As we face an onslaught of regressive legislative attacks on LGBTQIA+ life, focused on trans rights, along with reproductive, and voting rights, book bans and restrictions on school curriculums, it can be empowering to look back at the organizing and methods of grassroots trans and queer resistance in previous decades. That was part of the... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: Gateways Grind ★★★1/2
The Gateways Club, or the Gates as it was known, was the centre of lesbian London for decades. A watering hole in the heart of Chelsea, it one of the only exclusively lesbian venues in London, frequented by a mix of women of all classes, including the likes of author Patricia Highsmith. Running from the... Continue Reading →
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: In Her Words – 20th Century Lesbian Fiction ★★★
Chronicling key figures in lesbian fiction from the 1920s to the 90s, Lisa Marie Evans and Marianne K. Martin's In Her Words: 20th Century Lesbian Fiction is an exhaustive walk through individual author's lives and works using a range of new and archival interviews. Without preamble, we are thrown into a discussion of Radclyffe Hall’s... Continue Reading →
The Queer Review 2022 – LGBTQ+ highlights of the year
As 2022 draws to a close, we ask some friends of The Queer Review, including prominent creators, performers, artists, and activists to share the LGBTQ+ culture or events that have sustained, stimulated, moved, inspired or brought them joy this year. We hope that you enjoy reading this eclectic selection of theatre, film, TV series, books,... Continue Reading →
TV Review: A League of Their Own ★★★★
There might be no crying in baseball, but I'm sure that I wasn't alone in shedding a few happy tears while watching Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson's lovingly-crafted new series A League of Their Own on Prime Video. The adaptation of Penny Marshall's 1992 movie is a home run, capturing much of the feel-good spirit... Continue Reading →
Pioneers of Queer Cinema continues with free screenings of restored classics The Living End & Paris Is Burning Feb 26 & 27 in LA
The landmark Pioneers of Queer Cinema retrospective, with free in-person screenings presented by The UCLA Film & Television Archive, IndieCollect, and Outfest, continues in Los Angeles this weekend. The Living End (1992) directed by Gregg Araki. Courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, IndieCollect and Outfest. Saturday, February 26th at 7:30pm sees a triple... 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 →
Exclusive Interview: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Arthur Dong on his Criterion Channel retrospective “it’s up to us to find a way to survive & to resist”
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 →
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 →