Film

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Film Review: “Hi, Are Your Single?”

Nearly all of us in the LGBTQ community were raised in a very heteronormative family lacking in  role models that as gay men and women we could actually relate too.  That is rapidly changing and hopefully future generations of queers will benefit from those who a whole slew of LGBTQ  ‘pioneers’ we can now take our leads from.

Queerguru would like to suggest an addition to the ranks.  RYAN J HADDAD may be still in his late 20’s but after seeing him perform his autobiographical play about being  gay and having cerebral palsy ,  he is definitely a very impressive role model.

Actually the play “HI ARE YOU SINGLE” is not just about Haddad being queer, it is about his lifetime search for a boyfriend.  In the space of an hour he takes you from having phone sex literally on stage, through his exploratory years through College, to all the pitfalls and joys  of gay bars and dating.

He has a very infectious sense of humor but it is his sheer honesty that warms you most to him.  There is a point where he is zealously staking his claim for attention and tolerance, when he inadvertently fails to offer the same to a bald black man in a bar.  It is totally understandable however.  as Haddad has spent his entire adult life making his disability seemingly acceptable to the men he wants to bed.

Haddad milks the details of some awkward sexual encounters that most of us would have never revealed.  But he does it with such joie de vivre that makes each story a sheer joy to share with him.

It’s through his sheer energy and wit that we start to question ourselves  ….. possibly for the first time ….. about the  reality of gay men and women with any disabilities and how we interact with them .  Or not.  Like Haddad we also admire RYAN O’CONNELL for his award winning TV series SPECIAL which showed gay man with cerebral palsy actually  naked and going at it with another man.  

It is way past time that we consider them not as disabled, but sexual beings, something that both Ryans are determined to drum into us.

Haddad’s ability to also intimately share the non-sexual intimate parts of his piece is very impactful.  He fearless bares his soul that we cannot but fail to fall in love with just a little bit.  And it’s not just because of those lips of his.

It leaves us wanting more, and also wanting to know what happens next. I’m sure he has a lot more to share with us.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
in association with IAMA Theatre Company
presents

HI, ARE YOU SINGLE?
by Ryan J. Haddad
Directed by Laura Savia and Jess McLeod

STREAMING UNTIL FEB 28TH 2021

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Film Review: “The Man With the Answers”

One of three World Premieres at this year’s QUEER SCREEN’S MARDI GRAS FILM FESTIVAL in Sydney Australia is a truly delightful feel-good road movie, The debut feature from queer Greek filmmaker STELIOS KAMMITSIS is one of those romances you are never sure will work, but the journey is so worth it anyway.

It all starts in a seaside town in Greece where Victor VASILIS MAGOULIOTIS an ex-Olympic diving champion is now looking after his very sick grandmother.  He’s quite a loner content to get part time work in a local upholstery factory, but when his granny dies, he decides its time to leave town.

Many years ago his mother had done just exactly that taking of with a hot German who became her husband and together they started their own family in Bavaria. We gather from odd phone calls that this is still a sore point for Victor who has unresolved issues.

She  just didn’t leave Victor at the time, but she also left her old Audi which up to now had been collecting moths in the garage.  It does at least still work so Victor sets forth to drive on to the Ferry that will take him to Italy.

Whilst onboard he attracts the attention Matthias ANTON WEIL  of an overly confident German ‘student’ who is returning home after another summer running wild on Greek island beaches.  Victor may be totally unaware, but we can see Matthias is flirting with him but we are not sure if it is to get a lift in the car, or if he has an alternative motive.

They make strange traveling companions . The uptight Victor doesn’t want to talk about why he is making the journey, and insists that they take the fastest route using the big motorways.  Chatty Matthias on other hand, outs his foot down and makes Victor drive on secondary roads that take them through some stunning Italian scenery.

At one point Matthias makes him pull over on the pretext he wants to go toilet at the roadside whereas  in fact he wants to swim in the lake.  It takes so persuading  to get Victor to join him, and when he does we can finally see him starting to relax.

The trip is not without incident as they get pulled over for speeding and Victor is also ticketed for not having a driving license. We have no real idea of Victor’s sexuality at this point as it is quite irrelevant, yet what we see is the two of them bickering at times like an old married couple.

At a side stop to attend a wedding of friends of Matthias, a very relaxed and drunk Victor is starting to realise that his feelings for his new friend is something that he wasn’t prepared for.

When they finally reach Victor’s mother home there is a birthday party in full swing for his very young step -brother, and we know that this reunion is not going to turn out like anything he had planned in his mind.  But then again, neither will this road trip.

Beautifully written, and kudos to Kammitsis for making two extremely authentic and well-rounded characters so well played by his two talented leads. Its a refreshing wee tale that  is totally unpredictable https://www.youtube.com/embed/rSQAqHwgsVs

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Oscars 2021: The Complete Nominations List

Competing for best picture are “The Father,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Mank,” “Minari,” “Nomadland,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Netflix’s “Mank” scored a leading 10 nominations, including nods for best director (David Fincher), best actor (Gary Oldman) and best supporting actress (Amanda Seyfried), in addition to best picture.

Following behind with six nominations apiece are “The Father,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Minari,” “Nomadland,” “Sound of Metal” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” received five nods.

Two women were nominated for best director for the first time ever with Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”). They will compete against Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”), David Fincher (“Mank”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”).

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas announced the Academy Award nominations in a two-part live presentation on Monday via global live stream. The ceremony will take place in-person at Los Angeles’ Union Station and the Dolby Theatre on April 25, after being pushed back from its original Feb. 28 date.

