Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky’s debut feature, You Can Live Forever, opens up the world of a Jehovah’s Witness community in Canada through the eyes of a queer teenager in the 1990s. Faith, sexuality, judgement, friendship, and family form a combustible mix in this world premiere at the Tribeca Festival. Sixteen-year-old Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll) loves... Continue Reading →
Sydney Film Festival 2022 Review: The Longest Weekend ★★1/2
Australian indie film The Longest Weekend, which received its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival 2022, keeps its focus tight on the lives of three adult siblings in Sydney's diverse Inner West, whose plans get ripped apart when their estranged father comes back into their lives. From the outside all seems well with the... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: director April Maxey & cinematographer Melinda James on their Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominated short film Work
Writer-director April Maxey's Work was one of the queer highlights at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it received its world premiere and was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize. Inspired by her own personal experience, Maxey set out to reevaluate the misconceptions and stigma surrounding sex work. The film, developed at AFI’s... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2022 Review: Mayfly (Efímera) ★★★1/2
Luis Mariano García’s Mayfly is utterly endearing. A coming-of-age story, sprinkled with magic realism that steps over many of the clichés to deliver a charming take on a well-worn genre. Emillia (Danae Reynaud) is a serious, studious high-schooler with her eyes on the prize of a place at a prestigious architecture school. In the library... Continue Reading →
Chase Joynt’s Framing Agnes among LGBTQ+ Award Winners at Sundance 2022
Chase Joynt's Framing Agnes was among the LGBTQ+ winners at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival—announced on Friday January 28th—honored with both the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award. “This film simply grabbed me, taking me on a ride, questioning and re-questioning what was "real"," commented NEXT juror, Transparent creator Joey Soloway. "What an... Continue Reading →
Sundance 2022 Film Review: Sirens ★★★★
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 with footage of protests on the streets of Beirut with chants of "revolution" and shots of graffiti with phrases like, "homophobia... Continue Reading →
Sundance 2022 Film Review: Am I OK? ★★★1/2
With a screenplay by Lauren Pomerantz (SNL, The Ellen DeGeneres Show), wife and wife co-directors Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne refashion the romcom by placing a platonic female friendship at its centre. Now both in their early thirties, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) have been best friends since high school. It's become comfortable... Continue Reading →
LGBTQ+ highlights at Sundance 2022
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 →
Exclusive Interview: Christin Baker on her latest queer lady rom-com Christmas at the Ranch
'Tis the season for holiday movies, and filmmaker Christin Baker and Tello Films (an LGBTQ+ women's focused production, distribution company, and VOD platform launched by Baker in 2009) have been working to bring queer women to the forefront of the holiday rom-com over the past few years, with 2019's Season of Love and 2020's I... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: activist Chris Drake recalls Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in Mothers of the Revolution “finding my voice there changed my life”
Forty years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, the newly formed campaign group Women for Life on Earth, marched 120 miles from Cardiff, Wales to Berkshire, England to protest Margaret Thatcher's agreement to allow US nuclear cruise missiles to be stored at the Royal Air Force base at Greenham Common. As Mothers of the... Continue Reading →