This wonderfully uplifting Australian documentary is the inspiring tale of how one very determined 40-something-year-old gay man gave the elderly LGBTQI population in Melbourne a reason to celebrate their lives.  The flamboyant TRISTAN MEECHAM along with his partner Bec Reed who make up ALL THE QUEENS MEN creates spectacular theatrical and participatory arts experiences that champion social equality, celebrating diverse community through creative actions and socially engaged frameworks.

When he first mooted the idea of a large social gathering that eventually morphed into a grand and impressive Ball, Meecham was greeted with a fair amount of skepticism and questioning of his motives.  It’s something that we share in the early part of SUE THOMSON’S excellent documentary that films every step of the way.  However it is impossible not only to be swept up with his infectious enthusiasm, but also by what is obviously his very genuine commitment to serve this neglected part of the LGBTQI community.

 

Thomson peppers the film with profiles of some of the elderly gay people who will participate in the Ball, and in doing so uncovers a wealth of stories of how their generation coped with their sexuality in a frightening and threatening society.  Several had married members of the opposite sex and led content lives, until their partners had passed and then they felt free to finally come out .

Meecham stresses that the Ball ….. and his monthly dance classes …. are for everyone on the LGBTQI spectrum, and one of the most touching tales was an intersex person who had come to terms with her situation and with how to deal with any negativity that confronted her.

The title Coming Back Out reflects the fact elderly LGBTQI in nursing homes often feel the need  to go back into the closet for their own safety.  On the other hand it also honors those in the community that were activists in the early gay liberation movement, and have now been somewhat marginalised by younger generations.

The Ball itself is  splendid affair . Hosted by legendary Australian performer ROBYN ARCHER, everybody is decked out in their finery, and Meecham and his crew have overlooked nothing.  There is a 30 piece gay orchestra, a trapeze artist performing in red high heel shoes. Most of all everybody is up and dancing  and just beaming all over.  For once these often ignored seniors were not alone and isolated but were in the bosom of a community that welcomed them with open arms.  It makes for such a joyous sight.

Two weeks later Australia voted to finally legalise same-sx marriage .  It would be nice to think it was because of this film

Posted by QUEERGURU  at  11:22

 

When Jared (LUCAS HEDGES) is outed as gay to his parents by a desperate new college friend, he is just as shocked as they are.  Whilst he is aware of having feelings for other boys Jared is genuinely unsure of his sexuality and this is the reason he calmly acquiesces to his parents demand that he leave college to attend Love In Action that specialises in gay conversion therapy.

His father (RUSSELL CROWE) is the part time Pastor of a large church and also the owner of a successful car dealership in Arkansas and has reached his decision that this is the right course of action after consulting with two rather conservative Church elders.   His mother (NICOLE KIDMAN)  quietly goes along with this, and she is the one who accompanies Jared to the Center, and moves into a nearby hotel, where she and Jared will live whilst he goes to his daily ‘lessons’.

The story is based on GARRARD CONEY’S  2016 memoir so we assume that the methods that the school undertook to indoctrinate the ‘pupils’ was reasonably accurate. Adapted by JOEL EDGERTON who also directed and starred as the School’s Principal, he trod a careful path not to make the movie become one big anti-conversion rant.

Jared tries hard to come to terms with what his own sexuality may be and reconciling that with his faith,  in an environment that comes over literally like a prison . It is as he and the other ‘pupils’ are verbally bullied by the school establishment, that the quiet introspective Jared finally finds his voice to speak out.  It is however when he awakens his mother as to what is actually going on every day when he is dropped off at ‘school’,   that she finally takes his side and calls the principal out for being the charlatan that he is.

Boy Erased comes on the heels of The Miseducation of Cameron Post the award winning movie that ridiculed gay conversion therapy. which really appealed to teenagers.  With 39 US States still legally allowing such centers to operate this compelling new movie seems to be aimed more at parents who are not aware of the inequities of the system and long-term harm they can cause young people.

Hedges puts in a finally nuanced performance as Jared which is already attracting the attention in this awards season.  However it is Kidman’s turn as the protective mother that really grabs your attention whilst you are reaching for the tissues.

Boy Erased somehow lacks the power of Cameron Post and doesnt have you reeling quite so much, but in this current political climate any attempt to spread the news and truth  about these places is sorely welcomed.

 

 

When the movie opens Lee (MELISSA MCCARTHY) is seen as a bitter and mean spirited alcoholic who has just been fired from her latest job and is in her squalid unkempt Manhattan apartment with just her cat for company.  Totally broke and not having paid her rent for months , she has  exhausted anyone who has tried to help her in the past and her only solace now is drinking alone in a bar spending her last few dollars.