Here is the full list of 2021 Oscar nominations:

Best Picture

“The Father” (David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, producers)

“Judas and the Black Messiah” (Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler, producers)

“Mank” (Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, producers)

“Minari” (Christina Oh, producer)

“Nomadland” (Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, producers)

“Promising Young Woman” (Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, producers)

“Sound of Metal” (Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, producers)

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” (Marc Platt and Stuart Besser, producers)

Best Director

Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”)

David Fincher (“Mank”) 

Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) 

Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) 

Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) 

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) 

Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) 

Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) 

Gary Oldman (“Mank”) 

Steven Yeun (“Minari”) 

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) 

Andra Day (“The United States v. Billie Holiday”) 

Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) 

Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”) 

Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”) 

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) 

Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) 

Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”) 

Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”) 

Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Maria Bakalova (‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”) 

Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”) 

Olivia Colman (“The Father”) 

Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”) 

Yuh-jung Youn (“Minari”) 

Best Animated Feature Film

“Onward” (Pixar) 

“Over the Moon” (Netflix) 

“A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon” (Netflix) 

“Soul” (Pixar) 

“Wolfwalkers” (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS) 

Best Adapted Screenplay

“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman, Lee Kern; Story by Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Nina Pedrad

“The Father,” Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller

“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao 

“One Night in Miami,” Kemp Powers 

“The White Tiger,” Ramin Bahrani 

Best Original Screenplay

“Judas and the Black Messiah.” Screenplay by Will Berson, Shaka King; Story by Will Berson, Shaka King, Kenny Lucas, Keith Lucas

“Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung 

“Promising Young Woman,” Emerald Fennell 

“Sound of Metal.” Screenplay by Darius Marder, Abraham Marder; Story by Darius Marder, Derek Cianfrance

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Aaron Sorkin 

Best Original Song

“Fight for You,” (“Judas and the Black Messiah”). Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas

“Hear My Voice,” (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”). Music by Daniel Pemberton; Lyric by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite

“Húsavík,” (“Eurovision Song Contest”). Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson

“Io Si (Seen),” (“The Life Ahead”). Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini

“Speak Now,” (“One Night in Miami”). Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Sam Ashworth

Best Original Score

“Da 5 Bloods,” Terence Blanchard 

“Mank,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross 

“Minari,” Emile Mosseri 

“News of the World,” James Newton Howard 

“Soul,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste 

Best Sound

“Greyhound,” Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman

“Mank,” Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin

“News of the World,” Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett

“Soul,” Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker

“Sound of Metal,” Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh

Best Costume Design

“Emma,” Alexandra Byrne 

“Mank,” Trish Summerville 

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Ann Roth 

“Mulan,” Bina Daigeler 

“Pinocchio,” Massimo Cantini Parrini

Best Animated Short Film

“Burrow” (Disney Plus/Pixar)

“Genius Loci” (Kazak Productions) 

“If Anything Happens I Love You” (Netflix) 

“Opera” (Beasts and Natives Alike) 

“Yes-People” (CAOZ hf. Hólamói) 

Best Live-Action Short Film

“Feeling Through” 

“The Letter Room” 

“The Present” 

“Two Distant Strangers” 

“White Eye” 

Best Cinematography

“Judas and the Black Messiah,” Sean Bobbitt 

“Mank,” Erik Messerschmidt 

“News of the World,” Dariusz Wolski 

“Nomadland,” Joshua James Richards 

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Phedon Papamichael 

Best Documentary Feature

“Collective,” Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana

“Crip Camp,” Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder

“The Mole Agent,” Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez

“My Octopus Teacher,” Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster

“Time,” Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn

Best Documentary Short Subject

“Colette,” Anthony Giacchino and Alice Doyard

“A Concerto Is a Conversation,” Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers

“Do Not Split,” Anders Hammer and Charlotte Cook

“Hunger Ward,” Skye Fitzgerald and Michael Scheuerman

“A Love Song for Latasha,” Sophia Nahli Allison and Janice Duncan

Best Film Editing

“The Father,” Yorgos Lamprinos

“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao 

“Promising Young Woman,” Frédéric Thoraval 

“Sound of Metal,” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen 

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Alan Baumgarten 

Best International Feature Film

“Another Round” (Denmark) 

“Better Days” (Hong Kong)

“Collective” (Romania) 

“The Man Who Sold His Skin” (Tunisia)

“Quo Vadis, Aida?”(Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

“Emma,” Marese Langan, Laura Allen, Claudia Stolze

“Hillbilly Elegy,” Eryn Krueger Mekash, Patricia Dehaney, Matthew Mungle 

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson

“Mank,” Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams, Colleen LaBaff

“Pinocchio,” Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli, Francesco Pegoretti

Best Production Design

“The Father.” Production Design: Peter Francis; Set Decoration: Cathy Featherstone

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Production Design: Mark Ricker; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton

“Mank.” Production Design: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Jan Pascale

“News of the World.” Production Design: David Crank; Set Decoration: Elizabeth Keenan

“Tenet.” Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas

Best Visual Effects

“Love and Monsters,” Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox 

“The Midnight Sky,” Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins

“Mulan,” Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram

“The One and Only Ivan,” Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez

“Tenet,” Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher

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Film Review: “Ailey”

Filmmaker JAMILA WIGNOT’S new documentary of modern dance auteur , the tortured genius Alvin Ailey makes for such hypnotic viewing. With a combination  of  audio interviews with the man himself and some breath taking archival footage of his early performances, she gives an intimate portrait of one of the greatest interpreters of the universality of the African-American experience .

Wignot bases her film around a production of “Lazarus,” a new piece in honor of Ailey, which the present day Ailey company rehearses under the direction of ARTISTIC DIRECTOR  ROBERT BATTLE and choreographer RENNIE HARRIS.  But in between she starts with Ailey’s poverty stricken childhood with his single parent mother struggling to survive the Depression in 1930’s Texas.

His very tight bond with his mother lasts his entire life, until it is cut short in 1989 when he dies of AIDS aged 58. In order to shield her from the stigma of AIDS, he asks his Doctor to announce  his death was from a blood disease.

In 1941 when he was just 10 years old he and his mother moved to Los Angelas for ‘ a better life’ and that was where he first discovered dance in the form of BALLET RUSSE DE MONTE-CARLO.  He was totally hooked watching, but too afraid of the potential negative name calling, he never considered dancing himself.  That is until his classmate and friend CARMEN DE LAVALLADE dragged him to the studio of LESTER HORTON, and the die was cast.  It was De Lavallade who was also responsible for his next move when, when she and Ailey were cast as a dancing couple in a Broadway Show.

