Queer filmmaker Cater Smith grew up in rural Maine, launching his photography career in New York aged just 17, going on to shoot some of the world's most famous faces for the likes of W, Vogue, i-D, and GQ. His 2006 debut short as writer and director, Bugcrush, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance... Continue Reading →
Based on the memoir of Sergey Fetisov, Peeter Rebane's achingly romantic Firebird is released in US theaters today. After receiving its world premiere at last year's BFI Flare, the film went on be a queer festival hit, garnering award recognition along the way including honorable mention for Best First Feature at Frameline and snatching wins... Continue Reading →
UPDATE: January 5th 2022, Sundance announced that the Festival’s in-person Utah elements will be moving online. The Festival will begin Thursday January 20th 2022 as planned with screening schedule adjustments to be announced to account for an online only schedule. The seven satellite partners will host screenings for their local communities from January 28th-30th 2022. With... Continue Reading →
When Stephen Karam approached adapting his 2016 Tony Award winning play The Humans for the screen, he realised that the only way to do it successfully was to take it "completely apart" and "reassemble it so that it would work again as another kind of creature". As well as writing the script, following his film... Continue Reading →
In 1984, trailblazing independent filmmaker Arthur Dong received an Oscar nomination for Sewing Woman, a touching documentary short about the life of a Chinese immigrant worker in San Francisco, his mother Zem Ping Dong. This recognition marked the director as an emerging artist to watch, while the film itself exemplified what would become hallmarks of... Continue Reading →
This Pride Month the Criterion Channel is showcasing the Oscar-winning work of filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman with the eight film collection, Pride and Protest. In 1977, Friedman, who was working as an assistant editor in New York, was struck by the power of queer filmmakers putting queer lives on screen when he encountered... Continue Reading →
If you're a fan of the slasher movies of the 70s and 80s like Black Christmas and The Slumber Party Massacre, or their post-modern dark comedy incarnations like Scream, you'll likely appreciate the edgy, contemporary social media fueled spin that filmmaker John Berardo puts on the subgenre with his gripping and gruesome debut feature Initiation.... Continue Reading →
I'm not going to call Midnight Cowboy a masterpiece, that is a word that gets thrown around too much (like luxury it has lost it has lost all meaning.) Midnight Cowboy is better than that. It is a perfect film. All of the elements: the script, the direction, the casting, the costumes, the cinematography, the... Continue Reading →
In 2009 queer South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus' debut feature Shirley Adams, which he made while still a student at the prestigious London Film School, premiered in competition at Locarno, with his subsequent film, Beauty (Skoonheid) winning the Queer Palm at the 64th Cannes Film Festival, where it played in the Un Certain Regard competition... Continue Reading →
Dr Emily Garside's guide to which HIV/AIDS narratives to read and watch next after Russell T Davies' acclaimed series It's A Sin. There is a vast array of work to choose from. Since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic those affected began telling their stories, both as an act of memorial, remembering those the government... Continue Reading →