It’s there she meets Jack (RICHARD E GRANT) a flamboyant gay man also destitute and seemingly homeless too, but who proves to be a worthy companion to wallow with.

Life had been better for Lee in the past and she had published three successful biographies but now she has writers block trying to finish her 4th, a memoir on Fanny Brice the vaudeville star.  She insists on pursuing it even though her Agent tells her that it is unsaleable.  It is however whilst she is in the Library doing research on Brice that she has a lucky break. There secreted between the pages of a book are two letters written by Brice, which Lee quickly slips into her bag.

When she sells the first letter to a book store which specialises in collectable memorabilia , Lee is pleasantly surprised by how much money it fetches, and even more pleased when she embellishes the second letter with some of her own wit, and this sells for even more.

Once she realises that she has inadvertently stumbled on a potential lucrative income, she carefully starts forging letters from the likes of Noel Coward and Dorothy Parker.  As she sells them on to a whole network of dealers, Lee is not only suddenly making enough money to pay off her debts and live, but she is also finally finding an outlet for her writing (albeit in other people’s names)

With Jack roped in to help her sell some of the letters, life suddenly seems better for this odd couple of drunks, until alarm bells sound when they flood the market with just too many letters.

The movie is based on Lee Israel’s own life story and her memoir which ironically turned out to be her best selling book.  The script written by  NICOLE HOLOFCENER and JEFF WHITTY has a great deal of sympathy for Lee which perfect suits McCarthy who gives a career best performance as the sullen unhappy writer.  Her interpretation on this woman seemingly incapable of any meaningful social intercourse or relationship is absolutely pitch perfect, and she is a sheer joy to watch.

So too is Grant as the hapless gay man who would love to grab any opportunity of a relationship, but failing that is happy to have alcohol as an alternative.

Can You Ever Forgive Me has the unusual distinction of having both of its two main characters as gay yet it escapes all the usual norms that one associates with an LGBT movie. Their sexuality is treated as unimportant to the main strands of the plot but undeniable is the fact that this is very definitely a queer story.  And an excellent one at that.

 

Posted by QUEERGURU  at  12:18

 

The timing could not be more perfect for the screening of Indian  filmmaker  Sridhar Rangayan’s  beautifully nuanced family drama coming so soon after his country’s Supreme Court finally legalizing homosexuality.  Being gay waa always taboo in India but never a crime in itself,  but the sexual act between two men was.

This is the story of Kartik (Devansh Joshi) who is returning for a rare visit home to his conservative family in a small town in southern India.  Against his father’s wishes he has settled in Mumbai and established himself as a professional photographer and now lives with the love of his life Aman (Arpit Chaudhary).  The last part is something he has not shared with anyone, but he is hoping that may now change.

Kartik believes that the reason for his visit is to take part in a religious ceremony at home, but the moment he walks through the door he is hijacked by his father (Ananth Narayan Mahadevan) for the real purpose of being forced into an arranged marriage.

As an only son he is rather spoilt and protected by his mother  (Mona Ambegaonkar) but there is little she can say or do once the overbearing father has made up his mind, and so all hell breaks out.

Kartik ends up eventually coming out to his mother which doesn’t go too well at all, but when his father finds out by accident, he gets beaten up and literally thrown out of the house.

Kartik’s sexuality is more than just a thorny subject in this extremely traditional society, so kudos to  Rangayan for not suddenly making the parents immediately accepting of it, but equally important never demonising them at all for either their beliefs or reactions.

This is essentially the story about the loving bond between a mother and her son and how in reality it never ever can be broken.  Plus the fact that excellent performances also from both these actors in particular raises the whole piece.

Like most LGBT movies made in India it probably had a miniscule budget and was shot mainly on the downlow.  Hopefully that will start to change as Indian culture slowly embraces the banning of the old law, and hopefully we will see more compelling stories as good as this from there.

 

P.S. Queerguru would love you to bits if you did us one tiny favor.  Despite the fact that we have had almost 308K hits on YouTube (yeah!) they will not give us a single cent of the advertising money that they make off us until we have more subscribers.  Won’t cost you a dime,  but it will help support our site. Just simply click on the link below.  Thank you very much!

 

It’s no secret that Lizzie Borden hacked her wealthy parents to death in 1892 but was never ever convicted of the crime, There have been endless stories mainly based on rumors and suppositions ever since, and this new biopic on her life tops them all off by painting Lizzie as being motivated by her lesbian relationship with a maid who her father had been raping on a regular basis.