This was the beginning of his success as a dancer, but Ailey was very frustrated and at being unable to find a choreographer whose work fulfilled him, he started gathering dancers to perform his own Company. 

It was 1958, and he had only been in NY for 4 years,  and the new ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER  soon had its debut at the 92ND STREET Y  That performance included Ailey’s first masterpiece, Blues Suite, and two years later he premiered his most popular and critically acclaimed work, REVELATIONS, In creating Revelations Ailey drew upon his “blood memories” of growing up in Texas surrounded by Black people, the church, spirituals, and the blues.

It was not all plain sailing as former members recalled of the hardships of performing low budget tours  around the country.  All squeezed on a single bus dashing from city to city and having to staying in shabby motels which were the only ones to accept their mixed race Company.

However most of them, and several other figures from the dance world that lined up to testify  to Ailey’s sheer genius. talked so admiringly about the choreographer, but not about  the man.  We learn later that he suffered from bipolar disorder which landed him a spell in a mental institution, but little more about his personal life.  

One dancer commented that throughout his 15 year tenure with the Company and the good relationship he had enjoyed with Ailey, he had still only hung out with him once socially.  

Even though Ailey hated being called a ‘black choreographer he had formed the Company  to celebrate African American culture and to provide performances for black dancers, who were frequently denied opportunities due to racist mores of the time.   But his sexuality was a total no-go area, although the film refers to one known affair, there is no other real reference to him being gay.  It is suggested however that being closeted was a cause of his unhappiness and his regular bouts of depression.

This film gives such wonderful examples of Ailey’s stunning work and will totally delight his fans, but on the other hand it is still disappointing  that we did not learn much about the great  man himself.  There was talk last year of Oscar Winner BARRY JENKINS (Moonlight) was working on a biopic on Ailey, maybe he’ll fill in the missing gaps them 

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SoCo Israeli Film Festival Goes Virtual March 12 – April 3 with Lesbian Comedy “Kiss ME Kosher”

The Jewish Community Center Sonoma County is proud to present the 6th Annual Israeli Film Festival, producedVIRTUALLY in 2021. Five new and highly acclaimed Israeli films will be available online on a dedicated, user-friendly platform. The films will be available on-demand for three weeks, March 12 – April 2. Live filmmaker talks will allow the community to interact with the creative minds behind the works. All-Access Season Passes on sale February 26.

TICKETS, TRAILERS, and FILM GUIDE: WWW.JCCSOCO.ORG. Season Passes: $60 single, $80 “mishpacha” family; Single Tickets on sale March 5: $14, $24.

ASIA (DRAMA) – Starring Shira Haas (Unorthodox, Shtisel) and Alena Yiv, ASIA is the story of a thirty-five-year-old Russian immigrant and single mother (named Asia). Free-spirited and non-judgmental, she is put to the test when her teenage daughter Vika, who is disabled, announces that she’s ready to lose her virginity. New director Ruthy Pribar created an emotionally intense, heartbreaking film. Premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival winning Best Actress, Best Cinematography, and the Nora Ephron Prize; the film won nine Israeli Academy Awards (Ophir) including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. The Israeli entry for the American Academy Awards. (85 Minutes; Hebrew, Russian).

FORGIVENESS (COMEDY) – Set in the south of Israel near the Gaza border where beleaguered citizens live withincoming rocket fire, longtime pals Shaul and Nissan attempt to rob a postal bank. They think they’ve got a great aplan, but they mangle the job royally, and Shaul is collared and sent to prison. Years later, upon his release, Shaul is less than pleased to be greeted by the newly religious Nissan who seeks his forgiveness in the week leading up to Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. This exuberant goofball buddy-film highlights the exceptional rapport between the film’s creators, directors, and stars, Hanan Savyon and Guy Amir, best known for their hit television series Asfur. (104 Minutes; Hebrew).

HERE WE ARE (DRAMA) – Aharon has devoted his life to raising his son Uri. They live in a gentle routine, away from the real world. But Uri is autistic, and now as a young adult it might be time for him to live in a specialized home. While on their way to the institution, Aharon decides to run away with his son and hits the road. Directed by Nir Bergman with powerful performances by Shai Avivi, Noam Imber, HERE WE ARE was an official selection of theCannes Film Festival and was nominated for nine Israeli Academy Awards. (92 Minutes; Hebrew).

KISS ME KOSHER (COMEDY) – When their lesbian daughter becomes engaged to a German woman, and grandma has a secret lover, this subversive love story exposes the clashing opinions, secrets, lies, and hypocrisy of a traditional Jewish Israeli family. KISS ME KOSHER is a charming romantic misadventure crossing all societal borders. Directed by Shirel Peleg (101 Minutes; Hebrew, English, German).

MRS. G (DOCUMENTARY) – Mrs. Lea Gottlieb, was the legendary designer, founder, and owner of the Gottex swimwear empire. Gottlieb was a woman full of contradictions, and she knew how to recover from periods of crisis. She survived the Holocaust, established a small factory in Israel, and achieved phenomenal success abroad. The filmfollows Mrs. G’s incredible creativity, dominant personality, complex relationships, and passion, for which she paid a heavy price. (56 Minutes; Hebrew).

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Frameline Announces 2020 Completion Fund Recipients

Today, Frameline—the world’s longest-running and largest showcase of queer cinema—announced the recipients of the 2020 Frameline Completion Fund, which provides much-needed grants to emerging and established filmmakers to complete projects that represent and reflect LGBTQ+ life in all its complexity and richness. The awardees are: Fanny: The Right To Rock, directed by Bobbi Jo Hart; Hummingbirds, directed by TELOXÍCO Collective; No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics, directed by Vivian Kleiman; North By Current, directed by A. Madsen Minax; and Untitled Feature Documentary, directed by Rita Baghdadi.

