri Shanahan and Sian Williams' feature documentary Rebel Dykes, which receives its Los Angeles premiere at Outfest LA 2021 on Saturday August 14th (also screening virtually August 15th-17th), is a rousing, celebratory, and considered examination of London's rebel dyke subculture of the 1980s and its legacy. The film's punky, DIY aesthetic captures the anarchic spirit... Continue Reading →
Outfest 2021 Exclusive Interview: filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz on Boulevard! A Hollywood Story “how many queer stories are buried in boxes, sitting in people’s attics & basements?”
Jeffrey Schwarz, the Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker behind Vito, I Am Divine, and Tab Hunter Confidential, returns to Outfest this month for the world premiere of his latest feature, Boulevard! A Hollywood Story. The fascinating film unearths the little-known attempt by actress Gloria Swanson to stage an original Broadway musical based on the movie she is... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Ailey director Jamila Wignot “I wanted the film to feel like an epic saga in the way that his dance works do”
Emmy-winning director Jamila Wignot's Ailey, a compelling and moving portrait of a towering figure in modern dance, Alvin Ailey, world premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. "Unlike many documentaries about artists, Ailey gives us a substantial insight into his creative process", writes James Kleinmann in his five... Continue Reading →
Film Review: North by Current ★★★★★
North by Current will show as part of POV’s 34th season, broadcasting on Monday, November 1st at 10 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) and streaming online at pov.org. The film will be available to stream until December 31st, 2021. Angelo Madsen Minax's remarkable documentary feature North By Current—which world premiered at the 2021 Berlin... Continue Reading →
New York’s Lower East Side Film Festival announces 2021 virtual & in-person lineup
The 2021 Lower East Side Film Festival (LESFF) lineup of US and international features and shorts will screen in-person at New York's Village East Cinema (proof of vaccination required) from Thursday July 8th until Monday July 12th and virtually online from Thursday July 8th until Sunday July 18th. The 11th edition of the annual festival... Continue Reading →