Lizzie (Chloë Sevigny who had also been the driving force to get this movie made) is portrayed as a fiercely independent heiress who didn’t care for her stepmother (Fiona Shaw) and loathed her crooked manipulating father (Jamey Sheridan). In fact under his regime every woman in the household was miserable including Lizzie’s older spinster sister  Emma (Kim Dickens).

When Bridget (Kristen Stewart) the new maid arrives to join the household she catches the eye of father and daughter.  He imposes himself on her at night when she is sleeping in her attic room, but with the seemingly sexually inexperienced Lizzie it’s a case of first love blooming slowly.

At the same time that the two women start to get serious about each other, the father who has been receiving anonymous threats to his life, invites his unscrupulous younger brother (Denis OHare) to take charge of his affairs and finances should anything ever happen to him.  The fact that he could now be in a position to squander Lizzie’s fortune is just the final straw for her.

 

 

Sevigny brilliantly plays her as cool as a cucumber who never outwardly shows any sign of her inner rage. By stripping naked before she takes the axe to her parents she ensures there is no trace of their blood on her, and she is calm enough to ensure that she kills the stepmother first so there can be no complications with the inheritance from her father.  She and Stewart have perfect chemistry together as a pair of young lovers who have been thrown together more by circumstances than just by mere passion.

How much of the story is based on the truth is anyone’s guess, but on reflection making it a fated  lesbian romance seems an inspired decision, and fully credit to Sevigny for pursing this movie  ….. directed by Craig William Macneill from a script by Bryce Kass…..to this conclusion.

 

P.S. Queerguru would love you to bits if you did us one tiny favor.  Despite the fact that we have had almost 308K hits on YouTube (yeah!) they will not give us a single cent of the advertising money that they make off us until we have more subscribers.  Won’t cost you a dime,  but it will help support our site. Just simply click on the link below.  Thank you very much!

 

When leading choreographer Jamal Sims came across the underground dance movement known as ‘bucking’, he was so taken with it that he decided that this would be the subject of his documentary directing debut. The result is a wonderfully energetic and a rather joyful movie that centers of a group of dancers,  and one in particular who is known as Big Anthony.

As Sims explains ‘bucking’ was appropriated from scores of female cheerleading troupes in the South by groups of black gay men, who the women now admit, are not only more creative but better at it too.  It was Big Anthony who not only spearheaded the movement in the 1990’s in Atlanta, but he was also the one responsible for creating a network of competitions where the troupes of guys could demonstrate their exceptional prowess.

‘Bucking’ is flamboyant, outrageous and very showy in the same way that vogueing was when it first captured the imagination of the black queer crowd in Harlem.  The documentary however also shows that it is still nevertheless being kept mainly underground because of some of the social stigma in the South attached to men wanting to dance like this.

Big Anthony’s own story is one that adds a particularly touching strand to the documentary especially when he suffers a setback after he’s mugged in a grocery store parking lot.  Plus one of the dancers is a schoolteacher and lives in fear of being exposed as a bucking dancer and fired from his job.  Another, Flash, openly shares his struggles with his mother and her addition to crack which has resulted in her being incarcerated several times. It reminds us of the tough reality of all their lives away from the dance floor.

Despite this behind-the-scenes tension, Sims racks up both the enjoyment and the tension factor by placing his cameras in the midst of the first Big Buck competition.   The standards are exceptionally high but by this time we are so committed to the success of Big Anthony’s Phi Phi team, that we are on the edge of our seats willing them to come out on top.

Openly gay Sims does an excellent job imbuing his own passion for dance throughout the whole film and makes this intriguing and important aspect of contemporary LGBT culture so absolutely compelling to view.

Produced by Jordan Finegan, the movie has Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato as Executive Directors which will certainly help its chances of being distributed widely

 

Posted by queerguru  at  14:02

 

Life in The Doghouse is one of those documentaries that will touch the heart of the coldest of souls.  It’s a wonderful love story between two exceptional gay men and their ever-growing four-legged family which have taken over every semblance of what once passed as their ‘normal life’.

Ron Danta and Danny Robertshaw, both in their 60’s, live on a horse farm in North Carolina where they very successfully train show horses.  How they have the time and energy to do this is never made that clear from the film, as most of their days (and nights) are occupied by the menagerie of dogs that they have rescued mainly from animal shelters who would have had to exterminate them otherwise.

The 4000+ square house is currently home to an assortment of some 71 dogs that Ron & Danny have meticulously organized in such a way there is not a hint of chaos. It had all out as a spontaneous reaction to the immediate after-effects of Hurricane Katrina, when after the two of them had donated much-needed supplies to people holed up in a nearby Sports Stadium, they then turned their attention to all the pets that had been abandoned in the floods.