The five projects—each receiving $5,000—were chosen out of 131 submissions that included feature films and shorts in documentary, narrative, experimental, and episodic forms. The 2020 Frameline Completion Jury was comprised of filmmakers, all of whom are Frameline Festival alums, including Elegance Bratton (Pier Kids, Buck, and a 2019 Completion Fund grantee), Vicky Du (Gaysians), and Sam Feder(Disclosure and two-time Completion Fund grantee). Since 1990, Frameline has awarded $595,000 to 168 projects to help ensure LGBTQ+ film/video projects are completed and viewed by wider audiences.

“On behalf of Frameline, I am honored to present these five filmmakers with a Completion Fund grant,” said Frameline Director of Programming Allegra Madsen. “Now more than ever, it is critical to support filmmakers whose work explores diverse and complex LGBTQ+ stories. We look forward to premiering a number of these works at this year’s festival.”

FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK
Directed by Bobbi Jo Hart | Documentary Feature | Canada
FANNY: The Right to Rock reveals the untold story of a Filipina American founded garage band from Sacramento that morphed into the ferocious rock group Fanny, the first band of women to release an album with a major record label (Warner/Reprise/1970).

HUMMINGBIRDS
Directed by TELOXÍCO Collective | Documentary Feature | USA
In this uniquely collaborative coming-of-age film, inseparable best friends Silvia and Beba emerge at night to escape the cruel summer heat of their Texas border town, wandering empty streets in search of inspiration, adventure, and a sense of belonging. When forces beyond their control threaten their shared dreams and they are faced with an uncertain future, they take a stand and hold onto what they can—the moment and each other.

NO STRAIGHT LINES: THE RISE OF QUEER COMICS
Directed by Vivian Kleiman | Documentary Feature | USA
Five scrappy and pioneering queer cartoonists journey from isolation and DIY work, to mainstream acceptance, and depicted everything from workplace discrimination and gender, to themes of love, sex, and a bad haircut day. Their work and personal stories are sure to make you laugh – but also make you think about the challenges and triumphs encountered and overcome along the way.

NORTH BY CURRENT 
Directed by A. Madsen Minax | Documentary Feature | USA
North By Current is a visual rumination on the understated relationships between mothers and children, truths and myths, losses and gains. After the inconclusive death of his young niece, filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown prepared to make a film about a broken criminal justice system. Instead, he pivots to excavate the depths of generational addiction, Christian fervor, and trans embodiment. Like the relentless Michigan seasons, the meaning of family shifts, as Madsen, his sister, and his parents strive tirelessly to accept each other.

UNTITLED FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Directed by Rita Baghdadi | Documentary Feature | USA
LOGLINE NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME
 
Other projects finished with assistance from the Frameline Completion Fund include: Vision Portraits, Call Her Ganda, Chavela, Pariah, Appropriate Behavior, Call Me Kuchu, To Be Takei, Last Call at Maud’s, The New Black, Brother to Brother, Kumu Hina, The Cockettes, Vito, Freeheld, We Were Here, Ahead of the Curve, and Gun Hill Road. For a complete list of previous recipients, click here.  
 
The Frameline Completion Fund is supported by The Williams & Hart Rainbow Fund of Horizons Foundation.
 

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10 Awesome Films That Feature Lesbian/Bi Women of Color

I don’t know about you but I’ve seen a lot of lists of ‘best lesbian films’ or ‘films about bi women that you must see’ which are (almost) entirely comprised of films about white women. Don’t get me wrong- those films are great- but if we don’t also talk about the films that focus on lesbians and bi women of color, we are missing out on some major talent.

Fiona: As an artist, not working in either a corporate environment or an environment where I have to work with other people makes it easier for me to be who I am. I don’t have to say, “oh I have to balance being a woman, with being black, with being queer, with being an immigrant. I’m just all those things all the time.”

This incredible feature length documentary shares the lives and views from various black lesbians on their sexuality, media representation, patriarchy, homophobia, and activism; inspiring honest and progressive conversations and highlighting how black lesbians are viewed, ignored, and affected by society.

Director Tiona McClodden had conversations with almost 50 out, black, lesbians including Filmmaker/Activist Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Hip-Hop Duo KIN, and Author Fiona Zedde.

New Line Cinema

Cleo: That’s what we need to do, rob a bank.

Stoney: That’s stupid; ain’t nobody over here gonna be robbing no bank.

Cleo: We’re gonna end up dead anyway.

This film centers around Cleopatra ‘Cleo’ Sims (Queen Latifah), and her friends Stoney (Jada Pinkett Smith), Frankie (Vivica A. Fox) and T.T (Kimberly Elise) as they plot to go on a bank-robbing spree for four very different reasons. What starts off as a crazy ‘what if’, quickly escalates into murder.

Will they get caught? Whose life is in danger? Will any of them escape?

I Can’t Think Straight

Layla: Have you ever done this before?

Tala: Slept with a woman while my fiancé makes wedding preparations?

This beautiful film features a Palestinian woman, Tala (Lisa Ray), who is currently on her fourth engagement to a man (for some reason the first three just didn’t stick) when she meets her best friend’s girlfriend and emerging writer Layla (Sheetal Sheth).

The two begin an affair and Tala begins to question her sexuality (you see what I mean about those past engagements not working out) but Layla ends the relationship after Tala messes up. Will they end up together or will convention force them apart?

Frida (Amazon Prime)

Tina: Whoever takes the biggest swig [of Tequila] can dance with me.

Frida:  *swigs* Shall we?

This biopic of bisexual Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) explores Frida’s life and loves against the political and cultural backdrop of the early 20th Century. Although much of the movie does focus on her dysfunctional relationship with fellow artist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), we do get glimpses of her affairs with lady loves, like Tina (Ashley Judd).

Circumstance (Netflix Canada)

Atefeh: I can’t do this anymore.

Shirin: Nothing has changed. I love you.

