Directed and produced by Peabody Award-winner Vivian Kleiman (a longtime collaborator of filmmaker Marlon Riggs), the beautifully crafted documentary feature No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics, which received its world premiere at last month's Tribeca Film Festival, chronicles the history of queer comics by focusing on five lesbian and gay trailblazing cartoonists, with... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Jeffrey Friedman on his Oscar-winning decades-long filmmaking partnership with Rob Epstein
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 →
BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: Rebel Dykes ★★★★★
UPDATE: Rebel Dykes opens in UK cinemas and is released on digital Friday November 26th 2021. Harri Shanahan and Sian Williams' feature documentary Rebel Dykes, which receives its world premiere as part of the virtual 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival running March 17th to 28th and its Australian premiere at the Melbourne Queer... Continue Reading →
LGBTQ+ highlights at SXSW Online 2021
Ahead of tomorrow's SXSW Online 2021 launch, we take a look at some of the LGBTQ+ feature, short, episodic, VR, and panel discussion highlights at this year's virtual festival. SXSW Online 2021 runs Tuesday March 16th to Saturday March 20th. Explore the full festival lineup at Online.SXSW.com. SXSW Online 2021 LGBTQ+ Panels: Expanding Queer Cinema... Continue Reading →
BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: My First Summer ★★★★ 1/2
There is something quintessentially Australian about finding privacy in a wide expanse of nature, and My First Summer, part of the 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, uses the depths of Australian forests as a furtive playground for big emotions. A teenage girl, Grace (Maiah Stewardson), witnesses a reclusive writer, Veronica Fox (Edwina Wren),... Continue Reading →
Berlin Film Festival 2021 Review: The Scary of Sixty-First ★★★
The opening credits sequence of actor and podcast host Dasha Nekrasova's directorial debut The Scary of Sixty-First sets the tone for an Upper East Side contemporary horror, all creepy gargoyles and Eli Keszler's beautifully disquieting score. That unsettling feeling sustains throughout the film, which from the first scene is established as a pitch-dark comedy, likely... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: queer Sundance award-winner Ma Belle, My Beauty filmmaker Marion Hill & stars Idella Johnson & Hannah Pepper “we created this really beautiful container in which desire & intimacy can live”
Writer-director Marion Hill's queer romance Ma Belle, My Beauty had its world premiere at Sundance, going on to win the Audience Award in the NEXT section of the festival. It's a gorgeously sun-drenched character-driven drama set in the South of France where Lane (Hannah Pepper) unexpectedly visits her ex-girlfriend Bertie (Idella Johnson) and Bertie's husband... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Sundance horror Knocking star Cecilia Milocco & filmmaker Frida Kempff: “I didn’t want to exploit the female body. We’re so used to seeing that & I’m tired of it”
Frida Kempff's debut narrative feature Knocking (Knackningar), which world premiered at Sundance, is a compelling psychological horror that follows Molly (Cecilia Milocco) in her determination to find the source of the mysterious knocking sounds she can hear from her new apartment, while still grieving the loss of her girlfriend. Read our ★★★★ review of the... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2021 Review: My First Summer ★★★★ 1/2
There is something quintessentially Australian about finding privacy in a wide expanse of nature, and My First Summer uses the depths of Australian forests as a furtive playground for big emotions. A teenage girl, Grace (Maiah Stewardson), witnesses a reclusive writer, Veronica Fox (Edwina Wren), commit suicide in a local lake. She also spies another... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Barbara Sukowa & filmmaker Filippo Meneghetti on their Golden Globe nominated lesbian love story Two of Us (Deux) “society is obsessed with youth & beauty & I have a huge problem with that”
One of the queer highlights at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where writer-director Filippo Meneghetti's debut narrative feature had its world premiere, Two of Us (Deux) went on to a successful international festival run including playing the BFI London Film Festival and Outfest, and winning the Outstanding First Feature Award at last year's Frameline.... Continue Reading →
