Exclusive Interview: Outfest LA 2021 spotlight artist Angelo Madsen Minax “my fellow queers are ready for a little more nuance in their representation & they’ll get that in North By Current”

Award-winning artist, performer, musician, and filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to Outfest this month with his deeply personal feature North By Current, following its world premiere at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for both Best Documentary and a Teddy Award. The raw, unflinching portrait of his Mormon family reeling from tragedy... Continue Reading →

August 4, 2021 2

Outfest 2021 Exclusive Interview: filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz on Boulevard! A Hollywood Story “how many queer stories are buried in boxes, sitting in people’s attics & basements?”

Jeffrey Schwarz, the Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker behind Vito, I Am Divine, and Tab Hunter Confidential, returns to Outfest this month for the world premiere of his latest feature, Boulevard! A Hollywood Story. The fascinating film unearths the little-known attempt by actress Gloria Swanson to stage an original Broadway musical based on the movie she is... Continue Reading →

August 3, 2021 2

2021 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival announces lineup with mix of outdoor, indoor & digital screenings & events

The lineup for the 2021 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, running Friday August 13th to Sunday August 22nd, has just been announced with a mix of outdoor events, indoor screenings for vaccinated moviegoers, and online streaming. The 39th edition of the world's largest LGBTQIA+ film festival boasts an impressive range of narrative features, documentaries,... Continue Reading →

July 26, 2021 7

Exclusive Interview: filmmaker Samuel Van Grinsven on his seductive queer coming-of-age tale Sequin in a Blue Room

Writer-director Samuel Van Grinsven’s seductive, visually striking debut feature, Sequin in a Blue is the compelling story of Sequin (Conor Leach) a gay teenager exploring his burgeoning sexuality in the digital age, who is obsessed with an anonymous hookup app and the no-strings encounters he arranges through it. When he finds his way into the... Continue Reading →

April 11, 2021 0

Outfest 2020 Film Review: Cured ★★★★

Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer's riveting feature documentary Cured, which had its world premiere at Outfest last week, 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 audio recordings, as well... Continue Reading →

September 2, 2020 3

Exclusive Interview: trans non-binary trailblazer Kate Bornstein on her new film Two Eyes “doing this role taught me a lot about how I want to act in the world”

The world premiere of writer-director Travis Fine's stunning queer cinematic tapestry Two Eyes will close this year's Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival tonight, Sunday August 30th, with both drive-in and virtual screenings. Set over three time periods - 1860s, 1970s and present day - we're introduced to a diverse range of characters at different... Continue Reading →

August 30, 2020 3

Exclusive Interview: star of Outfest 2020 Closing Night film ‘Two Eyes’ Nakhane “I’m drawn to the whole idea of play in queer identity”

This year's Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival closes on Sunday August 30th with both drive-in and virtual screenings of Travis Fine's exceptional Two Eyes. It's an ambitious, stirring, rich cinematic tapestry that weaves a triptych of narratives exploring the spectrum of queerness and gender identity over more than a hundred years. Set in the... Continue Reading →

August 29, 2020 1

Outfest 2020 Film Review: Girls Shorts

Like Boys Shorts, Outfest’s Girls Shorts program always sells out. I’ve often felt guilty slipping into the theater on a Press Pass, taking a seat from a young lesbian in the standby line who really wanted to see herself up on that screen. With the festival streaming online this year, goodbye guilt and hello girls!... Continue Reading →

August 28, 2020 0

Outfest 2020 Film Review: Minyan ★★★★

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 →

August 28, 2020 0

Outfest Film Review: T11 Incomplete ★★★★

According to the Institute on Disability, “If people with disabilities were a formally recognized minority group, at 19% of the population, they would be the largest minority group in the United States.” They would, in fact, be the largest minority group in the world, but in terms of representation, among many other issues, the world... Continue Reading →

August 27, 2020 0