This heartbreaking drama tells the story of how hard it is to be LGBT under the Iranian Regime. It’s the story of Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri), a rich teen, and her girlfriend Shireen (Sarah Kazemy), an orphan, who love partying and experimenting with drink and drugs (despite the fact that Atafeh’s brother Mehran’s (Reza Sixo Safai) is an ex-addict).

As the girls grow closer, Atafeh’s family tries to tear them apart and Mehran becomes increasingly religious and becomes obsessed with Shireen.

This movie is actually based on the experiences of director/writer Maryam Keshavarz who grew up in Iran. Because the film dealt with a lesbian storyline, fake scripts sent to the Lebanese authorities and the actors had to accept that they may not be able to see their families after the release. That’s pretty heartbreaking in itself.

Stud Life (Amazon Prime)

JJ: You don’t like Elle, do you? You can’t stand to see me with somebody.

Seb: She’s not right for you.

This British indie film focuses on stud lesbian, JJ (T’Nia Miller), and her gay best friend, Seb (Kyle Treslove), whose friendship is tested when she falls for the beautiful diva, Elle (Robyn Kerr). Will JJ be forced to choose between an old friend and a new love? Or can this be worked out?

The Watermelon Women

Cheryl: I’ve [watched] all these films from the 30s and 40s with black actresses in them, like Hattie McDaniel and Louise Beavers and in some of these films, the black actresses aren’t even listed in the credits and I was just totally shocked by that.

I will admit that I find the title of this movie troubling but stay with me here.

This movie follows Cheryl (Cheryl Dunye) a young black filmmaker who works at a video store (if you’re under 18, video stores are like a brick and mortar Netflix) with her friend Tamara (Valarie Walker).

Cheryl watches several films from the 1930s and 1940s and notices that the black actresses in them were not credited (which is typical of the time period). After seeing one particular film in which a Mammy-style character is billed in the credits only as The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl sets out to find out more about the actress and create a documentary about her life.

While working on the documentary, Cheryl meets and falls for Diana (Guinevere Turner), who Tamara dislikes. Then Tamara accuses Cheryl of wanting to be white and Diana, who is white, of having a fetish for black people.

Will Cheryl track down the actress? Will Tamara split Cheryl and Diana up?

Pariah (Netflix)

Focus Features

Alike: I am not broken, I am free.

This is the story of 17-year-old Alike (Adepero Oduye), a butch lesbian who is exploring her sexuality, deciding to dress androgynously, and falling in love for the first time, with femme Bina (Aasha Davis).

Upon coming out, Alike faces violence from her mother, Audrey (Kim Wayans), who cannot accept her daughter and wants her to act ‘feminine’ and be straight. Alike has a choice to make; should she attempt to gain her mother’s approval or leave early for college?

Bessie

Bessie: I ain’t playing second to nobody!

This HBO biopic about bisexual blues singer Bessie Smith (the second entry for Queen Latifah on this list) is truly one for the ages.

It certainly doesn’t shy away from depicting the racism that Bessie was subjected to throughout her life, from vaudeville producers who refused to feature dark-skinned black women in their shows to the attitudes of rich white guests but it is interspersed with tender moments featuring her lover Lucille (Tika Sumpter) and uplifting scenes Ma Rainey (Mo’Nique) taking Bessie under her wings.

In what might be the most epic moment of the movie, Bessie chases off the KKK who attempt to attack her during a show.

The Women of Brewster Place (Netflix)

Theresa: Lorraine, you are a lesbian. A dyke, a lesbo, a butch, all those names that boy was calling you. Yes, I saw it! And you can run in all the basements in the world, and it’s not gonna change anything. Why can’t you just accept it?

Lorraine: I have accepted it! I’ve accepted it all my life! I lost my family because of that, but it doesn’t make me different than anybody else in this world!

This 1989 made-for-TV movie, based on the novel of the same name by Gloria Naylor, tells the story of several black women who live in a rundown housing project.

Lorraine (Lonette McKee) and Theresa (Paula Kelly) are a lesbian couple who fled suburbia due to their sexuality but find that homophobia is just as much of a problem in the city. Although they are not the main characters, their role was ground-breaking at the time.

Bonus: This movie was produced by and stars Oprah Winfrey.

This is absolutely not a complete list and I would love to see your suggestions in the comments for other films about lesbians or bi women of color that you’ve particularly enjoyed so that we can all increase our catalogue of fantastic films.

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Film Review: “I Care A Lot”

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This time our villainess has dispensed with The Cool Girl and has picked up a different stereotype of femininity — The Carer. Men can’t see through her nurturing exterior. She’s a sociopath, but in a professional, polished package, so you’d never expect it.

Marla Grayson acts as a legal guardian to seniors, making financial and medical decisions for those whose family’s can’t help. But Marla is actually scamming these wards of the state, putting them in expensive care homes, flipping their houses and selling their estates, alongside Fran, her investigator/analyst/fixer girlfriend.

So this is a comedy?

When the set up is as tasteless as a dead baby joke, as J Blakeson’s film is, some people are just not going to want to stick around for the punchline. That’s how I felt anyway, trying to sit still for a story where the protagonist is a grifting, exploitative elder abuser. Am I too sensitive? Because I feel like senior abuse in our extremely broken health care system is too real to be humorous.

It wasn’t until a third of the way through a disturbingly sociopathic film, whose attempts at irony or satire fell just short of actually forcing a smile or a laugh, that the film’s humor finally broke through.

Peter Dinklage shows up playing a mysterious mob boss, a little bit unhinged and universally threatening if things don’t go according to his plan. His incompetent henchmen provide a bit of madcap comic relief. Chris Messina enters as a verbose and eloquent Saul Goodman-type, but out of a Coen Brothers script. OK, you’ve worn me down, Blakeson. I will ride with your dead-baby-joke-level script.

With time, the unlikeable and repulsive Marla becomes more watchable. It helps that the chemistry between Marla and her blisteringly hot business partner and girlfriend Fran is believable.

