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 →
NewFest 2021 Closing Night Film Review: Flee ★★★★
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 →
Exclusive Interview: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Todd Haynes on The Velvet Underground “heteronormative is what they were pushing against”
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Exclusive Interview: Ailey director Jamila Wignot “I wanted the film to feel like an epic saga in the way that his dance works do”
Emmy-winning director Jamila Wignot's Ailey, a compelling and moving portrait of a towering figure in modern dance, Alvin Ailey, world premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. "Unlike many documentaries about artists, Ailey gives us a substantial insight into his creative process", writes James Kleinmann in his five... Continue Reading →
Film Review: North by Current ★★★★★
North by Current will show as part of POV’s 34th season, broadcasting on Monday, November 1st at 10 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings) and streaming online at pov.org. The film will be available to stream until December 31st, 2021. Angelo Madsen Minax's remarkable documentary feature North By Current—which world premiered at the 2021 Berlin... Continue Reading →
Film Review: No Straight Lines – The Rise of Queer Comics ★★★1/2
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 →
