A gay Brooklyn teenager (The Inheritance’s Samuel H. Levine) charts his own sexual awakening and the complexities of his Russian Jewish family in documentarian Eric Steel’s narrative debut Minyan. The work of James Baldwin is certainly in the zeitgeist again as, much like Tomasz Jedrowski's brilliant debut novel Swimming in the Dark, Giovanni’s Room provides... Continue Reading →
Outfest 2020 Film Review: The Teacher (Wo De Ling Hun Shi Ai Zuo De) ★★★
With Taiwan passing the first Marriage Equality Law in Asia in 2019, it’s exciting to delve into LGBTQ+ stories from a historically conservative society going through such immense changes. Ming-Lang Chen’s The Teacher (Wo De Ling Hun Shi Ai Zuo De) follows a young Civics teacher name Kevin (Oscar Chiu) who meets an older factory... Continue Reading →
Outfest 2020 Film Review: The Strong Ones (Los Fuertes) ★★★1/2
What is it about remote fishing villages that are so romantic? The gorgeous vistas of the windswept ocean... the hardscrabble men with their windswept hair... the way everyone wears enviable cable-knit sweaters... the extra likelihood of being caught in the rain together...? The remote fishing village in The Strong Ones (Los Fuertes) is in Chile,... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: teen comedy Dramarama filmmaker Jonathan Wysocki – “I feel like there’s a secret society of us.”
One of the best films so far at this year’s Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival is Dramarama, a sweet comedy about five drama club friends getting together for one last murder-mystery dinner party before they all go off to college. It’s an unconventional teen flick, one where the characters are largely resistant to change instead... Continue Reading →
Outfest 2020 Film Review: Gossamer Folds ★★★★
Director Lisa Donato’s Gossamer Folds focuses on the heartwarming friendship between two Kansas City suburban neighbours in 1986. When his parents decide to move the family away from the city in an attempt to salvage their marriage, ten year-old Tate (Jackson Robert Scott) is ordered by his prejudiced father Billy (a suitably menacing Shane West)... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Circus of Books ★★★★
Rachel Mason’s Circus of Books had its world premiere at 2019's Tribeca Film Festival where is was acquired by Netflix. After a successful festival run it launches on the streaming service on Wednesday April 22nd 2020. The documentary's lead subjects, Karen and Barry Mason, are the filmmaker’s parents and the unlikely owners of the titular long-running Los Angeles gay porn... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: And Then We Danced filmmaker Levan Akin
Following its world premiere at Cannes in 2019 writer/director Levan Akin's gay coming of age drama And Then We Danced went on to enjoy a hugely successful international festival run, including showings at last month's Sundance, picking up awards in cities such as Chicago, New York and Montréal. The premiere in Tbilisi, Georgia, where the... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Leave it to Levi star Levi Karter
26 year-old gay porn star Levi Karter is the subject of the surprisingly touching and thought-provoking documentary from CockyBoys Leave It To Levi, which premieres in Hollywood this week. The film, directed by Jake Jaxson, focuses on the fallout when Levi's mother Anne discovered her son was doing porn and her gradual acceptance of his... Continue Reading →
Film Review: Cubby ★★1/2
Mark Blane's semi-autobiographical New York fantasia Cubby toured film festivals this summer, playing at events like OutFest in LA, Frameline in San Francisco, New York's NewFest and Reeling Film Festival in Chicago, among others. It's a film that seems tailor-made for festivals -- quirky, strange, shot on 16mm film, a bit clunky, with subject matter that was never... Continue Reading →
The Streets Are Queer – Nov 9 – Dec 7 2019, Los Angeles
In Heroes We Trust and Rainbow Walls present The Streets Are Queer, a group show of North American street artists who identify as Queer. This is billed as a first-of-its-kind show, bringing together artists who create and express their individual identities within the Queer spectrum by spray painting, wheat pasting, and slap tagging the streets... Continue Reading →