Compiling a list of LGBTQ+ highlights ahead of the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, I was struck by the sheer number of queer films that had been selected, a powerful enough statement from the festival's programmers in itself. But actually being there at TIFF in-person—for the first time in three years—to catch... Continue Reading →
Following its world premiere at Tribeca last month, directors Bryan Darling and Jesse Finley Reed's delectable ALL MAN: The International Male Story plays the 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Saturday, July 16th. The feature documentary chronicles the history of the alluring men's fashion catalogue, International Male, with insights from the insiders... Continue Reading →
Two very different documentaries playing at the Mardi Gras Film Festival 2022 focus on individual LGBTQ+ activists in different walks of life: controversial gay rights warrior Peter Tatchell in Hating Peter Tatchell, and progressive Islamic campaigner Seyran Ateş in Seyran Ateş: Sex, Revolution and Islam. Seyran Ateş is a human rights lawyer and Imam, born... Continue Reading →
Country music and heartbreak are natural bedfellows, but T. J. Parsell’s documentary, Invisible (originally titled Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music when it premiered at Outfest 2021), shows us just how much queer heartache has gone into this enduringly popular genre. From the women in country, folk, and blues who were never given a shot... Continue Reading →
UPDATE: Screens at the 40th Anniversary Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Sunday, July 17th at 7pm at Harmony Gold. 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... Continue Reading →
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 →
Vivian Kleiman, who we spoke with last year about her Peabody Award-winning filmmaking partnership with the late Marlon Riggs, saw her latest film as director and producer, No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics, receive its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival 2021. The beautifully crafted documentary feature chronicles the history of queer... Continue Reading →
Following its opening night screening at NewFest's New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival last month, Emmy and Sundance Grand Jury Award-winning director Jesse Moss' feature documentary Mayor Pete will be released globally on Amazon Prime Video this Friday November 12th. In 2019, the Boys State filmmaker gained surprisingly intimate access to 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate hopeful... Continue Reading →
Jonas Poher Rasmussen's remarkable Flee, which I first saw when it world premiered at Sundance 2021 where it took the festival's World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, closes NewFest's 33rd New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival on Sunday October 24th at the SVA Theatre at 7pm. As the film opens a caption tells us that... Continue Reading →
New Queer Cinema pioneer Todd Haynes' The Velvet Underground, which had its world premiere at Cannes and recently played the New York Film Festival, is an exquisitely crafted, invigorating time capsule which uses music, contemporary film, archive interviews, and present day commentary from those who were there, to immerse us in New York's avant-garde culture... Continue Reading →
