Legendary performer Taylor Mac and musical director Matt Ray’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music broke ground with its monumental scope and vision, earned the duo a slew of awards (including a Pulitzer Prize nomination) and became the subject of a fascinating HBO documentary made by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman which premiered at Tribeca... Continue Reading →
TIFF 2023 Film Review: Summer Qamp ★★★1/2
With regressive politicians in the United States seeking to implement legislation targeting queer and especially trans youth, including bans on gender affirming health care, participation in sport, bathroom use, book bans, and even forbidding the mention of the words "gay or trans" in schools, the loud voices of bigoted adults often overpower the kids themselves.... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Oscar-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams “the real Cassandro is such a proud, out, gay man who embraces everything about who he is”
When Roger Ross Williams met Saúl Armendáriz, better known as Cassandro, for a 2016 documentary he was directing for The New Yorker—The Man Without a Mask—the filmmaker immediately knew he'd found the subject of his first scripted narrative feature. Making the move from amateur wrestling in El Paso, Armendáriz became a Mexican-American icon with the... Continue Reading →
TIFF 2023 Film Review: Dicks The Musical ★★★★
Not for the easily offended, or those lacking a sense of humour, Dicks: The Musical—which opened the Midnight Madness section of the 48th Toronto International Film Festival last night—is a delectably outrageous, endlessly kooky, and thrillingly depraved instant queer cult classic. Some movies feel like they are actively trying to achieve cult status, Dicks never... Continue Reading →
TIFF 2023 Film Review: Toll (Pedágio) ★★★★
Following last year's Charcoal (Carvão), Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz returns to TIFF for the world premiere of her captivating sophomore feature Toll (Pedágio) and to receive the festival's Emerging Talent Award. Maeve Jinkings in Carolina Markowicz's Toll (Pedágio) which receives its world premiere at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival. Courtesy of TIFF. Luis Armando... Continue Reading →
Book Preview: Gay Aliens & Queer Folks, How Russell T Davies changed TV by Emily Garside
The world of Russell T Davies has always been very queer…and always fairly nerdy. So the below extract from my new book seemed fitting…on Nerds in the Russell T Davies universe. Beyond nerds, Gay Aliens and Queer Folk, how Russell T Davies changed TV (published by Calon Press on September 21st, 2023) is a dive... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Why Mariah Carey Matters by Andrew Chan ★★★★
I’ve spent the last few days in a Mariah Carey shaped hole, chronologically working my way through her discography on Apple Music (other music services are available), while reading Andrew Chan’s adoring and insightful book, Why Mariah Carey Matters. Chan has convinced me that we have never really given the elusive chanteuse her due as... Continue Reading →
TIFF 2023: LGBTQ+ highlights at 48th Toronto International Film Festival
The 48th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) opens on Thursday, September 7th with the international premiere of Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki's animated epic The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka) and comes to a close on Sunday, September 17th with the world premiere of Thom Zimny's Sylvester Stallone documentary Sly, exploring the close... Continue Reading →
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023 Theatre Review: Jacob Storms’ Tennessee Rising – The Dawn of Tennessee Williams (Assembly Rooms) ★★★★
Based on the life and career of Tennessee Williams, Jacob Storms' compelling one man show examines his unexplored years with both wit and sincerity. Jacob Storms in Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams. Thoughfully written and comprehensively researched, Tennessee Rising introduces the audience to Tom, an up-and-coming writer who is yet to be known... Continue Reading →
Watch Colman Domingo as March on Washington architect, civil rights activist & organizer Bayard Rustin in teaser trailer for Netflix’s Rustin
Marking today's 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Netflix has revealed an official teaser trailer for the upcoming Bayard Rustin biopic Rustin starring Emmy-winning Euphoria actor Colman Domingo in the title role. Michael Potts as Cleve Robinson, Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King, Chris Rock as NAACP Exec. Dir. Roy... Continue Reading →