Marla and Fran

Like Gone Girl, I Care a Lot is preoccupied with gender roles and sexual politics. The hyper-feminine carer/nurturer at the center of I Care a Lot begs the question: how can femininity effectively obscure violence, exploitation and ambition? Gender roles and stereotypes like docility, a caring nature, an instinct to nurture, which are forcibly put on women as a class, can actually be exploited for the power and profit of the individual woman. Male violence on full display in society creates a diversion that allows the female sociopath to lurk, stalk and loot in plain sight.

In I Care a Lot, Roman Lunyov’s weakness (loving his mom) would traditionally be coded as feminine. To protect her, he asserts a real burn-it-all-down type of masculine power: kidnapping, torture, (attempted) murder. Marla is his opposite. She loves nothing so much as power. She wants money even at the cost of love. Her counterattacks go through the courts, through the hospital system. She’s sly and flying under the radar as best as she can. 

Marla’s insistence on moving forward with her plans for domination in the guardianship field, in spite of the promise of violence, is relatable to any woman who has resisted sexual grooming, intimidation, and even threats from chauvinists. That’s going to include a lot of straight women too, but lesbians, faced with ‘you just haven’t found the right man,’ or ‘you could really use a good d*ck to turn you straight,” are going to find some catharsis in Marla’s stubbornness and fearlessness.

I CARE A LOT (2021) Rosamund Pike as Marla. Cr: Seacia Pavao/NETFLIX

Some kind of Third Wave Feminism

As a lesbian, the central character, is also a symbol of the rejection of, even a resistance to, male power. Lesbianism is a boundary. It’s a hard stop, a wall. It centers women in a world where maleness and masculinity are the standard, the norm, the axis of power around which everything else is believed to orbit. And Marla is her own axis of power, refusing to bend to gangsters, administrators, or the law. She’s a product of third-wave feminism — a woman amassing power by any means, just as men do.

Comparisons to Gone Girl in my own review and in countless others that you’ll encounter this week is not fair to Rosamund Pike, who has in fact made more than one movie. Her range is not limited to blonde-bobbed sociopaths who break the fourth wall to offer their own armchair feminist philosophy. But you’re going to keep seeing those comparisons because Gone Girl is essentially a perfect psychological thriller and a deep read on gender roles and sexual politics, a combo that I Care a Lot is also aiming for.

That instant and unavoidable comparison creates one of the film’s biggest stumbling blocks.

Remember how, shortly after the smash hit A Quiet Place had audiences (specifically me) screaming with its combination of alien invasion/creature feature/plague horror, Netflix took all these elements and made their own (seemingly knock-off) alien/creature/plague apocalypse horror? Where in A Quiet Place, the creatures were triggered by sound, and deafness proved to be an advantage that saved the day and pointed to a brighter tomorrow, in Bird Box it was sight, and blindness was the key to a brighter tomorrow. 

It almost seemed like Netflix had written, produced and cast the film by algorithm, swapping out successful elements of a blockbuster to create a data-driven small screen success. In fact, Bird Box was adapted from a novel, but its similarities to A Quiet Place, along with the timing and hype around its release, led to audiences feeling let down. 

Well, I Care A Lot feels real algorithm-y. It brings to mind Rosamund Pike’s iconic turn as Amy Dunne, sure, but also Maniac (which was produced by algorithm) and Ryan Murphy’s recent Netflix vehicles, with their escalating camp and color blocking. 

Amy Dunne was not a likeable villain. She was nasty, unstoppably evil, and her femininity was a super power that allowed her to pull off airtight crimes, just like our Marla. 

Although she was unlikeable, it’s exciting to root for her and Nick in the end. He’s trash, she’s trash, they’re perfect for each other. In a sick way, these characters lose and win in equal measure in the battle for their marriage. The thriller twists into a very gothic romance, and who doesn’t want soul mates to stay together?

That sentiment, of rooting for evil to meet its match, is what’s missing from I Care a Lot. The ending pulls the remaining loose ends in the story together to try and tie them up, but it doesn’t work, or at least for me it didn’t, because the justice served is cheap and shallow. Lunyov doesn’t get a comeuppance on par with Marla’s and Fran’s. And unlike Nick and Amy Dunne’s ending, you can’t turn this one over and over in your mind for hours or days after it’s over, considering all the demented and disturbing outcomes for these characters. 

After much resistance, J Blakeson’s film had finally worn me down. If I wasn’t rooting for the evil assholes, at least I wanted to find out what happens to them next. But in the end, caring a little was not rewarded by I Care a Lot.

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Queer Immigrant Drama “Lupe” Available New on HBO Max & HBO Latino

Film festival darling and moving LGBTQ immigrant story “Lupe,” co-directed by André Phillips (“Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary,” “This Killing Business”) & Charles Vuolo (“Rot,” “Alice Fades Away”), is available now for audiences across North America on HBO Latino and available to stream on HBO Max. “Lupe” is an extraordinary trifecta of an emotional drama that explores the topics of family, immigration and embracing one’s true identity. In the feature film debut of Boston based directing team André Phillips & Charles Vuolo,  we are introduced to the complex world of Rafael (San Francisco based Non-Binary Puerto Rican actor Rafael Albarrán in a star making turn), a Cuban immigrant struggling with their gender identity while searching for their missing sister, Isabel (the luminescent Lucerys Medina) in New York City’s underground sex industry. “Lupe”  was written and directed with consultation from Celia Harrison, a transgender artist, and additionally shepherded through by transgender executive producer Kerry Michelle O’Brien (“Chopin to Infinity”). 