By driving their horse trucks down to the devastated area and picked up as many of the poor frightened dogs they could and drive them home before turning around to go back to get another load.

In the following years, this quickly morphed into a full-scale dog rescue service that the couple, with the aid of small team, has run since then.  What initially appears simply as a well-meaning gesture on the part of these selfless men, is actually a well-oiled operation that runs on basic tenets that Ron and Danny insist on sticking too.  They go out of their way to save the lives of the dogs whose days are numbered and may have health issues or behavioral problems, or simply are the type that rarely gets adopted.

The website for the Non-Profit named after them Danny & Ron’s Rescue, features the dogs that they consider are adoptable, but most of their success in getting their charges new homes is on the Horse Jumping Circuit where they have built up a remarkable following and reputation.

The documentary points out that they have successfully had 10,000 dogs adopted by families and new owners that they vet extremely carefully. Most people would be more than content with such an exceptional achievement, but Ron Danta is not happy that they cannot make a bigger indent into the 4 million pets that end up getting euthanized each year.

Both men are passionate about their crusade and seem happy enough that the only place in the house that is still theirs is the king-size bed but even that is shared with a handful of dogs. Having sunk most of their pension funds into the operation, the Rescue service relies on donations to survive bit in the summer months when they are scarce, their precarious finances are constantly are Ron’s mind.  They are however not a deterrent as we see him applying to the Bank for a large personal loan to provide urgent cash flow.

Two other issues that Ron is very verbal about is the inequity of what he calls ‘puppy mills’ where dogs are badly housed in small cages and expected to constantly breed to make as much money as possible.  To save money they are often inbred to resulting in unsalable puppies that they will then simply abandon.

Surprisingly his views on Animal Shelters who exterminate were extremely rational, as he explained that in a society where animals are not neutered or spayed leads to so many unwanted litters which are the real culprits here, and not the Shelters that have to deal with society’s messes.

Director Ron Davis paints an affectionate portrait of this affable couple who show none of the usual eccentricities that we associate with people who prefer an excessive amount of animals over any humans.  The film triggers not just your heartstrings, but all those feelings of guilt too which could be alleviated by adopting another stray or at least sending a big fact check to their rescue service.

The only hint of possibly any regret Davis ever shows us is from Danny who has serious health problems and has enjoyed a much longer life than his doctors predicted, and in an unguarded moment mentioned he missed that fact that he and Ron never talked about anything other than the dogs.  We can see his point.

 

This intriguing made-for-TV Australian drama directed by Jeffrey Walker is based on the real story of how Sydney’s famous LGBT Mardi Gras came into being.  This tale of how a very marginalized community struggled to win acceptance and basic equal rights may be well known to its home audience but is probably news to the rest of the world.

The action starts back in early 1970’s when divorced father-of-three Lance Gowland (Damon Herriman) is now an openly gay man and ardent communist living in a commune and aggressively agitating for gay liberation.  As passionate as he is about ‘the cause’  he finds it enormously difficult to get other gay men involved in any of his political actions.  The other few gay and lesbian activists he does meet up with can never even agree on a common goal and spend most of their time arguing amongst themselves.

However as his bulging address book bares out, one of the things that Lance is definitely good at is finding boyfriends. His latest one Jim (Xavier Samuel) is much younger and a doctor who gives free clinics to women and people who cannot afford to pay. Whilst he doesn’t initially share Lance’s political passion. he does agree with them and is soon roped into helping Lance’s crusades after striking a deal with him to be monogamous in their relationship.

Over the next few years as a determined Lance struggles on with his highly politicized ideology for gay liberation his rigid approach alienates the other activists and eventually Jim who decides to call it a day on their relationship.  However unbeknownst to him whilst he has been leading this rather isolated life from the mainstream, gay life in the city has actually been going through a radical change.

Now Oxford Steet the main drag is teeming with gay bars, and so a friend persuades Lance that the way to connect with this new much younger LGBT community is not with some deadly serious march of protest but with a celebratory parade through town.

This first Mardi Gras is a major success and brings the community out in huge numbers, but it also does the same with the homophobic New South Wales Police.  Despite the fact that Lance had an Official Permit for the Parade, the Police using brute force which landed many in hospital and jail brought a halt to the event

There is a defiant scene at the end when the Parade is over and the Police tell Lance that nothing will change and that as long as the gay community insists on marching they will stop them by whatever means they feel is right.  Lance jibes back “You’ll get shamed out of beating us,” he says, “long before we stop being able to take it”.