“Lupe” shines an intimate light on the complex story of an immigrant struggling with their transgender identity while searching for their missing sister, Isabel in New York City’s underground sex industry.  The city’s underworld turns bloody as Rafael continues their quest to liberate their sister from a life of exploitation.  Rafael’s search is routine and bloody until the growing need to understand their gender identity beings to compete with their mission? A film of many contrasts (Cuba vs. NY City, a chiseled boxer vs. a femme fatale), this moving film moves seamlessly between English & Spanish and features a rich cinematic landscape lensed by cinematographer T. Acton Fitzgerald (“Gutterbug”). Celia Harrison portrays the role of Lana, the protagonist’s friend and advisor. All of Celia’s  scenes were unscripted, as the directors emphatically sought to retain Celia’s voice and perspective. This rich tapestry of a transgender immigrant was written by Celia Harrison, AndréPhillips & Charles Vuolo, featuring a score by Christopher French (“Unlovable,” “Young & Hungry”) edited by Shiran Amir (“Z Nation,” “Student Body”) produced by Anthony Ambrosino (“The Wrong Todd,” “Painless”), Andrew McCarthy (“Radio Days,” “Alice Fades Away”), Leigh Lanocha (“The Clear,” “Gutterbug”), and executive produced by Kerry Michelle O’Brien.

 The ultimate hope with“Lupe”  was to create a work of expression that avoids overt category and classification. To show the character of Rafael, a struggling immigrant and transgender woman, can be seen as realistic, flawed but strong. Many films have portrayed transgender characters as drug addicts, prostitutes and mentally unstable. The filmmakers and cast believe the most interesting characters are imperfect, honest and tangible.“Lupe”  is a film that seeks to showcase some of the real-world issues and struggles facing the transgender community in a grounded and positive manner. To lend the film a quasi-documentary feeling, the filmmakers embraced a bare-bones style of filming utilizing hand-held cinematography while filming in both NYC and in the Dominican Republic.

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Witness to the horrors in Chechnya

In an era when documentaries often seem geared more toward a slick and buzzy “docu-tainment” style than to the unfiltered presentation of real-world facts and experiences, “Welcome to Chechnya” blasts you in the face like a gust of icy wind.

A harrowing look at the “underground railroad” that sprung up within Russia to help the victims of the notorious “gay genocide” being perpetrated under Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, it’s a film that makes you want to look away but doesn’t let you do it. It conveys the unthinkable trauma of living in a constant state of terror while making a desperate, clandestine run for your very life; more than that, it permits us to put a human face – albeit a digitally altered one – on the crisis. 

Part of the film’s impact undoubtedly stems from its subject matter, but it’s at least equally due to the artistry of its director, David France. It’s not the first time he’s been behind a heavyweight LGBTQ documentary. The longtime journalist made his directing debut with “How to Survive a Plague” in 2012, documenting the early years of the AIDS epidemic with an activist’s passion in a film that won him a host of awards and nominations for several more, including an Oscar.

Now, “Chechnya,” which premiered at last year’s Sundance Festival and was released by HBO last summer, has made the shortlist for this year’s Academy Awards, raising the possibility for a second chance at taking home the coveted statue. Yet Oscar gold was not what France had on his mind when he had a conversation with the Blade about the film earlier this week. Rather, he wanted to discuss the people in the film.

France, like everyone else, had been appalled by the tales coming out of Chechnya in 2017. “We all read the stories,” he tells us now, “but it wasn’t until I read Masha Gessen’s New Yorker piece about the work that ordinary Russians were having to take upon themselves that I became really fascinated.”

He is referring to the network of LGBTQ activists that mobilized in the absence of outside help to extract refugees in daring escapes, hide them in safe houses across Russia, and work with groups around the world to get them out of the country. In “Welcome to Chechnya,” he follows a handful of these accidental heroes, as well as several of the survivors they protect, as they orchestrate and enact spycraft that would be right at home in an episode of “The Americans.” In the process, he shines a light on more than just the atrocities being committed against queer people in Chechnya. He also illuminates a level of courage that most of us have never had to muster.

“That’s what drew me in,” France says. “The fact that ordinary citizens took it upon themselves to intervene, to try and save lives, while the rest of the world was doing so little about it.”

“It’s not like they had been already doing this work,” he explains. “Olga [Baranova, one of the activists who appears in the film] was running a community center that had an annual arts fair – that’s the extent of her training for the kind of cape-wearing heroics that you see her carrying out.”

With his cameraman and producer Askold Kurov, France spent months in the underground, chronicling the efforts of the activists and the stories of the survivors under their care, and getting plenty of first-hand experience with the kind of fear under which they had willingly chosen to live, day after day. After all, getting out of Chechnya wasn’t enough to make anyone safe; Chechen authorities were willing to stop at nothing to make sure nobody had a chance to expose what was going on, up to and including tracking down, recapturing, and maybe even killing any potential witnesses – and anyone who stood in the way was putting themselves in peril, too.

“I remember going on one of the extractions,” he relates. “We were getting ready to make a run with a couple whose location had been found out. We had only a few hours to get them to the airport, and then we got word of a rumor that a group of assassins had been dispatched to prevent them from leaving the country. We had one bodyguard, with one sidearm, with us. 

“That kind of unbelievable peril is what hung over, and what still hangs over, every aspect of the work these ordinary Russian activists have taken on for themselves.”

It’s also what made it a challenge to film the refugees, for whom anonymity was a matter of life or death.

“I wanted to show what they looked like,” he tells us. “The pain that they wore on their faces, the hope – and certainly the fear. And most of them wanted the world to know what had happened to them, to expose these crimes – but they also understood what it would mean for them and their families if they stood up publicly and revealed their truths. They were terrified, and here I was asking them to let me film them anyway and then figure out how to solve this problem later.”

There is still a touch of awe in his voice as he says, “Remarkably, a couple of dozen people agreed to let me do that.”

He continues, “There were people, of course, who couldn’t take that leap with me. There was one person who was nervous even about me filming other people in the shelter. These were people who had just escaped the most horrific abuse and torture, and violation from their own families. They were hiding from their brothers and their uncles, from their own fathers. That dislocation of familial love was so traumatic to everybody there that some of them were just on a very sharp edge – unable to reckon with the past, unable to find security in the present or see hope in the future. You see that in the film with one of them, who even attempts suicide. For those people, it was a difficult arrangement to have me shooting even on the other side of the shelter house. I understood that and I tried to be very respectful.”

The challenge of maintaining privacy would eventually be surmounted by new, state-of-the-art identity protection software, a high-tech touch that France – savvy storyteller that he is – was able to parlay into one of the film’s most dramatic and unexpected moments. A considerable amount of screen time in “Welcome to Chechnya” is devoted to an anonymous refugee who has escaped from his tormentors into the network, where he is reunited with his family and his boyfriend of 10 years; a turning point comes when, despite being poised for removal to another country, he chooses to go public with his story and make an official complaint to the Russian government. As he makes that decision, the false features realistically rendered over his real ones melt away before our eyes, revealing his unaltered face – and with it, his true identity.  It’s a powerful effect, and it’s our official introduction to Maxim Lapunov, whose subsequent appearance before a Russian court to tell his story is captured in the movie. Unsurprisingly, his claims are dismissed, and the need to get him and his loved ones out of the country becomes even more imperative.

In talking about Lapunov, the awe returns to France’s voice. “Maxim’s moral courage is unmatched. It was really clear that his life was going to be fucked up for the foreseeable future, no matter what he did. The courage that he showed was the courage to throw his body in the way to make sure that other people don’t get treated the way that he was treated – to save people’s lives. He could have gone anywhere in the world, and just nursed his post-traumatic memories in safety, but instead he went back into the fire. That was remarkable. I watched him make those decisions, I watched him take on that risk, I watched him bring his family along on that journey and win their allegiance in these choices – these are human dramas like you see in Hollywood films that actually are taking place in the queer battle against the crimes in Russia.”

He segues into a similar expression of respect for David Isteev, another activist prominently featured in “Chechnya.” 

“When you look at his face, you just get this incredible sense of high alert and of moral purpose. It makes me think of the stories we have heard from the Holocaust, of citizens who would otherwise have been untouched who reach into some deep reserve to do something. That’s him. And being in the presence of that was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life.”

If it sounds like he has bonded with his subjects, it’s because he has. Being embedded in the shelter network for such an extended period of time, he and Kurov became part of the underground themselves. “We were no longer visitors from outside,” he says. “We were experiencing what they were. I spent nights full of terror inside those safe houses, when rumors were flying about people who might have been seen, locations that might have been revealed, dangers that might have been heightened – I felt that with them. We huddled together, and, in a way, I became part of their journey.

“I do feel personally attached to those people having been through that with them. It’s something like the bond of warfare that you read about. I would do anything for David. I would do anything for Maxim and his family.”

The real emotion apparent in these professions of kinship is surely one of the reasons why the documentarian is still, more than six months after his film’s debut, eager to talk about it. The people with whom he developed these strong bonds are still very much at risk.

The biggest horrors in “Welcome to Chechnya” are only glimpsed briefly in dark and blurry videos intercepted from the web by the network, or described in the stories of torment, humiliation and brutality told by the survivors, but they cast a dark enough shadow over the imagination to make us want to believe they are safely in the past. Unfortunately, as France is quick to remind us, LGBTQ persecution in Chechnya is still very much “an ongoing humanitarian crisis.” Just last week, two refugees were kidnapped from the network by Russian authorities and returned to Chechnya, an incident that brought the situation there back into the headlines.

“These were two very young men, one of them 20, and the other 17 – not even a man,” relates France. “They had been abducted last summer in Chechnya and tortured, they barely got out alive. They were rescued and extracted by the network and were being held in a safe house while the work was being done with foreign partners to try and get them out. Now they are back in detention in Chechnya. It’s a very volatile situation.”

Yet it’s also a situation in which, perhaps ironically, he sees a hope that has been scarce for the past four years.

“The United States, in this new administration, has expressed great concern for those two kids and demanded information on their safety,” he points out. “The European Court for Human Rights has demanded access to them, and safe passage for them to get back to the safe house where they were being held.”

For him, it’s a call to action. “The Russian LGBT network is on the ground, still fighting this fight,” he says. “We can urgently throw our voices behind their efforts with regard to these two youngsters – we could save their lives. There are petitions, but that’s not enough. We know from watching these activists’ work that it’s essential, it’s extensive, and as you can imagine, it’s costly. They cannot raise money within Russia, so they’ve asked people who see the film to help them by donating. There’s a donation page on the movie site. We’ve just watched almost $200,000 move through there, in the six months since the film came out, and that money goes to the Moscow Community Center, Olga’s group that runs the shelter system, to the Russian LGBT Network that does the extractions and runs the global hotline for the crisis. And it also goes to Maxim and his legal case, which is still percolating through, and showing great progress in, the European courts.

“So, I think there’s hope, but we have to act urgently. I think what’s shocked us all, in the last few years, is how easily we can lose ground. All this progress that we’ve made over the last 30 or 40 years can be reversed in a heartbeat, and that’s what’s happened in Russia, and Russia has led the way in this dramatic reversal of queer progress, all across Europe. It’s going to take a lot of people coming together internationally to stop that, but it is possible.”

He’s a realist in his expectations, though. “We can’t hope for regime change in Chechnya or in Russia. Those are not practical, immediate goals. But we can force Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya to stop this. He is a puppet of Putin’s. If we make it politically untenable for Putin not to intervene there, then he will lift up the telephone and say to Kadyrov, ‘Stop it.’ That’s all that it takes. It’s that simple. We haven’t gotten there because we haven’t had the kind of global leadership that can bring collective pressure on Putin to do that. I think we’re in a place where we can now.

“Even just watching the film is an important step. The Russian government has said repeatedly that this is not happening, that there’s no evidence, even – ridiculously – that there are no queer Chechens. They say that no one has come forward, but Maxim did that, officially, and they rejected his claims. The people protected by the digital technology we deployed in the film have also spelled out their stories, so they are witnesses. And we’re all witnesses, now.”

The passion creeps back into France’s voice as he recalls, “That was my promise to the people in the network, when I said I wanted to film with them, that I was going to help make this so that everybody in the world knows what’s happening.

“Anybody who sees the film becomes a witness, and it becomes an act of resistance just to talk about what you see in it.”

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