This movie with some wonderfully good intentions is far from perfect and probably will have historians seething that a very important part of Australian gay history has been made into a Lifetime TV movie.  However, thanks mainly to Herriman’s pitch-perfect performance at Lance, it does convey with some passion the commitment and the personal sacrifices that these early activists in the gay liberation movement made, and that at least non-scholarly viewers will definitely appreciate.

 

Posted by queerguru  at  10:28

 

For his documentary feature debut filmmaker, Jethro Patalinghug has turned his cameras on one of the oldest LGBT organizations in the country, the Imperial Council also known as the Imperial Court System.  Patalinghug takes a look at its glorious history as it celebrates its 50 year anniversary and now starts to question if there is still place for it in today’s LGBTQ community.

The Imperial Court System was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1965 by José Sarria. In those dark days it was considered illegal for homosexuals to congregate in public together, but the owner of the Black Cat Cafe where Sarria worked as a drag queen, fought and won a landmark victory which changed all of that.

Sarris firmly believed that the community should not just come out of the shadows but be proud of what he called the nobility of being gay. Thus the Court system was created with a system of royal titles to recognize the roles that its members would play.  He always intended that the Court would join with other LGBT organizations and spearhead the move to equal rights.

Part social, part political but where the Court really took off was as a dynamic fundraising operation that would help fund crucial LGBT services and charities.  It naturally really came into its own during the AIDS Epidemic which devastated their hometown far more than most.  By mounting daily events it raised much-needed millions of dollars to help people stricken down with the disease to be able to pay for medications, rent and even funeral services.

The Council/Court excels in all its traditions especially the annual election and coronation of its Empress & Emperor who must use their year in office to not just further the cause but raise a substantial amount of money.  They all dress up in their elaborate regal drag with their huge coiffured wigs topped off with crowns and tiaras, and even the Emperors get to sport gold laurel leaf crowns.

Patalinghug mixes a wealth of archival footage with a whole string of interviews with some of the Courts past Empresses and Emperors and what comes over so loudly, is their sheer joy of being a part of this rather wonderful old organization.  It includes a clip from a 2004 interview with Saria himself, but the most moving part of the film by far is his funeral held in a Cathedral with the entire Court in their best black drag and dressed up to the nines in his honor.

The latter part if the film is given over to discussing how the LGBT community has not just evolved but also fully embraced this new age of technology giving us different perspectives on how we now congregate and interact with each other.  Patalinghug does attempt to draw any conclusions of his own, and members of the Court express their own very mixed opinions on the future.  It’s too early to see who will be proven right but however, after seeing  50 Fabulous Years it’s almost impossible not to want to wish them another 50 too.

 

 

The social media star and model/actor Max Emerson courageously took on the pressing topic of homeless LGBT youth for his feature film writing/directing debut.  This fictionalized story was evidently inspired by the countless troubling emails Emerson received from when, at the grand old age of 25, he published his own memoir Hot Sissy – Life Before Flashbulbs.  He launched a Crowdsource Fund to make his film in a way that 50% of any profits would be passed to charities such as the Albert Kennedy Trust who specifically work with this too often neglected part of our community.

His film is the story of a very good looking  18-year old hustler called Jack. (Conor Donnally) who has left home to be in NY with his  17-year-old boyfriend Tom (Sean Ormond)  The two are temporarily living in a hostel dorm room and Jack hustles so they have money to live and put Tom through school.  Jack has anger issues and deliberately alienates and confronts everyone he comes across, except for Tom who he totally dotes on as the pair are obviously very much in love.

When one of Jack’s clients offers to take him on a trip to Miami, he jumps at the chance and sees it as an avenue to start a fresh life in the sun with Tom.  Unfortunately, despite the client’s supposedly good intentions, the scheme goes awry with almost fatal consequences.

Emerson knows in part on how to put his story with its very serious subject across and tries to ensure keeping the audience’s attention with enough scenes of hot looking young men clad only in their underpants. However, his undeniable passion and enthusiasm for telling this story seem to have made him overlook a few of the wince-making cliches such as the closeted client’s much younger unforgiving wife.

All in all this well-intentioned film that has its heart in the right place was an impressive debut from Emerson. He managed to squeeze in so many unfortunate elements that homeless LGBT youth have to deal with such as sexual abuse, violence, drug addiction and suicide.  The fact he chose to make it as a fictionalised drama means that it will probably be seen by more members of our community than a regular documentary.

Emerson also cast his two young lead actors well as their undeniable chemistry made their burgeoning relationship that much more compelling.

There is also a slight preachy element to the whole film and at the very end Emerson can hold back no longer and puts up some harrowing statistics about the plight of  LGBT homeless youth.  It may be unsubtle, but it is extremely effective.